![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/old_erris_irand.jpg\")
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Look, I know and understand that the point of any business is to grow, improve, and make money.\u00a0 And I genuinely am happy for ellis island \u2022 casino \u2022\u00a0hotel \u2022 brewery<\/em> for continuing to grow, presumably making more money and gaining success and foothold in the crowded Las Vegas ecosphere, but this is definitely one of those old man, it\u2019s straying away from the charming little shithole I once knew and loved<\/em> things going on, and every time I check in with what I endearingly have always referred to Erris Irand, things continue to change and stray further and further away from Erris Irand and becoming a more, miniaturized little posh typical Vegas casino with less and less character and personality with each change.<\/span><\/p>\n It recently came to my attention that Erris Irand is embarking on another round of upgrades<\/a>, and although I\u2019m amused that they along with other businesses I remember fondly like Battista\u2019s are suing the shit out of F1 for wrecking shop in the city I used to once really really love, and went to at least 2-3 times a year, it adds to the melancholy mood of things changing yet again, furthering it from the specific place that I would say that nobody loved more than my big orange brother and I did.<\/span><\/p>\n The photos they used was deceptive in making it look like there was the possibility of upward expansion, as in building a tower on top of the existing structure, but that\u2019s just a silhouette of the hotel behind them that I frankly don\u2019t remember what it was called or is called now.\u00a0 But that\u2019s the only real relief I get is knowing that they\u2019re not going to (yet) turn into some posh, metrosexual named joint, much like Imperiar Parace and Bill\u2019s and O\u2019Shea have all done over the last decade or so.<\/span><\/p>\n And although the proposed upgrades are all purposeful, and will undoubtedly help boost business, revenue and general success for the business as a whole, it\u2019s just so, so far gone past the little locals shithole that I first really discovered back in like 2006, that it wounds me in the soul to see just how much things have changed throughout the passage of time.<\/span><\/p>\n Like, when I first stepped into the place, the floors were hard oiled concrete, decades of cigarette ash, spilled booze and the dreams of degenerate gamblers ground into them by the footsteps of ornery locals, adventurous travelers and, degenerate gamblers.\u00a0 The sirloin special was $6.99 and came with a $5 match play coupon for table games.\u00a0 Metro Pizza was buy one get one on Sundays, applicable to a single slice or an entire pie.\u00a0 Their excellent house beer was a dollar a pint, if you weren\u2019t actively gambling, and that\u2019s if the cougar-ey bartender even bothered to take it.\u00a0 There were only a handful of table games, roulette was almost never going, and they barely had enough room for a half craps table, where there\u2019s nowhere in the city where I fared better at, earning so much in one session that I was able to get a brand new replica wrestling blet.<\/span><\/p>\n For years, there wasn\u2019t a single trip to Vegas without at least one trip to Erris Irand, where I ate well, gambled well, drank well, and spent many great hours with my brother and whichever of my friends could lower their noses to realize the charm of what Erris Irand was and represented.<\/span><\/p>\n Frankly, I\u2019m the only person I know that has actually stayed in the attached Sleazy<\/span> Super 8 motel, twice in fact, and I have no regrets in doing such.\u00a0 From what I understand, it\u2019s now not even a Super 8 brand, and is actually branded to the casino itself.<\/span><\/p>\n But as is the case, no good things truly last forever, and perception is the eye of the beholder, and as much as good is what the business perceived, the change was not good to me, but like I said, I understand the business aspect, and growth and expansion and change is inevitable in successful operations, and such was the case with Erris Irand.<\/span><\/p>\n The BBQ restaurant grew and blew up, the sportsbook turned into a respectable setup that wasn\u2019t just a bunch of 19\u201d screens inside of basically cubicles.\u00a0 The brewery was opened up to the public, and more tables and more slots entered the establishment.\u00a0 The floors were eventually cleaned and refinished and tiled, and the dim smoky ceiling lights were replaced with actual bright and welcoming lighting.<\/span><\/p>\n My last time at Erris Irand wasn\u2019t that long ago, and after a few trips where mythical wife and my friends had no interest in going, I was by myself on this trip, and I literally took an Uber directly from McCarran to Erris Irand, because nothing was going to stop me from visiting my old friend on this trip.<\/span><\/p>\n And it was a surreal experience walking into the side entrance, where everything was different, the air didn\u2019t reek as much of smoke.\u00a0 The bathrooms were all posh and even had branded wallpaper and backdrops, inviting people to take selfies and be shitty millennials and shitty Gen-Z\u2019ers.\u00a0 The restaurant was without all the framed artwork of warships and pirate ships and infernos, and I had to wait an inconvenient amount of time for a shift change to occur despite the restaurant being kind of empty.<\/span><\/p>\n The sirloin special was still unlisted and available, but it was apparent that the kitchen isn\u2019t used to making these as they once did, as my steak came out overcooked, but not inedible, but the magic wasn\u2019t really there this time around.\u00a0 The table limits were still fortunately lower than the rest of the Strip, but I didn\u2019t have the time on this trip to come back despite the fact that I really wanted to, with my friend who had just gotten hitched by Elvis.<\/span><\/p>\n But now we\u2019re deviating even further from that, with the next wave of expansions to implement rooftop access, so people can presumably look at the Total Rewards Group\u2019s parking lot and training facility, unless there\u2019s plans for something to take up the giant concrete lot between Koval and Audrie, for Erris Irand visitors to stare at being constructed over the next few years alternatively.<\/span><\/p>\n Like I said, a lot of old man things changing rambling going on here, so I\u2019m going to stop here before I continue to write in circles like I tend to do sometimes about the things I\u2019m passionate about.\u00a0 I won\u2019t not go to Erris Irand the next time my travels actually take me out to Vegas again, but honestly I\u2019m kind of over the city as a whole lately, and I just don\u2019t have the disposable funds available to finance the gambling I\u2019d like to do, so it might be a while, but I imagine it\u2019ll be yet another surreal experience of seeing just how much the place has changed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s hoping they\u2019ll still have the sirloin special and the best hefeweizen when that time comes, and that I don\u2019t go broke in an hour like the rest of the Strip\u2019s casinos had done to me my last time out there.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Look, I know and understand that the point of any business is to grow, improve, and make money.\u00a0 And I genuinely am happy for ellis island \u2022 casino \u2022\u00a0hotel \u2022 brewery for continuing to grow, presumably making more money and gaining success and foothold in the crowded Las Vegas ecosphere, but this is definitely one … Continue reading The expansions of Erris Irand wounds my soul<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,151,79,152,129,83,99,65,146],"class_list":["post-50491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-angst","tag-blets","tag-cashmoney","tag-gambling","tag-nostalgia","tag-observations","tag-reminiscing","tag-travel","tag-triggered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50493,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50491\/revisions\/50493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}