Sharkey's Casino Gardnerville Nevada
When the “new” Sharkey’s Casino opens its doors for business today, patrons will be greeted by a new look that was blended with the old.
For downtown Gardnerville, it marks the return of business to a landmark building that closed on Nov. 14, 2014, after becoming subject of a Trustee’s sale. Mike Pegram, principal owner of the Carson Valley Inn and Bodines casinos, purchased Sharkey’s at a public auction on Dec. 4.
Phone: 775-782-3133 1440 U.S. Hwy 395 N, Gardnerville, NV 89410 All Rights Reserved © 2015 Sharkey's Casino. Sharkey's Casino, Gardnerville, Nevada. 940 likes 10 talking about this 3,502 were here. Gardnerville landmark originally named the Golden Bubble. Became Sharkey's when bought by Sharkey's.
The lights flashed on Wednesday night to provide a preview of the “new” Sharkey’s for an estimated 200 invited local guests and government officials. The building opened in 1945 as the Golden Bubble Casino and in 1971 was purchased by Sharkey Begovich, who renamed it Sharkey’s Nugget.
“Sharkey was a legend and it’s always good to open up a place that has the reputation that Sharkey had,” Pegram said. “We’re just excited and honored to carry on his legend.”
More than 200 slots, a sports book and the Silver Dollar Bar are now open. The Jackpot Café is scheduled to open soon, according to Carson Valley Inn Marketing Director Bill Henderson.
The Sharkey’s building has gone through a complete remodel, however, some of the old remains.
“That’s what’s so nice about this,” Pegram said. “If you look up at the ceiling, that (material) was Sharkey’s walls when we took over. And the wood floor, that was always here, it just had carpet over it. All the exposed brick in the building was brick that was always here, it was just covered up. So we’re just trying to bring back the old and marry it with the new.”
Shirley Lekumbery-Frazier, who has lived in Carson Valley since 1957, was excited about the look and the atmosphere.
“I’m absolutely thrilled; I have always loved Sharkey’s,” she said. “I like the homey atmosphere here and it’s absolutely beautiful.”
Carson Valley Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bill Chernock expressed his excitement about the reopening and what that means to the community.
“It’s going to bring energy down to this part of 395 at all hours,” he said. “I think a lot of the locals who are down here kind of miss having this place to go to. I think once they come in, it will be like they never left, and they’re going to love it. And once the visitors discover this, it’s going to be hard to find a seat in that restaurant.”
Gardnerville Town Board member Linda Slater echoed those feelings.
“They’ve done a fabulous job,” she said. “I just think it’s a real positive for Gardnerville. This is going to revitalize the downtown area.
“All the old pictures, I’m so glad they were able to get some of those back,” she added.
Henderson noted that the blend of old and new was designed. For example, one of the old Sharkey’s street signs can now be seen overlooking the Silver Dollar Bar at the center of the casino floor. Larry Henry, the architect for the Sharkey’s remodel — and previously architect for the Carson Valley Inn and Bodines — is also doing murals that will eventually be on the outside, honoring Gardnerville as a historic landmark.
Markus Zinke, owner of Mark’s Cabinets and a lifelong Carson Valley resident, was involved with some of the woodworking efforts that took place inside the casino.
“I took pride in getting to work on this stuff; it was real fun, absolutely,” he said. “Obviously, they used a lot of the old signs and a lot of the old memorabilia, which is the flare of Sharkey’s back in the day. That’s what people remember.”
Zinke pointed out, for example, the hardwood floor surrounding the bar area.
“They lifted up the carpet and they found solid 4×4,” he said. “They just sanded it down and worked some of the sawdust back in it to keep the old look.”
Another example can be seen in the Jackpot Café. Some of the small dining tables from the old Sharkey’s restaurant have been returned. And wood was crafted from old tables to create a top for those who eat at the counter.
“Most everything is new, actually,” he added. “The architect had some pretty good ideas of making it look old with the different types of paint and design.”
Pegram noted that even though he didn’t favor taking down the Pyrenees Hotel building — to create parking on the southeast side of Sharkey’s — brick from that old building will be used to construct a decorative wall along Highway 395.
“There was a lot of work, and we were fortunate to have a great contractor, a great designer and a great team that built it,” he said. “They had the vision and I’m just lucky to be part of it.”
Slater acknowledged that the end product was what she had hoped for, and gave credit to Pegram.
“I was thrilled when I heard Mike was coming in here,” she said. “I knew he was going to do a good job … Mike is such a community oriented man wherever he goes.”
Needless to say, this was not an inexpensive project.
“It wasn’t, but you know what, it’s not very often you get an opportunity to take something that’s an icon,” Pegram said. “We just kind of polished it up a little bit.”
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Carson area casinos have been closed for over 70 days but operators say they haven’t been idly waiting for permission to reopen.
Customers can expect pretty dramatic changes as they return to their favorite restaurants, bars and gaming floors.
Those include numerous signs, including on the floors to control who goes where and how close they come to each other, plexiglass shields and sanitizer stations.
The Carson Nugget, Casino Fandango, the Max, Carson Valley Inn, Bodines, Slotworld and Sharkey’s in Minden-Gardnerville are all planning to reopen most if not all of their operations on Thursday, June 4, the first day casinos are allowed to resume operation.
Most plan to open at 6 a.m. that day. Sharkey’s and Bodines will wait until 7 a.m.
All have been getting their facilities ready in anticipation of reopening, an effort that required different levels of changes to the layout of slots, table games, restaurants and bars.
It also gave all a chance to take care of deferred maintenance and do some serious deep cleaning of everything.
The other major task, as Fandango manager Court Cardinal put it, is “we’ve got to get our furloughed employees unfurloughed.”
That process, required training staff in the new rules imposed by gaming regulators including new cleaning processes, sanitization and social distancing, according to Edye Kaplan of the Max Casino.
All the casino officials say employees will all wear masks and practice frequent sanitization. And all will provide masks for customers who want them.
Probably the most dramatic changes will be at the Carson Nugget that CEO Dean DiLullo says has undergone a complete remodel since the governor ordered casinos closed to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“We spent a ton of money to modernize the Carson Nugget during the lockdown,” he said.
That includes painting, a completely new slot machine system, new sports bar near the entrance, a new Winner’s Club and deep cleaning of kitchens and everything else in the building. They also took the opportunity to repair and re-stripe all the surrounding parking lots.
Alatte Café will be open daily as will Angelinas with the Gourmet Room open Friday and Saturday.
“If you walk into the Nugget, you would not recognize it,” he said.
The Nugget, oldest of Carson City’s major casino properties, is celebrating its 66th year with the reopening.
To kick it off, DiLullo said the Nugget is running a $66,000 Gold and Silver giveaway to celebrate that anniversary. The Nugget is also introducing the Awful Awful Express where customers get their meal within 30 minutes of ordering or it’s free.
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At Casino Fandango, one of the capital’s newer properties, Cardinal said the shut down was a perfect time to do a lot of deferred maintenance that’s hard to accomplish in a 24/7 business.
That means new kitchen floors, replacement of bar and counter tops and deep cleaning of everything among other improvements.
Because of the Fandango’s floor plan, they’ve had their premier restaurant, Duke’s Steakhouse, open for two weeks. The trick is they could give customers access to the restaurant from an outside door on Curry Street without them having to walk through the casino to get there. Regulators have never explained the ban on walking through a casino when all they have to do is unplug the slot machines.
Cardinal said he was very pleased with the customer response to opening the steakhouse.
When they opened Duke’s, “we were packed.”
He said they will be doing non-invasive temperature screening as customers enter Fandango and there are plexiglass shields at the cage, the cashier and other places to protect customers and staff.
All restaurants will be open except the buffet.
“I’m not sure we’ll see buffets again,” he said.
Cardinal said the other service that won’t be back anytime soon is valet parking because of the same health safety concerns.
He said slot capacity will be about 50 percent but that there will be far fewer counter and bar stools.
Cardinal said they are also ready to honor the gift cards customers have been winning through their online games at the Fandango website during the shut down.
“We’ve given away thousands of dollars in instant Amazon gift cards,” he said.
He said the layout of his slot pods is such that less modifications to the floor plan were required to accommodate social distancing than other casinos.
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Joey Whitacre, marketing director for CVI, Sharkey’s, Bodines and Slot World, said the Jackpot Café in Sharkey’s has been open for a week. It too has a separate entrance. He said the restaurants at CVI, SlotWorld and Bodines will open on June 4 as will the bars in all four of their properties
At CVI, they are taking reservations now. The main hotel RV Resort and Convenience Store at CVI remain open. The motor Lodge, Whitacre said, will open when there is demand for it. They are taking reservations and convention center bookings are also being taken for groups of up to 50 people.
Beginning June 4, he said sports bets will be taken and race wagering is available at CVI and Bodines
“We look forward to seeing you all again and ask for your patience as we all wade through the ‘adventure’ of the new way of doing things,” he said.
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Sharkey's Casino Gardnerville Nevada Casino
Kaplan said the Max, which has undergone fairly recent remodeling when it was purchased from Clark Russell, has also set up hand sanitization stations throughout with health signage at each entrance and the staff has been trained in the new health procedures.
They will provide queuing for guest services, ATMs and William Hill remote betting services.
She said they will continue to reward players with point multipliers and promotional staples including Senior Day and Midnight Madness.
The Black Bear Diner, she said, is open 8-8 daily and beverage service is available in the Cabaret Lounge.
The Wyndham Garden Hotel will open June 5.
