Courtesy
A rendering of the Composers Room.
Monday, July 3, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Recently launched Las Vegas company Pompey Entertainment has already made a significant local impact, managing venues like Jimmy Kimmel’s Comedy Club at the Linq Promenade and the Duomo at the Rio and producing other shows. Now the group founded by Damian Costa and Nick Cordaro is ready to take its brand of entertainment beyond the casinos and produce something truly focused for locals — artists and audience members.
Damian Costa
In late summer or early fall, Pompey is planning to open the Composers Room Showlounge & Restaurant in the historic Commercial Center, in the space formerly home to the Vegas Room and then the short-lived Coop’s Cabaret. It’s one of several developments scheduled for the expansive retail center on East Sahara Avenue, which is the core of the South of Sahara Avenue district recently designated by Clark County for arts-focused redevelopment.
A born-and-raised Vegas native, Costa has an appreciation for Commercial Center, but the entertainment industry veteran said plenty of locals and visitors are not aware of its history and current offerings.
“I actually want to find a new market for locals to get to know Commercial Center, and we would love to have other properties there focused on entertainment,” he said. “It has a great centralized location, not far from what’s happening at the Huntridge Center, and I think that area is turning into a fun place for people to remember what Vegas is, with those classic designs and feel.”
The Composers Room will be something like the supper club-styled venues that have recently done business in that space, but Pompey is installing significant upgrades to the sound system and lighting and updating the atmosphere. Costa said it could be open later this summer, but it’s likely live entertainment bookings wouldn’t begin until September at the earliest.
Those performers will be local singers and musicians who might be releasing a new album. “It will be a place known for what’s coming next in entertainment, and we want people to go there because they know the talent and trust the venue because it’s doing a good job for the performers,” Costa said.
The Composers Room will also be a full-service restaurant with an accessible menu that also reflects a classic Vegas feel, inspired in no small part by its location but also by Costa’s family background. His grandparents were musicians and entertainers, and his grandfather Tony Costa was the founding conductor of the Las Vegas Philharmonic.
“I was going through my grandparents’ [photos] and all these great memories, looking at grandpa’s itinerary of traveling with Elvis and filming movies, and looking at that history made me wonder, where are we celebrating them?” Costa said. “We have some great local music venues here but let’s do more, let’s make going out and seeing live music something for everyone.”
