Glitzy opening for Palazzo

LAS VEGAS —  The Strip’s newest resort opened today with customary Vegas showmanship: confetti, aerialists, a red carpet and fireworks crackling overhead. But the sleek, gilded Palazzo -- a $1.9 billion, 3,066-room hotel-casino -- better reflected the city’s newest persona: Fancy, not Kitschy, Vegas.

The only theme to Palazzo, which is Italian for “palace,” is a lack of one -- in stark contrast to the pyramid, the castle, the New York skyline and the pirate ship that dot Las Vegas Boulevard. In this way, it mirrors the Wynn, the last major Strip resort to open, more than Palazzo’s sister property, the Venetian.

Palazzo’s photo-op backdrops are its massive fountains, including a multi-story cascade in the lobby. (The voluptuous women at the fountains indeed proved popular with camera-wielding tourists.) Next to the giant Barneys New York, another waterfall poured, a curlicue “P” projected on it. A red carpet awaited VIPs as aerialists twirled above.

This afternoon, employees buzzed about, prepping a resort that is still a work in progress, though it had a so-called “soft opening” weeks ago. The sidewalk-level windows offered glimpses of ladders still in place. Casino escalators were roped off. Turn the wrong way in the parking garage, and you spotted piles of planks.

Only one-third of chef Mario Batali’s steakhouse is ready, but waiters ignored the construction workers and smoothed tablecloths as starched as their shirts. The restaurant’s centerpiece had arrived -- a 320-pound bull statue named Bo -- and the bottom half of a bull ice sculpture was awaiting its head.

At Jay Z’s 40/40 club, TV screens were turned to Fox News, which was broadcasting updates on that other newsmaker, the Nevada caucus. Pillows were stacked on white couches that had yet to encounter their first vodka-cranberry drink.

Tourists shuffled into the Grand Lux Cafe, where an omelet was nearly $11 and filet mignon nearly $30. As the afternoon waned, the pocket bar across from it filled up; women leaned on posts as thick as redwoods and covered in zebra print.

Waitresses, wearing what resembled copper-colored negligees, circled through the Wheel of Fortune machines, teetering on gold heels. In a sign that some of old Vegas remains, a white-haired woman, smoking and playing slots, flicked ashes on the new carpet.