My wife and I, with other VIPS, had dinner with Downtown Grand General Manager Andrew Economon. We were talking and Honest John’s came up, which was the original joint built where Downtown Grand is now and Lady Luck was in between. Anything on Honest John’s? I think there was another Honest John's somewhere else in Las Vegas also.
You're right on both points.
There were two Honest John’s, one downtown and the other on the Strip. They must have been mighty cozy. The downtown locale, at 304 East Ogden Avenue, occupied a converted barbershop. It debuted in 1961 as Honest John's, a small newsstand/smoke shop with approximately 20 slots and a few pinball machines.
The one on the Strip, at 2400 Las Vegas Boulevard, was in the shopping plaza at the northwest corner of Sahara Avenue. Several little grind joints opened and closed there, including the Big Wheel, Centerfold, and Jolley Trolley. The entire plaza was eventually taken over by the Bonanza Gift Shop. The big draw of that Honest John’s was (as of 1972) its 98-cent steak-and-egg breakfast, another Vegas anachronism.
By the time Honest John’s on the Strip was offering that meal deal, Honest John’s downtown days were done. In 1964, it was taken over by a new owner who closed it in 1968; the property reopened later that year as the Lady Luck.
The LL had a good long run, closing in 2006, but it remained shuttered until it reopened as the Downtown Grand in October 2013.
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Randall Ward
Jan-14-2024
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Jeff
Jan-14-2024
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