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Kamu Ultra Karaoke brings a luxurious new experience to the Strip

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Kamu Ultra Karaoke
Photo: Edison Graff / Courtesy

If you set out to build the perfect nightclub experience customized for the COVID-19 era, you’d probably start by shrinking the space. Sprawling dancefloors and gatherings of thousands of party people are bad ideas right now and currently banned in Las Vegas.

But this new blueprint could offer private rooms for small groups to party together—microclubs each with their own bars and restroom facilities. Maybe you could even control the music and lights in your posse’s private party, and the only outside contact would come from a masked server delivering food and drinks.

Vegas clubs aren’t going to rebuild their venues to create this altered experience, but locals and visitors will be able to party this way on the Strip, thanks to this week’s arrival of Kamu Ultra Karaoke at the Grand Canal Shoppes.

The 17,000-square-foot venue was set to open July 2 in the northeast corner of the Venetian’s mall (on the Palazzo side) near SushiSamba. Kamu offers 40 upscale karaoke rooms ranging in size, with the biggest suite—decorated in decadent Roman Empire style—accommodating 50 people. Other rooms have Egyptian and neon Vegas motifs and sound-activated lighting systems, so the special effects can be choreographed to guests’ musical choices and singing performances.

Veteran Las Vegas chef Marty Lopez has created a menu stocked with lobster rolls, flatbreads, snacks like sliders, bao buns and egg rolls and entrees like Korean fried chicken, spicy ramen and a 40-ounce tomahawk steak. Craft cocktails, beer, wine and bottle service complete the luxury full-service approach, but even though Kamu might look, feel and act like a Vegas nightclub, that’s only one aspect of the experience.

“We’re not trying to compete with Tao or XS. When they open up again, they’re going to be crushing it,” says partner and general manager Jeffrey Kim, who has operated a popular karaoke spot in LA’s Koreatown for 12 years. “We are our own unique experience, and we’re looking to market to a daytime crowd as well as locals.”

Kamu opens at noon and stays running through 8 a.m. to capture afterhours partiers, along with Venetian/Palazzo guests looking for round-the-clock fun on a current Vegas Strip landscape devoid of nightclubs, concerts and shows. Kim is hoping the convenient location and free parking will also lure local families, those looking for a different daytime activity during a quarantined summer.

Room pricing starts at $50 per hour during daytime hours and $70 per hour after 7 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome, and reservations are strongly encouraged. Locals receive a 15 percent discount with Nevada ID on weekdays before 8 p.m. and weekends before 5 p.m.

Between dive bars, Chinatown-area venues and casino lounge programming, there’s always been a local karaoke scene. Kamu’s version leans more toward a traditional experience from Korean and Filipino cultures—private and VIP-focused—than the American-style karaoke in Las Vegas, Kim says.

Karaoke has never been a prominent piece of Strip entertainment, though Park MGM’s nightclub On the Record, opened in December 2018 and developed by LA’s Houston Hospitality, contained three hidden karaoke rooms. Park MGM has not reopened since Nevada’s mandated casino closure in mid-March.

Kim says it’s “hard to say” why an upscale karaoke experience hasn’t hit the Strip until now. But he’s not trying to start a trend or compete with other nightlife offerings. Kamu is designed to complement the other experiences surrounding it at the Grand Canal Shoppes and on the Strip and extend the party for anyone ready to grab the mic and have some fun.

“We’re looking to make a mark and really become an anchor for the property,” he says, noting the obvious chemistry between Kamu, SushiSamba and the coming-soon X Pot restaurant nearby. “We’re looking to ramp up fast and become a part of this community.”

KAMU ULTRA KARAOKE Grand Canal Shoppes, 702-445-7664, kamukaraoke.com. Daily, noon-8 a.m

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Brock Radke

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of managing editor at Las Vegas Weekly ...

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