The Strip’s Newest Casino Charged $21 for 6 Nacho Chips — And So NachoGate Was Born

On January 22, a photo showing a very sad-looking plate of six tortilla chips, a few one-ounce jars of condiments, and a handful of cilantro leaves — on the stem — made the rounds on the platform formerly known as Twitter. The user, @MuTigerMike, who is also Mike Herman, the director of slot operations for the Rio, wrote above his photo, “Hey @fblasvegas, we waited an hour for food in the Sportsbook and this is our nachos??? Come on man.”

The nacho plate in question was from the Tavern, the sportsbook restaurant in Vegas’s new Fontainebleau. As soon as the Twitter post hit the web, three things happened. First, the photo went viral among Las Vegas locals, who jumped in on criticizing the Strip’s newest casino, one that has only been open for just over a month. Next, the hashtag “#nachogate” was born. And, perhaps most shockingly, the Fontainebleau did something that is almost unheard of: They revamped the nacho plate into something more deserving of a $21 price tag.

So what factors generally merit a higher nacho price tag? Charging $21 for nachos, even in Vegas, is a bold move, one that might suggest you’re getting premium toppings (like the $23 nachos with shaved black truffle at Ghost Donkey or the $29 nachos with filet mignon at Nacho Daddy). Or, at the very least, that you’re getting a substantial amount of nachos. Then again, the Tavern — which served the adobo chicken nachos — is in the same building that serves a $1,000 steak and $95 potato.

After the initial post went viral, other casinos in town took to showing off their own restaurants’ plates of nachos. For example, the downtown casino, the Four Queens got in on the action.

The Silverton Casino in the southwest weighed in on #nachogate.

And the Las Vegas Mexican restaurant, Nacho Daddy, which has only posted on X once since November of 2023, began to retweet dozens of mentions.

The nacho kerfuffle culminated in a post from the Fontainebleau casino itself, in which a more robust plate of nachos was accompanied with the caption, “The Tavern menu was designed to be ‘bar food favorites, all grown up.’ We hope you’ll excuse our growing pains while the nachos went through their awkward phase. We’re thrilled to report they’ve matured into one stacked snack.”