When you mention Fremont Street, the downtown area of Las Vegas, to someone at one of the newer upscale casinos on the Strip, this is probably what they think of:

Police on Fremont Street

Police on Fremont Street

Security On Fremont Street is Tight

The truth is, Fremont Street is as safe as the Strip, just don’t wander off to the surrounding area, which gets dicey rather quickly. Helping to keep Fremont Street safe are a team of bicycle riding police officers, plus each casino has their own security team, fully armed. Unlike many of the security personnel you see at Strip casinos that look like they haven’t been to the gym in a few decades or are past their expiration date, the ones you see at Fremont Street casinos are buff and look more than capable to handle the occasional troublemaker.

Fremont Street is for Gamblers

While people visit the Las Vegas Strip to see Extravagant Shows, eat at Michelin Rated Restaurants and cavort at Swanky  Night Clubs, people patronize Fremont Street Casinos  for one reason, to gamble. You wouldn’t find a sign memorializing three plus hours long rolls at the Craps Table at a Strip casino: [ Click on Pictures for a Larger View ]

Golden Arm Plaque at the California

Golden Arm Plaque at the California

Fremont Street casinos have some of the most favorable gambling conditions in Las Vegas, from single deck Blackjack with favorable rules to Video poker with 100+% expected return. Additionally,  comps are easier to earn Downtown than on the Strip. While most Strip casinos won’t even rate table players that bet less than $25, on Fremont Street a $25 bettor is practically a high-roller.

Binion's "The Place That Made Poker Famous"

Binion's "The Place That Made Poker Famous"

The World Series of Poker originated on Fremont Street at Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, now called just Binions, by Jack Binion in 1970. The first winner Johnny Moss received a silver cup, and presumably bragging rights, as a prize. The prize has grown a bit since then, the 2009 winning prize was $8,546,435.

Binion's Poker Room

Binion's Poker Room

Binion's

Binion's

Fremont Street Nosh

Fremont Street is the home of the  99 cents Shrimp Cocktail at the Golden Gate Casino. (note you have to have a players slot card to get the 99cents price, otherwise the price is $1.99)

Golden Gate $.99 Shrimp Cocktail

Golden Gate $.99 Shrimp Cocktail

The shrimp cocktail is actually better than would guess a$.99 shrimp cocktail to be, and makes for a decent late night nosh. Of course there are other choices for a quick nosh on Fremont Street, like the fresh made burgers at the snack bar at Binions.

Binion's Famous Burgers - Ground Fresh Daily

Binion's Famous Burgers - Ground Fresh Daily

The Fitzgeralds has the ultimate Doughnut Shop, a Krispy Kreme Store, where they make the doughnuts onsite. At least they did until recently, with the economic downturn they switched to having the doughnuts  delivered by truck. Hopefully, they’ll return to making them onsite, fresh warm Krispy Kremes.

Fitzgerald's Krispy Kreme Store

Fitzgerald's Krispy Kreme Store

If your idea of great nosh food is Beef Jerky, Fremont Street is the place for you, they have a whole store devoted to all possible variations of this delicacy. In addition to Beef Jerky the stores sells an unbelievable variety of dried fruit and flavored nuts. The store is located about twenty paces off Fremont Street towards the now closed Lady Luck casino.

Beef Jerky Store

Beef Jerky Store

Beef Jerky

Beef Jerky

Asian Goodies

Asian Goodies

There is a much smaller version of the Beef Jerky store in the California casino, on the second floor, right before the bridge that leads to main Street Station, and next to Lappert’s. Lappert’s is great little ice cream shop, direct from Hawaii. Lappert’s has good quality ice cream with some unique flavors, such as Green Tea and Hana Road, not Rocky Road.

Lappert's Ice Cream

Lappert's Ice Cream

Lappert's Ice Cream: Hana Road and Green Tea

Lappert's Ice Cream: Hana Road and Green Tea

Stop by the California Casino and Say, Aloha!

All Three Boyd properties, (The Fremont, Main Street Station and California) in downtown Las Vegas are favorite destinations for the folks from Hawaii, but of these three, the California is by far the most popular, hence “Aloha Video Poker”  Across the pathway from  Lappert’s Ice Cream store, there is restaurant specializing in Hawaiian dishes.

Aloha Video Poker

Aloha Video Poker

Aloha Specialties Restaurant

Aloha Specialties Restaurant

Across the Bridge to Main Street Station

A bridge on the second floor of the California connects to Main Street Station, the most themed of all the Downtown properties. While not part of the theme, the most unique part of the Main Street Station decor is the Section of the Berlin Wall, located in the Men’s washroom.

Main Street Station: Berlin Wall

Main Street Station: Berlin Wall

Berlin Wall Slab

Berlin Wall Slab

Main Street Station is filled with Artifacts and Antiques from around the world, all in the service of simulating a late nineteenth century train station.

Located by the South Entrance is “Goldie’s Window” a stained glass window from The home of Goldie Schiesser. An art dealer wanted to buy the window, which Goldie refused to sell. Finally the art dealer bought the entire house, in order to secure the window. I’m not sure if that says more about the value of the house or the window.

Main Street Station: Goldie's Window

Main Street Station: Goldie's Window

Located in the Rotunda near the bridge to the California Hotel is The Art Nouveau style chandelier from The Figaro Opera House, Paris, France.

Chandelier from Figaro Opera House

Chandelier from Figaro Opera House

Manny Makes the Omelets at Main Street Station

The Main Street Station buffet has won many awards, evidently the buffet as slipped in quality since its award winning days. That’s not to say the buffet is bad, just that the food is nothing special. Except perhaps for the omelets, made by Manny. Manny is famous for chatting-up the customers and putting on a little show as he prepares the omelets. What do you want in your omelet, eggs?

Manny Makes A Omelet

Manny Makes An Omelet

The room is beautiful and spacious, with high ceilings, and an Italian marble statue called Goddess Fortuna, which depicts Lady Luck, holding a set of dice in her uplifted hand and a deck of cards in the other. How Vegas is that?

Goddess Fortuna Statue

Goddess Fortuna Statue

The Golden Nugget: A Little Piece of the Strip

Golden Nugget

Golden Nugget

The most upscale casino on Fremont Street is the Golden Nugget. This is the casino where Steve Wynn started his casino career, and left behind his mother’s recipe for bread pudding, available daily at the buffet.

The Golden Nugget has its very own gold nugget, a 61 pound nugget, big enough to have its own name “Hand of Faith”. The nugget is the largest  currently known in existence.

Gold Nugget: "Hand of Faith"

Gold Nugget: "Hand of Faith"

Gold Nugget "Hnad of Faith" Plaque

Gold Nugget "Hand of Faith" Plaque

The real attraction at the Golden Nugget is not the gold nugget, but rather the recently renovated $30 million pool, known as The Tank, which is filled with a variety of sharks, and has a slide that travels directly through the Tank. The pool area is open late, and doubles as a lounge area at night.

Golden Nugget: The Tank

Golden Nugget: The Tank

Golden Nugget Pool

Golden Nugget Pool

Fremont Street Comes Alive at Night

Like the Strip, Fremont Street looks a little washed-out during daylight hours, but comes alive at night. The Canopy that covers Fremont Street only serves to increase desolate feeling during the daytime hours, the area looks like a down-on-its-luck Strip Mall.

Fremont Street by Day

Fremont Street by Day

Mermaids and $0.99 Deep Fried Twinkies may not make much sense during daylight hours, but deep into the night they become imbued with the frivolous fun that is part of the Fremont Experience.

Mermaids and Deep Fried Twinkies

Mermaids and Deep Fried Twinkies

When the neon lights are on the  atmosphere of Fremont Street goes from drab to Glitter Gultch.

Glitter Gultch

Glitter Gultch

The Fremont Street Experience

The Fremont Street Experience, refers to the canopy covered with LEDs that runs the length of Fremont Street. The Canopy was installed in late 1995 and had a $17 million renovation in 2004.

Fremont Street Experience by the Numbers:

  • Canopy Screen Spans Five Blocks, 1,500 feet
  • The Screen has 12.5 million LEDs and 180 Strobe Lights
  • 220 Speakers producing 550,000 watts.
  • Shows are every hour on the hour begin at dusk through midnight.
  • Average show length 6 minutes
Fremont Street

Fremont Street Experience

The light shows are fun, but not exciting enough to warrant a special trip downtown if you are staying on the Strip. Thirty or so years ago, the show would have seemed more unique. One disappointing aspect of the show, is that they mostly repeat the same visuals for each block, rather than utilizing the whole length of the canopy. The few shows that utilize the full length of the canopy, like the one of the space shuttle launch, which shows the shuttle traversing the whole canopy, offer a more dramatic visual.

The Vue Bar on the second floor of Fitzgerald’s has a balcony that overlooks the Fremont Street Experience, and offers unique view of the show.

Fitzgeralds: Vue Bar

Fitzgeralds: Vue Bar

Fitzgeralds: Vue Bar

Fitzgeralds: View from Vue Bar Balcony

Two stages are on opposite ends of Fremont Street where bands perform on weekends and holidays. with plenty of kiosks selling every conceivable tchotchke in between, making for a festive street fair atmosphere.

If  “The Fremont Street Experience” is not reason enough to pull you from the Strip, there are many other reasons to visit Fremont Street, or perhaps stay overnight. The gambling conditions are much more favorable than on the Strip, plus low level players aren’t ignored when it comes to comps. The casinos are closely spaced, making it easy to move from one casino to the next. If you’re staying downtown, you won’t have a miles long walk to your room, should you forget something in the room.

While the dining option are much more limited than on the Strip, there are some decent choices. The Second Street Grill at The Fremont offers upscale American cuisine with an Asian influence, try the Mongolian Rack of Lamb. You could dine at one of the last bastions of  an “Old School Vegas” gourmet restaurant at Hugos Cellar, at the Four Queens. There is even a Sushi restaurant, Red Sushi, at the Golden Nugget. While there are no big production shows a la Cirque du Soleil, the dinner show Marriage Can Be Murder gets good reviews.

So, take your own random walk around Fremont Street, and it might become your preferred Vegas destination.



Franco Dragone is the creative director of the first two Cirque du Soleil shows in Las Vegas, Mystere and “O”, and thus the man largely responsible for the dramatic change in the entertainment landscape that has occurred over the last twenty years. Of course, as with any significant change in Las Vegas over the last twenty years, Steve Wynn played a pivotal role in this transformation, as he was the man that brought Franco Dragone to Las Vegas to produce both shows.

Franco Dragone is Cirque du Soleil’s Original Vegas Creative Director

Franco Dragone is a most unlikely person to have ended up as a major player in Vegas entertainment. Dragone was born  in Cairano, Italy in 1952 and moved to Belgium at age seven. He studied acting at the Belgian Royal Conservatory and was drawn to commedia dell’arte, his early work had a strong political bent. In the early 1980s Dragone was working in Canada, and his work attracted the attention of Guy Laliberte, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, in Montreal. Dragone was soon directing Cirque shows that were attracting attention far beyond Montreal. Part of Dragone’s innovation was combining featured acts like acrobats with themed peripheral performers. As Chris Jones states in his article Frank Dragone At The Limits Of Las Vegas

(Dragone) has a knack for making an audience feel that something important is taking place before their eyes

Steve Wynn Invites Franco Dragone to Las Vegas

Perhaps having this knack was part of the reason Steve Wynn invited Dragone to Las Vegas to create Mystere, which opened at Treasure Island in 1993, and is still playing to a full house twice daily five days a week. Wynn’s initial reaction to Dragone’s creation was less than enthusiastic, he  called it “boring like a German Opera”. Mystere is the purest expression of a Cirque du Soleil show, the staging is minimalist compared to future Vegas productions, and there is no plot line or dialogue to distract from the spectacle.

Mystere is a Big Success in Las Vegas

The success of Mystere led to a second, and far more expensive collaboration between Wynn and Dragone, when Wynn built a custom $80 million theatre to house Dragone’s next Cirque du Soleil show, “O”. The water-themed show utilizes an elaborate stage that can be transformed from a pool deep enough for high divers to a faux sand beach, and everything in between. “O”, like Mystere, is a show with no plot line or dialogue, but as Chris Jones says in his essay:

Dragone had figured out a way to burrow into the psyche of a broad spectrum of the general public. Audiences may not feel like they understand the whole thing, but they tend to understand with unusual ease that this is also a piece designed to work on their collective subconscious.

Whether referring to Carl Jung’s collective unconscious or some other unprovable theory, there is something about Cirque du Soleil shows that begs this type of discourse, and of course leads directly to The Great Latke-Hamantash Debate. The Great Debate is a spoof  of academic symposium where obtuse theories and sesquipedalian  speakers are the norm.  (The debate is held once a year at the University of Chicago, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.) As enjoyable as Cirque shows are, they have a slightly pretentious after-taste.

The Great Debate featuring Ted Cohen, Philosophy Professor and member of the Committee on Art and Design at U of Chicago is particularly germane. (The audio of the Debate is available here)

it is—is predicated upon this prior conception. Most modern art is like this: you must know in advance what the artist thought he was doing if you are to make sense of his art.

I’m sure there are countless “Mystere” and “O” audience members that have thought as they walked out of the show, the only way I can make sense of this show is if Franco Dragone sat down next to me and explained to me what he thought he was doing! Even if you ignore the inherent problems of a show devoid of plot, the individual  acts lack any real  Ah ha moments. Many of the acts, if not most, offer spectacular feats of acrobatic and gymnastic skill and are thrilling to watch, like a great fireworks display. However, like a great fireworks display, where one spectacular rocket burst just leads to another, no enduring connection is made with the audience.

Mummenschanz versus Cirque du Soleil

Mummenschanz, is another show that relies on non-verbal communication to thrill the audience, and is filled with Ah ha moments. The audience is forced to stay intellectually engaged  to get the full impact of the show, Cirque du Soleil allows for a much more passive audience experience.

After Mystere and “O” Franco Dragone and Cirque du Soleil amicably parted ways. Dragone stayed in Vegas and sprinkled his magic dust on Celine Dion’s elaborately staged show at Caesars Palace. Working with Celine Dion’s catalog of mostly non-narrative songs presented a real challenge to Dragone.

Obviously,  I could not interpret the songs literally. If I did, the show would have been ” I love you, I love you, I love you. I had to find the metaphors behind them.

There can be little doubt that some of the huge success of Celine Dion’s show was attributable to Dragone’s creative choreography. As a matter of fact Franco Dragone and Cirque du Soleil have become the dominant entertainment form in Las Vegas, even Vegas magicians feel the need to add a little, or a lot, of the magic dust to their shows. Magician Criss Angel, of Mindfreak fame,  added substantial Cirque du Soleil elements to his show at Luxor. Twenty years ago a Beatles tribute show would have been four guys and perhaps an large screen projector, is now Cirque du Soleil’s LOVE at the Mirage. A forthcoming Elvis production is en route at CityCenter. Neither of these shows have Franco Dragone’s direct involvement, although I’m sure his influence is still felt.

Franco Dragone and Steve Wynn Join Forces Again with Le Reve

Franco Dragone’s final project, at least for now, is Le Reve: A Small Collection of Imperfect Dreams at Wynn. Le Reve is another water show, like “O”, with the added complication that it is performed theater in the round, where no audience member is more than forty feet from the stage. Unlike “O” the show has a darker tone. As Chris Jones states in his essay:

Long-time admirers of the director can’t help but wonder if Dragone has finally met his limits in Vegas. His new creative darkness, perhaps, is testing the artistic boundaries of a casino show aimed at satisfying a mass market of vacationers.

The most interesting quote in Chris Jones essay is by Franco Dragone himself, “I can’t do gibberish any more, now, everyone does gibberish” What is one to make of that?

Franco Dragone Has Forever Changed the Las Vegas Entertainment Landscape

There is no doubt that Franco Dragone and Cirque du Soleil have forever changed the entertainment landscape in Las Vegas, not only by the shows they have running on the Strip, but also by other shows that might have never been given a chance if not for Cirques huge success. I doubt Blue Man Group would be in Vegas without Cirque or perhaps Penn & Teller, two shows with a non-traditional Vegas appeal. I’m still waiting for Mummenschanz to join the Vegas entertainment lineup.


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