Country stars glittering in opening of restaurant

Tuesday, July 2, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Denim met glitter on the Strip and the resulting marriage of Nashville and Las Vegas may someday become the words to a country song.

More than 2,000 invited guests partied at the grand opening of the Country Star American Music Grill Monday night in a bash filled with more than 20 country singers and a saddlebag full of Hollywood celebrities.

Today, the images of Reba McEntire will fill the more than 100 video monitors located all over the restaurant, from the floor of the entryway to the walls at each bathroom fixture, as the 21,000-square-foot themed restaurant serves up spicy barbecue, a new line of merchandising and exposure for up-and-coming country musicians.

The Country Star opened to the public at 11 this morning with designs on serving the thousands of guests who will be staying at the 30,000 hotel rooms that will be within a one-block radius of the restaurant when the New York-New York and Bellagio resorts come on line.

That's part of the bright future ahead for the eatery owned by publicly traded Country Star Restaurants Inc. -- CAFE on the Nasdaq index.

For country fans, Monday night was a concert treat with everything from 13-year-old Patsy Cline sound-alike LeAnn Rimes to musical legend Charley Pride. The music was nonstop for three hours as current stars Lee Roy Parnell, Baker & Myers, Kenny Chesney, Ty Herndon, John Berry, Bryan White, Neal McCoy, Tracy Lawrence, Trisha Yearwood and Vince Gill offered two tunes apiece for a standing-room crowd jammed around the restaurant's performance stage.

The crowd didn't seem to mind that Reba McEntire, one of the restaurant's financial backers with Gill, had to beg off due to laryingitis.

Hollywood also played a role in the opening as a mix of TV and movie personalities strolled in on red carpets in between the musicians' arrivals. With TV hosts Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase handling the introductions, fans welcomed Brett Butler and Alan Autry of "Grace Under Fire," Jonathan Silverman of "The Single Guy," Estelle Getty of "The Golden Girls," Eddie Cibrian of "Baywatch Nights," Gabe Jarrett of "Apollo 13" and actors Christopher Atkins and Joe Penny.

Also announced were Los Angeles Lakers head coach Del Harris, Pro Rodeo champions Joe Beaver and Ty Murray, Miss America Shawntel Smith, Mike Love of the Beach Boys and Nevada Gov. Bob Miller.

Numerous other Hollywood and Las Vegas luminaries also attended the opening, many of them preferring to be unannounced.

Located at Las Vegas Boulevard South and Harmon Avenue, the restaurant is adorned with a giant jukebox facing the Strip. In addition to the video monitors, the restaurant features interactive video kiosks and CD listening stations throughout the facility.

In addition to T-shirts, hats and a variety of jackets, the restaurant gift shop features denim aprons, cowboy salt and rattlesnake sauce for sale.

archive