New Las Vegas steakhouse Bugsy & Meyer’s to finally open

Even Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky got caught up in the coronavirus pandemic.

Bugsy & Meyer’s Steakhouse was scheduled to open at the Flamingo on May 1, but then COVID-19 came calling, and, like a lot of things, plans for the restaurant were put on hold. Representatives of Caesars Entertainment said the resort is taking reservations for Bugsy & Meyer’s beginning June 25.

One thing hasn’t changed: The kitchen of the steakhouse across from the Flamingo’s Wildlife Habitat will be helmed by the winner of the Food Network competition show “Vegas Prizefight” — Chicagoan Lamar Moore, who clinched the job with his fried chicken and promises to inject some Southern flair into the menu. Moore joins executive chef Honorio Mecinas, a veteran of more than 15 years on the Strip.

During a pre-pandemic tour when the restaurant was still in the construction stages, it already was revealing itself as a stylish throwback that takes several winks at the earliest part of Las Vegas’ mob era, when Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and Meyer Lansky opened the Flamingo in 1946.

For example, guests will enter through a faux bakery with display windows so that to the casual passerby, it’ll look very much like the real thing.

“If you were in the cool crowd, you never came in through the front door,” general manager Jonathan Pacheco said then.

Guests will pass near a cooler where the restaurant’s beef is dry-aged and get a peek into the kitchen. They’ll be seated in one of the spaces that make up the restaurant’s six “experiences.”

The decor reflects the comparative glamour of the era. Among the particularly apropos accents is a beaded flamingo that took famed designer Jonathan Adler nearly 100 hours to make. While most of the restaurant is decorated in light pastels, the Count Room — styled as a speakeasy and serving as the restaurant’s late-night component — is characterized by dark woods.

The food and beverage menus also reflect a more elegant era, with domestic prime, wet-aged, dry-aged prime, imported wagyu and other grades of beef available in various cuts. To those, guests will be able to add a lobster tail, Alaskan king crab, foie gras, scampi or Point Reyes cheese fondue. Sides will include a baked and stuffed potato with white cheddar and house sausage, truffled potato puree and lobster mac and cheese. There also will be shellfish towers, Dover sole, prime rib roasts, wagyu shortribs and lamb loin.

The cocktail menu, which Pacheco said would be “rum-centric,” is a nod to Siegel and Lansky’s time in Cuba.

A nod to the current era takes the form of Caesars Entertainment’s health and safety protocols, such as social distancing, reduced capacity, masks on staff and hand sanitizer at multiple locations.

Reservations are available at flamingovegas.com.

Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474. Follow @HKRinella on Twitter.