New York-New York Lobby Bar Set To Become Starbucks

By Scott Roeben, on June 11 2022
2 min read 7 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Bars Las Vegas Casinos

A beloved fixture at New York-New York is set to close, according to employees at the Strip resort.

Bartenders and other resort staffers are telling longtime fans New York-New York’s Lobby Bar will close to make way for a (wait for it) Starbucks.

Cue the sad trombone.

Don’t call this bar “dinky.” It’s a “boutique, immersive watering hole.”

New York-New York already has a Starbucks, by the way.

The upshot is Lobby Bar at New York-New York is not long for this world, a disappointment for many guests who enjoyed the laid back bar with video poker and ample TVs showing mostly sports.

Please keep the old-timey New York-themed art, thanks.

The bartenders at this bar, we’re told, have been there forever, so some guests have formed emotional attachments. We trust the bartenders will be assimilated into other bars at New York-New York or other MGM Resorts casinos.

Our most memorable cocktail at Lobby Bar was a chocolate martini.

Yes, we remember a cocktail we had in 2013. Don’t judge.

We visited the bar recently, but there were no bartenders to be found. New York-New York staff couldn’t tell us when the bartenders are on duty.

We trust the culprit in the closing of Lobby Bar is the classic “economic considerations.” Those typically involve measuring revenue from video poker and comparing that with labor costs to determine rent from Starbucks will make the company a metric ass-ton more money.

Lobby Bar at New York-New York isn’t the flashiest bar in town, but its location (just feet away from the bell desk and hotel registration) often made it a first, or last, stop for visitors.

So much for the well-known adage we just made up, “No matter where you go, there you bar.”

There’s no timeline available for when the Lobby Bar will go away at New York-New York, but there’s still time to swing by, try your luck at video poker and pester the bartenders about where they’ll end up next.

The first rule of Las Vegas: Tip early and often. You never know if your favorite bar or bartender will be there tomorrow. Show them some love and Lady Luck will smile upon ye. Actual results may vary, despite the definitive-sounding “ye.”

There’s no shortage of bars at New York-New York, so you won’t go thirsty.

But whenever a casino bar closes, an angel loses its wings, so we felt this was worth passing along.