Cathouse at Luxor opened as a restaurant with a menu by Kerry Simon and another room made into a nightclub lounge. But for whatever reason the venue never found a core following. Today a press release went out announcing that the restaurant is gone: effective immediately. Of course, the press release does not admit the failure of the lounge restaurant concept but rather seems to applaud and yield to the result of a heroic battle  waged in which the ultra lounge beat out the restaurant:  “Although the restaurant, which featured an acclaimed menu by Kerry Simon, has received outstanding reviews in media, the unique, upscale venue has prevailed as one of the Strip’s premiere ultra lounges.”

And, so now with the restaurant gone,  we have 7,000 square feet of ultra lounge. Anywhere else such a large amount of space would probably be called a nightclub. But as Luxor already has a nightclub in LAX (and, owners Pure Management Group must be thrilled with more competition at Luxor), Cathouse is now merely a very, very, very large ultra lounge (which I guess finally gives the word “ultra” a purpose for being connected to lounge). (Photo: Sarah Gerke)