Areas of Expertise
1567 stories by Corey Levitan
VEGAS RESTAURANT ROUNDUP: Sin City’s Lone James Beard Finalist
Only one of four nominated semifinalists from Las Vegas made it to the finals of this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards, considered the Oscars for restaurants. Steve Kestler of Aroma Latin American Cocina in Henderson will compete for the Best Chef in...
Vegas Strip’s First Jewish Hotel and Temple Proposed for Half-Acre Once Coveted by Steve Wynn
Plans for the Last Vegas Strip’s first Jewish-themed hotel, featuring its first synagogue and kosher restaurants, have been submitted for approval to Clark County. Equally as interesting as the proposed King David Hotel, however, is the history of the strange parcel of...
VEGAS MUSIC ROUNDUP: Nostalgia Overload! (Duran Duran, Heart, Pat Benatar, ABBA Avatar Show)
The latest cluster of new Las Vegas concert announcements reads like a classified ad from 1984, with the majority of dates booked by, ironically, the newest casino on The Strip. Heart, featuring sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, brings its latest comeback tour...
MY NIGHT AS A TROPICANA SHOWBOY: Vegas Reporter’s Unique Remembrance
At 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, the Tropicana in Las Vegas will close for the last time after almost 67 years, supposedly to make way for a new baseball stadium. To honor her legacy, I'd like to share a fun memory from the...
Steve Wynn About to Make Aspen’s First $100M Home Purchase
Casino pioneer and disgraced Wynn Las Vegas chair Steve Wynn is still worth $3.4 billion, according to Forbes. Yet even he is going halfsies on the first home purchase to crack $100 million in Aspen, Colo. According to the Wall Street Journal,...
Impending Tropicana Demolition Stokes Fear of Frontier Redux
In May 2007, billionaire Phil Ruffin sold the historic Frontier casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip to an Israeli-owned real-estate investment group for a then-record $1.2 billion. "We've been successful with the property,” Ruffin told the Las Vegas Review-Journal at the...
LOST VEGAS: 1969 West Las Vegas Riots
Google “West Las Vegas Riots” and you'll be shown stories about an uprising that erupted in the historically Black part of Las Vegas -- in response to the Rodney King verdict in 1992. Though that tragic event cost one person his life,...
VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: The Cadaver Brothel
In 2018, a Las Vegas man was reportedly arrested for using the premises of his employer, the Clark County Coroner’s Office, to run a “cadaver brothel” during closing hours. This is not an April Fools' joke. For more than five years, James...
How to Own a Piece of Tropicana Las Vegas History
Though the Tropicana Las Vegas closes for good on April 2, mementos from the 67-year-old casino resort can be yours via a pre-demolition liquidation sale. Staged by Ohio-based International Content Liquidations, the sale primarily features furniture, TVs, and fixtures from the Tropicana’s...
Macau Says ‘Whoa’ to Horse Racing, Holds Last Races
China’s gambling hub of Macau held its last horse races on Saturday. Gamblers who only half-filled the Taipa Racecourse stands placed their final bets as the end came to a 40-year tradition in the city known primarily for its casinos. In January,...
