Las Vegas Weekly

November 12, 2008 · 7:29 AM

Morning Call: Spectacular fireworks and surprise guest Sheryl Crow light up opening of Aliante

By Robin Leach

Fireworks usher in the opening of Aliante Station.

Photo: Scott Harrison/Retna

It was an extraordinary sight. When the 11-minute Grucci fireworks display lit up the skies above the new Aliante Station casino hotel last night, you could see mile-long stretches of cars coming from three directions at once for the 11:11 p.m. official opening.

Superstar recording artist Sheryl Crow was the surprise guest entertainer, and the singer-songwriter put on a near hourlong show for the invited VIP guests. For some strange reason, her management barred all cameras from snapping photos of her -- and nobody knew why!

In the meantime, owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta received congratulations from executives of many other rival gaming properties throughout the valley. Among the 2,500 guests for the pre-opening celebrations were MGM’s head honcho Terry Lanni, Venetian-Palazzo CEO Bill Weidner, Planet Hollywood President Mike Mecca and his wife, Sandy, executives from Boyd Gaming, Golden Gaming, the neighboring Cannery casino and Palms owner George Maloof.

“It’s always great when we have the excitement of a new casino opening here,” George told me at the new Pips Italian restaurant. “It creates more buzz for all of the others. It’s a very good thing because it brings a whole lot of new attention to the industry here.”

Our chief captain, publisher Michael Carr of Vegas Magazine, Las Vegas Weekly and Las Vegas Magazine, was on hand, and both he and I posed with the welcoming models made up and costumed as birds of a feather -- the logo of the new property! For the record, Aliante is a 50-50 joint venture between Station Casinos and our parent, the Greenspun Corporation.

Regular customers started lining up as of 9 p.m. yesterday, two hours in advance of the official opening. Aliante had picked 11:11 p.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year for the opening as a good luck omen, both for themselves and for guests! However, the throngs were so large at the seven entrances to the casino that Fire Department officials stepped up their final occupancy inspections, and the ropes were lifted at 10:40 p.m. -- slightly ahead of schedule!

Aliante, located near the Las Vegas Speedway and Nellis Air Force Base, is the 18th Station Casinos property in Nevada -- the 11th in the Vegas valley! The $662 million resort features 40 table games and 2,554 slot machines. You can click HERE for our exclusive story and video tour on yesterday’s Vegas DeLuxe. It is the first major hotel casino to open in our neighboring North Las Vegas in just over five years. The previous opening was the $105 million Cannery back in January 2003.

Main mingling headquarters was the Pips Italian restaurant where my friend, owner Rino Armeni, welcomed guests including his co-host, wine baron Don Carano from the famed Ferrari-Carano vineyards of California, and Southern Wine & Spirits’ kingpin Larry Ruvo and his wife, Camille. The wine-tasting spectacular also featured the wines of Italian fashion king Salvatore Ferragamo. In all Aliante features six restaurants and six food court fast food outlets.

First-nighters all agreed that the hotel is a beautiful and spectacular building amidst its desert surroundings, and Vegas DeLuxe wishes it well as the newest luxury arrival in our valley.

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