Located 20 miles from the Strip, Hilton Lake Las Vegas is the latest resort to open in the serene outpost. The lakefront resort, which opened in June, boasts 35,000 square feet of indoor meeting space, 349 guest rooms, a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course, and a 30,000-square-foot spa.
A planned $200 million expansion to the Tropicana Las Vegas boosts the resort's meeting and event space to 100,000 square feet—almost doubling its original 60,000. Five new 650-square-foot breakout rooms in the Club Tower have already opened, and the resort plans to open a larger Tropicana Pavilion in the first quarter of 2014. The new pavilion will offer more than 55,000 square feet that can be used for large exhibits and general sessions.
Aria's new upscale pizza spot, Five50 Pizza is a 3,800-square-foot dining room able that seats 100 in the main dining room and 15 at the bar. For more intimate gatherings, it offers a semiprivate dining area that seats 10; it's divided from the large room by a charred wood wall and a brass chain-link curtain.
Located upstairs from Rm Seafood inside Mandalay Bay, Rx Boiler Room is Rick Moonen’s molecular-mixology-focused cocktail lounge. Designed to look like a modernized steam punk bar, it's the kind of place Jules Verne may have found comfortable. Opened in July, Boiler Room seats 180 guests, taking over the upper portion of Rm’s 17,000-square-foot floor plan. Since it’s interconnected to the downstairs restaurant via mid-room stairwell, it works for larger groups looking for a pre- or post-meal drink.
With an established reputation as a nightlife hot spot, Ghostbar recently underwent a facelift from Klai Juba Architects. The 55th-floor club hosts receptions for 350 and seated functions for 170. The 75-person sky deck overlooks the valley, and, since it’s located inside the Palms on West Flamingo, offers a clear view of the entire Las Vegas Strip.
Sweets Raku, a desserts-focused offshoot of the popular Raku restaurant in Chinatown, is easily missed if you aren’t looking for its sign, an oversize silver spoon mounted on the exterior wall. Only 1,000 square feet with seating for 22, the pristine white locale is ideal for a small group with sweets—really, really good sweets—on the mind rather than dinner or clubbing. It opened in August.
Bally’s has renamed its south tower the Jubilee Tower as tribute to Jubilee the show, now celebrating its 32nd anniversary, the longest-running classic casino show in Vegas. Beyond the name change, Jubilee Tower will have 756 remodeled hotel rooms with 121 suites ranging from 800 to 1,600 square feet that include a dining room, a bar, dark wood furniture, and 37-inch flat-screen TVs.
Opened at the end of August, Echo & Rig is the latest restaurant of chef Sam Marvin (founder of Bottega Louie in Los Angeles), located in Tivoli Village in Summerlin. With 12,500 square feet of space spread over two floors, the centerpiece is the massive meat locker on display through floor-to-ceiling windows.
Definitely on the quirky side, Pretty Girls Maid Cafe evolved from Cosplay restaurants and features waitstaff dressed in anime-styled maid costumes. The little Chinatown eatery, which opened in August, seats 67. The café allows for full kitchen rent-outs.
A small cocktail lounge in the heart of the arts district, Velveteen Rabbit boasts a dark and intimate 1,800-square-foot floor plan furnished with plush, Victorian-style furniture and art deco-inspired paintings. The room’s capacity is 83 with additional space on the back patio. It opened in July.
