Afters Ice Cream Shutters at Virgin Las Vegas

By Scott Roeben, on July 31 2024
2 min read 4 comments
Las Vegas

The Afters Ice Cream shop at Virgin Las Vegas has closed.

Why are we doing a story about this? Because it’s a slow news day, that’s why. Also, ice cream is life, and any time an ice cream shop closes, an angel avoids having to start Ozempic.

Afters Ice Cream has more than “25 successful locations in Southern California.” Las Vegas, not so much.

Afters got some attention online, but attention doesn’t keep the lights on.

When it opened, Afters Ice Cream was touted as the first location of the chain outside Southern California. The brand became a sensation in social media for its colorful carbtastic creations, especially on Instagram, the platform once popular with your parents.

The brand’s popularity online wasn’t enough to carry the day at Virgin, however.

The off-Strip casino has struggled since it reopened after the pandemic, rebranded from Hard Rock. (The Hard Rock brand will be back on The Strip in 2027, on the site of the recently-closed Mirage.)

The ice cream shop has been unceremoniously removed from the Virgin site.

You can see more about the ice cream place you never went to on the official Afters Ice Cream site.

Afters could open somewhere else in Vegas, but don’t hold your breath. Once bitten, twice shy, as the kids say.

While the resort is working on changes to hopefully help change its fate, it’s still rough going given the light foot traffic.

The management of Virgin is showing the Mohegan tribe the door, wresting back control of the casino.

One of Virgin’s restaurants, Night + Market closed and reopened as Chow Fun.

There are plans to rebuild a Center Bar, the heartbeat of what was Hard Rock.

All the changes are intended to give Virgin more cohesion and drive more revenue.

Not everyone will survive until that happens, if it happens. We have all our fingers crossed, as we like the place a lot.

Afters Ice Cream was “created by its founders to revolutionize the ice cream market.” Weird goal, but cool. We never heard about the place once since it opened, which indicates the company may not have given the Virgin location the love and attention it needed to try and make it. “Afters” is also a terrible name for an ice cream shop, all due respect.

Thanks to Sergio N. for the tip about Afters Ice Cream closure scoop. See what we did there?

Plans for the space haven’t been announced.