Station Casinos restaurants reopen with safety measures

Station Casinos opened select restaurants at three of its properties Tuesday, and guests at Red Rock Resort seemed excited to have them back.

“I’m thrilled that they’re finally opening; I’m tired of being cooped up,” Kathy Zuanich said shortly after being seated for dinner at Red Rock’s Hearthstone Kitchen & Cellar.

Eight restaurants at Santa Fe Station, Green Valley Ranch and Red Rock Resort are now open for either takeout or dine-in service. At Santa Fe, the offerings are limited to curbside pickup only from Leticia’s Cocina & Cantina.

At Green Valley Ranch, however, both Bottiglia Cucina & Enoteca and Borracha Mexican Cantina are now offering dine-in service, with Pizza Rock open for pickup only. The property with the most dining offerings is Red Rock in Summerlin, where Hearthstone Kitchen & Cellar, Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill, Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que and Yardhouse have all begun seating customers in their dining rooms and on their patios.

Guests arriving at Red Rock on Tuesday night found parking limited to select portions of the lot near the single operational entrance. After walking into the building, they were asked to stand several feet in front of a thermal scanner and remove any masks, to accommodate a quick temperature check. They were then greeted by one of the Station hosts on hand to answer questions or provide assistance finding a restaurant.

For Stan Friedman, a visitor from Colorado Springs, Colorado, who says he has been alarmed by the lack of social distancing and face covering throughout the Las Vegas Valley, the precautions were reassuring.

“The way that they’re setting it up here has been excellent,” he noted while waiting for a table at Yardhouse. “It’s really one of the better places in trying to observe the (proper) distance.”

By 5:30 p.m. the wait for a table at Yardhouse had grown to 35 to 45 minutes. The other three venues were seating by reservation only at the time, with each reporting 50 to 100 reservations on its books.

“It’s a good turnout,” floor manager Mark Barlow noted of the crowd at Blue Ribbon, where guests were spaced out among the various dining areas, the sushi bar and the patio. “I think people are itching to come out. They’re kind of bored of being stuck at home.”

Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlManciniVegas on Twitter and Instagram.