The Golden Tiki owner Branden Powers: Things were better when The Mob ran Las Vegas

On Friday in his debut Friday Neon column, Robin has a preview of the Magic Live! convention here next week for 1,600 worldwide illusionists, conjurors, magicians and wizards. Today, one of his guest columns is by Las Vegas VIP socialite, philanthropist and restaurant czarina Jenna Morton, owner and co-founder of The Morton Group that runs Crush at MGM Grand, La Cave at Wynn Las and La Comida downtown. The other is by Branden Powers, who owns the “shrunken head” trademark The Golden Tiki in Chinatown. Robin is getting his own shrunken head there next month, so it’s only appropriate that Branden, who describes himself as a global visionary, pen a few words:

By Branden Powers

People often say it because it’s true. Things really were much better when The Mob ran this town. I know, I was there. As a kid, I made the long, hot drive here many times from Bakersfield, Calif., where I grew up with my family. My father, Turney E. Powers Jr., owned a chain of sitdown pizza parlors, and, in those days, all of the cheese, sauces and other items were controlled by the goodfellas.

So as soon as we got to town, we would stop at The Leaning Tower of Pizza (near Flamingo and the Strip) where we’d never actually order a pizza but always watch my father shake hands with a very large Italian man every time. And somehow from this interaction, we would get to experience the best hotel rooms, dinners and shows.

I’ll never forget seeing the billboards announcing all the biggest names in show business: Frank, Dean, Sammy, Mel Tillis, Don Rickles, The Oakridge Boys and Liberace: “Do you like my rings? You should .. you bought them!”

We would have front-row seats to all the greats: Wayne, Siegfried & Roy, the perennial kings. They even let kids in to see topless showgirls, who would wink and blow 6-year-old me kisses from the stage. I remember seeing signs for Kenny Kerr’s BOYLESQUE show and thinking that it was so weird that naked boys were onstage. There wasn’t a French-Canadian circus in sight.

Back then everyone dressed up. I swear that I wore a suit to breakfast. You didn’t see people in Hawaiian shirts and shorts like I saw at a Pavarotti performance many years later. Circus Circus had the Carousel Bar that to me was just as cool as the free circus show. Once I hit a 4 Spot on keno for $900 (decent money back then!), and they broke the rules and hand paid me at only 7 years old. All it took was a wink from the manager, who got a wink from the casino boss.

I remember the original MGM (where Bally’s is now) with jai-alai, the pre-Pac Man arcade and a movie theater that only showed vintage black-and-white MGM films and served alcohol. I think that I drank White Russians there from 9 years old until my teens as I sat on plush couches. I would stand next to the MGM lion — yes, a real lion — with only a small chain restraining him from me being his lunch (you wouldn’t see that today!).

I even remember friends and I looking up The Chicken Ranch in the phone book and prank calling, asking if they served chicken. Maybe this all sounds like a crazy childhood to you, but I wouldn’t have traded it for anything.

After my parents got divorced, my dad and I would head here for a Thanksgiving buffet (he was a terrible cook). He died a year before I moved here in 2000. He would have been blown away to know that I now call Las Vegas home.

Las Vegas has been really good to me. I have been blessed to find a city that embraces my weirdness and where I can thrive with my two wonderful kids, London Elizabeth and Jake Ryan. A city where you get to meet and get to know childhood heroes like Robin Leach and Mike Tyson. I’m still waiting for Nic Cage to walk in the door (keeping a stool warm for you, sir!)

Because of my history with this great city, I want to make sure that its past is not forgotten. We need more Las Vegas. Nightclubs, arenas and professional sports teams are all great. But we need places where people can go talk to each other, share a cocktail and dine on a great steak while watching a classic performer. That’s why I created The Golden Tiki with my business partners Jeff Fine, Seth Schorr and Joe Cain.

People want to experience the Las Vegas of yesteryear because they love its history as much as I do. We need to make sure that is protected. Our history like all things in the desert is slowly evaporating. We never should have lost JUBILEE, the last classic showgirl revue. We should have rallied around it, supported it and funded it as a community.

It’s important that places like The Golden Steer (hi, Tom!), Frankie’s Tiki Room, Casa Di Amore, Hugo’s Cellar and The Peppermill Lounge, just to name a few, live on.

I intend to carry the torch and not only protect our legacy but also rebuild it anew with places like The Golden Tiki that seem as if they’ve always been there (actually, we just celebrated our first anniversary!). If you are interested in adding more Vegas to Vegas, contact me at brandenmp@aol.com. No reasonable offers refused!

And here’s a reward for those of you who read this far: Come to The Golden Tiki, 3939 Spring Mountain Road in Chinatown, and tell them, “We need more Vegas in Vegas,” and we’ll give you a free Dole Whip Rum Float, just like that. Sorry, you must be age 21 or older. This isn’t old Vegas anymore. I wish that it was!

Be sure to check out our other guest columnist today, restaurant owner and philanthropist Jenna Morton. Robin also has the celebrity spotlight in focus on the mental wellness clinic pop princess Demi Lovato will host before going onstage at MGM Grand Garden Arena with Nick Jonas on Saturday night.