Nevada’s Las Vegas. (FOX5)-On Tuesday, April 2, at 11 a.m., when guests check out, Tropicana will formally close. m.
While some employees were getting ready to start their last shift, FOX5 spent Friday at the recognizable hotel. The Tropicana, which was constructed in 1967, has a long past. Many employees will carry with them a wealth of memories from the hotel, including its intimate casino floor and stained-glass ceiling.
Bartender Charlie Granado is the only one who truly understands that.
After 38 years as a bartender at the Tropicana, Granado remarked, “I got choked up the other day leaving and I looked back.”.
At the age of 22, he began working at the hotel for the first time.
According to Granado, “They told me to go home, get a tie, and get to work.”.
He told FOX5 that, even at that young age, he was enthralled with the show girls.
He said, “You see the girls coming down gently, carrying sixty pounds of feather in their stiletto heels?”.
Granado catered to high rollers for almost forty years; they would only ask for him to serve them. No names were revealed by Granado.
“He bet a lot of money, but for some reason, he liked me, and he dressed kind of like me—nice suit, nice fedora,” Granado said.
He claims to have even met a few mob bosses, speaking with FOX5.
“When you make someone feel at home, they want to come back and visit us, especially when you know what they are drinking,” Granado said. “People like that, how’s your wife, how’s this, how’s that.”.
Even though Granado had other work options, he claimed to be committed to Tropicana.
“People would come here, they called it the Tropicana, the Tiffany of Las Vegas,” Granado remarked.
