Nick Della Penna, co-owner of The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill, has signed a three-year lease to open a coffee shop directly across the street from Las Vegas Academy of the Arts, with a plan to send 100 percent of the profits back to the downtown magnet school. The Muse Cafe is set to open within 60 days at 601 E. Bridger Ave., the same downtown block where Della Penna, Clark County officials and school leaders gathered Wednesday for the lease signing.
Della Penna, who is 61 and also serves as president of the Friends of Las Vegas Academy Foundation, projects the cafe will generate roughly $100,000 in annual profits once operating, all of which he plans to direct to the foundation, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He secured a lease with two additional three-year renewal options inside a building owned by Samuel Schwartz, and he says he intends to stay involved with the cafe even after his daughter, Soaren, a junior majoring in visual arts at LVA, graduates from the school.
The space sits inside what real estate listings identify as the Schwartz Law Building, a 15,867-square-foot commercial property built in 2018 that last sold for $3.25 million in November 2017, according to LoopNet. Before its closure in July 2025, the same address housed Brew It Coffee House, a community hangout with board games and study spaces that owners Patty Bell and Willie Villanueva opened in July 2022, per the City of Las Vegas.
Students Get a Hand in Nearly Everything
The Muse Cafe will serve breakfast, lunch and catering alongside an espresso bar, pour-over cold brew and seasonal drinks, and it plans to stay open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. But the menu is only part of the pitch. LVA art students will design the cafe's logo and wall murals, theater tech students will create the barista uniforms, and DECA students will run the marketing and social media campaigns, according to the Review-Journal's reporting.
Film students at the school are already producing a documentary chronicling the cafe's opening, and music, theater and dance students are expected to perform live on stage inside the space once it opens. The idea, as described in the seed reporting, is to give students a working space to socialize and to share and sell their own art alongside the coffee and food.
A School With National Honors and a Budget Gap
Las Vegas Academy carries serious institutional weight to back the venture. The school has received 12 Grammy Signature School Awards, the most of any high school in the country, according to Chic Compass Magazine. In February, the Clark County School District announced that LVA had also been named a Top Magnet School of Excellence by Magnet Schools of America for the current academic year.
Even with that pedigree, the school has faced financial strain. The Friends of Las Vegas Academy Foundation reported last August that LVA was facing a district budget shortfall exceeding $1.2 million for the current school year, underscoring why outside fundraising has become central to keeping programs running. The Review-Journal reports that the school has paid $2,500 for a basic microphone and $10,000 for a harp, and that it still needs theatrical and film equipment, technology, instruments and other resources for its music, dance, theater and art programs.
LVA, built in 1930 as Las Vegas High School before transitioning into a renowned magnet school in 1993, currently serves 1,750 students. Its original Academic Building and Gymnasium were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, with that historic designation later expanded to cover the full 15-acre campus in March 2022, according to the National Park Service.
A $350 Million Campus Plan Draws Scrutiny
The cafe launch also arrives alongside a much larger, and more contested, building push. LVA is in the middle of a decade-long, $350 million campus upgrade that has already delivered a completed $76.3 million parking garage and gym, with a student union, theater and additional arts buildings still planned. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported in October that policy analysts at Nevada Policy questioned whether pouring that sum into a single campus made sense given facility strains across the wider district; the master plan aims to grow enrollment capacity from 1,750 to 2,150 students.
Clark County Commissioner William McCurdy II and fellow Commissioner Michael Naft, an LVA graduate, both praised The Muse Cafe project at Wednesday's lease signing, according to the Review-Journal's account of the event. Principal Lezlie Koepp was also present as the deal was finalized at the corner of Sixth and Bridger streets in downtown Las Vegas.
A Restaurant Veteran's Bet on Coffee
Della Penna's confidence in the cafe's revenue projections stems from his track record building The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill, which he co-owns and which now has 85 franchisees around the country and the world, including 11 locations in Southern Nevada. The chain grew systemwide sales by 44 percent in 2024 to $73 million across 64 locations, landing at No. 21 on Technomic's Future 50 list of fastest-growing chains, according to Restaurant Business.
That growth mirrors a broader shift in American dining habits. Fast-casual Mediterranean concepts are projected to be among the fastest-growing restaurant sectors nationally through 2034, with a 9.7 percent compound annual growth rate, as Hoodline recently reported in coverage of the sector's expansion beyond Las Vegas. All profits from The Muse Cafe are slated to flow directly to the Friends of Las Vegas Academy Foundation, the registered 501(c)(3) that also hosts the school's annual Experience the Arts Gala fundraiser each February.
