Location, quality, late hours fuel Nacho Daddy’s success

Huevos rancheros were among the healthier dishes on the menu and cost about $11. (Brian Sandford/View @nweditor)

Photogenic employees wearing matching T-shirts. High-traffic locales. An easy-to-remember name. Multiple televisions tuned to sports and a full bar with some memorable concoctions, including one featuring a scorpion.

These attributes can play a sizable role in making or breaking a Las Vegas Valley restaurant that caters partly to tourists. And while Nacho Daddy sells T-shirts that visitors can bring home to Peoria or Winnipeg, its high-quality food merits repeat visits by the all-important locals crowd.

Its slogan, “Never a dry chip,” and name suggest chips are Nacho Daddy’s calling card. Fortunately, they aren’t; the American-Mexican grill’s menu highlights include grilled Mexican corn on the cob (elote), street tacos (of course), kale salad, lobster tail tacos, Mexican street burgers, bowls with rice or quinoa, a chicken-breast-and-kale scramble and several vegan items, including nachos, burritos and fajitas with vegetable-protein “chicken.”

An order of huevos rancheros took about 12 minutes to arrive on a Friday evening at the downtown location. There was no line to get in the restaurant at 6:30, but a couple of hours later there would have been a line to Nacho Daddy. Its location on Fourth Street near Fremont Street Experience ensures there’s lots of walk-in traffic — as well as people wandering around nearby — especially on weekend nights.

Nacho Daddy’s downtown and Strip locations keep “party hours” — with closing time at 3 a.m. Fridays through Sundays and 2 a.m. other days. Things are a bit more sedate at the Summerlin locale, which is open until 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 10 p.m. other days.

Locations can be busy during peak times. One can make reservations at nachodaddy.com.