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Before Barry’s Downtown Prime was a destination in downtown Las Vegas, it was an idea shared among three friends.
Barry Dakake, Yassine Lyoubi and Marco Cicione weren’t strangers thrown together by opportunity. As the team behind Make It Happen Hospitality, they were a tight-knit trio with years of service under their belts, having worked side-by-side at some of the city’s most celebrated restaurants.
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When the chance came to open something of their own inside the Circa Las Vegas Resort, they didn’t overthink it. They knew how each other operated, and more importantly, they liked each other.
“It’s luck,” Cicione says. “You end up working with a lot of people in this industry, but the ones who share your values and your mentality, those are the ones you want to go into business with.”
Each partner brought their lane. Dakake would lead the kitchen. Cicione and Lyoubi would handle the floor, the numbers and the details. “It’s a perfect storm,” Dakake says. “We complement each other. There’s no ego, just alignment.”
That alignment was put to the test early. Opening a steakhouse during a pandemic wasn’t the original plan. Health protocols shifted by the week, seating capacities changed by the day and group dining — which the restaurant was built to support — was temporarily off the table.
“We spent a lot of money designing a space that could host big parties,” Lyoubi says. “Then suddenly, we weren’t allowed to seat more than four people together.”
Still, they adapted. Supply costs dropped, which helped with margins. And from the start, they made it a point to lead with hospitality and presence. They even shot and posted their own social media content. “Go back to our early posts,” Lyoubi tells Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef of Cali BBQ Media. “It was just three guys in their 40s and 50s figuring it out.”
What they didn’t have in polish, they made up for in authenticity. Locals showed up. Celebrities followed. Within three months, most of their debt was paid down. Barry’s Downtown Prime wasn’t just open, it was thriving.
As for the name? That part had already been decided, whether they liked it or not.
“At our old restaurants, we’d hear people say it all the time, ‘I’m at Barry’s,'” Cicione says. “Even when the place was called something else.” It became a running joke, then a lightbulb moment. “Barry had the name already. We just gave it a front door.”
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Serving the locals
Barry’s Downtown Prime may have the gold-plated walls, parquet floors and massive wine list common on the Las Vegas Strip, but its foundation is local.
“People talk about the celebrities who come in,” Dakake says. “We love that. But the real win is when the people who live here feel like they’re the stars.”
The team built the restaurant with that in mind. Dakake obsesses over the details in the kitchen. He’ll only use the top two cuts off the bone-in filet. He handpicks every supplier. And if you happen to be dining in when he’s on a roll, you might see him at your table with a pan of sizzling lobster flambé.
“I did 26 of them in one night,” he says. “I think I lost five pounds. But I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
That same attention shows up in the wine program. When the trio brought on sommelier Zack Vasilev, they gave him $125,000 to build the list. He stretched it into a powerhouse collection that now pushes $500,000 in inventory. “He proved himself right away,” Lyoubi says. “Now we have one of the best programs in the city.”
Turnover among staff has been minimal. Nearly five years in, most of the opening team is still there. Some who left even came back. “It’s not just a restaurant,” Cicione says. “It’s a family.”
And it’s not just the team that’s loyal. It’s the neighborhood, too. “Downtown isn’t the Strip,” Lyoubi says. “It’s where the real city lives. It’s chefs opening their own spots. It’s longtime locals doing their own thing.”
The three partners each moved to Las Vegas in the late ’90s. They came up through the ranks, learned from some of the best, and now they’re giving back through the restaurant they built together. They’re not trying to be everything to everyone. They just want Barry’s to be the place where locals feel like regulars, and regulars feel like royalty.
“This city shaped us,” Dakake says. “Now we get to serve it back.”
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