Nobu Hotel on Las Vegas Strip Undergoes Luxury Facelift

Posted on: October 12, 2021, 03:25h. 

Last updated on: October 12, 2021, 04:14h.

Larry Henry Read More

Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

Nobu Hotel at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip is getting a multimillion-dollar “refresh” of its 182 guest rooms and public areas, according to its website. 

Actor and director Robert De Niro co-owns dozens of Nobu-branded restaurants and luxury hotels around the globe with two partners, chef Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa and film producer Meir Teper. The partnership owns the property at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which opened in 2013. It includes a hotel and restaurant. 

The group’s first Las Vegas Nobu restaurant was opened 14 years earlier in the off-Strip Hard Rock hotel-casino. The Hard Rock has since closed. It was refurbished and rebranded this year as Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. That restaurant is still in business.

The refresh at the Caesars Palace location is expected to be completed by the end of this year. The company did not give an exact cost for the “multimillion-dollar” project.

Inspiration for the refurbishing project is being drawn from kintsugi, “the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold epoxy – creating cohesion from collage,” according to the company website. 

“This element will create a streamlined, lighter, and more luxe take on the original design concept,” the website states.

Nobu Hospitality, the company De Niro formed with his partners, has two upcoming Nobu Hotels and restaurants in the US. One is slated to open at Caesars Atlantic City in 2022. Another is scheduled to be up and running in 2024 at Harrah’s New Orleans. The New Orleans resort is the only land-based casino in Louisiana. It is in the process of being rebranded as Caesars New Orleans. 

De Niro Connection

De Niro first connected with Nobu Matsuhisa more than three decades ago, when the actor dined at the Los Angeles restaurant named “Matsuhisa,” according to CNN Money. Nobu Matsuhisa, who is from Japan, worked in Peru and Argentina before opening the restaurant in Los Angeles in 1987.

De Niro eventually convinced Nobu Matsuhisa to open a restaurant in New York. The partnership blossomed from that relationship, CNN Money reported. 

De Niro told the CNN financial website he see similarities between moviemaking and the hospitality industry.

They both have budgets, they’re creative in different way,” he said. “It’s like any enterprise. The movies are a business of a sort.”

De Niro’s connection to Las Veas extends beyond the Nobu brand. In the 1995 Las Vegas Mafia movie Casino, De Niro portrayed a character based on Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal.

Rosenthal was a Chicago oddsmaker who ran four casinos, most notably the Stardust, for midwestern mob families. This summer, the $4.3 billion Stardust opened on the Strip where the now-demolished Stardust once stood. 

Caesars Palace Early Years 

Caesars Palace dates back to 1966, when it opened on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip under the guidance of developer Jay Sarno. It is across the Strip from the Flamingo hotel-casino, which gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel opened 20 years earlier.

Hoffa disappeared from a suburban Detroit restaurant in 1975 in a presumed Mafia assassination. His body has never been recovered. No one has been held criminally responsible for this death.

Caesars Palace is now owned by Nevada-based Caesars Entertainment.

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