{"id":29005,"date":"2020-12-29T08:10:32","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T16:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=29005"},"modified":"2021-01-07T08:08:38","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T16:08:38","slug":"cosmo-quits-buffet-biz-for-now-nfl-going-out-with-a-bang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/cosmo-quits-buffet-biz-for-now-nfl-going-out-with-a-bang\/","title":{"rendered":"Cosmo quits buffet biz (for now); NFL going out with a bang"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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South Point<\/strong> will have to go it alone in the Strip buffet department now that The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas <\/strong>has shut down Wicked Spoon<\/strong> “temporarily.” Wicked Spoon had a good, seven-month run during the pandemic but the language used by the Cosmo was rather ominous<\/a>: \u201cEffective January 10, Wicked Spoon will temporarily cease operations. We are hopeful that business levels will improve into the new year, from which operations will continue to be reevaluated.\u201d Whose “business levels” are we talking about? It is impossible to evaluate the “levels” of a business that is shuttered, so what we’re really talking about is the overall performance of the Cosmo itself, the Covid capital of the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong>. It’s possible customers didn’t cotton to the new-look Wicked Spoon, whose regimen was “mandatory reservations, reduced seating, and dishes served by staff.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s also possible that the Cosmo is suffering from the downturn in Vegas business, of which the Las Vegas Strip<\/strong> is a particular casualty. Either way, the whole buffet concept is on life support, at least until Covid-19<\/strong> is sufficiently behind us that collective amnesia takes hold … and given slow vaccine rollouts, that’s not likely to happen soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

We’ve not seen gaming-revenue numbers for Las Vegas<\/strong> for November yet but, judging by McCarran International Airport<\/strong> statistics, they will probably be worse than October’s. Passenger loads (1.8 million) were down 9% sequentially and 57% year\/year. Domestic traffic was off 54% and while international traffic is increasing (up 15% sequentially) it is still 93.5% off the previous November’s pace. Southwest Airlines<\/strong> (-53%) dominated in passenger volume while Spirit Airlines<\/strong> defended its market share best, -34.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pointing to six upcoming NFL<\/strong> games with playoff implications, TheLines<\/strong>.com predicts a “wild ride” for bettors this weekend. Said analyst Brett Collison<\/strong>, \u201cThe first and last week of the NFL season are typically the two most difficult to handicap. The final week in particular brings a level of uncertainty not seen in any other week, and why odds on games with playoff implications tend to be more dependable.” Only two blowouts are predicted: The Cincinnati Bengals<\/strong> falling to the Baltimore Ravens<\/strong> by 11.5 points and the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/strong>, expected to be stampeded by the Indianapolis Colts<\/strong> by 13.5 points. (TheLines aggregates odds from DraftKings<\/strong>, FanDuel<\/strong>, PointsBet<\/strong>, PlaySugarHouse<\/strong>, BetMGM<\/strong>, Unibet<\/strong> and William Hill<\/strong>.) As mentioned yesterday, the Las Vegas Raiders<\/strong> are expected to eke out a one-point win over the Denver Broncos<\/strong> in a game rife with meaninglessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"Speaking of such things, the once-mighty New England Patriots<\/strong> are only 5.5-point favorites over the lowly New York Jets<\/strong>, for Pete’s sake. As for teams with playoff aspirations, oddmakers like the Buffalo Bills<\/strong> over the Miami Dolphins<\/strong> by 3.5, the Cleveland Browns<\/strong> over the fading Pittsburgh Steelers<\/strong> by 6.5, the Dallas Cowboys<\/strong> past the New York Giants <\/strong>by 2.5, the Los Angeles Rams<\/strong> over the Arizona Cardinals<\/strong> by 4 and the Tennessee Titans<\/strong> to open the throttle on the Houston Texans<\/strong> with a 56-point over\/under. Going for a first-round bye, the Green Bay Packers<\/strong> are favored by 4 against the Chicago Bears<\/strong>, in a game with a 50-point over\/under. Fire up the TV set!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This picture<\/a> is either worth 1,000 words 0r will leave you speechless, depending on your perspective. Warning: Some things, once seen, cannot be unseen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Point will have to go it alone in the Strip buffet department now that The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has shut down Wicked Spoon “temporarily.” Wicked Spoon had a good, seven-month run during the pandemic but the language used … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[66,18,42,277,278,283,245,242,74,243,19,100,252],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29006,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29005\/revisions\/29006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}