A classic downtown casino, El Cortez, announced back in May 2024 it will pump $20 million into a number of new enhancements.
Now, we’re getting a look at these spaces, including a new high limit lounge, two new bars and a new restaurant, Hot Noods.
If we sound giddy, it’s because we’re giddy. Renderings are the next best thing to foot rubs and chicken parm. Separately. The Venn diagram of foot rubs and chicken parm should never, ever overlap. On to the renderings!
Construction of the new offerings is already underway, and should be completed in February of 2025.
A good portion of the El Cortez casino floor is walled off, which is disorienting, but no pain no gain.
We spent 15 minutes trying to come up with a different way of saying “no pain, no gain,” but all we got was “no hurt, no dessert” and “no burn, no return” and “no whine, no shine.” Which explains why idioms are idioms and one shouldn’t try and reinvent the wheel.
Speaking of restrooms, we have never seen this other than at El Cortez.
How bad is the casino urinal aim problem? @ElCortezLV has installed drains. pic.twitter.com/XQGWzD4flh
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) September 14, 2024
Let’s move on to something less awkward, shan’t we?
The sexiest El Cortez rendering is for a new roulette-inspired bar. It will replace the reliable, but not particularly sexy, Ike’s Bar. Ike’s Bar has been around since 2017, further evidence we have been doing this Las Vegas blog far too long.
Dreamy, and we trust there will only be one zero.
Here’s another angle.
Also impressive is a new bar they’re referring to as “Show Bar.”
Show Bar will have a 20-foot video screen, as well as a stage for live music (despite our best efforts).
A new high limit slot area will have about 50 machines, along with a bar and the perfunctory TV screens for people who can’t be away from sports for five minutes or their head will explode.
As mentioned, the casino refresh will also include a new restaurant, Hot Noods by Chinglish.
Chinglish Cantonese Wine Bar and Kosher Chinglish closed in June 2024 in Summerlin, about 10 minutes west of The Strip. Chinglish is family-owned, from Kitty Heck and Ken Heck, and chef Po Fai Lam and Anna Lam (Kitty Lam’s parents). The restaurants were popular, but didn’t pencil out in their Boca Park locations.
Large swaths of El Cortez are being given some love.
The expansion is being led by McCarthy Building Companies, Ike Gaming, Jive Architecture and Kenneth Ussenko Design, an interior design firm.
El Cortez is a throwback to a different era. It’s grittier than most Las Vegas casinos, and they are trying to keep their longtime regulars happy while keeping up with the expectations of younger and potentially higher-end customers. That balance is not easy. Just ask Station Casinos. They tried it at Palms and neither type of customer was particularly happy with the evolution of the resort. The nightclub/dayclub kids hated the olds, and the olds hated them back. It was Kaos. Station Casinos ended up selling Palms to the San Manuel tribe just to make the bleeding stop.
El Cortez seems to understand its existing appeal to loyal customers (many of whom are value-driven grinders who love coin machines from the 1980s), so the trick is to, as an El Cortez news release puts it, “ensure each of the new spaces embraces the iconic elegance of the property while adding a splash of modern details and energy to take the experience into the next generation.” Like a shark, casinos die if they don’t move forward. Which is a ridiculous myth, by the way. Not all idioms get it right, people are just too lazy to come up with better ones.
Anyway, building a bridge between the past and future is no small feat. We were going to say “no mean feat,” but our fellow youths would make a WTF face and stop reading our story to post a dance video on TikTok, so we’re going with “small feat.”
During our most recent visit, the unique mix of old and new customers (as well as tourists and locals) at El Cortez was evident. The casino was absolutely packed (made to feel even more crowded given a third of El Cortez is behind construction walls now), and the energy of new blood was undeniable.
Younger, table games players (many bar-hopping in the Fremont East district) were taking advantage of the low table minimums and beer carts in the table games pit. Seasoned locals were in the video poker room, with a sound, flavor and fragrance all its own.
If you ever yearned to see why casinos dropped coin-operated slot machines, look no further than El Cortez. Coin machines are a pain in the ass, with bags of 2,000 quarters ($500) weighing 25 pounds, and dollar coin bags ($600) weighing 30 pounds. It’s a non-stop cavalcade of lugging and loading and jamming and mechanical repairs. El Cortez offers these machines because their customers love them, plain and simple.
As we’ve seen at other casinos, El Cortez is not only sprucing the place up, but adding spaces (like the high limit room) for “aspirational” customers, or customers that may not exist for them quite yet in large numbers.
Remember, this is the casino where there are signs on the slot machines that say, “Complimentary beverages available when actively wagering a minimum of 40 cents.” We are not making this up.
Grinders are demanding and fickle, too much change and they’ll bolt. As El Cortez unveils these new venues, it will truly be able say it has “something for everyone.”
Well, maybe not everyone. El Cortez is a 21-plus resort now, for which its owner Kenny Epstein and his management team are to be commended.
You can bet we’ll be poking our head into El Cortez as these renovations move forward.
El Cortez is a truly one-of-a-kind holdover from another time and vibe. Anyone who gripes that “old Vegas” is gone hasn’t been to El Cortez. With its expansion, the downtown casino will continue to honor its colorful past (Bugsy Siegel as a co-owner back in the day) while integrating more contemporary panache.
You know, panache. Drip. Rizz. Mod.
Sorry, Mr. Epstein, we have to try and keep up with our fellow youths and their bussin’ argot.
