Late night on Fremont
One of the great things about Vegas is that it changes all the time. While the big construction projects won't be happening again for the foreseeable future, things still change there, and pretty quick too.
Half my stay will be downtown, and there have actually been a lot of changes since I was there last summer. Here's what I'm curious about:
The Plaza - Recently renovated, new restaurants, new food court. I am curious to see how they fixed (or tried to fix) what was probably the most low-rent, smoke-filled, depressing casinos downtown. That distinction now belongs to the Las Vegas Club, which is actually owned by the same people.
I always thought that the Plaza could have the best sportsbook downtown - it's big and well laid out, so I'm hoping they got the redo right there.
The D resort - Used to be Fitzgeralds, which was a decent enough low-roller place. I stayed there once years ago, rooms were good sized, I had a decent view, Howard Johnson-like decor. The whole place was bought out by the people that own the Golden Gate. These guys did a great job spiffing up the GG, so I'm excited to see what they have going on down at the old Fitz. I know they put in a big new bar that looks interesting.
Incidently, I searched "D resort vegas" on both google and bing, niether brought me the new website. It's here, www.thed.com , if you are looking.
Golden Gate - Always one of my favorite places to play, by the time I get there in July they should be finished with their renovation/expansion. I don't see anything really breathtaking in the plans, but I'm interested in seeing it anyway. Between buying and rebranding Fitzgeralds and the expansion here, these guys have been busy.
Drink & Drag - Last time I was downtown (actually, for the past ten years or so) Neonopolis has been a big empty hulk of a place in the middle of Fremont Street. Now it actually seems like it actually has some life to it, with a whole bunch of new businesses. One of them is Drink & Drag, which just opened this month. It's a bowling alley, with dartboards and everything. Staffed by drag queens.
No, it doesn't make sense to me either, and it's not really my scene, but where else on earth can you go bowling with drag queens? I can't say I know a lot about drag queens, but it's hard to imagine they put on the bowling shoes. We can file this under "Only Vegas."
I've also been reading about new bars opening up at Binion's and the Golden Nugget, neither of which look particularly exciting to me, but I'll certainly check them out.
www.fremontstreetbars.com - A good website about the bar scene, and downtown info in general. www.vegaschatter.com also has some good info on downtown once in a while.
Until next time............
