VegasChatter

SLS Las Vegas / Sahara / SBE / Sam Nazarian / → All Tags

Will The SLS Vegas Look Like This?

It was almost a year ago that we were fighting for our lives (and for bottled water) during the Sahara's liquidation sale. Since that time, there hasn't been much happening on the property.

Plans to remodel and reconstruct the property were approved by the city back in November but still the Sahara sat empty, silent and seriously sad.

Yet we could soon see some construction action as SLS Las Vegas has just announced a $300 million round of financing which would help with getting the renovations on their way. HotelChatter has the details over there, but we're already wondering what this hotel will actually look like. Now that there's a new influx of cash will it look like this discarded model of the hotel that we stumbled upon during the liquidation sale? Or will they strive to integrate some of the old Sahara into a new design?

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Vegas News / Openings / Closings / Bars / Karaoke / Imperial Palace / Golden Nugget / Wynn / Climaxx / Caesars Palace / Venus Pool Club / Sahara / → All Tags

Golden Nugget To Debut New Bar, Wynn Climaxx's Prematurely, And More

Just when we were thinking it was a pretty slow week, we've got more Vegas news than we know what to do with.

First up, the Golden Nugget is joining the downtown makeover club. It's announced plans for Bar 46 (rendering shown above). We're not completely sure where it will be located, but Golden Nugget reports that the "slick new table games pit and bar" will open onto Fremont Street. Look for its debut this summer.

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Vegas History / Sahara / Old Vegas / Postcards / → All Tags

A Bit of Sahara History in an Unexpected Place

Wow. It's crazy to think that in two more months, it'll be one year since the closure of The Sahara. And while you can no longer head up the Tunis Tower to your room or chow down on some nummy mashed potatoes in the House of Lords, bits of the Sahara still survive in mothballed attics and basements around the world.

Recently, while perusing a tin of old postcards in Chicago store Brimfield, we spied these two Sahara postcards from 1964, the peak of its life when The Beatles played and stayed here. Back then postcards cost only $.05 and hotels were still touting the fact that they offered both radio and TV, as the postcard's little info paragraph demonstrates:

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VegasChatter Questions / History / Sahara / House of Lords / Vegas Recipes / → All Tags

Desperately Seeking the Old Sahara Steakhouse's Mashed Potato Recipe

If one of your New Year's resolutions was to lending a helping hand to others more often, well, you could start right here by helping us track down an old steakhouse's mashed potato recipe.

Last week we posted on our Facebook page, the link to our 2011 Memorable Moment about the Sahara's liquidation sale and received this comment from fan Robin who wrote:

Wish I had the recipe for the mashed potatoes from the steakhouse there. They were so awesome, I can no longer eat mashed potatoes. They spoiled me.

That steakhouse would be the House of Lords which indeed housed some lords of Vegas, specifically the Rat Pack (Sinatra, Martin, Davis, etc.) during Vegas' halcyon days.

The restaurant was set to get a new look and a new name at the end of last year, but we're not sure it got the chance as the Sahara closed last May.

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VegasChatter 2011 Awards / Sahara / Sahara Liquidation Sale / Near Death Experiences / → All Tags

Most Memorable Moment: The Sahara Sale

Welcome to the second annual VegasChatter Awards! We're bringing you the best and worst of the year today as well as tomorrow, too. All of our picks are based on what we've personally experienced in Vegas over the past year - the good, the bad, and the mind-boggling. Agree or disagree with us? We want to know! Air your thoughts in comments below.

Even thinking of it now, it seems a bit surreal. Like something you saw on TV and felt like you had been there only because you happened to dream about it. The lines. The heat. The guy being wheeled by on a stretcher. The unbelievable thirst.

Our most memorable moment of 2011 started off as a lark. Be one of the first inside the Sahara liquidation sale, see the old gal one last time and, maybe, pick up a souvenir or two. It's not like we weren't expecting a line. We just weren't expecting one that wrapped halfway around the resort. And, that's just when we showed up. The line kept growing behind us and, reportedly, snaked three-quarters of the way around at one point. There was no way we were giving up our place in line to eyeball that for ourselves, though. No way.

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SLS Las Vegas / Sahara / SBE / Sam Nazarian / Renovations / → All Tags

The SLS Las Vegas to Ditch The Roller Coaster But Also Bring in a Beer Garden

HotelChatter saw the news this morning about the massive casino and hotel renovations for the Sahara Las Vegas which will ultimately turn into the trendy SLS Hotel Las Vegas. And we feel sort of like Barry Manilow traitors for saying this but we're excited for what the SLS will bring.

For starters, the three hotel towers--Tunis, Tangiers and Alexandria--will all be renovated but the room count will drop from 1,700 to 1,622. These rooms will most likely be designed by SLS's own Philippe Starck, a prolific hotel designer who helped usher in the boutique hotel craze in the 90s. And from what we've seen at the SLS in Los Angeles and the soon-to-open SLS South Beach, these rooms could give The Cosmopolitan a run for its money.

SLS Las Vegas, run by SBE and Sam Nazarian, will also ditch the Sahara roller coaster and put in a 2,830-square-foot beer garden. Prost! A massive nightclub complex is planned as well as a pool deck. The casino will of course be renovated and more retail space will be added.

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VegasChatter Flashback / Rick Thomas / Magic / Magicians / Sahara / → All Tags

So, What Ever Happened To Rick Thomas Going to the Riv?

You know who we haven't heard about in a while? Rick Thomas.

After freaking the Sahara one last time back in May and learning from the man himself that he would reappear at the Riviera starting July 1, he just sort of vanished from our minds.

But, now it's November 3rd and Thomas is still doing what was only supposed to be a temporary matinee gig at the Saxe Theater at Planet Hollywood. His website only states that the new show is to be announced "soon," exclamation point.

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Cashing Out / Sam Nazarian / Elton John / Octavius Tower / Caesars Palace / Sahara / → All Tags

Updates on The Octavius Tower, Elton John's Expensive Piano and The Future of The Sahara

What does The Octavius Tower, Elton John and Sam Nazarian have in common? Nothing really except they are all making news in Vegas today!

First up, the Octavius Tower at Caesars Palace began taking reservations today and we found a deluxe room on January 2nd (opening day) for just $219 a night. That's a lot less than we were guesstimating--we said close to $389 a night--but it's still $20 higher than the new Augustus Tower rooms and remember, right after New Year's is practically the lowest of the low season for Las Vegas. We bet the rates will shoot up once the weather is nice and folks are cavorting around the Garden of the Gods pools again.

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Historic Vegas / Vegas History / Sahara / LAS / → All Tags

The Location of Vegas' Very First Airport is Now a Starbucks

Watch your step while walking along E Sahara Avenue, just north of the Sahara monorail station. There's something on the sidewalk there, and no you won't step in it, but on it. In front of the drive-thru Starbucks, across from the big McDonalds and the shell of the old Sahara Hotel & Casino is a little plaque that commemorates the spot of Las Vegas' first commercial airport.

The year was 1927 and Sin City was still very much a wilderness in many senses. Bringing commercial aviation civilized things a bit, although we have our doubts that those first passengers on Western Air Express would agree, seeing as how this historic location now houses a place that specializes in mass-produced iced lattes.

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Sahara Liquidation Sale / Sahara / Souvenirs / NASCAR Cafe / → All Tags

Here We Go Again, NASCAR Cafe Liquidation Sale Tomorrow

On the last day of business for Sahara, we asked NASCAR Cafe workers what was to become of all the racing memorabilia and were told that it wouldn't be for sale because they were looking for a new Vegas home. Well, chalk another one up to Sam Nazarian, dream killer -- the liquidation of the NASCAR Cafe will begin tomorrow.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that souvenir hunters and Ebay sellers will get their chance to snap up NASCAR Cafe mementos starting tomorrow, Thursday, August 4 at 10 a.m. PST.

As with the Sahara Liquidation sale, you'll need to be present to buy. If you want to get out of there alive, follow the tips we learned the hard way. (The bold can follow a plan we saw being executed quite successfully on the first day of the Sahara sale. Go to the head of the line when you see a truck pull up to the front of the porte cochere, ask to go inside to use the restroom while security is distracted and then never come back. One woman managed to score the Sahara's last poker table with that trick.)

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Tattoos / Vegas Decisions / Vegas Ink / Sahara / Eiffel Tower / Stratosphere / → All Tags

The Tats People Get In Vegas

Some may be more fascinated by the word with the "i" in it, but we're fascinated by the one with an "a."

Every time we see a tat it enthralls us. We're mesmerized by what disappears under a sleeve, what you can barely glimpse beyond the swing of a ponytail, what can be seen partially creeping down a leg. Just as fascinating as the tattoo for us is the story behind it. Was the birth of a tat, especially a Vegas tat, from a moment of pain? A time of joy? A night of drunken excess?

This VegasChatter member is still waiting for the right inspiration before we get ours, but we know for complete certainty that it will evoke our overwhelming love for our son. It won't be simple, obvious or whimsical. It will be deeply personal as most tats are. Just as @Juliab's is to her. She's bid us farewell for now here at VegasChatter and has journeyed back over the seas to the UK. Before she left, tho, she shared the story behind her Vegas ink:

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Souvenirs / Sahara / Sahara Liquidation Sale / → All Tags

If You Can't Hit The Sahara Liquidation, Just Hit Up Ebay

Why didn't we think of this before?

While we - along with hundreds of others - braved pure hell to visit the Sahara one last time in search of the best finds from an everything-must-go-yes-even-that liquidation sale, it seems all we really had to do is visit Ebay.

More than 300 items from the Sahara are up for bid on the popular auction site. Want a room key? $5.99. A postcard? $2.99. Nine dinner knives? $14.95. A deck of cards? $12.99.

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