Oct. 17--Las Vegas isn't the only city suffering from a downturn in tourism business as a result of last month's national tragedy, said Wolfgang Puck, who owns six restaurants here. 

The celebrity chef, in town Monday to christen the $1 million renovation of Spago at The Forum Shops at Caesars, said his restaurants have felt the hit everywhere, especially in San Francisco, an area that was already in the economic dumps as the dot-com industry crumbled last year. 

But it's Las Vegas, which Puck helped vault to the top of Zagat surveys for fine dining establishments, that experienced some of the steepest declines in the restaurant business. 

"Las Vegas has been hit more so than Los Angeles or San Francisco because Las Vegas depends especially on people flying," Puck said as he hosted a private reception in Spago's new 200-seat dining room. "But it's coming back slowly." 

Just as hotels have lowered rooms rates to attract reluctant customers, restaurants have to be flexible with their menu prices, Puck said. 

That's part of the new business plan for Spago, which opened nine years ago in Las Vegas. Not only has the environment of the 20,000-square-foot restaurant changed with the renovation, so has the menu. 

"It's not just bringing the prices down, it's changing what's on the menu," Puck said. 

Instead of buying fish from France, maybe it comes from the East Coast or California, he said. White truffles would be purchased in smaller quantities. 

Tom Kaplan, senior managing partner of Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group, said business is coming back more quickly in Las Vegas than other tourist destinations. 

"I'll tell you what's apparent from talking to my colleagues in Orlando (Fla.) and Hawaii, those are places that are not bouncing back," Kaplan said. 

"So as far as I'm concerned, being down 80 percent and now being down 25 percent, I'm ecstatic. I think the bounce came here quick, and I think Las Vegas is a barometer for the rest of the country." 

Kaplan said there were no layoffs among the 180 employees at Spago during the month it was closed for renovation, though some chose to look elsewhere for work. 

The company has about 600 total employees in Las Vegas. After opening Spago in 1992, Puck followed with Chinois, also at The Forum Shops, in 1998, Trattoria del Lupo at Mandalay Bay and Postrio in The Venetian in 1999, and Cili at Bali Hai Golf Club earlier this year. He also has a cafe at the MGM Grand. 

A waiter who asked not to be identified said Puck offered him part-time work at Spago, where he previously worked in 1994-95, after his work days were cut back back at Bellagio's Le Cirque. 

"They're slow," the waiter said of Bellagio's restaurant business. "Sometimes it's two or three days of work (each week), sometimes no days." 

Kaplan said Spago has been remodeled to seat 130 in the open-air cafe that fronts the Forum Shops promenade and 200 in the dining room, with all new lighting, furniture and texture on the walls and ceilings. 

Spago's two 100-seat banquet rooms have also been renovated with carpeting, lighting and shadow boxes filled with optical art. 

"It's like a facelift," said Barbara Lazaroff, Puck's wife and business partner. "After a certain amount of years you need one. We're in the entertainment business, too." 

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(c) 2001, Las Vegas Review-Journal. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.