When I tell people that I'm from Reno, it elicits one of two predictable responses: "Oh! Like...Reno-911? The silly cops? I loved that show!" Alternatively: "Reno! That's like...Las Vegas!"
After assuring them that our police force is eminently qualified (unlike the fictional Halloween favorite Lieutenant Dangle, they actually wear pants past mid thigh), and an eight hour drive NORTH of Las Vegas ("what's a Northern Nevada?" commonly follows), they usually lose interest. When your hometown is most famous for a TV show, drive-thru marriages, and even quicker divorces, you might think 'getaway destination' is awfully low on the list of phrases that come to mind when asked to describe Reno (somewhere next to "predictable weather"). Recently, that has all changed.
In the last decade, The Biggest Little City has fought tirelessly to rebrand itself as a cultural epicenter on the West Coast, and this native Renoite is proud to say it's working. While Reno is already known for several nationally acclaimed events like Hot August Nights, the Balloon Races, and the Reno Air Races, an unsung hero quickly making a name for itself in what I call the "Reno-vation" movement is the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino (GSR).
I'm old enough to remember when the GSR was the Reno Hilton, and young enough to know that in 2006, when the property became the GSR under new owners, things started moving in the right direction. The road wasn't easy (GSR faced multiple ownership changes and financial setbacks) but in 2011, the Meruelo Group, one of the largest minority owned companies in the U.S., revitalized the property from top to bottom, launching a multi-phase $100 million improvement project that would, in time, repurpose the entirety of the casino, the restaurants and hotel rooms. Meruelo didn't stop there, building a new spa and a state of the art $15-million-nightclub, dubbed LEX, that would put GSR on the map.
Known as Reno's premier nightclub, LEX is quietly rivaling top nightlife venues in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and New York, and they proved it in a historic weekend at the beginning of April. On April 8th, LEX hosted Grammy Nominated and Billboard Award Winning artist Steve Aoki, who played to a packed house and an incredibly psyched audience. Aoki has played in some of the biggest nightlife venues in the country (and I remember *literally walking into a free show he played one night in a blocked-off intersection in downtown Los Angeles), as well as making a name teaming up with artists such as Iggy Azalea and LMFAO.
Friday, Aoki not only energized the crowd with a hard hitting 4 hour set (a legendary length amongst modern-day DJ's), but interacted with them in a way most acts these days just don't seem to do. As the crowd was being filmed for a Facebook flic, Aoki spun an electrifying remix of 'Hotline Bling.' Taking this as their cue to be 'caked' (exactly what you would think it means), members of the audience sat on each others' shoulders to get facefulls of cake from none other than Aoki himself (I told you it meant exactly what you would think). For anyone who left floor at 3 a.m. still covered in chocolate, a night-topping performance on Saturday seemed impossible. But it wasn't.
Not 24 hours later, Bay Area sensation G-Eazy blew the roof off of LEX, which early sheriff's reports indicate landed somewhere in Douglas County. Performing to a sold out crowd inside the 25,000 square-foot venue, the rapper sported his signature pompadour fade and leather jacket and brought a performance to Reno unlike any that LEX Nightclub - or Reno, for that matter - had ever seen. Instead of parting with his money on the blackjack table, G-Eazy opted for a slightly more direct method. Ditching the baked goods and frosting, Eazy, who figured quite correctly that back-to-back cake showers do not a happy audience make, rained dollar bills on the crowd. It. Was. Awesome.
The dollar bills that sprinkled down Saturday night at LEX were symbolic of the boomtown that is present day Reno, the main character in a cinderella story that just doesn't seem to run out of happy endings. Largely due to projects like the Grand Sierra Resort, Reno is reinventing itself. You can feel it in Midtown, a collection of boutique shops and quaint restaurants that has sprung out of nowhere. You can feel it in East Reno, where a gigantic battery factory will serve the car manufacturer Tesla, just one of 100 companies since 2011 that has located or expanded to Reno. And you can feel it at LEX, where the talent, excitement, and surprise money showers inside are very real reminders of the economic explosion outside.