La Popular Mexican Restaurant Closes at Palms

By Scott Roeben, on September 23 2024
3 min read 3 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Restaurants

The restaurant that replaced Bobby Flay’s Shark restaurant, La Popular, has itself closed at Palms. Insert “La Popular jumped the shark” joke here.

La Popular officially opened a little over a year ago, in June 2023. The opening was celebrated with a $100,000 donation to a local food bank, Three Square.

They kept using the word “popular,” but it may not mean what they think it means.

Palms outside the window? Is there anything A.I. can’t do?

We never heard much about this Mexican restaurant, which probably should’ve telegraphed its untimely demise.

This was the third location of La Popular (technically, La Popular CDMX) in the U.S. This location was overseen by Executive Chef Cesar de la Parra.

“CDMX” stands for Ciudad de Mexico, the capital of Mexico.

Yep, we’re padding. We have no scoop about the closure of this restaurant, and Palms hasn’t said what will replace it, so we’re stuck with initialism trivia.

People sometimes mix up initialisms and acronyms. Both are abbreviations, but acronyms are pronounced as words, like “SCUBA,” for example. “Scuba” stands for “self-contained underwater breathing apparatus.” S.O.S. isn’t an acronym, it’s an initialism.

FUBAR is an acronym, a particularly relevant one for a story about a restaurant closure.

This space at Palms is fluid. For a minute, between Shark and La Popular, it was the Club Serrano VIP Lounge.

Why did La Popular close at Palms? Successful restaurants don’t close in Las Vegas unless there’s a sex scandal involved. This isn’t that.

Palms is moderately successful, but not tremendously. The resort makes about $25-30 million EBITDA a year. Not bad, but not exactly a windfall for the San Manuel tribe.

EBITDA is an initialism for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.”

Most Las Vegas casinos appeal to either tourists or locals, and that Venn diagram doesn’t overlap often. Off-Strip casinos not far from The Strip (Rio, Gold Coast, Palace Station, Orleans, Ellis Island, Silverton, Tuscany) cater to both groups, despite each kind of customer having very different needs and expectations. Try charging for parking at a truly locals casino and you’ll be run out of town on a rail.

Station Casinos tried to make Palms a hot spot for tourists, but the effort failed badly, and the company ended up selling the resort to the tribe. They went back to what Station does best, serving locals. Durango is printing money.

Elevated Mexican fare may just not be a fit for Palms. The Scotch 80 steakhouse is excellent, the food court is popular, as is the AYCE Buffet.

Locals tend to like convenient, cheap eats. They’re at the casino to gamble, and dining is sort of an interruption or annoyance more than anything.

The timing of the closure of La Popular is curious. Palms is shaking up its leadership ranks, and the resort has a new General Manager, Steve Thayer. Thayer started Sep. 16, 2024 and comes from The Strat, another casino that attempts the balancing act of accommodating both tourists and locals.

Thayer replaces industry veteran Cynthia Kiser Murphey at Palms. The official story is she stepped down, we think she was pushed.

Working with tribes is challenging on a number of levels. There are, let’s just say, complications.

For example, Palms isn’t technically owned by the San Manuel tribe. It’s owned by the San Manuel Gaming and Hospitality Authority (SMGHA), a “governmental instrumentality.” This entity was created so tribe leadership wouldn’t be subjected to the same regulatory scrutiny as other Las Vegas casino owners.

Oh, and “SMGHA” is an initialism, unless you pronounce it like the sound a smoker makes during a coughing fit.

We can’t believe you gave us yet another excuse to share this original song.

La Popular was a Eureka Restaurant Group brand. Yes, the same Eureka that has a consistently forgettable outpost on Fremont East.

With Rio upping its refresh game, it’s possible Palms will see more changes in the months to come, especially under new leadership.

We trust fancy Mexican will not be among the offerings.