{"id":14420,"date":"2026-08-23T00:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T00:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/14420\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T00:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T00:44:11","slug":"rio-quietly-rebrands-high-steaks-to-high-stakes-luckely-to-revolution-more-to-come","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/14420\/","title":{"rendered":"Rio Quietly Rebrands High Steaks to High Stakes, Luckely to Revolution, More to Come"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Scott <\/p>\n

By Scott Roeben, on August 22 2026 <\/p>\n

The best new steakhouse you haven\u2019t been to yet, High Steaks, has been rebranded at Rio. The restaurant from Vegas-based culinary sensation James Trees has been renamed High Stakes.<\/p>\n

Rio\u2019s Luckley Tavern has been rebranded to Revolution Tavern & Grill.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more Rio restaurant news and we\u2019ve got all the scoop you demand because aren\u2019t you super special getting to demand things from a blog you never even thank or send See\u2019s to? (Our new favorite is Milk Almond Caramel. Life expectancy in a motor vehicle in Las Vegas during the 160-degree summer weather, about 20 seconds.)<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cCannabis-Induced Intoxication Stakes\u201d didn\u2019t have the same ring to it.<\/p>\n

Anyway, what were we talking about? Oh, right, Rio\u2019s restaurants.<\/p>\n

High Steaks was a cleaver name for a restaurant, which explains why there was already another venue with that name. Oopsie.<\/p>\n

It seems Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln, California also has a High Steaks, so they politely asked Rio to tweak their restaurant\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Thunder Valley is a tribal casino, and nobody wants to get into a pissing match with the United Auburn Indian Community, wherever and whoever they might actually be.<\/p>\n

Rebranding can be expensive, of course. You have to swap out all the signage and menus and pretty much all the printed materials. Sometimes, you just have to hunker down, take the hit and make sure you\u2019ve covered all the bases on the legal side. Chef James Trees now owns the High Stakes brand, we\u2019re told.<\/p>\n

Luckley Tavern rebranded to Revolution Tavern & Grill for another reason. Rio is bringing some of its food concepts in-house that previously involved third-party partnerships.<\/p>\n

Luckley was operated by A Perfect Bite, the hospitality company founded by Las Vegas restaurateur Oliver Wharton.<\/p>\n

\"\"Luckley is (was) a lovely space, but the metaphorical carpet (name) never matched the metaphorical drapes (vibe).<\/p>\n

The Luckley name never really clicked and felt like a mismatch with the decor which featured lots of music icons and vinyl records.<\/p>\n

\"\"Grace Jones\u2019 debut 1977 studio album, \u201cPortfolio,\u201d peaked at number 109 on the U.S. Billboard 200.<\/p>\n

Revolution fits perfectly with the decor, and Rio\u2019s in-house team is expected to give the menu an overhaul.<\/p>\n

Rio has a secret weapon at its disposal: Andrea Van Willigan. Willigan is the Director of Culinary and Banquets at Rio, and her credentials are impeccable, including working with Gordon Ramsay. If you can do that, you can get through anything.<\/p>\n

Wharton was also a partner in two of Rio\u2019s food hall concepts, Attaboy (burgers) and Nama Nama (sushi). Those concepts will be rebranded, and a new burger stand is in the works. It\u2019s unclear if there will be another sushi place, but it\u2019s sounding like a new ice cream shop is a lock for the Canteen Food Hall. In the meantime, the soft serve at Tender Crush is fantastic.<\/p>\n

In other Rio restaurant news, we\u2019re told construction is finally happening at \u201c&pizza.\u201d They need to rebrand that place, too, just to keep us from being annoyed. And, no, \u201c&PIZZA\u201d isn\u2019t any better. We\u2019re calling it \u201cAmpersand Pizza\u201d until they fix it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ampersand Pizza sits right next to Rio\u2019s sportsbook. Which is considered a plus by some people, oddly.<\/p>\n

And don\u2019t get us started on Eggslut.<\/p>\n

We would love to see Eggslut rebranded to The Willigan. Or to anything else, really.<\/p>\n

\"\"Trust us, no Native American tribe owns a brand called The Willigan.<\/p>\n

The return of \u201cTony n\u2019 Tina\u2019s Wedding\u201d is marginally food-related, so it\u2019s worth a mention. The dinner show opened at Rio on Aug. 13, 2026. If you plan to see it, you should probably do that sooner rather than later. Just ask the folks at the former \u201cMarriage Can Be Murder.\u201d<\/p>\n

We love us some Rio, and enjoyed our recent visit to High Steaks, now High Stakes.<\/p>\n

You know we\u2019ll keep an eye on all the changes in the works at Rio and beyond because the alternative is having a life and nobody\u2019s got time for all that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Roeben, on August 22 2026 The best new steakhouse you haven\u2019t been to yet, High Steaks, has been rebranded at Rio. The restaurant from Vegas-based culinary sensation James Trees has been renamed High Stakes. Rio\u2019s Luckley Tavern has been rebranded to Revolution Tavern & Grill. There\u2019s more Rio restaurant news and we\u2019ve got<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[106,107,108,109,104,105],"class_list":["post-14420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-steakhouses","tag-steak-house","tag-steak-houses","tag-steak-restaurant","tag-steak-restaurants","tag-steakhouse","tag-steakhouses"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117142054822082540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}