The property began as Foxy's Deli, opened by Abe Fox (19142004) in April 1955. The deli was the first restaurant on the
Las Vegas Strip to allow black people, and was popular among celebrities, local business leaders, and tourists for its fresh food that was flown in from Los Angeles on a daily basis. The deli closed in 1975, after Fox sold it. A year later, the building became Foxy's Firehouse casino, which subsequently closed in 1988. In 1989,
Tom "Big Dog" Wiesner and his partners sold the
Marina Hotel to
Kirk Kerkorian. Wiesner used the money from the hotel sale to purchase the closed Foxy Firehouse casino. Wiesner reopened the two-story building A microbrewery was added a year later. Prior to that time, long-standing laws had prevented breweries from operating in the city. However, Wiesner persuaded the state to change its laws to allow the operation of local breweries. The building's exterior featured
murals of spotted black-and-white Wisconsin milk cows. In June 1996, plans were announced to renovate the building and rename it as Chicago-Chicago Casino, while retaining the brewery. The Holy Cow's casino was to be expanded, and a restaurant named Big Dog's Chop House was to be added. In 1998,
Zagat included the Holy Cow on its list of "America's Best Meal Deals". The Holy Cow suffered from a decline of tourism caused by the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks. The property's 14-foot cow statue was sold for $2,200 to Jim Marsh, who owned several casinos and automobile dealerships in Nevada. Marsh set the cow statue up at his
Longstreet hotel-casino in
Amargosa Valley, Nevada.
Later development In 2004, plans were announced to replace the Holy Cow with a $700 million, 940-foot condominium tower called The Summit, to be financed by Australian developer Victor Altomare. By January 2005, the Holy Cow had been converted into a $1 million sales office for Altomare's other condominium project,
Liberty Tower. Later in 2005,
Ivana Trump became associated with The Summit, which was renamed as
Ivana Las Vegas. Trump added pink awnings to the Holy Cow building when it was reopened as a temporary sales office for Ivana Las Vegas, which was ultimately cancelled later that year. In September 2007, Steven Johnson, a real estate developer from Arizona, purchased the property for $47 million through his company, Aspen Highlands Holdings, LLC. Many of Johnson's properties in Las Vegas were developed into
Walgreens stores, although he said that he had not decided on his plans for the Holy Cow property. By April 2008, a Walgreens store was being planned for the property. Because of the high cost for the land, Johnson hoped to sell the air rights to the property, allowing others to construct a casino and high-rise hotel or condominium project atop the Walgreens store. In June 2009, Aspen Highlands was planning a gaming and retail center on the property that would be similar to
Times Square. The new project would include a two-story center with of floor space and a casino, along with a restaurant, a tavern, and a Walgreens. Aspen Highlands planned to have the Holy Cow demolished once the new project was approved, with a planned opening in fall 2010. The new project would be designed by Albuquerque architect George Rainhart, and would include a 137-foot half-moon shaped welcome sign that would mark the gateway to Las Vegas city limits. A 547-foot sign had initially been proposed, but was withdrawn for the time as it was considered uneconomical to build and had been opposed by the Las Vegas Planning Commission because of its height. In July 2009, Aspen Highlands received approval from the Planning Commission for the project. Also approved was a 98-foot-tall, 11,210-square-foot sign and video screen. The project received further approval from the Las Vegas City Council in August 2009. The Holy Cow building was demolished in late April 2012. In 2014, construction began on a two-story Walgreens store on the former property of the Holy Cow. == Beers ==