Vegas institution Drai’s takes on Dallas

There was a time in Las Vegas’s nightlife history when Drai’s Restaurant was the lone star on the Strip. Today, the family is expanding its empire to the Lone Star State.

Victor Drai and his son, Dustin Drai, are developing Drai’s Dallas, opening in the last three months of 2024 (or Q4, in hospitality jargon).

The 15,000-square-foot venue will present cabaret-tinged entertainment with French-inspired dining. This is to be an exclusive restaurant, lounge and private membership club in the middle of the city’s arts district.

Drai’s Dallas might not quite be a boot-scootin’-boogie scene, but it does fit he family mold. Dustin is a very Las Vegas personality, but also an SMU alum.

“I graduated from SMU and I always had a love for the city of Dallas,” Dustin Drai said in a phone chat this month. “I always felt a personal connection to that city, that it would be great to do something there.”

It took about eight years for the younger Drai to home in on his former home. He ran through several concepts in his mind, “I knew it would somehow be a trade or something else,” Drai said.

The club exec eventually teamed with Dallas-based GAP Concepts, which created the chic, regional hotspots Ly-La, PostScript HTX and XOXO Dining Room.

Victor Drai’s image and legacy looms over the project. Drai’s Dallas is the first post-pandemic expansion. It’s Dustin’s first expansion he has headed up, from the start. It’s also the first Drai’s club ever outside of Las Vegas.

Victor remains the father of all things Drai’s. But Dustin is the parent of the Dallas club.

“Having my dad as a partner and a mentor and having him be a part of my vision is an amazing feeling,” Dustin said. “He’s helping me with the direction for where I see the company over the next 10-15 years. He’s always pushing me, saying, ‘Yeah, let’s try, let’s try,’ but he’s not going to do the work for me.

“So this project has been a lot of work, on myself, making the right decisions in the right way.”

Drai’s at Cromwell is still a pace-setting Las Vegas destination. The Drai’s Restaurant supper-club model, hatched a quarter-century ago, now seems a model for like nightspots across the city.

“This is the trend in the in the hospitality, entertainment and restaurant world, and we are trying to figure out how we can duplicate what we have in Vegas,” Dustin said. “But Vegas will always be our baby. It will always be the original.”

Magic, baby

We finally made it to the second incarnation of “Late Night Magic” on Tuesday night. This was an invitation from David Copperfield and his team. “Late Night Magic” has really upped its game in the magic community, in terms of its legendary supporters and new digs at The Venue at the Orleans.

This was a bangin’, late-night, off-Strip adult performance. We had some drunken buffoonery near the stage, an ongoing challenge for comic/magic host Doug “Lefty” Leferovich. After beating back some of the interruptions from the front of the stage, he glared down and said, “I have a microphone, and youuuu doooont!” Give the entertainment vet, in his 20th year in VegasVille, a lot of credit for steering this show to the tape.

We had focused, highly entertaining performances from masked magician The Shocker (known as the Master of Mayhem), freak-show artist John Shaw, optical illusionist Bizzaro and newcomer to the show Hollie England.

Along with Copperfield and his wicked-gifted producer Chris Kenner, the crowd was dotted with such entertainment figures as Tape Face, “Zombie Burlesque” star Enoch Augustus Scott “Mad Apple” comic Harrison Greenbaum and burlesque performer Michelle L’Amour. I know I’m missing a few … Ah, Kiss drummer Eric Singer and mentalist star Gerry McCambridge were also in the mix.

Presiding over it all were Pompey Entertainment’s Damian Costa and his son, Dayton Costa, a star on the rise in entertainment production in this city. Costa’s company co-produces ”Late Night Magic,” and also runs The Duomo at the Rio and Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club. The company’s Composers Room Showlounge & Restaurant at Commercial Center opening is TBA.

Prior to Tuesday’s special, 11:30 p.m., industry-night show, Copperfield handed out several hand-clickers to his guests. Why? To click through how many F-bombs were in the performance. “Lefty” is usually a speechless character, in his sidekick role with Murray Sawchuck at Tropicana. But he’s a geyser of verbosity in “Late Night Magic,” and we counted up anywhere from 56 to 67 F-bombs (or flipping of the middle finger), with Lefty leading the way. Don’t cross left, is the message.

It was wild, and if you don’t mind the raunchy language, a dang good hang. “LNM” runs Thursdays, Saturdays and Mondays. Doors to the lobby and bar open at 8:30 p.m., shows at 10 p.m. And, remember, ages 18 and over. For real.

Cool Hang Alert

On the topic of adult-flavored entertainment and one of Costa’s former projects, “The Dirty at 12:30” comedy showcase is purring along at South Point’s Grandview Lounge at 11:59 p.m. Fridays. That’s 31 minutes earlier than 12:30, but a chance to get, um, lubed up at the bar. But not too much. We’ll turn “Lefty” loose on you.

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.