Blue Diamond and Arville Road.  Staff, management and Wilbur The Pig joined members of the public and media to celebrate the opening of Famous Dave's third Las Vegas location with a traditional "passing of the embers" ceremony and a "rib"bon cutting. 


Always the classy pig, Wilbur arrived at the restaurant riding in a vintage convertible automobile, leading a procession that included the Famous Dave's catering truck which contained the traditional Famous Dave's smoldering embers from the smoker of the most recently opened Famous Dave's restaurant prior to today. 


The embers were then presented to Famous Dave's general manager Francisco Correa who accepted them in a traditional ceremonial that has marked the opening of every Famous Dave's restaurant across the country. 


The ceremony invokes Famous Dave's founder Dave Anderson's Native American heritage when embers were passed from one tribe to the next as a sign of prosperity and good luck. The "Passing of the Fire" ceremony involves embers from the BBQ smoker of the most recently opened Famous Dave's restaurant being passed on to the new Blue Diamond location as a continued sign of success.  During today's event, the burning embers were placed inside the BBQ smoker of the new restaurant to ignite the first flame for the new restaurant.


To further commemorate the grand opening Famous Dave's will donate $1 of every bottle of barbeque sauce or merchandise sold, at any one of the three Famous Dave's restaurants, to the MDA association of Southern Nevada.  As a regional sponsor of the MDA, Famous Dave's has previously participated in fundraising events for the MDA. Famous Dave's will also partake at the First Annual Southern Nevada Harley Davidson Ride for Dreams event, to benefit the MDA Association taking place June 7 at the Town Square center.