Northern Nevada business briefly

Two area restaurants close their doors

Finucci's Grand Central Pizza & Pasta in the Southgate Center on South Carson Street was closed the first part of July while the owners were on vacation, but did not reopen. A sign on the door on Tuesday states that it will reopen under new ownership.

The Mott Canyon Tavern & Grill on Mica Drive in north Douglas County also closed on July 31.

There are no other details available at this time. Attempts to contact the owners of both restaurants were not successful.

Counterclaim filed

in Tropicana dispute

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The former parent company of a famed Strip resort has filed a counterclaim to an earlier lawsuit over the use of the Tropicana name.

Tropicana Entertainment on Monday filed a counterclaim in the case and moved a Clark County lawsuit to U.S. District Court in Las Vegas, citing federal questions of law.

Tropicana Las Vegas Inc. last month filed a lawsuit in Clark County District Court against Tropicana Entertainment and Aztar Corp., the 34-acre property's two previous owners.

Tropicana Entertainment's counterclaim argues Tropicana Las Vegas has infringed on its registered service marks by continuing to operate the hotel and casino under the name "Tropicana Resort & Casino Las Vegas."

Gold Dust West earnings mixed

Gold Dust West in Reno earned $1.5 million on revenues of $4.5 million, Gold Dust West in Carson City earned $252,000 on revenues of $3.4 million and Gold Dust West in Elko earned $509,000 on revenues of $2.2 million in the second quarter. The earnings were down $287,000 in Reno, up $83,000 in Carson City and up $114,000 in Elko.

Number of visitors to Las Vegas falls again

LAS VEGAS (AP) - The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority says volume fell 6.3 percent in June.

The authority said Tuesday more than 2.98 million visitors traveled to Las Vegas in June, compared with nearly 3.2 million a year earlier.

Over the first half of the year, the number of visitors who traveled to Las Vegas is down 6.8 percent - to 18.1 million from 19.5 million - from the same period in 2008.

In June there were more than 141,000 hotel rooms operating in Las Vegas, up 3.3 percent from a year ago. The citywide occupancy rate was better than 82 percent through June.

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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, http://www.lvrj.com