A:
"SLS" stands for "Style, Luxury, and Service," the slogan Iranian-born nightclub impresario and movie producer Sam Nazarian chose for his luxury hotel chain, which has a location in Beverly Hills and another slated to open in Miami next year.
Back in 2007, Nazarian's company SBE acquired the iconic Sahara Hotel & Casino in Las Vegs, with plans to convert it into an SLS property, hence the wishful-thinking street signage. In reality, far from upgrading the property, it's since fallen further into disrepair and degradation, closing two hotel towers, the buffet, and the Congo Room, but adding a tattoo parlor. While Nazarian still maintains that the SLS plan's still in the works, there's no money to bring his dream to fruition.
SLS Way
Update 03 August 2010
Some interesting reader feedback on this one:
"Regarding what the letters 'SLS' stand for in the street name SLS Way (by the Sahara Hotel/Casino), I say your answer of 'Style Luxury Service' is incorrect. At least in so far as thestrippodcast.com and Steve Friess are concerned. I won the trivia contest there last June by answering the question with 'Something Lovely’s Started, the company that owns the Sahara.'
"Was I wrong?"
To which we respond, no, we don't think you were. But we don't think we were either! We'd always read the "Style Luxury Service" explanation of this acronym, but when we read your email we did some further digging and found
your version on one of the company's Web sites.
Then we did some more digging and found a 2007 interview with owner Sam Nazarian, in which he stated that, it's actually not an acronym at all: "SLS is not an exact acronym for anything in particular. Most importantly, it is a name that will become synonymous with timeless elegance, intelligence, humanity, discovery and a completely novel guest experience." So, it looks like it means whatever they want it to mean at the time!
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