Fine Dining - Hooter Bowl 3: The History of the Worst Hotel in Las Vegas feat. Alexander Poncio

Episode Date: February 5, 2025

Hooters Casino Hotel was meant to be a game-changer—bringing its busty brand of mediocrity to the Las Vegas Strip. Instead, it became one of the biggest disasters in Vegas history. A casino so bad, it made Circus Circus look classy. So... what went wrong? For my third annual Hooter Bowl Spectacular, I had to go big. So I spent 19 hours trapped inside the Hooters Casino Hotel (now OYO), enduring its busted elevators, depressing ambiance, and suspiciously sticky carpets—all for the sake of history. Along the way, my guest Alexander Poncio and I uncover the shocking history of this cursed Las Vegas casino—including its mob ties, multiple bankruptcy scandals, and an abandoned attempt in the 1980s to become Vegas' first LGBTQ-friendly resort. "Fine" Dining is now on video! Head on over to my YouTube to WATCH this episode!   💬 What’s the WORST hotel you’ve ever stayed at? Drop it in the Discord! 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🚨 Support the show & unlock exclusive content! 🚨 🍔 Bonus episodes – including deep dives into underrated chains like the most recent monthly exclusive: Dan's Hamburgers (Austin, TX) 📢 Extended Yelp from Strangers segments – with even wilder reviews 🎶 Download exclusive music – including all 7 tracks from our Olive Garden musical! 👉 Join us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/c/finediningpodcast 👉 Hop into the Discord! https://discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 👉 All links in one place: www.linktree.com/finediningpodcast 🎵 Music by: James McEnelly (@Ramshackle_Music) 🎶 Theme Song by: Gabe Alvarez (@spooky.gabe) 🎙 Segment Transitions Voiced by: Sandy Rose Patreon Producers: Joyce Van, & Sue Ornelas Follow Alex on Instagram @ponciosa ⚡ Like, Subscribe & Share if you enjoy deep dives into the weirdest chain restaurant history!

Hooters, a brand that's grown as big as the assets it's known for flaunting. As if over 400 restaurants in 29 countries weren't enough, Hooters has expanded into every space imaginable. If you've kept abreast, you'd know that Hooters has had a magazine, a NASCAR sponsorship, an annual calendar, a racing game for the original PlayStation, its own airline, and a late-night TV show that ran for eight years. And for a moment in time, to be a Hooters girl was to be a busty goddess among mortals. And naturally, if you're looking to get an augmentation, so to speak,

where better to set up shop than the entertainment capital of the world, America's playground Sin City. In 2005, Hooters bought themselves a hotel at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip. With a 2.2 score on Yelp before it was sold, the Hooters Casino Hotel lives on today as the Oyo Hotel and Casino, a name that conveniently looks like an owl's face in a modicon form. They've kept the Hooters restaurant on the ground floor open as a giant saloon, and boasts the distinction of being the only Hooters in the country with a breakfast menu.

Today on the podcast, we're going to look at this piece of property with a crazy history, from scams involving mobsters to being the only hotel on the Vegas strip with a crazy history, from scams involving mobsters to being the only hotel on the Vegas Strip with a current Yelp rating lower than that of Circus Circus. And you can bet your bazongas we're reading some of those reviews to find out why. This is the Fine Dining Podcast. The table is ready, take a seat The flavor of the day is mediocrity Wouldn't you like to try a bite? Guarantee it'll be the perfect bite Fine dining Better than you thought, worse than you hoped Fine dining

We don't treat media per ads a joke Breaking every single place we've been Looking for the perfect five out of ten fine dining podcast and also a discord server. So head into the description of this episode or go to my website and you can find the link and the invite to that. And we'll have a good time. You can talk about places you want to see me go next. We'll talk September girl predictions. You can post food pictures.

But my favorite thing that I want to do is bring back the what's going on over there segment with your stories that you've had while dining at chain restaurants. So come join me. I'd love to see you there. Have a fine day. I've never heard that they had a video game. For PlayStation 1, it was basically like a racing game and it was not good. Really? You checked out reviews on it? Oh, yeah. OK. I'd say I'm pretty video game literate. Like, I know even like the weird side thing, like the-

Like the landfill full of ET. Yeah, like all the games that you pass by and I just was obsessed with video games and I've never seen a Hooters game. Yeah, well, we'll get into it more. Let's start the show. Hello and welcome to the Fine Dining Podcast, the search for the most mediocre restaurant in America.

I am your host, Michael Ornelas, and this is the show where I dive deep into the history of our favorite chain restaurants before reviewing them. This week's episode is my third and final annual Hooter Bowl Spectacular. In 2022, I ate at the Hooters closest to where I live. Last year, I tried out their fast casual spin-off concept restaurant Hoots Wings. And for this year, I felt like I had to top it. So I went to Las Vegas to stay from check-in

until check-out, 19 hours at the Oyo Hotel and Casino. You'll hear my thoughts all about that experience next week, including not one, but two meals at their Hooters restaurant. This week, we're going over the history of that godforsaken place before reading some Yelp reviews. And my guest this week, as a friend of mine, I met 10 years ago doing improv in Los Angeles.

You've seen him on Dave, The Curse and Grown Ups 2. He's a tremendously talented actor and comedian. It's my pal, Alexander Poncio. Wow. I called you Alexander because that is what your IMDB says. Yeah. I'm gonna call you Alex for the rest of the show. Friends can call me Alex.

Either way, you know, you gotta have that thing. You gotta have that like, distancer. I'm Michael, and even friends I don't like calling me Mike. Really? Yeah. I do have a few people that default to it and it is endearing, but it's still not my preference. I had this very hostile interaction that I didn't mean for it to be, but I was making

a first impression with someone and I shook their hand and gave them my name Michael and they were like, oh, do you go by Mike or Michael? And I thought I was like trying to pass this off playfully, but I did not. Oh, God. And I said, usually people introduce themselves as what they prefer to go by. And it just, I, I botched the delivery. I don't know if there is a friendly delivery of that, but some people can get away with that kind of stuff.

There's some people like they can insult you to your face and you're like, Oh, that was so charming. That's so good. So Michael, I'm not one of those. I'm not. I don't think I am either. I look like a dickhead already. So whenever I like, I can't play that off. Yeah. So I'm going to ask you, do you have your own personal history with the Hooters brand? Have you been to Hooters before? Oh, everybody has a history with the Hooters brand? Have you been to Hooters before? Oh, everybody has a history with the Hooters brand. I'll start off by saying that.

I would say nothing but negative, I guess. Just like I've never, I've been like, it's kind of exploitative. And that's gonna be a lot of people's experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess, or people that I guess I associate with cause we're all in a bubble. Yeah. We all live in our bubble.

But I do remember distinctly the first, my, my mom was super against it, but one of my friends in elementary school had his birthday at who they are. Elementary school. He was like 10 years old. Shout out to Adrian Ramirez. Nice guy.

I haven't talked to him in decades. But I distinctly remember feeling like, oh, this is, this is not anything. I feel odd. I don't like this. Yeah. I'm not a fan. And then they like, they have like a,

all of us 10 year olds, like get up and, and do the whatever Hooters dance with all the girls and it's just you're quite a bit younger than me remind me what so what year would you have been 10 like 2005 okay doesn't fight that was like the pinnacle of like the the restaurant exploitation like yeah Hooters Twin Peaks bikinis I want to saybshells is the name of one, but... Tilted Kill.

Tilted Kill, yeah. So it was kind of like the golden age of the restaurant. Yeah. And like that was with all of the straight to DVD, National Lampoon, very like sexualized... Yeah. Like the man show came out around that time. Yeah, so you lived in the era to appreciate Hooters, but even still the bubble was starting to burst

when it comes to the exploitativeness of it. And so, all right, well, so that's your history with Hooters. Do you wanna hear the history of the Hooters Hotel and Casino, AKA the Oyo, AKA a bunch of other names and we're gonna get into it. Really, boy, do I. I'm curious. All right. We're going to jump into this week's Eat Deets. The Oyo Hotel and Casino situated at the southern southern end of the Las Vegas strip in Paradise, Nevada,

has an eventful history with a multitude of different owners and eight name changes. It initially opened as a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge in 1973, ten stories tall, 332 rooms, and a modest casino. It was developed for $8 million, with plans just a year later to expand to three additional 10 story towers and 554 new rooms, which could have housed so many future Hooters girls. Uh, but alas it was not meant to be. Unfortunately, before the expansion came to fruition,

owner Paul Osterlie's company declared bankruptcy and the property was foreclosed on and sold at auction for $7.7 million. Woo! That's one down, one iteration. I was like, okay, for some reason I thought this building was built in like 2005. Like I thought, oh, Hooter's super popular, let's go.

Okay, so that'll make more sense later when we described this place that we're in. So this building has been taken over and rebranded and they just keep giving it the old college try. That adds up. That'll make a lot more sense later. Yeah. Later that year in 1975, the mortgage holder sold the hotel to a former part owner of the Riviera Casino, Bernard Nemirov, for $10 million. So the price is going up. They're making more money on it. That's good.

Nemirov renamed it the Paradise Hotel and opened for business within three months. months, this iteration of the hotel was targeted by a credit scam by 54 mobsters associated with the Philadelphia crime family, leaving the casino with insufficient cash to operate. Jesus. Yeah. Like it's, it is straight up a movie that you would set in Vegas. I forget that Vegas was that. Like all kinds of, I'm not convinced it's still not part there.

Yeah, but it's all like white collar now. It's all seat like we're never. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back then I imagine there was some violence behind the scenes. Now it's like, I don't know. The Philadelphia crime family, I looked them up and they are literally known

for being one of the more violent mobs. Whoo. Yeah. That said nothing in this story about the credit scam. Credit sounds pretty like white coffee. Yeah, nothing about this was particularly violent. That's pretty pleasant. So it once again went bankrupt and was forced to close.

Whomp. Okay. Here's more about the scam. Eugene Louis Turco Bulgarino, which absolutely sounds like an Italian chain restaurant. Sounds great. Let's go to Bulgarino! Yeah absolutely sounds like an Italian chain restaurant. Let's go to Bulgarino. I was surprised by the first name. You got the first last name right.

Yeah, that was pretty good. He was a former associate of the Philadelphia mob and participated in the 1976 bust out scam that bankrupted the paradise hotel and casino. It can't be an episode about Hooters without someone's bust. That was, that was perfect. Boom. That was great. I got jokes. Sorry, suckers. They're not great, but they're there. That was great. Um, a bust out. Do you know what that is? Nope.

So it involves using credit with no intent to repay often with fake identities or insider help, leaving businesses burdened by unpaid debts. Nearly 30 years later, Bulgarino and Sean McAndrew, who's 64, were banned from Atlantic City casinos for a $6 million slot cheating scheme in 1997 for which they served prison time. So that was like 21 years later,

they finally got busted. Yeah. Cheating with slots. So they made Vegas their base of operations. Their get rich quick scam hub. I mean with a name like Bulgarino, like you're born to do that, you know? Or Bulgerino. Bulgerino. No, that'd be cool. You guys can join in with us. Yeah. Yeah. Every time we say something slightly pervy, we're just gonna, yeah, brother. You gotta join it.

You have to. You have to do it at home. All right. In the comments, give me a yeah, brother. Oh, God. Already, already gone. To preface, we said we weren't gonna do that at any point. It was literally a condition for you coming on the podcast that you set out.

You were like, I just don't want to be like, yeah, Hooters, bro. And as soon as you go to Hooters, though, you become it. Yeah, I am become. Yeah, bro. Yeah. The famous Oppenheimer quote, right? Yeah. Yeah. Bulgarino's criminal history in casinos began with the 1976 scam, where he and 53 other mobsters, using aliases, exploited casino credit lines in a three day operation, resulting in $325,000 in losses and $400,000 in uncollectible debt. The casino's financial ruin led to its closure and bankruptcy, as documented by the Pennsylvania Crime Commission. That doesn't seem like that much debt.

300, 400,000? I mean, they screwed the hotel out of $725,000 over three days, and a lot of businesses don't run with that much excess capital to keep the lights on. They do, you know. I guess that makes sense. They need what's coming in to pay what is going forward. For some reason, I thought the margins on casinos were like, Oh dude, it is

miles above what this casino. I guess not. There you go. All right. So after paradise went under, it was purchased again by New York businessman Andrew Dalilo in 1977, who renamed it the 20th century. It was sold again just a year later and renamed Treasury, where it adopted a country Western theme and actually lasted for a little while. Yeah, that's the Sloan. Former football player Jerry Philbin bought treasury for twenty million dollars in 1982, but failed to obtain a gaming license,

preventing it from operating as a casino without casino revenue. The hotel couldn't stay profitable and enter chapter 11 bankruptcy by year. And I feel like getting your gaming license should be like priority number one. Yeah. Yeah. Can you imagine being like, I'm going into business buying a casino. Yeah. And just that oversight. I wonder if there was like pushback, like there was something on his record that allowed or that disallowed them from giving him the license.

But it really does sound like he just didn't. Yeah. I, I'm sure it's something to do with that. I'm also thinking like, yeah, there's a reason it failed. Like we're not telling the story of the guy who succeeds. I'm like, right. Like, yeah, it lost cause it did the thing that you expected to happen. Because reasons, you know, yeah.

Cause effect. Yeah. In 1985, it was once again purchased by the Daliloilo family, the one who named it 20th Century. Okay. And this time was called the Pacifica Hotel. It was announced that the Pacifica would be marketed towards gay travelers. But in 1985, this was deemed too controversial and the plans were abandoned. Hmm.

Even worse, due to the attention that that brought, they had to rebrand. They were like, oh, the Pacific is dead in the water because we marketed to gay travelers. People didn't like that, now they're not supporting it, so they renamed it once again to the Polynesian Hotel. Man, they swung hard the other way. They really did. Polynesian Hotel, also named after my preferred sauce when I used to eat at Chick-fil-A. And problematic, but also I love the theming.

I love tiki bars. Yeah. I'm a big fan of that. I'm assuming it was that theme. I love me a good Vegas theme. Look, I scoured the Wikipedia page on this and there aren't a lot of articles out there written about this place. I had like a couple of sources,

but this is largely from Wikipedia, which didn't do as deep of a dive into each iteration beyond like the financial woes that caused each one to turn over. Which is a shame, because it's fascinating. In 1989, it became Hotel San Remo after being acquired and remodeled by a Japanese businessman who gave it an Italian Riviera theme.

Finally, the property enjoyed some success. They gained popularity as a budget friendly option, later aligning with the Ramada chain. Oh, yeah. And adding 18 stories to the hotel in 1991. How do you do that? What? Add 18 stories? I think it was a separate building because, you know,

we had the casino floor that we went to and then the elevators did look like, especially when you were looking from the outside, a separate tower. I, yeah, we were inside for so long that I lost track of what the outside world looked like. And it wasn't even that long. It just like after a while, I was like, time is not a straight line in there. No, no.

All right. So in 2004, the owners were looking for opportunities to grow the hotel and take advantage of heavy development happening across the street at the Tropicana. Enter Hooters, bro. They approached the San Remo with a redevelopment proposal and a group of nine partners in Hooters of America acquired a two thirds interest in the property. Plans were announced that it was hootin time, baby. in the property, plans were announced that it was hootin' time, baby. Yeah.

So, yeah, imagine you're a Japanese businessman with an Italian-themed hotel and casino. It's like this budget haven. Tropicana's over there giving you like hotel envy and you're like, how do I compete? Hmm. Hooters? You gotta ring up that sweet, sweet owl, baby.

But like 2004, like this was, this was the hype. Yeah, that is a smart at that time. Like, yeah, that makes sense. I would go for that. I don't even know what the Tropicana looks like. Rest in peace. I was going to say it looks like a pile of sand. I feel like I stayed at most places on the strip, but I don't think I ever did.

I think of Tropicana and Flamingo. So I can imagine being in the hotel going, man, I want that. Better call up Hooters. I feel like it's funny. Some sources call this hotel the south end of the Vegas strip. The website itself doesn't even call it that.

On the Oyo's website, it says you have a view of the Vegas Strip. Yep. I did check that out. Yeah. So I find that very funny where it's just like, well, we're not doing we're not the most attractive option here. No. Yeah. So the Hooters name was slapped onto the hotel and casino and a $130 million renovation began. Hooters Casino Hotel opened February 2nd, 2006, the weekend of Super Bowl 40. The opening was considered low key by Vegas standards, but a handful of celebrities attended,

most notably TV personality, Brooke Burke. I don't even fucking know who that is. You don't know who, oh, you might be too young. She hosted one of the travel shows on E. She now is the Magician's Assistant role on Penn and Fuller Tell Us. Hmm, okay. Wait, what?

Did I say Penn and Fuller Tell Us? Penn and Fuller, that's good too. Penn and Teller Tell Us? Hmm, okay. Wait, what? Did I say Pen and Fooler Tell Us? Pen and Fooler. That's good too. Pen and Teller Fool Us, she's like the host. She has what role Alice in Hanigan used to have. I remember her doing it, okay. So, that's who BrickWork is.

Okay. The casino added an on-site Hooters restaurant that still stands today. Boy does it. Oh. Standing is like, it's assisted now. an on-site Hooters restaurant that still stands today. Boy does it. Oh. Standing is like, it's assisted now. It's like. It can walk.

It doesn't need a chair yet. Yeah. You know. Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino also opened a restaurant called Dan Marino's Fine Food and Spirits selling steak and seafood in the hotel. Is that where Steak and shake is, I'm assuming? Probably.

You know, yeah, as far as the actual layout of the place, I don't know how many more spaces they would have. Yeah, that'd be an interesting. I don't know where in the hotel it was, but that would make sense. The theater, maybe? Yeah. The hotel casino employed 1000 workers with over 200 of them Hooters girls working as The theater, maybe? No. The Hotel Casino employed 1,000 workers with over 200 of them Hooters girls

working as waitresses, bartenders, cocktail servers, and casino dealers. 1,000? Oh, okay. 1,000 workers, one in five is a Hooters girl. Okay. That's less, that's actually less than I thought. That's a lot of Hooters girls.

That's a lot of Hooters girls. Don't get me wrong. One in five people you encounter at work is just very hot. What is the rest of the makeup? Is that, I'm thinking like housekeeping, HR. Security.

Oh, that'd be funny if security was Hooters girls. Apparently elevator attendants. Oh yeah, that was wild. That's probably one of my best memories in my life. We'll get to it. We'll get to it, but it is worth getting to. Yeah. So while the casino struggled in its early years,

it was more profitable than the San Remo, as it was promoted at more than 100 Hooters restaurant locations. However, Hooters branding proved unpopular with female gamblers, resulting in an 80% male clientele. Yeah. I still think that's too steep. Yeah, I feel like it should be like 40 at least. Like 65, 35, I would expect something like that.

80, 20 is so skewed. And despite what you think, a lot of guys come with their wives, or their girlfriends or whatever. I was surprised. There was a lot of that while we were there. Yeah, yeah. That's the clientele. Yeah, and to be fair, this was during that height,

not during our experience. I think it has skewed a little bit more towards, I mean, I guess I didn't see a lot of families But you know, I feel like I feel like a couple is more inclined to go whereas back then it was like I'm gonna go see a bunch of Hooters girls and like the fact that they're the blackjack dealers and stuff like that Yeah, there is kind of that gimmick of you get that face-to-face time With a Hooters girl that isn't going to appear appeal to, you know, certain clientele. Yeah, it's definitely going to be more bro.

Yeah. At the time. Yeah. Wealthy tourists and business travelers also avoided the property, which attracted a younger, less affluent demographic. Casinos typically rely on middle-aged patrons to counter this. They added new slots, targeted older gamblers, reduced their staff, and by 2007, they turned a profit, helped buy their $3 minimum blackjack tables.

And also they had the most profitable Hooters restaurant in the world. That makes sense. That location. That... And especially at the time, 2007. Oh, yeah. In 2007, they agreed to sell the casino for $225 million. But the deal fell through in 2008

when the buyer missed a payment. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's right? That's right, baby. But you know this? Well, or you just relate to that lifestyle. I can relate with the guy who goes,

oh, shit, can I borrow a couple bucks, man? My bank is in the red right now. I gotta make this Hooters payment for a quarter billion dollars. I just got charged a, what is it, a bounce check fee. Oh yeah, overdraft fee. I got overdrafted, dude. Buy a couple million, I'll pay you back. I'm good for it. Here's an IOU.

Dude, we'll figure it out. Profits declined due to the Great Recession, leading to loan defaults and escalating financial troubles. Man. So that sucks. You were about to sell, you were about to get out $225 million. That guy misses a payment and now you're stuck with the restaurant and you're losing money because of this bad economy.

Just when you thought you were going to get out Hooters brings you back in. That's all I got to say. I don't think that's the right context. No. For that quote. Oh yeah. Well, mobsters. Cause this is more like you're trapped.

Not, it's not like, Oh, you appealed for me to come back. It was, Oh, you trapped me here. It's, it's reversed. It's not like, oh, you appealed for me to come back. It was, oh, you trapped me here. It's it's reversed. It's the opposite. So can partners Realty Holding Company bought much of the company's debt at a heavy discount? So they basically went to all the people that they owed money to and were like, hey, we'll buy you this money.

And now they owe us with plans to foreclose on them. So it's very predatory practice. Mm-hmm. And then in response, the owners filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011, citing $63 million in assets against $163 million in debts. With no outside bids though, at a February 2012 auction, the bankruptcy court accepted Can Partners is $60 million credit offer.

Wow. So they were trying to dodge this company that was doing the predatory stuff. Ultimately, the predatory behavior won and they did own the casino. Jokes on the naysayers because that baseball stadium is being built right next door, baby. Oh yeah. We'll get to that. That's going to make big money.

It's it is going to literally reshape what this casino can be. It will be, it'll be able to charge such a higher rate once that baseball stadium is going because people who just want like the, cause MLB tourism is a thing. There's people who are just like, I want to go see a baseball game in every stadium in the country, specifically Vegas with, uh, the want to go see a baseball game in every stadium in the country. Specifically Vegas with the proximity to LA. Like if there's ever a Dodgers game, just, you know, I'm, I'm thinking that. Like if there's a Dodgers game, I'll go to Vegas for a weekend or whatever. Yeah.

I'll tour. What if I told you, you could go to one in LA? I can't go have to drive for it. Well, here's the thing. And this is, this is the nasty part. I'm an Astros fan as well. So like, I can't enjoy an Astros game in LA, or I'll get killed, you know?

So. Yeah, I go to Dodgers games when they're playing the Cubs with kind of a same mindset. Dodgers fans are something, like, I like the Dodgers, but man, those fans gotta chill out, dude. That's crazy. Well, there are a lot of people, and I mean, this is true of all sports teams, but living in LA, this is my experience,

a lot of people's whole personality is that they're Dodgers fans. Yeah. It's any well-established franchise that's been around for a hundred years is gonna have the worst fans. It's a lot of girls on dating apps. That's what I remember from, I don't know, five, six years ago, the last time I was on a dating app where it was just so many girls profile pictures of them in like all Dodgers gear, a hat, a jersey.

Here in LA? Here in LA. Wow. I don't know. That's like a girl's fishing pick. Yeah. It's just like, look, this is me. This is who I am.

You're Baseball McGee. Yeah, Baseball McGee. Hoot, hoot. Hooter's a verb, by the way. Is it? Hootin'. Hootin'. Hooters!

Oh no, it's an exclamation. I don't know what's happening right now. That's okay. So, Ken Partners bought it for $60 million. They sold, three years later, for $70 million. They sold three years later for $70 million. So they had a $10 million return on it. I don't know how much they renovated, but they sold it to a group that was going to make it a holiday in, but they later decided to keep the Hooters branding.

So they were just never able to shake it from 2006 all the way up until 2019. This place stayed the Hooters. And like, even then the deal to become Hooters started in 2004. Wow. They had like a 15, 16 year run with the Hooters name despite ownership still changing. They recognize the value in the Hooters branding. Yeah, it's still Hooters in my heart. I mean it literally is too like the website stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it literally is still, like the website stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it literally is still kind of Hooters? Yeah, no, they, and we'll get to the switch over to OYO in a second, but they maintain a website for both. You can go look up rooms at the Hooters Hotel or the OYO Hotel, both direct to the same thing, but with different landing pages, kind of pushing a different experience for each.

Yeah, so if you're looking for more of the Hooters forward, which why wouldn't you be? Why wouldn't you be? Yeah. So there was another $18 million in renovation in 2007, added the world's largest Steak and Shake restaurant to the hotel with seating for over 200 people. Yeah, baby.

And then in 2019, Oyo Hotels and Homes partnered with New York based investment company Highgate to purchase the property for $135 million and embarked on a $20 million renovation while keeping elements of its past, such as the Hooters restaurant. The casino space span 30000 square feet, continuing the property's legacy as a versatile gaming and hospitality venue. It also has six hundred and ninety six rooms, which is just the sixty nineties three digit number there is.

And that's awesome. And that will do it for the history of this hotel. That will do it for this week's eat deets. OK, so that is everything that goes into making an experience, a restaurant if you will, but I mean in this case it's not a restaurant, it's a casino and hotel. But I called you back here

because there was something I forgot to ask you. Okay, I need you to make your very own restaurant. Okay, Alex, this is the restaurant of your dreams. Wow, that was beautiful. Thank you. So yeah, I just want to hear like if you came up with a restaurant, what would it be? It must be memorable, practical.

I want it to be crazy. I want it to be themed to the gills. Oh, yes. So, three, two, one, go. Let me know what's it called, what's on the menu, all that good stuff. Okay. So, I've been thinking about this my whole life

because every time I go to these restaurants, I tell myself, why is there always like, they're so close but they're missing one thing that I need? What's missing? The ultimate restaurant for me. Of your dreams. Of my dreams. And you could fit this in a mall.

You could fit this as a standalone. Either works. So this restaurant will have food from theme parks. It's just like theme park foods. Yeah. So it's churros, it's- Funnel cakes. Funnel cakes, corn dogs,

but also some of the higher end Disneyland stuff. Disneyland has, sorry, is this a more high end take on these cuisines or is it straight up matching them? I think it matches the best version of them while also having the sort of hipster gastropub version of it. So, like I said, they will have your basic funnel cake, your basic churros, your basic Mickey bars. Because I just want a place that I could go

that isn't the park. Or I don't have to go to a shitty Six Flags for this shit. I love Six Flags, What do you mean shitty? Six Flags? Six Flags? I'm going to take a big shit on you right now. No, you're not. Okay. I'm not going to take a big shit on Six Flags. It does its job. Whatever.

Just invest in theming for God's sake. I agree. I agree. Invest in an environment that makes me want to come back. Be a person. Please. Look, not everything can be Casa Bonita. I went to Casa Bonita and that was top notch. That's top notch. That's what I'm looking for,

but not everything can do that. I get that. So it'll have the basic theme park stuff. And it'll have like how Disneyland is very like upscale with their food. So Disneyland as opposed to Disney World. Disney World doesn't really have a lot of interesting food because it's world. They know you're gonna come anyway.

Disneyland is a regional park, so they need to have interesting thing to get people close in. There's a lot of themed restaurant experiences within the Disneyland Park as well. And they have food booths every season. They'll have the lunar new year, they'll have beer and bread, they Lunar New Year. They'll have like beer and bread.

They'll do whatever. Lots of options. So it'll have, you know, your basic snacks and it'll have like upscale, like a cheesy pretzel bread with a brat in it. Let me ask you. Ask. What's this restaurant called?

It's called Brokeys, because I'm too broke to go to Disneyland, but I want the Disneyland experience. Brokey land. And it comes with like a free face mask that just makes you anonymous from everyone else because you don't want to be seen at Brokeys. I don't want to be seen at Brokeys. I just want my food. All the food is sold at the price that's more affordable than a theme park because they're upsold at theme parks, right?

It has the it has lesser margins than a theme park. You don't need like ride operators, right? So you're not paying your just paying for the corn dog, right? Yeah Coke or Pepsi products overall coke, but I like Pepsi more than Coke Weird I think Pepsi I think if I put no I'm not weird It's just weird to pick the other one if you have a preference. I like, I do think Sprite is way better than Starry. Exactly. Yeah. Like all the side products are better than Pepsi, but I think Pepsi is a better cola. A take that I don't often see agreed with. I will say, I think Pepsi is fine. I do really enjoy the Pepsi with the cherry twist one. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't necessarily, it tastes different than Cherry Coke, so it's not like I think one's better than the other,

but I do enjoy a cherry Pepsi. I've taste tested haters, and I've said, close your eyes, take a sip of one, and they always pick Pepsi. And both times it's like, this tastes like your mouth. You're like, mmm, it's Pepsi. I It's Pepsi. It's a smooch. Yeah. And that is why this is the restaurant of your dreams. Alex, thank you for letting me know what you dream about. Of course. Thank you for having me. Thank you for letting me dream.

We have to talk about other people's experiences at the oil hotel and casino. So we're going to jump into this week's Yelp from strangers. We need a little yelp, a little yelp, a little yelp from strangers. One star, two star, three star, four or five. So get a little yelp, a little yelp, a little, four by eye. So get a little yelp, a little yelp, a little yelp from strangers. A little yelp, a little yelp. Give us those complaints while you literally white and die.

Yelp! All right, this is Yelp from Strangers, our segment where we turn to Yelp and read out our favorite one, two, three, four and five star Yelp review of the very restaurant or in this case, hotel and casino at which we dined slash stayed. Oh, five star review. I'm going to go ahead and start us off. If you don't mind lay down with a five star review. This is from David F from Los Angeles, California, February 17th, 2024,

about a year ago. David writes, this might be my favorite place that I have ever stayed at. Yeah, baby. With eight exclamation points. Oh yes. Very enthusiastic. Uh-huh.

Good start. He should be. I don't agree with that take, but. Man. It's so bad, it's comically good. Okay. Yeah a turn Dude, I I like a good bad movie and I think we all do you know Apropos right that you bring that up because that's what he's about to get into. Oh, okay

Think of the worst movie that you have ever seen Do you remember how bad it was and how much you enjoyed it being bad? You're damn right. This hotel is that and I love it. All of it. Good. So that's the right answer. So, oil, the room of hotels.

Yeah, baby. Troll two, Neil Breen, plankton. Have you seen plankton or creatures from the abyss? No. Is that another good, bad one? So good. Plankton. Have you seen Plankton? Are creatures from the Abyss? No. Is that another good bad one? That's so good. I love it. Every minute I spend in this hotel makes it easier to write this Yelp review.

All of the lamp switches are broken in the room. You have to unplug them to turn them off. Yes. The bathtub knobs are all unconnected, mislabeled, and spin freely. It's random which floor you get off on the elevator, and sometimes it just keeps going. Oh, yes. The towels have yellow spots on them,

the shampoo, conditioner, and body wash was ripped off of the wall, and they just left it on the side of the tub. Why not? Of course. That's crazy. That's on brand. One, who's tearing the toiletries off the wall.

Man. I'm glad that that's all that happened. Rage. You know, uh, I found hair and dirt all over the bathtub. It looks like someone tried to bathe their dog in it. That's so good. I spent 30 minutes cleaning the tub thinking, man, this is going to be a killer review. I'm really going to stick it to this hotel There's a two hundred and fifty dollar hold on your credit card for incidentals

Which they obviously don't enforce because the rooms are beat to shit, right? The resort fee is advertised as including unlimited local calls Which should really just say each room comes with a phone. Did you get your deposit back? I should check. I would check. I should check just for like, you know, just to make sure. Yeah. Yeah. About the phone. I used it so much. The operator would hang up on me mid sentence. Yeah, baby. I, I have my gripes with the operator. It does.-Doh. You sure do, we got that. Never stay here unless you like to torture yourself,

which as it turns out, I do. Run as far away as you can, as fast as you can. What a joke, best day ever. Wow. 14 exclamation points. I wanna know what their delivery of all this writing is. I think I was pretty close. Your delivery is good, but most people aren't super funny, and this is a really funny review.

So I'm like, this is good. I mean, this is a person who's unhinged. This is like, ah, best day ever. Yeah, yeah. They're in like a manic episode, I think. It feels like that. Like, I can't tell if they're loving the irony of it or they're like, I'm gonna screw them over.

Someone's gonna see my Yelp review and it will be the difference maker of why someone chooses not to stay. Yeah. I'm wondering what they're thinking. Yeah. It doesn't end there though. Oh, okay. Vincent T the business manager reply.

Wow. Shout out to Vincent T. Please accept our sincere apology for the inconveniences you experienced as a welcome guest of our hotel during your recent stay. We take great pride in delivering excellent service. Unfortunately, we failed to exceed this expectation and for this, we are truly sorry. Wow, that takes a lot. I mean, I'm imagining he's doing this all the time, right?

He is in so many replies in these Yelp reviews. And by the way, he just took accountability, but he did nothing to try and make it better. There's no deal. There's no please make it up to us. Give us another try. Here's a discount on your next day. Here's a free food voucher.

None of that. Give me a frigging coupon. Give me like a like, what is it? Make it worth my while, Vincent. Yeah, give me $50 free play, you know? Yeah, so just an oops my bad and that is all. One star review. So I'm going to introduce this in a very interesting way

because it is going to echo something that I feel like we experience and that would have been my first thought. So it's not so much that the review is super funny, it's more so that I have multiple reviews say the same thing. Which is that the service is awful, but they all say like, but the one server that we had was super nice. Like none of it was her fault. Yeah, yeah. And that's exactly, like every single one of them

also says we waited- It's not their fault. We waited like 10 minutes to get sat with an empty restaurant. All right, let's hear it. And also it's not our server's fault. They all say this. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so- Like a goodwill hunting mantra. It's not your fault. it's not our servers fault. They all say yeah. Yeah, okay So like a goodwill hunting mantra, it's not your fault. Yeah, you're full. They just had it like servers just crying in the breakroom

Yeah, okay, so this is Joe a drain Adr a in I don't know. It's from seven months ago. This is a one star review. Maybe it's because I'm from Texas and hospitality is the norm. This Vegas Hooters lacks the hospitality and could learn a thing or two from its Texas counterparts. Took 10 men before my wife and I received a sort of acknowledgement from staff.

A simple, we will be right with you, goes a long way. My Texas bias kicked in when the wings came out. Oh, so this is about the restaurant. Yeah. Okay, okay. This isn't about, I mean, when I went for this, all of them were for the restaurant. Interesting.

A lot of them were about the restaurant itself. The ones I looked up were for the Oyo specifically. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so we'll have a mix. I sorted all the restaurant itself. The ones I looked up were for the Oyo specifically. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so we'll have a mix. I sorted all the ones. Yeah. This is, they all kind of say the same thing. Everything is bigger in Texas,

and apparently the chicken wings are too. These wings were tiny and bland. You're better off going to McDonald's for chicken nuggies. Oh no. This is all, that is how it's written. Do yourself a favor and spend your money and time in Vegas at another establishment. So Joe, a drain from Texas, you know, I, I'm so sorry that you had this experience. I got to say, but we're from Texas too.

Yeah. I mean, also just portion sizes across the board at chain restaurants are kind of going down. So it's hard to to chalk that up to Texas versus Vegas or anything. I feel like he's really just trying to insert the fact that he's Texan in the review. There was a lot of Texas. And I don't especially having lived both these places. There's not that much about Texas that is that different. No. But also, I will say, though, with the everything is bigger in Texas. They do have the super sized version of every restaurant chain.

They do. Especially Dallas, the drive from Austin to Dallas. I see so many just like, oh, there's a gigantic Carl's Jr. or, you know, whatever. Yeah. With like with like a Dallas Cowboys star logo on the side. And they have a huge burger or something. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. Did you like those reviews?

You can get three more over on my Patreon. That's patreon.com slash fine dining podcast for the full Yelp from Strangers segment and an exclusive fine dining episode every single month. That does it for part one. Stay tuned next week as we talk about not even allowing ourselves to step foot outside this building for 19 whole hours, eating Hooters twice and attending a very spicy strip show in the process.

Alex, thanks for coming on the Fine Dining podcast. Do you wanna tell people where they could follow you or anything that you want them to check out? You can follow me on my Instagram, at Ponciosa, and then check out any of the shows or movies I'm in. Is the etymology of that Poncio San Antonio? Yep. But it's cool, it flows.

It's like a spell. Yeah, Ponciosa. Mm-hmm, yeah. Oh yeah, it does sound like It flows. It's like a spell. Yeah, Paziosa. Yeah. Oh yeah. It does sound like a spell. It's always been my handle. And you can follow me on Instagram or TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast. You can check out my Patreon for an exclusive new episode

every single month, drops on the last day. And you get all five of the Yelp from Strangers reviews that we talked about instead of just the first two. And send me an email if you have any thoughts and let me know below. Hooters bro. Give me one of those. We're just going to be sitting here waiting on our table for one week and we will dive into our stay, our nightmarish. I don't know if nightmarish is the right word, but it's not the wrong word. Stay at the Oyo Hotel and Casino next week.

Thanks for watching. Have a fine day. ["Waiting on Our Table"] Waiting on our table, waiting on our table. Step is done and we had some fun. Now we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table The step is done and we had some fun Now we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table Join us next time, we're stuck in line Waiting on our table, waiting on our table

We're so hungry, tummy's grumbling Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We gotta continue our search for mediocrity Yeah Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We'll be waiting and dissipating Waiting on our table, waiting on our table We're sleeping in between, we're digging in

Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table We've got an appetite for just sit tight Cause we're waiting on our table, waiting on our table Search will continue when we see you next week But I'm gonna let you know Waiting on our table, waiting on our table Waiting on our table, waiting on our table Waiting on our table, waiting on our table, waiting on our table, waiting on our table, waiting on our table