Maybe it's time to let the old ways die.
That's a line sung by Bradley Cooper's character in the hit "A Star Is Born" remake he and Lady Gaga co-starred in. And in many ways, that's what slowly happens on the Las Vegas Strip and eventually throughout the city as the old ways, the so-called classic Las Vegas, get relegated to the fringes before they eventually disappear.
The classic Las Vegas showgirl review followed this arc. First, it was pretty much a Strip necessity to have showgirls as part of your big headline show. Then it became more of a novelty, then it became nostalgia and, finally, it ended.
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When "Jubilee," the last showgirls show on the Las Vegas Strip, closed in 2016, an NPR article about it was headlined "Trapped in Time." It was an art form with a peak that had passed, which now exists solely in the semiparody/semicreepy women dressed in showgirl outfits on the Strip trying to sell photographs (and maybe more).
Lots of other Las Vegas traditions are just memories. Slots are no longer played with coins, for example, which has changed what a Las Vegas resort casino sounds like. Instead of the the clanging of quarters, you now get a DJ's playlist.
You can no longer get $0.99 shrimp cocktail, and a lot of the old food deals designed to get people into a casino have gone away.
That also includes another Las Vegas tradition that was dying before the pandemic and has seen its demise hastened by changing trends.
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Las Vegas is no longer the land of buffets
In the 1990s and 2000s, every resort casino seemed to have a buffet. Most of them were closer to Golden Corral than fine dining. But the idea was to keep people in the casino, get them fed (maybe even with a comp) and then get them back on the casino floor.
As Las Vegas has become a culinary capital of the world, Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts International MGM, Wynn Resorts, and the other Las Vegas Strip players realized that they could make more money from low- and mid-tier gamblers by selling them Guy Fieri, Wolfgang Puck, Bobby Flay, Gordon Ramsay and other big-name celebrity chefs than by having them playing slots.
That has made the space once devoted to buffets valuable real estate that makes more sense as a high-end restaurant than it does as a low-end all-you-can-eat eatery.
"On the Las Vegas Strip, only eight buffets remain (the Bacchanal at Caesars Palace, The Buffet at Bellagio, Wicked Spoon at Cosmopolitan, The Buffet at Wynn Las Vegas, the MGM Grand Buffet, the Buffet at Excalibur, the Circus Buffet at Circus Circus, and The Buffet at Luxor) where 18 once stood," Casino.org reported.
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Most of those, aside from from Excalibur and Circus, are very high-end affairs that can cost nearly (or over for some special servings) $100.
Buffets have met the same fate off the Strip, and another has closed to make way for a new trend, a food hall.
Rio is closing its buffet
When Resorts World opened on the North Strip during the pandemic, it did not have a buffet. Instead, it offered a massive food hall that contained more than 40 food and beverage options.
This offered people choice — maybe a better selection than even the best buffets — by grouping lots of options in one space. At Resorts World's food hall you can even order from multiple places from your phone, and then collect your food when it is ready.
It's an upscale take on the old classic that comes with higher costs for customers, but also higher quality. Now, Rio, which was just transferred from Caesars operating it to a new owner, Dreamscape, has decided to close its Carnival World Buffet and replace it with Canteen Food Hall.
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The new concept will open in January. Rio is undergoing a $350 million transformation under its new owners.
Canteen will offer a wide array of choices with a ramen shop, a Mexican eatery focused on burritos, the famed Tony Luke's cheesesteak shop and a burger concept, as well as different take on chicken tenders, and a stall selling Japanese street food.
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