Tivoli has become known as the cursed shopping area, with restaurants left and right getting amazing no-rent deals for the first year – but still closing after less than a year. Next in line is Leticia’s, the Mexican restaurant that was only open for a year.
Of course, it probably was doomed from the start as it was placing another Mexican style restaurant Cantina Laredo which faired just as a well as every other restaurant in that location .
According to insiders, like many of the restaurants, the owner was offered a year for free to be there and after the first year it wasn’t worth even continuing at a reduced rent.
In 2016, I asked a very important question: can anything really make it in Tivoli? It seemed two years ago that the place was just doomed and nothing would ever do well there. I was kinda right.
Elaine and Scott Harris have attempted to be a little more upbeat about the future, noticing in 2018 it was very possible the wave of restaurants would make it more popular.
However, the two first restaurants that they mentioned as being options have already closed since they wrote this only a few months ago. With a 50% success rate in the last year, that’s not terribly hopeful that anything can make it there.
Why is it doing so badly?
We spoke briefly to John Curtas of Eating Las Vegas. “The landed gentry of Summerlin like to think of themselves as “foodies” when, in reality, they are people of means with little imagination. The neighborhood is filled with folks weaned on fast-casual concepts (Brio, Claim Jumper, P.F. Chang’s) who love the idea of patronizing local restaurants more than actually doing so,” he informed us.
“They’re also a lot of cheap bastards up there who relish looking for “perceived value” over authenticity – the sorts that keep Echo & Rig humming because it lets them bring there own wine. Real foodies congregate downtown and on Spring Mountain Road. Summerlin is for poseurs, hence all the failures.” John is known to be a bit of a snobby foodie, but let’s be honest, he knows his stuff.
Scott Roeben of Vital Vegas fame was a little kinder: “I feel like it could be something as obvious as the way the place is designed. You can’t tell what it is, or what’s inside. It’s like Neonopolis in that way. It’s built to struggle.”
Scott added, “Then again, the quality of the restaurants that have failed haven’t been stellar, at least the ones I’ve visited. It seems like a Tivoli curse, but I can’t say any great restaurants have failed there.”
PKWY Tavern however seem to be doing okay, probably because it’s focused on being mainly a bar with decent food that doesn’t kill you.
