Vegas offers best of both worlds for Cosmo’s VP of entertainment

Fedor Banuchi loves Las Vegas. Before moving here five years ago to help open The Cosmopolitan, the hotel’s vice president of entertainment lived in much larger cities. Originally from Chicago, Banuchi attended college in Boston, where he got his start in the nightlife business, which led him to a high-profile nightclub in New York and then to Atlantic City, where he served as director of nightlife operations for Harrah’s Entertainment, before becoming a consultant.

The fast pace of the Strip reminds him of the East Coast, but living in Vegas has a relaxed West Coast vibe. It’s the best of both worlds, and that’s why he loves it. We recently caught up with Banuchi to find out what he loves about this town and if he’s noticed any misconceptions people have about living here. Below are excerpts from our chat, which you can read more of later this week at reviewjournal.com.

Review-Journal: What are your favorite places in town? What are your favorite places to go when you’re not working?

Banuchi: Believe it or not, being a local now, I like going to the Strip. I think a lot of (locals) don’t like going to the Strip, but I like the restaurants on the Strip. I like shopping on the Strip. I just like the Strip in general. I mean, I don’t drive on the Strip, but I enjoy the Strip. I remember when I first moved here and my car got delivered — it got delivered late — and I remember driving down Las Vegas Boulevard, which was probably the last time I drove down Las Vegas Boulevard. But we’re in Las Vegas; I like to celebrate the Strip. I also enjoy Summerlin and I also enjoy downtown, but I enjoy the Strip, to be honest.

Review-Journal: Everybody has this idea of what Las Vegas is and it revolves around the Strip, but there is so much more to Las Vegas. Do you feel like there are any misconceptions out there about our town?

Banuchi: What I think that people that don’t live here don’t realize is that life here is actually … I enjoy it. It’s sort of … you have the fast pace of the Strip; work is fast-paced. There’s that, what I miss about New York, which is working with cutting-edge things, working with big acts, working with big names — like that part exists, but then you can leave work and you can go to where you live off the Strip, and it’s a little bit calmer and you can sort of have that more West Coast vibe, which is like laid-back. It’s kind of like the mixture of both, minus water.

Review-Journal: What have been some of your favorite moments living in Las Vegas? When you look back 10 years from now and you look back at your time here, your early years, what are your favorite memories, your favorite moments?

Banuchi: When we first did the ice rink, and then when we made it snow last year. We built an ice rink on the fourth floor. We crane up all this stuff. I’m from the East Coast — I mean, I’m from Chicago, but I grew up all in Chicago, New England, East Coast area — so ice and snow and skating is part of the culture up there. And to really be able to turn the pool into a winter wonderland was just so amazing, and to be a part of the group that did that and continues to do it — we’ll do it again this year.

Read more from Dave Herrera at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at dherrera@reviewjournal.com.