Back in December I went to the opening for Company American Bistro at Luxor. Company, run by Pure Management Group, offered a high-end dining experience created by chef Adam Sobel, but, by working on a nightclub model, added celebrity investors to kick up the restaurant's appeal.

A VP for Luxor told me at the time: "This is new to Las Vegas from a dining perspective. Restaurants have not only become a dining experience but an entertainment experience. The celebrity gives more appeal to a particular restaurant and defines the space.”

The celebrity investors for Company include: Nicky Hilton, Nick Lachey and Wilmer Valderrama. Back in December, Nicky Hilton told me: “What really attracted me were the people, Pure Group. They have LAX (at Luxor) and Pure (at Caesars); so their track record is first class.”

 

Of course, since then Pure Management Group has been subject to an IRS investigation that has focused on Pure as well as LAX. Also recently, Pure's Lucky Strike at Rio has been sold back to the casino.

 

The last time I was at Company was on New Year's Eve. Not by coincidence,  Nicky and Paris Hilton were having dinner there at the time. Maybe they like quail eggs. But I never liked Company as a place to eat. I am not a foodie. When I went to Company I could hardly find anything on the menu I would eat, and what I would eat, I could not afford. I guess I was not alone.

 

Now, after a lot of whispering about bad numbers, there appear to be major changes underway at Company. Sobel has resigned following the departure of other key members of the cooking staff. Also, according to Robin Leach's blog: "the Company sommelier, Michael Shearin, and the front-of-house manager Lucas Rienans, who both worked together previously at the prestigious Guy Savoy restaurant in Caesars Palace, have been hired away by real-estate mogul Trump for his new fine-dining destination restaurant."

 

In its next incarnation, Company 2.0 will be "more affordable." Translation: a more typical menu meant for average tourists rather than the highest end of the market.

 

PMG spokesperson Kate Turner offers this on the new incarnation of Company: "It will then be open 7 days a week (instead of 5). We'll also have a bar menu for the first time."

 

Obviously, this situation is yet another bump in the road for Pure Management Group. It turns out that people will let a Hilton sister lead them to dance and drink but not to dine.

But more importantly, Company's problems also send an interesting message to the Luxor about the appeal of high-end, celebrity chef dining to its core clientele. If this sort of food cannot succeed in a prime position across from the packed and hot LAX nightclub, maybe the nightclub crowd and the fine dining crowd don't overlap as much as many people in Vegas assumed. And if that is true, it may be there is a good reason that the star chefs congregate mostly at the high-end resorts like Wynn, Venetian and Caesars.

The old Vegas view is that people staying at a middle-market property like Luxor want to eat a good steak more than they want to dine on exotic food for three hours. That was the theory that restaurants like Company attempted to show was obsolete in the new Vegas by using celebrity to "define the space."

But that approach seems to have resulted in too much empty space for Company. So my guess is that the new menu will be far more in keeping with the traditional tastes of Luxor's guests than with the more esoteric tastes of celebrity owners. 

Photo: Sarah Gerke

You have to wonder what the past couple weeks have been like in the life of Luxor's President Felix Rappaport?

Rappaport has been one of the most significant gambling executives in Las Vegas since he ran the show at New York New York. And when MGM-Mirage decided to update Luxor away from its Egyptian theme into the realms of a  newer Vegas offering, Rappaport was the obvious choice to oversee the effort.

I apologize for this inside baseball analogy, but Rappaport has become the next-generation Bobby Baldwin. Baldwin (a former winner of the World Series of Poker) was a gambler who entered the casino business with a very special insight into how to create a perfect environment to appeal to the top players. Rappaport likewise is an executive who in the new Vegas really gets not just the casino business but the entire concept of how a resort needs to mix offerings in dining, nightlife and entertainment in order to become a top property.

In my last interview with Rappaport back in August, he spoke at length about his desire to make the Luxor property more sticky. By that he meant he wanted the Luxor to be less the place you could find a room (for tourists) and a parking spot (for locals) on Saturday night and more the place you really wanted to be on Saturday night. He wanted to make the Luxor a player among the hottest Strip resorts. That was certainly not the case when we spoke six months ago.

But that has all changed since then. LAX opened to huge success. Company restaurant also received a lot of attention with its list of celebrity investors. Then Cathouse opened near the end of the year to great fanfare. In fact, by New Year's Eve, the Luxor had become what Rappaport planned, a very hot property. And, Criss Angel's Cirque show has not even arrived yet.

The last time I saw  Rappaport was a few weeks ago at the Palms. And, while we didn't talk, his jovial conversation with others near me made him seem like a man on top of the world.

But the past couple of weeks have been bad news followed by more bad news. First came the IRS investigation into Pure Management Group, which operates the hugely popular LAX  on his property. Then came the revelation that IRS agents actually visited LAX inside his casino. That, of course, should give one enough of a feeling of the floor caving in under your feet.

Then literally earlier this week the floor caved a bit at Cathouse, resulting in a temporary closure of another of the Luxor's hot spots. The Cathouse issued this statement:

"CatHouse closed early this morning due to a structural issue in the ultra-lounge portion of the venue.  While an inspection and repairs are in progress, the ultra-lounge will be closed to the public.   The restaurant also will be temporarily closed to the public.  More information, along with reopening dates, is forthcoming."

Anyway, I am planning to try to interview Rappaport. I don't expect that he will talk to me about LAX and the IRS. And maybe he won't talk to me until some time has passed about these two weeks. But I am very curious what it feels like to be him right now. I've never spoken to the president of a casino about what it feels like to go through a bad day at the office.

(Photo by Sarah Gerke)

(Courtesy photos)

 

But Angel, who despite a few successes was mostly unknown to the public when he arrived in Vegas, has continued to become more famous. That television show on A&E filmed here has become a huge hit. Then he had a recent guest spot on CSI that any Strip headliner would kill for (no pun intended). And, how's this for an illusion? Angel managed all of this Vegas marketing and branding without even having a showroom or being a headliner anywhere in Vegas. In fact, Angel may be the first person to become a star in Vegas before he had a ticketed show here.

 

That seems about to change. After the quick failure of Hairspray at Luxor, owner MGM/Mirage has turned to Cirque to put a show in the resort by 2008. And, rumor (open secret, may be more accurate) is that Cirque has partnered with Angel to be the star. A press conference for Cirque I am going to Thursday at Luxor promises to reveal all of the details of the new show including a special presentation by the "featured artist."  I hope to get an interview with Angel at the press conference.

 

Meanwhile, for those of you who are curious (and not upset easily) check out this video of Angel's most freakish trick, ripping a woman in half, in daylight, in the middle of Sunset Park (a few miles from my old apartment). Be warned: not only is the trick unbelievably disturbing to watch, the website hosting the video, Learn-Street-Magic, offers a spoiler explanation of one possible approach to Angel's secret.

(Photo by Sarah Gerke)