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Report: Caesars will be phasing out the "Grand Bazaar Shops" behind Horseshoe, often used by WSOP players for quick meals on breaks
If you walk out of the Horseshoe exit facing west (toward the strip) -- the one leading to the valet area -- you can cross the internal street and find something bizarre. Or should I say... bazaar.
The Grand Bazaar Shops appear to be part of Horseshoe, but they're actually not. Instead, they live up to their name. It's a collection of independent businesses -- mostly serving food -- all of which lease this weird space on Las Vegas Blvd.
These shops are not visible to drivers/walkers on the strip, as they're walled off with what looks like a temporary or construction wall. In fact, walking the entire area is confusing and maze-like. None of these shops are owned by Caesars, and your rewards card won't work at any of them. They're simply leasing the space, which is owned by an independent developer (not Caesars).
The only portion of the Grand Bazaar Shops visible from the strip is Ole Red, a tall, country-themed bar, which has been very successful.
Despite this space being crude and confusing, these shops do serve a rather important purpose, especially to WSOP players. They provide a lot of extra quick food options for those staying at Horseshoe, especially during WSOP, when grabbing a quick bite is often necessary. Rather than being limited to the highly marked up, and often slow food outlets in Paris and Horseshoe, you can stroll across from the valet area, grab something fairly tasty, and be done eating quickly. Often your meal tab will be under $15.
If you've heard of people talking about food from Dave's Hot Chicken, Giordano's, Dirt Dog, Istanbul Mediterranean, or many others which you can't seem to locate in Horsehoe itself, they're at the Grand Bazaar Shops.
The list of shops can be found here: http://grandbazaarshops.com/retailers/
From the above list, you might think this is a big area, but it's not. It's all compacted into a tight squeeze of shops and mini-restaurants, and looks more like something you'd see in a third world country than operating at the center of the Las Vegas strip. Their website claims it's 52,000 square feet of space, which is hard to believe, because the whole thing feels compact.
According to VitalVegas, the era of the Grand Bazaar Shops is about to be over.
https://x.com/VitalVegas/status/1986915015178526869
He refers to it as "great news", but that's because he doesn't stay at Horseshoe or play WSOP. For summer poker players, this definitely ISN'T good news. It will reduce the number of food choices, especially fast ones, and make people's food expenditures at the WSOP rise. These shops aren't super cheap, but they're a better value than anything inside Horseshoe or Paris.
Caesars apparently realized that they've foolishly ignored that valuable space right in front of their prime location Horseshoe property, and also that their guests are probably going across to eat there, instead of buying Horseshoe/Paris ripoff quick eats. According to the above tweet, they're close to a deal with the owners of the space, to whom they likely made an offer which couldn't be refused. Upon taking ownership, Caesars apparently plans to keep the two biggest operations there, which are Ole Red and Bottled Blonde. Everything else will get non-renewed at the end of their lease period, but Caesars won't attempt to buy them out of it (at least for now).
Ole Red is always busy, but according to those responding to the tweet, Bottled Blonde (an open-aired beer garden) is always empty, so I'm guessing it will only be Ole Red remaining after some time has passed. Ole Red is all the way on the side, facing the strip, so it would be easy for Caesars to repurpose that entire space, while leaving Ole Red intact. In case you're wondering, Ole Red has other locations, mostly in the south, and it's based upon a popular country song in the 2000s about prison escapee who tricked the warden's red dog into helping him abscond.
I'm not sure when these leases will be up. Apparently this decision was just made, so some places will be there for awhile, until their leases expire. This will especially be true in the case of multi-year leases, though I'm not sure how many of these outlets have leases expiring years out. In the meantime, expect more and more places to disappear from the Grand Bazaar Shops. I'm guessing that it will all be gone by 2028.
In a way, the Grand Bazaar Shops had essentially become the replacement for the banned All American Dave. Remember him? He was the guy who used to park his food truck in back of the Rio, wasn't invited to keep doing so at Horseshoe, and then ran off with everyone's money.
Will the WSOP survive without the Grand Bazaar Shops? Sure. But I'll definitely miss them, and you probably will, too.
