Downtown Grand Pics and Review

I just spent a few nights at the new Downtown Grand Hotel. Here are my initial observations and pics...
I'll submit a more comprehensive TR later.

Parking: Everything is Valet right now. I believe a self-park lot/garage will be coming in the near future

Hotel Rooms: I stayed in a Premium Room which goes for about $10 more/night than a standard room. The Premium Room was very
nice but surprisingly basic. I cant imagine a standard room offers much less. Bathrooms have marble floors and a shower (no tub).
The bed was very plush and comfortable. TV has a good cable package. All in all, a solid value for the $45 I paid...but Golden Nugget
needn't worry about being one-uped on the metric of room quality. The Downtown Grand rooms seem to be in line with the refreshed Plaza.
My only gripe was this: They had some kind of Santa's Workshop outside in the courtyard. They were playing the 12 days of Christmas song on repeat
every night from 6pm-11pm...and it was loud..and I could hear it plain as day from my room. Holy cow! That was annoying. Luckily they gave me free earplugs
with the room. No joke.

Resort Fee/Fun Book: There is a $10/night resort fee at the Grand. This includes free wi-fi, gym access, two bottles of water and funbook which contains
the following:
- $10 Matchplay coupon
- $15% of entire order at Pizza Rock
- 2-4-1 drinks at the Art Bar (including their fancy martinis)
- 2-4-1 drinks at the Mob Bar
- $10 off orders over $25 at all of the hotel restaurants

Casino
- VP Schedules are simply not good. 8/5 Bonus Poker is my game of choice..The had 6/5 Bonus Poker. No Thanks
- Table limits are low all day and night long. $5 craps/roulette/blackjack.
- Slots were very kind to me. I had several $200+ hits.
- They have a special Baccarat room which was empty both days I was there.

Promotions
- Initial Slot Club signup gets you $3-$1000 in slot play. Guess how much I got.
- 3X points for the whole month of December. Points can be earned quickly and get you a nice comp for the restaurants
- Daily slot tournament entry gained for every "X" points on your card. Cant remember the value of "X". I earned 5 entries over 2 days.
- Prizes awarded for first 500, 1000, 2000 points you put on your card. $5 slot play, limited edition chip, baseball cap. Burning through a $100 or so got me all three.

Restaurants / Bars
- Stewart & Ogden. This is their diner. I only tried it for breakfast. $12 for bacon, eggs, hasbrowns, cakes. My poached eggs were about 15 seconds from being hard boiled.
Considering their marked up prices I found that unacceptable. The menu is boring and basic...and expensive. Wont be eating here again.
- Pizza Rock. Huge establishment with a large bar, take out counter, and lots of big screens. They have about 50 different kinds of pizza available as well as a nice selection
of craft beers. I ordered a stromboli which was lovely. Nice bartender lady. We talked for about a half hour.
- The Art Bar. This is essentially just a hotel lobby bar. They have some fancy martinis made with iced coffee. The ceiling has painitngs on it arranged abstractly. Cute.
- The Mob Bar. Sofas and comfy-chairs surround a small stage that features live entertainment nightly. There was a very talented duo playing the night I visited.
- There is also a steak house, deli, and chinese place onsite. I didn't try any of them. Coming soon is a large restaurant with a big outdoor seating area.

Overall THoughts
I really enjoyed my stay but I'm a little worried about their future. For one thing you really cant see the Grand from Fremont Street. You kinda have to already know its back there.
As a esult, I dont think they get too many wander-by types stopping in for some play. The crowd was a little light. That may be because its December but the other hotels on Fremont seemed to
have a pretty healthy turnout.

The Grand is still a new place and the warmer months will bring some nice ammentiites including a fancy pool, outdoor gaming,and outdoor dining.

Their low prices and inviting casino (VP tables excluded) make it a worthwhile visit. I gave them a fair amount of play so I will see what kind of offers they send me. I'd stay again.


* * * * * *PICTURES ** * ** * * *







The (Premium?) Room at the Grand




How about this little IKEA closet thingy they threw in the alcove. Now there's elegance for ya!


The empty Baccarat Room.


The Art Bar has several iced-coffee-type martinis.




My Big Hit right before leaving for home.

Outstanding report PJ. I always enjoy your wry take on things and useful information.

Thanks, good info for our next trip

Yes, i was by this past weekend and was also concerned. Not many folks there. I think the Mob Museum will help them a bit and I think they are wise to offer discount to Pizza Rock etc. However, I believe they will need some additional hooks to make folks head their way. It wouldn't hurt to have someone on Fremont handing out coupons with directions etc. Just as an aside, the staff was very welcoming and nice, while I was there. I wish them well.

Thanks for the report PJ.Always love the pictures.

Thanks for your nice report -- informative and helpful as always.

I was surprised by the "premium" room description, since I had been expecting something "Grander" . Ear plugs, Seriously? I like the fun book package -- one good Lemon drop martini is worth the resort fee to me.... Hope when the nicer weather comes, more people will find their way since it seems the location is off the beaten path. Glad you had a good time, and congrats on that win!

Goodnreport as always PJ. That is one bizarre carpet design in the rooms. Hope this place does well. Downtown has needed another option for sometime now, another place outside the FSE establishments. Good to see that the resort fee/funbook package at least isn't a total ripoff there. Sounds like they'll have to do more than a little promotion to draw in any serious crowds, but like you mentioned, it's December. Still too early to draw any serious conclusions.