The Las Vegas Strip has a huge variety of restaurants for visitors to choose from, ranging from an extensive lineup of establishments operated by celebrity chefs to national and regional fast-food chains that guests might not see in their hometowns.
Diners can enjoy the Wolfgang Puck Bar and Grill at MGM Resorts International's MGM Grand MGM or maybe Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen at Caesars Entertainment's CZR Caesars Palace. Celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri also have their restaurants at Caesars properties.
Those in a hurry to get to the casinos or maybe a headliner show can always stop into one of the many fast-food chains on the Strip, including regional chains like Columbus, Ohio-based White Castle or Irvine, Calif.-based In-N-Out.
Another smaller but very popular restaurant chain based in Hawaii is making its way to the mainland, as Zippy's is opening it's first location outside of the islands in Las Vegas off the Strip at the corner of Badura Avenue and Montessouri Street on Oct. 10 at 10:10 a.m., according to Zippy's website. The date and time is easy to remember – 10-10-10-10.
Zippy's finally opens in Las Vegas
The Honolulu based restaurant chain revealed in 2018 that it would open it's first restaurant on the mainland in 2020, but the covid pandemic and supply chain issues delayed those plans. After a five-year wait, the chain is finally opening its doors in Vegas.
Zippy's
The restaurant measures 7,000 square feet, and the typical menu features items popular in Hawaii, including shoyu pork, saimin, chicken katsu, various chili dishes, oxtail soup, Portuguese bean soup, Portuguese sausage, Spam, eggs and rice breakfast and Spam musubi. Zippy's also has a wide variety of bakery items, such as cornbread, lemon cream cheese coffee cake, lilikoi bar, custard puffs, and various other cakes, pies and brownies.
For the new Las Vegas restaurant, the menu will be scaled down and limited in a first phase for operational ease, CEO Jason Higa told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The menu will include the restaurant chain's best-selling items and eventually expand to more items in a second and third phase. Zippy's Vegas menu will include chili dishes, Korean fried chicken and Zip Pacs with fried chicken, fish filets, teriyaki beef and Spam on a bed of rice, with furikake seasoning and a pickled daikon radish. But saimin will not make it on the first phase menu.
Long lines expected on first day of Zippy's
Zippy's expects long lines on opening day because of a high amount of anticipation for the new Las Vegas restaurant. With that in mind, Zippy's will allow people to begin lining up at 6 a.m. on Oct. 10, and no one will be allowed on the property to park or stand in line before that time. Onsite security, however, will allow Zippy's workers to enter the property throughout the morning. Parking onsite will be limited to those with ADA placards, the website says.
The restaurant encourages those waiting in line to bring small folding chairs, an umbrella, sunscreen, water and maybe a snack while they wait in line. The first 500 customers will receive free Zippy's Las Vegas hand-held fans and a grand opening ceremony will begin at 9:50 a.m. with a traditional Hawaiian blessing and untying of the maile lei. The doors will open for business at 10:10 a.m.
