| rev:text
| - One can only thank god this place isn't on The Strip, lest it would have been long gone by now. Instead, it's gearing up for it's 75th anniversary come next year. A rare feat with ANYTHING in this town.
The El Cortez is one of the oldest buildings on not only Fremont but in the entire city of Las Vegas. And if you were to google pictures of the place in it's early days, aside from a neon sign, a marquee and a paint job, the exterior is virtually unchanged.
A couple of years back (don't ask how I know why), this place was a real shitshow. The Gold Spike (another place that is very odd to look at nowadays) and The Western (now closed) were the only places that could top the El Cortez in terms of sheer sleaze. The place was smoky enough to choke a horse. The clientele was so sketchy it didn't even feel safe to walk around the place. The walls, carpet and decor all looked like they were on the verge of giving out at any minute. Not a very pleasant place to be, at all.
Before 2008, this place was probably the top contender for implosion in DTLV (probably the only place that can reasonably be demolished without affecting the immediate surroundings aside from Main Street and The Plaza really), but thankfully, it's turned around for the better.
The interior is borderline swank compared to what it once was. What once was along the bottom rung of Downtown joints is now one tier below the Golden Nugget. You don't have to cut through smoke with a butter knife to even see in the place anymore. The lights are brighter. The walls look stable. The carpet has a legible design again.
One major plus about this place is how it always bends over backwards for locals. It even gives the Stations a run for their money in that department. The Cafe serves up decent grub at low prices. Gambling wise, I think I've had the best luck here out of anywhere else I've been to. It also probably has the most diverse clientele out of any casino in the entire city. The service is not as friendly as it once was, but it's still far less pretentious than some of the other remodeled places downtown like Fitzgerald's *cough* I mean The D or Lady Luck *cough* I mean Downtown Grand. The layout of the place is also rather perplexing, with random corridors and a strange back section of slots near the parking garage that's just kinda....there.
The El Cortez has managed to survive for 75 years in a city that bulldozes stuff that was built less than 20 years ago, so for that alone, they deserve a major congrats.
The Final Verdict
Pros:
History just oozes through it's walls.
Well-done remodel.
Appeals to everyone.
Some of the best deals and loosest slots in town.
Cons:
Slightly more pretentious service than what was there in the past.
Huh?:
The quirks in the layout.
Return Factor: 10/10. Always.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)