A New Lounge Emerges Downtown

Ike’s

Address: El Cortez, 600 Fremont St.

Phone: 702-385-5200

Status: Now open

Head over to the keno area of the casino floor at El Cortez to find Ike’s, a new lounge named for Ike Epstein, a bookmaker from Chicago who moved to Las Vegas in 1959 to help open the Stardust.

Ike’s offers lounge seating and a sports viewing area replete with 10 55-inch TVs and three 65-inch versions, taking over a former bar area with wood flooring and doubling in size to 1,300 square feet.

Belly up to the bar to order from Siegel’s Gameside with its full menu from neighboring Siegel’s 1941 menu.

The space also includes a custom-built communal table with vintage chips from the El Cortez collection.

As El Cortez partner and executive manager Alexandra Epstein Gudai explains: “It’s a nod to Ike Epstein, my father Kenny’s father; who also lends his name to our operating company, IKE Gaming Inc.”