The Cromwell Is Gone. Here's What Lisa Vanderpump Built in Its Place

The Strip property that used to be all rooftop bass now runs on a different playbook, and Drai's basement return is the clearest sign of where Vegas nightlife is heading.

A New Name on an Old Strip Address

Regulars who kept a standing reservation at the Cromwell have had to relearn the block. The boutique property on the Center Strip finished a full rebrand into The Vanderpump Hotel, with a grand opening celebration on June 11, 2026, that folded in Lisa Vanderpump's design sensibility, a redone 188-room tower, and a lobby full of British-flavored touches like a red telephone booth and a mural pulled straight off a London street.

Caesars Entertainment chief commercial officer Sean McBurney described the partnership as something that started small and grew fast, saying it began as a conversation about a single cocktail lounge before turning into a full property collaboration. That single lounge, Gigolo, ended up being the opening wedge for everything that followed.

For a corner of the Strip once known mainly as Drai's home base, the shift is less a facelift than a change in identity, and it says a lot about where mid-size Strip nightlife properties are placing their bets this year.

Drai's Goes Back Underground

The headline for nightlife regulars is the club itself. After ten years running the show from the Cromwell rooftop, Drai's Nightclub has moved back into the basement room where the brand actually started nearly three decades ago. Founder Victor Drai has called the rooftop run legendary, pointing to roughly four million guests and more than 40 artist residencies that passed through that room during its run.

The new basement setup trades the rooftop's open-air scale for something tighter and more deliberate. Plans call for the room to operate five nights a week, splitting time across hip-hop, house, and a late-night crossover slot rather than leaning on one giant headliner format all night long. Dustin Drai, now steering the brand, has framed the pivot as less about chasing the biggest room or the biggest name on a marquee and more about who is actually in the room with you.

The old rooftop didn't just go dark, either. It closed permanently as a nightclub and beach club after a Halloween weekend send-off, then came back this pool season under a new identity built for a calmer, all-ages daytime crowd.

Soleia Takes Over the Old Beach Club Deck

That eleventh-floor deck, once branded Drai's Beach Club, now runs as Soleia, and the shift in tone is deliberate. Where the old rooftop leaned into dayclub-style programming built around DJ sets, Soleia is positioned more as a rooftop pool oasis, with cabanas, plunge pools, and daybeds aimed at guests looking to relax rather than rage.

It is also a more open room than its predecessor. Hotel guests and Nevada locals now get pool access without the cover charge that used to gate the space, with premium seating still available for purchase for anyone who wants the upgraded setup.

Losing a party deck might sound like a step back for nightlife-minded travelers, but it actually clarifies the property's split personality: daytime lounging up top, real nightlife downstairs at the new Drai's.

Gigolo and the Case for Going Small

If Drai's basement move is the loud story, Gigolo is the quiet one worth paying attention to. The 50-seat cocktail lounge sits near check-in, built around a moody, dark-lit aesthetic and a signature drink called the Hush Hush, which has guests writing down a secret and locking it inside what the venue calls the Vanderpump Vault.

It is a small room by Strip standards, and that is the point. Vanderpump has said the project is deeply personal to her, and the design leans into that instead of chasing the scale that defines most Strip nightlife openings. A resin statue of her late dog anchors the space, a detail that would feel out of place in a 2,000-capacity room but works in a 50-seat one.

Taken together with Drai's smaller, multi-room basement format, Gigolo points at a real pattern this year: intimacy is becoming a selling point on the Strip, not just a fallback for guests who can't get into the big room.

Working This Into an Actual Night Out

For anyone planning a night around this stretch of the Strip, the new layout actually makes the route easier to plan. Start with a pre-club cocktail at Gigolo, keep it moving with dinner nearby, then head down into the reworked Drai's basement room once the night gets going.

Because the new Drai's is running five nights a week instead of a tighter weekend-only schedule, there is more flexibility to book a table on a night that would have been dead under the old rooftop format. That is worth knowing if your trip doesn't line up with a Friday or Saturday.

Either way, a rebrand this size usually means new host relationships and fresh table minimums while everyone settles in, so it is worth getting on the list early rather than showing up cold and hoping the door works itself out.

What's Actually New Inside the Reborn Property

Here's the rundown for anyone routing a night through this stretch of the Strip for the first time since the rebrand.

1. Drai's Nightclub (basement): Back in its original underground room, now running five nights a week with sound shifting between hip-hop, house, and late-night crossover sets.
2. Gigolo: A 50-seat, dark-lit cocktail lounge near check-in, known for its secret-swapping Hush Hush cocktail and a statue of Vanderpump's late Pomeranian.
3. Soleia: The former Drai's Beach Club rooftop, now a lounge-first pool deck with cabanas, plunge pools, and free access for hotel guests and locals.
4. The Vanderpump Hotel tower: 188 redesigned rooms built around an industrial-romantic look from Vanderpump and Nick Alain's design studio.
5. British-flavored lobby details: A red telephone booth, an English taxicab installation, and a London street mural scattered through the public spaces.
6. Drai's After Hours: A late-night extension inside the reworked property for guests still going once the main room starts to wind down.

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