Question of the Day - 11 January 2024

Well, we'll leave it up to QoDers to determine if this answer is interesting or justified. We just like to answer questions.

And we agree about the Key Largo. It was definitely small and funky (and smoky) and what we remember most about it was the short steak-special battle it waged with Ellis Island in the 1990s, when both tried to outdo each other with the loss-leader meal deal. Obviously, given what happened to Key Largo, EI won that contest. Key Largo's $1.99 hamburgers, however, brought us in on occasion. 

As for the background, Key Largo occupied just under eight acres at 377 E. Flamingo about a mile east of the Strip near the corner of Paradise. The first building on the property opened in 1973 as the casino-less Ambassador Inn; a small casino was added a few years later. A few years after that, the casino, a separate company from the motel, filed for bankruptcy and closed. 

In 1986, the casino reopened under new owners and renamed La Mirage, but they were quickly sued for trademark infringement by the Mirage Motel, which had been operating on the south Strip since 1953. The suit was on its way to the Nevada Supreme Court when none other than Steve Wynn stepped in, paying $250,000 to both motels for the rights to the name Mirage. The casino was renamed Anthony's, after the son (and minority shareholder) of the owners, while the Ambassador Inn was taken over by the Quality Inn chain. In 1993, the motel and casino were renamed again: Quality Inn & Casino. 

In 1997, a renovation and retheming (south Florida) led to the new name, Key Largo. The new name lasted about as long as all the others and, unable to compete with the new properties on the Strip, not to mention Terrible's across the street and Ellis Island up the block, Key Largo closed in early 2005. 

Even shuttered, it was quickly sold to a Florida-based company for $22.9 million. A 1,000-unit condo tower was announced for the site. That, of course, didn't happen and the property went back on the market for $79 million, but the price was soon dropped to $48 million, again with no takers. 

Key Largo sat there for years, Its absentee owners letting it rot into a definite eyesore with a proliferation of graffiti and broken windows. 

Two fires, one in 2008 (accidentally set by a copper thief) and a big one in 2013 (set by squatters), drove the final nails into Key Largo's coffin. It was demolished shortly thereafter, though not after a delay to deal with all the asbestos in the buildings.