The grand opening of Lynyrd Skynyrd BBQ & Beer (www.LynyrdSkynyrdLV.com) wouldn’t have been complete without Lynyrd Skynyrd rockin’ the house as they opened their first venue at Excalibur Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas this Holiday month.

Lynyrd Skynyrd BBQ & Beer serves mouth-watering pork and beef ribs, brisket, chicken and signature ‘regular’ and jalapeno cheese sausage. Open daily for lunch and dinner, the new 8,000-square-foot restaurant and bar transforms into a high-energy rock club every night with great music and entertainment.

The staff is part of the action – hot bartenders and servers encourage guests to have a great time – leading riotous sing-alongs to classic rock songs. The cuisine is served “weigh and pay” style, with an array of delicious side dishes inspired by the Lone Star State including cheddar cheese grit fries, hush puppies, mom’s baked beans, corn succotash, cole slaw and potato salad.

Dessert selections include white chocolate bread pudding served with Jack Daniel’s caramel sauce, Blue Bell ice cream, seasonal cobbler and more. The band members themselves have a few favorites. For lead singer, Johnny Van Zant, it’s the mac & cheese, while guitarist Rickey Medlocke says he “can’t get enough of the pecan pie.”

Designed to capture the spirit of the band’s ‘Hell House,’ the walls are made of authentic 150-year old barnyard wood, with concrete floors and aged brick completing the downhome feel of the space. The tables are made from floors of historic grain barns and the surface marks are hoof marks from many generations of stock animals. The tabletops are made of rough-faced old growth Doug fir from pre-World War II era from historic sites including a 1927 Brentwood house and a Los Angeles church.

The food itself is of legendary status, with a menu developed in partnership with Kreuz Market, a 111-year-old Lockhart, Tex. institution. The barbecue at Kreuz Market has consistently been named the best in the country.

Las Vegas-based Michael Frey and Craig Gilbert of Drive This! Entertainment came together with Lynyrd Skynyrd to develop Lynyrd Skynyrd BBQ & Beer, a concept they plan to expand into other cities.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.facebook.com/LynyrdSkynyrdBBQ

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TouchTunes Interactive Networks, the largest interactive in-venue entertainment network in North America, today released its top songs and artists of 2011. The results, based on an analysis of over 900 million songs played across TouchTunes’ network of 50,000 in-venue music systems, revealed that consumers choose a mix of newly released and classic songs to listen to when they’re out in a social setting.

TouchTunes’ top played song of the year across every genre was country superstar Jason Aldean’s hit single ‘Dirt Road Anthem.’ Other notable songs to make TouchTunes’ 2011 Top 10 most played list includes Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep,’ Eric Church’s ‘Smoke a Little Smoke’ and Kid Rock’s ‘All Summer Long.’

“Having the #1 song of the year running on TouchTunes jukeboxes is a cool thing for me. It means my songs are being played in most every bar and honky tonk in the country,” stated Jason Aldean. “Those are the kinds of places I used to have gigs when I was a teenager down in Georgia. It’s a really cool full circle kind of moment.”

Jason Aldean was also the third most played artist on the network, surpassed only by long-time fan favorites AC/DC, who was the second most played, and Kid Rock, who was the most played overall. Other top artists on TouchTunes in 2011 include Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

“It’s always fun to look at the most played songs and artists on our network,” said Vicki Saunders, TouchTunes Vice President, Music Marketing. “TouchTunes provides fans with a unique listening experience, and gives them a chance to find that one perfect song that will set the mood for their night out. For many this year, Jason Aldean did just that.”

More information on TouchTunes top music plays of 2011 is available here: http://www.touchtunes.com/2011charts.

2011 Top 10 Played Songs: 

1. Dirt Road Anthem – Jason Aldean
2. Rolling in the Deep – Adele
3. Smoke A Little Smoke – Eric Church
4. All Summer Long – Kid Rock
5. Chicken Fried- Zac Brown Band
6. Down On Me (ft. 50 Cent) – Jeremih
7. Copperhead Road – Steve Earle
8. Country Girl (Shake It For Me) – Luke Bryan
9. Somewhere With You – Kenny Chesney
10. Rockstar – Nickelback

2011 Top 10 Artists 

1. Kid Rock
2. AC/DC
3. Jason Aldean
4. Toby Keith
5. Johnny Cash
6. Nickelback
7. Zac Brown Band
8. Lynyrd Skynyrd
9. Rolling Stones
10. Metallica

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Lynyrd Skynyrd, a famous band known for its all-too-played hits, such as “free bird” and “Sweet home Alabama, is hitting Vegas for something completely out of the ordinary. Well, for a rock band that is. The group is currently working on the construction of a new barbecue restaurant set to open in December.

The new endeavor will be located in the Excalibur, and is the band’s first time experimenting with something so far from their usual business in music. The crazy idea has been well-received and fans can hardly wait for the food joint to open its doors, so that they can get a bite of what the band is serving up.

The restaurant’s name is a very straightforward “Lynyrd Skynyrd BBQ & Beer.” No fancy name for these rock guys. The bandmembers Johnny Van Zant, Gary Rossington and Rickey Medlocke already made a tour of the location and its ongoing construction while in the area for a concert at M Resort. They even posed for pictures and seemed pleased with the progress so far.

The previous occupier of this space (Sherwood Café) was replaced for this intriguing experiment said to be modeled after the “Hell House”. Hell House was where Lynyrd Skynyrd spent their early days. They both lived and learned there, and hold a fond memory of the place that they are sure to reproduce in a more modern light.

The people entrusted with the proceedings of the building and planning are Michael Frey and Craig Gilbert. Frey and Gilbert are associated with Rhumbar at the Mirage and Tacos & Tequila at the Luxor. The décor and mood is set to be something along the lines of ‘night club meets sports bar’.

With texas-style barbecue on the menu for both breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the place runs like a regular diner in the daytime. However, come night time this BBQ turns into a late night club sure to please all those Lynyrd Skynyrd Fans who make the journey to Las Vegas.

Music and entertainment will include the band themselves playing occasional shows along with other cover bands who will do their celebratory interpretation of well-known hits. Memorabilia from and of Lynyrd Skynyrd will crowd the walls and the bartenders will play host to karaoke nights as they make their own spectacle performing and dancing for the enjoyment of their guests.
Randy Miramontez / Shutterstock.com

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