This year saw the opening of many significant event and meeting venues in Las Vegas. Here's a look at the best restaurants, party rooms, hotels, corporate event venues, conference centers, and private rooms to open in 2017. These new and renovated Las Vegas venues suit groups large or small for private and corporate events, business dinners, cocktail parties, conferences, weddings, and more.
MB Steak, a restaurant from brothers David Morton and Michael Morton, opened at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas in May. MB, which stands for "My Brothers," is an American steakhouse concept with a menu helmed by chef Patrick Munster, offering a variety of New York strip steaks, seafood dishes, and complementary appetizers. The 7,800-square-foot venue has two floors: The first floor has a main dining room, bar, and private bar room, and the second floor has a 60-seat private dining room, a garden bar, and a lounge. Above the upstairs bar is a skylight decorated with succulents and moss.
Full-service event venue Enclave opened in March. Located within a mile from the McCarran Airport and near the Strip, the 75,000-square-foot venue can host social, corporate, private events, and more of various sizes. Venue features include a variety of ballrooms, a production studio, board and conference rooms, an outdoor garden, 9,000 square feet of unobstructed space, and a rooftop deck that opened this summer. The largest event space can hold as many as 900 theater-style. Sister company 3G Productions offers live event production, audiovisual installation, and staffing for the venue.
Flamingo Las Vegas hotel completed a $6.5 million renovation in July. Renovations to the property’s meeting spaces included modern updates to the walls, carpet, and light fixtures, as well as converting to LED lighting. Each of the hotel’s meeting rooms have been named after a Nevada city and feature historic photos from the 1950s. Event spaces include the 20,882-square-foot Sunset Ballroom that holds as many as 2,400 reception-style, the 7,552-square-foot Eldorado Ballroom that holds 700 reception-style, the Flamingo Showroom that accommodates 750 reception-style, and the Go Pool that accommodates as many as 1,500 reception-style.
The Aquatic Club at the Palazzo Las Vegas opened in April. Spanning 12,572 square feet, the social pool club offers guests a variety of curated weekend events including pop-up synchronized swimming performances, in-water table tennis, live acoustic music, and tastings by invited distilleries and mixologist. Available for private and special events, the space holds as many as 175 with daybeds and lounge chairs, or as many as 350 without.
Green Valley Ranch Resort debuted numerous large-scale renovations in June. The most notable changes were the additions of a new lobby bar, a Perks coffee bar, and a reimagined contemporary lobby, which now has a resort entrance separate from the casino floor and overlooks the hotel’s backyard pool area. New amenities for V.I.P. guests include an enclosed lounge with two check-in stations and private seating. The 495-room hotel also added two banquet rooms and a boardroom to its existing meeting and event space. Green Valley Ranch Resort offers 65,000 square feet of meeting and event space—including multiple ballrooms and meeting breakout rooms—that can accommodate groups as small as 50 or as large as 5,000.
JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa debuted the Palms Executive Conference Center in October. Located in the resort’s Palms Tower, the conference center has more than 15,000 square feet of flexible indoor/outdoor space and pre-function space, the latter of which has an expansive patio surrounded by greenery and waterfalls. The venue also was designed to be green, with features such as hydration stations to limit plastic water bottle use, electronic signage, linen-less tables, online event menus, and recycled notepads. Spaces include the Parian Room that can accommodate as many as 200 guests for receptions and nine breakout rooms that hold between 10 and 100 guests.
Bandito Latin Kitchen & Cantina opened at the Hughes Center in June. The Latin-American restaurant, which was designed by owner Kent Harman and Punch Architecture, features a combination of modern and rustic decor, along with two art murals—“Bandito” and “Rosie”—created by local artist Breet Rosepiler. Other restaurant elements include a hand-pressed tortilla station and an open kitchen. The 4,000-square-foot venue seats 150 inside and 100 on a patio, and is available for private events and full buyouts.
Caesars Entertainment Corporation launched Nevada’s first full-service production studio, Caesars Entertainment Studios, in June behind its Bally's property. Produced by Sidekick Productions, the 48,000-square-foot venue can host feature films, TV shows including game shows and sitcoms, eSports, and live events such as concerts and sporting events. The venue offers a variety of amenities, including 10,000 amps of power; hair, makeup, and wardrobe rooms; talent and V.I.P. rooms; 24-hour security; and 250 dedicated parking spots. The venue can hold approximately 3,500 for an event, but capacity can change depending on what is built inside.
Minus5 Ice Experience opened its third Las Vegas location at the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian and the Palazzo in July. The ice bar offers vodka cocktails served in a glass made of pure ice and features chairs, a gondola, a tree, and more elements carved out of ice. The 3,000-square-foot space can hold as many as 100 reception-style for private events.
Rainer Becker's Zuma, an international modern Japanese restaurant chain, opened its first Las Vegas location inside the Cosmopolitan in January. The restaurant serves shareable dishes that are brought out continuously, inspired by the traditional izakaya dining style. The 9,000-square-foot restaurant, which is designed by Studio Glitt's Noriyoshi Muramatsu, has 5,000 square feet to dining space. Seating 210 in total, the restaurant offers full buyouts and hosts private dining events in two dining rooms that each seat 14.
