Neonopolis Snags Banger Replacement, Hush Puppy Restaurant

By Scott Roeben, on November 16 2024
2 min read 4 comments
Downtown Las Vegas Las Vegas Las Vegas Restaurants

There were lots of disappointed beer fans torn up by the closure of Banger Brewing in 2023 at downtown’s Neonopolis mall, and it’s unclear if this news will help heal that lingering wound.

A longtime Las Vegas restaurant, The Hush Puppy, will bring its Southern comfort food to the Banger space in early 2025. A hush puppy is a fried, cornmeal-based fritter with the flavor profile of a sandcastle.

We’d love to be more excited, but guests say the quality of the existing restaurant has fallen off in recent years. Thankfully, many of the patrons of restaurants on Fremont Street are so drunk, they’re unlikely to notice.

In fairness to sandcastles, they don’t have this terrible aftertaste.

The Hush Puppy opened on the west side of Vegas in 1975, the brainchild of Ghormley family patriarch Charlie Ghormley. The Ghormley family (wife Virginia, sons Roger, Mike and Scott) came to Las Vegas in Arkansas in 1969, which would be one of those “Who gives a shit?” type “fun facts” were it not for the fact there’s a 69 involved.

Hush Puppy was sold in 2023 to Egypt-born businessperson Magdy Amer and his wife, Layla Amir.

The result has been what you might expect.

Yes, we drove there for this photo and spent $5 for a half dozen hush puppies. The things we do for you.

Magdy Amer is the former owner of Tex Mex Tequila Bar & Grill on The Strip, another forgettable restaurant that closed and was demolished.

Amer also owned the now-demolished Mosaic theater, as well as Red Palms restaurant, which also closed.

The last, best hope for the original Hush Puppy is video poker, which should be available in December 2024. Scoop!

Still, a mid restaurant is better than an empty space, especially if you’re Neonopolis.

The folks at Banger sort of lost interest in the business, but we’ve also heard Neonopolis has unreasonable rent expectations (Banger Brewing’s rent was $10,200 a month and Neonopolis was going to double it) and management can be difficult.

No, we aren’t going to bring up the fact we were the first to share the story Banger Brewing was going to close, probably.

Anyway, new is generally good, and maybe a new location will inspire the owners of Hush Puppy to be better.

Here’s a look at the Hush Puppy’s current menu.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

We are not a frog legs or alligator tail person, but there’s somebody for every kink, presumably.

This spot at Neonopolis gets lots of foot traffic, so we’ll see how the new Hush Puppy fares. The food next door at Heart Attack Grill is an abomination, but the place slogs on, mainly due to its location.

The only comparable endeavor we can think of downtown is Hot N Juicy Crawfish at Downtown Grand, which has had roughly a dozen guests since it opened in May 2023.

On the bright side, Hush Puppy will finally bring some cohesion to Neonopolis! And by that we mean a place that has ax throwing, Denny’s, a wedding chapel, a karaoke bar, a Nerd bar with a mechanical penis ride and little people wrestling, a Dick’s Last Resort knock-off called Hammered Harry’s and a Web site that hasn’t been updated since the Clinton administration.

Good luck with that, Hush Puppy!