“Are you ready to go behind the scenes?”
The question is asked by a man who holds court at the end of the 30-meter-long, aptly named Mega Bar, happily handing passers-by while he dons a white suit with blue pinstripes as if the joint is his. That’s because he owns the joint, Circa Resort & Casino, the first new downtown Las Vegas resort hotel in decades. Derek Stevens debuted his latest project in late 2020, which opened two months early despite the chaos of the pandemic, placing a billion dollar bet on a simple proposition: build a dazzling adult-only casino hotel and night owls will come.
His question is the guy you answer “yes” to, and so he places another drink order for the small amount around him, and we follow him out the door, right into the back of a Cadillac Escalade limousine. We’re only a few blocks away – to be honest, it would have been quicker to walk straight down Fremont Street, but sometimes it’s the journey, not the destination – to visit The D that Stevens and his brother Greg bought and restarted in 2012, it transformed from its previous life as a shamrock-laden Fitzgeralds.
Around this time, The D joins Stevens’ burgeoning realm in downtown Vegas, next to the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Golden Gate, which opened in 1906 and is the city’s oldest hotel. That makes him not just king of the court when he’s at his corner point in Circa, but sort of de facto mayor for that entire part of town, part of town that may not have the swank or the strip’s stamp of approval Has. but one that generally seems to have the mindset that we don’t care, a finished retort that no doubt starts from top to bottom with Stevens.
The aptly named mega bar
Ryan Gobuty / Circa Vegas
Early impressions
The same limousine, or at least one of its sisters in Circa’s “Garage Mahal” fleet, picked me up at McCarran Airport a few days before the all-round paint job and motioned visitors to prepare for the time of their lives. Upon arrival, I was shown to a Circa Suite on the 51st floor, where a gold mirror reflected the mountain view from the curved windows of the room and a four-seat bar seemed well-equipped for in-room entertainment.
An 18k gold-plated bar was left in the suite as a souvenir for one of the resort’s first VIP guests. Stacks of the bars were handed out when the hotel opened, and the remaining collection is in a glass case in the Legacy Club on the roof of the hotel, where a digital counter updates the value of the display based on the fluctuating price of gold with it’s 1,000 ounces in value of over $ 1.8 million when I look at it.
The neon lights were pumped away in the limo on the short drive from the airport to the DTLV, and I was invited to grab a beer from the cooler, a newly returned amenity thanks to the easing of COVID restrictions in the state. If you haven’t heard, it’s an all-system go in Las Vegas these days. Or at least pretty much. Some big casinos have announced that they expect sold-out weekends from now on, and others have announced the return of their headline shows and the lifting of casino distance restrictions. Nevada is lifting all remaining mitigation measures by June 1st, transferring responsibility to the county and from there to individual companies. The feeling on site, however, is that every foot is pressing the accelerator pedal of its limousine as hard as possible to fly straight ahead into a scorching hot summer in Sin City.
The restrictions that remained during my visit in early May seemed superficial rather than imperative. At Circa, masks were required in public spaces, but there was no enforcement action to correct the perhaps 30% of the crowd who chose not to abide by them. The night owls were packed shoulder to shoulder in the 165-meter-long bar, and while staff wore their masks, most kept their masks tucked away when guests were in an eating or drinking environment. The strictest settings were made at the casino tables, where, despite a large crowd at a blackjack table, each dealer seemed diligent to look after his or her minions and have them put on their masks. Elsewhere, the slots between slot machines and sports betting remained open, but these are restrictions that are sure to be withdrawn soon, perhaps by the time you read this.
Main attractions
The stars of Circas Show are several larger-than-life attractions towered over by the noisy Stadium Swim Club, a multi-level outdoor lounge with six pools, two hot tubs, and rows of private cabana suites, all facing a monster screen is on to the big games and events of the day coordinated. Live betting odds are of course available. The screen has been specially designed so that every single pixel has a protective cover to prevent glare from any angle or distance. “I wanted people to come in from the top of the stadium and have that ‘wow’ moment,” says Stevens.
Circa Resort & Casino
In fact, it is a show stopper that hotel guests can enter for free. Visitors have to pay for admission, and reserving cabanas or other special group lounge areas can come with typically expensive food and drink minimums. In this case, however, it would be a price I would have been willing to pay as the only way to partake in good ol ‘social distancing is to pay for the privilege of keeping the crowd of parties safely at bay on a velvet rope .
Circa is also home to the world’s largest sports betting facility, a huge cinema-style room with a 78 million pixel HD screen. The Circa Sportsbook has made a name for itself by pioneering early odds for major events while also serving as the on-site home for VSiN, The Sports Betting Network, its soundproof studio that can be viewed by bettors in the adjoining theater .
The network was founded in 2017 by the Musburger family, including longtime announcer Brent Musburger, and Stevens was an early stakeholder. “They want to be what CNBC is for sports betting on the stock market,” he says. In March of this year, the network was taken over by DraftKings.
Then there is Vegas Vickie, the well-proportioned blonde who has been parting on Fremont Street since 1980. Stevens bought the famous neon sign and installed it in the casino. Using a crane, he lowered it into the current resting position next to their new bar of the same name in front of the building. The construction was completed. “I’ve always tried to bring something from the past into the present,” he says. Vickie doesn’t look any worse 40 years later, and even has some new tricks up her sleeve that kick her famous legs up and down while she looks into the crowd.
In other places around the property there is no shortage of dining concepts, from casino mandates in the form of a steakhouse (Barry’s Downtown Prime, by chef Barry Dakake) to gastropubs (Victory Burger, by the family behind American Coney Island and its celebrity ) rich Coney Dogs, in a place facing the sports betting). The Legacy Club mentioned above has great views of the city and the crowd to see and be seen from a huge outdoor balcony on top of the hotel. Here, the resort’s beverage director, Sam Pulliam, has put together a new high-end cocktail program that doesn’t feel out of place in an artisanal bar in New York or San Francisco.
Get hungry for some of Circa’s more unique options, like Saginaw’s, a classic Paul Saginaw Jewish deli known for Zingermans and its affiliated spinoffs. 8 East, by Le Thai Chef Dan Coughlin, offers an Asian food market style experience with a collection of delicious dishes served alongside Japanese whiskey flights. and Project BBQ, the answer to the question, “What if your casino contractor has a side-hustle food truck that’s so good that you don’t want it to leave the premises even after construction is complete?” Bring eight or ten friends and ask about the Hogstravaganza.
Are you ready for vegas Well, Vegas is ready for you. The demand is undoubtedly there too, whether or not you put your own chips on the table.
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