Restaurateur’s traditional home built from his dreams — PHOTOS
Las Vegas restaurateur Fred Glusman is known for his celebrity-magnet Piero’s Italian Cuisine at 355 Convention Center Drive. For three decades, it has been the neon hub for the city’s elite and their famous guests.
Stars, athletes, casino bosses and politicians such as Frank Sinatra, Bette Midler, Sharon Stone and Barbra Streisand, Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods, Harry Reid and Kirk Kerkorian have dined on the famed establishment’s pasta and steaks. Mobsters such as Tony “The Ant” Spilotro and Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal also pulled up to the tables.
In 2005, the restaurant made headlines when two New York Police Department detectives accused of murdering for the mob were arrested by federal agents before their meals were served.
The place is known for providing a private dining area for the town’s movers and shakers.
Glusman recalls Joe Pesci trying to smoke a cigar in Piero’s.
“I threw him out,” Glusman said.
Later, when director Martin Scorsese was filming the 1995 movie “Casino” about Spilotro and Rosenthal, he rented out the restaurant.
Pesci “came up and blew smoke in my face,” Glusman said and laughed. “He’s a great friend.”
The 78-year-old moved to Las Vegas from Los Angeles at age 20. Las Vegas had a population of about 65,000 then. During the early 1980s, about the same time Glusman opened Piero’s, he was running several local business, including the Sporting House, a fitness club on Industrial Road, now Dean Martin Drive, and was developing homes in Las Vegas Country Club in downtown Las Vegas.
A few years later he built his dream home on the largest lot on the golf course.
“I like it here because it is private, convenient,” he said. “It’s close to everything.”
He took two years to build the 6,466-square-foot English brick home on Broadmoor Avenue.
An avid golfer, one of Glusman’s favorite features in the small backyard that’s just big enough for a pool and spa is the gate that leads directly onto the golf course.
“I’ve always been a member of the country club,” he said.
The traditional home features a contemporary foyer with high ceilings and a distressed wooden floor. Throughout the home are beveled glass windows that filter in waves of light into the estate.
The first floor includes a kitchen with an industrial oven and upgraded appliances, sitting area, living room, library and living room with a wall of glass-enclosed bookshelves.
Upstairs are two master bedrooms, a third bedroom and a large loft.
The garage is accessed downstairs. Glusman’s golf cart is parked in a two-car garage. Behind that garage is a door that leads to a second one.
In a community that was once home to the men and women who helped paint Las Vegas with vivid colorful history, Glusman says he thinks the Las Vegas Country Club could be on the verge of a revival.
“I see more young people moving here,” the Canadian-born businessman said.
Cristine Lefkowitz Jensen with Synergy Sothebys International has the house listed for $1.3 million.
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