Here’s a First Look at a Renovated and Refreshed America
America is the name of a restaurant.
It’s at New York-New York.
America’s renovation is complete, so you’re damn well going to look at the results.
America is a longtime fixture at New York-New York, serving visitors for nearly three decades.
Here’s what the news release says about the restaurant’s refresh: “Trading nostalgia for a bold new era of contemporary Americana, the transformation spans a full remodel, a new menu of breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night selections and a lineup of over-the-top cocktails.”
We had the French Toast Dippers and a glazed doughnut the size of Rhode Island.
We weren’t even all that hungry, but we had to see the giant doughnut. The sacrifices we make for you.
Seriously, the doughnut was 8.5 inches across. It was delicious.
America, the restaurant and bar, spans about 9,000 square feet, most of which isn’t being used at the moment due to a slump in tourism. Irony alert! (In a recent earnings call, Ark Restaurants, operators of America, said, “sales are off 10% or 11% at New York-New York.” Ouch.)
Here’s a quick walk-through of America.
The renovation booted the dated color scheme and America now features a “palette of warm terracotta, deep walnut and jewel-toned teal.”
Other highlights include “soaring ceilings and a dramatic faux skylight bathe the space in light designed to evoke the feel of natural sunlight and echo the original America Restaurant in New York City. Underfoot, checkerboard tile and warm wood flooring set a retro-American foundation.”
The faux skylight actually looks great over the bar.
You can get the full menu at the bar.
When people heard America was being revamped, they were very concerned about the fate of the giant U.S. map displayed at the restaurant.
Their concerns were unwarranted. There’s a big-ass “sculptural map” that spans the restaurant. It doubles as a screen for projections. The restaurant touts a “state-of-the-art mapping system,” but it looked like images being projected on a paper mache raised-relief map.
The ambient light washes out the projected images, so we assume they’ll keep tweaking that somehow.
The restaurant looks great and is sort of separated into the main dining area and several smaller rooms.
America is a 24/7 restaurant, increasingly rare these days.
Executive Chef Brandon Flores has retooled the menu and we are pleased to report prices aren’t outrageous. Flatbread for $15? LFG. (We’ll be back to try the chicken parm, $23.)
You can view the America restaurant menu online, and they even show prices, so props for that.
America’s most impressive feat was that it never closed during the extended renovation.
As this story has been fairly skimmable so far, we would like to kick the hornet’s nest by pointing out we didn’t see “God Bless America” on the wall at America following the renovation. We support this decision because we believe in the separation of church and casinos.
This, young Padawans, is how a story goes from meh to buzzworthy! Welcome to the “outrage economy.”
Please note we didn’t use either of our initial, much more clickworthy, headlines: “Alleged Devil Worshipers Purge God From Las Vegas Strip Restaurant” and “God Gets 86’d From Las Vegas Strip Restaurant.”
It’s called maturity, a trait for which we are known in 69 countries around the world, including America.
Anyway, America looks better than ever following its complete overhaul. We look forward to saying this exact thing about the actual America following the upcoming elections.
Please submit all outrage in triplicate to the nearest shredder.
Fellow youths: “Shredders” were devices used to destroy paper back when people wrote things down. Like the delete key, but without a recovery option.
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