Food is more than just an amenity to some Las Vegas casinos looking to lure customers to their properties.
It’s a strategy that seeks out variety, the latest trends, and also being first to market with a new concept. The most effective strategy, experts have said, doesn’t mean to only focus solely on fine dining. The restaurant lineup should include varying price points to serve a range of customers and different palates.
James Mulidore, senior director of food and beverage with The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas
“Food and beverage is the No. 1 attraction for anybody coming to Las Vegas in deciding where they are going to stay,” said James Mulidore, senior director of food and beverage with The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas. “We have taken that approach as the No. 1 marketing initiative for our property. It’s been a fun and cool process in order to develop our concepts.”
The property was praised Wednesday during a four-hour educational series at UNLV that focused on food and beverage. Rino Armeni, the founder of the Las Vegas Business Academy, who moderated two of the sessions, said The Cosmopolitan might have the best variety of dining and drinking establishments of any hotel-casino in the nation.
The all-day breakfast restaurant, Eggslut, is part of the property’s urban food hall, dubbed Block 16. Another restaurant in the hall, Rose. Rabbit. Lie., is an old-style supper club with music, while Beauty & Essex, a creation of New York celebrity chef Chris Santos, is home to a pawn shop storefront. Celebrity chef José Andrés has a mixture of Mexican and Chinese food with his China Poblano. He also operates a Spanish restaurant, é by José Andrés.
There’s District: Donuts. Sliders. Brew., which serves comfort style food; Mediterranean seafood restaurant Estiatorio Milos; and Jaleo, where Spanish tapas are served. Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, a Nashville-themed family restaurant, serves Southern food.
“We wanted to be the first to market and (to) not copy any other concepts,” Mulidore said. “We wanted to be a trendsetter. We travel extensively to try and find the best at what they do whether it’s donuts, fried chicken or egg sandwiches.”
He told the conference that Cosmopolitan CEO Bill McBeath learned about Eggslut from his daughter, who was studying at USC. The restaurant began as a food truck near where the younger McBeath went to school. People would wait in line for 90 minutes to get the egg sandwich.
Mulidore said it’s important casinos have different price points or guests will leave the hotel and go elsewhere. The Cosmopolitan’s focus recently has been more for quick service.
“We noticed in foot traffic studies that people were leaving and going across the street to Planet Hollywood because they were looking for a price point that we had very little of,” Mulidore said. “We’ve had some turnover because of the change in the marketplace. Fine dining was a big push, but we were looking at more experiential dining. Beauty & Essex looks like a pawn shop when you walk in and the lights are a little lower and the music louder. That’s what the younger demographic was asking for.”
Elizabeth Blau, founder and CEO of Blau + Associates
Elizabeth Blau, founder and CEO of Blau + Associates who developed restaurants for Wynn Resorts, said the profiles of most casinos involves steakhouses, Chinese restaurants and sushi.
“When The Cosmopolitan does something like China Poblano or Jaleo, those are definitely pushing the envelope,” Blau said.
She pointed out that restaurant failures in the casino industry happen because a gaming executive has a favorite fine-dining restaurant, adds the location, but it doesn’t work in a mid-scale market because of pricing.
Often times, restaurant concepts are tried in London, Paris, New York and other cities before they get to Las Vegas. That gives the gaming industry time to see what works, Blau said.
“It’s a delicate balance between what’s a fad and what’s a trend,” Blau said. “I can take you to 100 places that make an egg sandwich like Eggslut, but it’s the name and branding and positioning in the hotel. It’s all those little things that need to link together. When it works, it’s magic. When it doesn’t work, then you can have a disaster.”
