A Famous New York Luxury Boutique Hits the Strip with NoMad Las Vegas

One word stuck out during our recent tour of NoMad Las Vegas: Inclusive.

The new Vegas outpost brings the New York original to the Strip. It’s a boutique adjunct to Park MGM, turning the top four floors of the resort into a luxury hotel with its own restaurant, bar and high limit room. Despite a tony Jacques Garcia design, a restaurant that looks like a Gilded Age tycoon’s library, and unique artwork in every room, the NoMad’s general manager Brian Dragovich stressed during our tour that the new boutique would welcome the tank-topped tourist with sleeve tattoos as graciously as a three piece suit wearing high roller. If you have money to spend, the NoMad will take it, regardless of your pedigree or fashion sense.

And the NoMad might be worth your money. It’s a Strip hotel that feels far removed from the Strip, with rooms that resemble apartments more than hotel suites. Despite being a part of Park MGM, the NoMad remains aloof, with a semi-private elevator suite with dark burgundy carpet and darker lighting preserving its sense of style. Suites with hardwood floors feature clawfoot tubs in the living room, with spacious bathrooms and walk-in showers in their own separate chambers. Rooms are outfitted with old-fashioned steamer trunks instead of chests or dressers, and decorated with artsy tchotchkes that breath prefab personality into each one. As Andrew Zobler, the CEO of the Sydell Group, the company that owns the NoMad, told us, the NoMad is full of “things that are not typical of a normal hotel.” It’s a warmer and more inviting aesthetic than many of the hotels on the Strip, including Park MGM itself.

The NoMad’s pièce de résistance is its restaurant, which is styled after the library in New York’s original NoMad. If it makes you feel like a Rockefeller, well, that’s the goal: this large, open room is lined with two stories of old books from David Rockefeller’s personal collection, which the NoMad encourages you to take off the shelf and peruse at your leisure. Massive chandeliers hang above a phalanx of rich leather booths, and a bar on one side serves classic martinis and other upscale cocktails. There are smaller dining rooms adjoining the library for VIPs and guests who need some degree of privacy, adorned with art pieces based on Vegas and gambling history. We didn’t have a meal there, so we can’t speak to the menu, but chef Daniel Humm’s roast chicken for two, the most celebrated dish from the New York original, is available. We did enjoy a few drinks at the bar, and can heartily recommend the Old Fashioned.

If you prefer a more casual dining experience, the NoMad Bar serves food from breakfast to midnight (and later, on weekends). This bistro serves upscale takes on comfort food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a jazz brunch on weekends. We channeled our inner millennial and tried the avocado toast, which offered a rich, creamy crunch with a bit of spice to it, and contrasted nicely with the fluffy sweetness of the blueberry-covered pancakes. Also Josh Hutcherson was eating there at the same time, but we assume he’s not a part of the standard NoMad Bar experience.

During a tour of the restaurant, Zobler expounded on the ideas behind the NoMad. He stated that Sydell “couldn’t build a NoMad in isolation”—that the NoMads in New York and Los Angeles, and its offshoot in London, “are about being part of a neighborhood.” The challenge with NoMad Las Vegas was capturing that communal feeling while also recreating the immersive experience that the NoMad is known for. To that end, even though the NoMad has a separate entrance to its own self-contained corner of Park MGM, it still opens up to the main Park MGM casino floor. Its elevator bank is shared with the top floors of the Park MGM. We could always tell when we left Park MGM and entered the NoMad—the aesthetic changes instantly—but no matter how much time we spent in the NoMad we always knew the more traditionally Vegas environs of Park MGM were just a short walk away.

Despite offering a slightly more luxurious experience than Park MGM, Zobler also stressed that the NoMad is an inclusive space for anybody who wants to stay there. The goal is for the NoMad “to be inclusive and open, in juxtaposition to the Cosmopolitan and the Wynn,” Zobler said, adding that the Cosmo tries to too hard to be cool. From what we’ve seen, the NoMad has a classier, more traditional sense of luxury than the Cosmopolitan, without the hipster-y nightclub accouterments that can make that resort feel unwelcoming.

Of course the quickest way to make a hotel not inclusive is to price it out of most people’s budget. The NoMad is far from the cheapest hotel on the Strip, but its prices are competitive with the higher-end resorts, like the Cosmopolitan and the Wynn. If you’re willing to splurge, the NoMad is a stylish new destination for a slightly different Vegas experience. And from what we’ve seen, when you stay at the NoMad, you won’t forget that you’re treating yourself.

Garrett Martin edits Paste’s games and comedy sections. He also writes about music, travel, food, theme parks and more. He’s on Twitter at @grmartin.