Q+A: Sake Rok owner Albert Mack toasts first anniversary
Sake Rok at The Park owner Albert Mack, formerly an executive at Wynn Las Vegas and now CEO of the new TBD Group, has much to celebrate as the Japanese entertainment-dining hotspot celebrates its first anniversary Tuesday night and looks to the future.
“Everybody says Sushi Rok when they think of us (laughs), but we liked the idea of Sake Rok to denote fun with drinking and entertaining and having that feel for you. Sushi sounded bland, where sake sounds more fun.”
Here are excerpts from our Q+A in the Sake Rok corporate office on Sahara Avenue on April 7:
Congratulations on the first anniversary of Sake Rok. I’ve dined there four times and really like the place. Sake Rok also is a favorite of my reporter and colleague Robin Leach.
Thank you for letting me know; that is really great to hear. I’ve seen Robin at Sake Rok a few times.
From concept to opening to celebrating Sake Rok’s first year, how has your original concept come to life over time?
It you look at our original deck, the pictures were renderings, what we imagined it will be in our heads. But as we were building out the facility, things changed. All of a sudden, you’re talking to an artist who says, “Let me run wild with this. We should do something different.”
We never imagined that we’d have amazing characters on the walls. We always imagined the industrial feeling of the graffiti art. Something that we’re very proud of is that everything in there was worked on by local artists.
It was amazing to sit in the Downtown Arts District and talk with different artists and hire them to do the work. You look in the venue and see the girl with the gold grill and the beautiful Asian with the samurai sword. People now take photos in front of these as a mark of being at Sake Rok, which is incredible.
What have you learned in the first year of running Sake Rok?
My hair has gotten grayer (laughs). Just like our motto, expect the unexpected. We’ve made adjustments. Looking at our local following, it has been a wonderful surprise. Not a surprise, but to see people come back time and time again, we have had a truly wonderful experience.
What has been the biggest challenge?
Being in an outdoor facility and trying to mold our idea in terms of DJ and choreography and MC. We figured out the latter quickly. Our biggest challenge has been understanding an outdoor market. We’re not in a big hotel with 4,000 rooms to feed us on a constant basis. We had to become a destination and be something everything else is not. That’s the entertainment dining.
How did you come up with the name Sake Rok?
We had a couple of iterations. Everybody says Sushi Rok when they think of us (laughs), but we liked the idea of Sake Rok to denote fun with drinking and entertaining and having that feel for you. Sushi sounded bland, where sake sounds more fun. And Rok is a play on rock, and it’s a style of Japanese cooking.
How is Sake Rok celebrating its anniversary?
For the one year, we’re very excited. We’re hosting a private and public event, with tastemakers, investors, friends and family and executives for a private show. We’re unveiling a new menu with food items and beverages. We’re unveiling some new shows.
You’re going to be able to experience all three floors, including our patio. People will love being upstairs and outside. For our public show at 9 p.m., we’re going to have The Spazmatics onstage in The Park at the Bliss statue. Our goal in our one year is to help promote The Park and this amazing statue that is lit up at night.
We’re going to do a 100-person Sake Bomb right in The Park, and we’re going to time it to see how people do!
What can we expect moving into year two?
Refinement. We’re looking for that wow moment now that people know what Sake Rok is about. We need to wow you again, and how do you do that? How do you take that incredible experience and do more? We’re updating our menu, new food items and drinks. It’s new choreography and shows.
Our executive chef Joe Mosconi is truly a magician, and he going to do some tableside options now. We’re hoping to offer an amazing value for what you’re spending. Everyone works hard for their money, and they deserve the best.
For us, it’s the presentations we do with sushi and steak with the Godzilla platter; it’s your name on the projection wall because you came in — all of those little things make a difference in getting an unbelievable value for your money.
How has it been being a tenant in the brand new property The Park?
Being with MGM is outstanding. They are a big company, and they do a lot of things really well. T-Mobile Arena is absolutely gorgeous. Coming from Los Angeles and Staples Center, T-Mobile just puts it to shame. The acoustics in there are unbelievable. They just did a magnificent job. When they have events, The Park is slammed, and that’s how it should be.
With that new Park Theater in the Monte Carlo, if I had to spend my money, it would be for one of the concerts there. With the technology they brought in, it’s some of the best sound that you’ll probably ever hear, and every seat is really a good seat.
What’s perfect for us is because we are entertainment dining, we’re the perfect match to be there. We’ve been very successful with birthdays, bachelor and bachelorette parties and convention groups who want to let loose after a long day of meetings and walking the trade floor.
Do you consider yourself an expert at The Sake Bomb at Sake Rok?
(Laughs) our MCs are experts at the Sake Bomb. I’m OK. I do spill a little bit, I have to admit; it gets messy with me sometimes. If you ever want to open up a table to fun and enjoy the people next to you, the Sake Bomb is just enjoyment.
People next to you at other tables chant and cheer and say, “Let’s do it together.” People are taking video and pictures. It becomes one large party. We’re very fortunate because what we thought would happen has happened plus. People are truly taking to what we are doing.
You were at Encore Beach Club before Sake Rok? How did working at EBC prepare you for Sake Rok?
When I was an executive at Wynn, they are the gold standard without a doubt, Five Diamond, five star, it’s what they do. A big piece of that, though, is that they said we’re perfect at super-high end, but the clientele needs something more than that now.
They need something fun; they need entertainment, something more than a three-hour dinner at a Michelin three-star restaurant, and that was part of the reason they came up with XS and Encore Beach Club. It was giving people a reason to let loose and have fun.
Working at Encore Beach Club as part of my rotation at the Wynn, it was an incredible experience because you learned quickly how much fun people are willing to have and how much money people are willing to spend.
Yes, I know that I’m being a charged a premium for what I am doing, but when I leave this at the end of the day, I’m going to say that it was worth every penny because the food was excellent, the service was on point, the atmosphere was above and beyond, and the talent was there.
For us, we’re saying, “Why does it have to be a nightclub? Why can’t it be your dining experience?” Instead of dinner being an afterthought, we have people getting excited for dinner.
In addition to Sake Rok, your business partners Todd Lunger and Bill Jones and you launched TBD Group this year. Any future projects + expansion plans that you can discuss?
We’re currently in negotiations for some different concepts that we’ve created for some companies in town and across the country. We’re really excited about some potential rollouts of entertainment dining-themed venues. We believe that entertainment dining is the future of dining in general.
Being in Las Vegas has been tremendous for us. Being born and raised here, one thing that I have found is as we’ve been fortunate to dine around the world, nowhere comes even close to competing with the service standards that you get here with the industry people. It is second to none.
Sake Rok celebrates its first anniversary at The Park on Tuesday night with The Spazmatics.
