Dine on Mob Lore

Before hotels like the Flamingo defined the Strip, El Cortez (the longest continuously operating casino hotel in Las Vegas) was a mob stronghold. Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky both had stakes in the casino, and its Italian-American restaurant became an early gathering place for mob investors. Today, the hotel’s restaurant Siegel’s 1941 is a clubby, old-school room that pays homage to Bugsy with the kind of throwback comfort foods his associates might have eaten. There are a couple of direct tributes, including a breakfast called “Fat Irish” (poached eggs over corned beef hash), a tribute to mob enforcer Fat Irish Green, who lived gratis at El Cortez for decades—a Meyer Lansky order.

Mob spirit is alive in Oscar’s Steakhouse in The Plaza, created by former Las Vegas mayor and mob attorney Oscar Goodman. You’ll dine on thick-cut steaks and Goodman’s trademark martini, “Hizzoner,” under a soaring glass dome overlooking Fremont Street and surrounded by historic photos and artifacts. You might choose No Nose’s Mob Meatballs, named after client and Chicago mob boss John “No Nose” DiFronzo, who shared his (delicious, made with house-made ricotta) meatball recipe with Goodman. Book a table at one of the monthly Oscar Dinner Series events, and you’ll spend an evening with Hizzoner himself, who sits with a martini or three and regales his audience with colorful stories of his former clients.

At Capo’s, west of the Strip on Sahara Ave., diners step into a hidden entrance into a speakeasy lined with red booths with a menu of all the classics, including a claim to Al Capone’s secret family sauce.