David Mckee's Stiffs & Georges - Dining

Eight Vegas shows reviewed

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:10:00 -0700

As promised, Mike Shackleford's WizardOfVegas.com site has launched. It took a while to get the bugs worked out, hence my review of Scarlett & her Seductive Ladies of Magic didn't appear until after the show had closed. However, to the best of my knowledge, you can not only read about but still see all of the following ...

• Amazed

• Anthony Cools

• Gordie Brown

• Marriage Can Be Murder

• Matsuri

• Sin City Bad Girls

• V - The Ultimate Variety Show

Sample line: "Yes, Marriage can be murder ... and so is the food." Enjoy!

Nothing says Canadian Thanksgiving ...

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:33:00 -0700

... like a three-night stay at Monte Carlo. For $509, you get a trio of room nights and a prix-fixe meal at Brand. But the offer expires today, so take off, eh?

Case Bets: California crisis, M cutbacks, "Guiding Light" in LV, etc.

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:50:00 -0700

Ist California kaput? That's the question posed by the The Observer and it makes for troubling reading. If Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) is right that tourism from California is the carotid artery of Nevada's economy, then the Silver State is -- to put it politely -- screwed. A good thing the Lege didn't follow Midnight Jim's advice and shut down Nevada's outreach efforts in China.

Speaking of which ... Amidst a flurry of economic developments and positive indicators in Macao, the casinos of Stanley Ho are backing off the expensive VIP trade and going mass-market. (Translation: "We're coming after you, Sheldon Adelson.") Thanks to reader mike_ch for the link.

Colossal buMMer. Breakfast has just been eliminated from the offerings at the M Resort buffet. Unless one lives nearby (a relatively small clientele), M is a heckuva long detour to make for breakfast, so this economy move is understandable ... but depressing all the same. No casino buffet gets higher marks from LVA readers.

That's a bit weird. Stay with me here, folks. CBS cancels Guiding Light, replacing it with Let's Make a Deal, which is shot at the Tropicana Las Vegas. So what should be coming to Vegas in December (at The Rio) but a Guiding Light farewell tour -- yes, Reva, Josh and the whole kit 'n kaboodle. How much you wanna bet they won't be taking in a LMaD taping at the Trop? The only way to make this scenario more Banquo's Ghost-ly would be for the soap convention to be held at the Trop, too.

P.S.: Better get your tickets now before the 'Otalia' fans scarf them all up.

Company. Performances resume at UNLV tonight and it's a must-see. Mind you, the Review-Journal praises the Stephen Sondheim revival with faint damns, while the Sun's review reverses that formula. But I'd pay to see it again, which I don't say about many shows in this town.

Want your ass kicked?

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:16:00 -0700

Then go hang out at Stack. If they don't like your looks, the in-house goons will be sicced on you. And Las Vegans wonder at the schadenfreude so many people feel with regard to Sin City's current doldrums.

No magic bullet. Liberalization of casino rules in Colorado will raise considerably less revenue than expected. Whoever made the projections that are now coming up 60% short obviously didn't take the recession into account.

Opposition grows. An effort by Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn to saturate the state with video gambling devices is encountering widening opposition. Chicago suburbs Evanston and Naperville are among the areas that have nixed the prospect of slot routes.

Don't like our roads? Mail your thanks to Gov. Jim Gibbons, who just got his knuckles rapped by the chairman of the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure for laggard deployment of federal highway funds. It's pretty slow around Carson City once the Lege decamps, so what's Midnight Jim's excuse this time?

Sanity 1, Drunks 0. A trio of boozing bozos who rampaged through Buffalo Bill's before piling their car into a ditch can't sue MGM Mirage for their own asshattery, Nevada's high court rules. Since they were drunk off their asses and getting into fights, the trio of boozehounds maintained, casino management had an obligation to keep them on-property ... presumably so they could have continued terrorizing other patrons and otherwise letting the good times roll. In an unrelated victory for common sense, it is no longer a crime in South Carolina to play poker in the privacy of your own home.

Keystone stalemate. Casino owners like Las Vegas Sands who have gone ahead with preparations to add table games will soon be rewarded -- but not until endless legislative machinations play out. House Democrats appear to be backing off a 34% tax rate for tables (J.P. Morgan reports that leadership is now floating a 21% figure) and may even come down to the 12% rate favored by their GOP colleagues. The $10 million upfront fee, though, appears to be a done deal.

All that said, solons managed to spend much of a special weekend session dickering over matters that ought to be none of their business. Like: Should casinos be allowed to serve free drinks to their patrons? Or: Can they operate on Christmas? Now, nothing sounds more depressing than spending Christmas Day at Harrah's Chester, but aren't these matters that ought to be the prerogative of the individual casino owner? Also, ostensibly pro-business Republicans wanted to put table games before the voters, which could render the whole legislative exercise moot ... and relief can't come soon enough for racinos like Penn National Gaming's Hollywood Casino, which is starting to slash its payroll.

Case Bets: P'mousse, Wynn vs. Francis, Natole, etc.

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:53:00 -0700

Tucked away around the corner from the Sahara is local institution Pamplemousse. While there wasn't room for describing the massive crudité basket or the alleged "Mob booth," hopefully this chronicle captures some of the preserved-in-amber ambience of P'mousse.

Steve Wynn, house hunter. What could the casino mogul want with a mansion in Bel Air? Well, if it belongs to celeb-stiff Joe Francis, seizing the house could bring Wynn Resorts one large step closer to settling Francis' $2.9 million gambling debts.

Just for the record, casino treasurer Sue Lowden has officially elbowed her way into the crowded field of potential GOP challengers to Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV). S&G is looking for a replay of 1996's bruising clash between then-state Sen. Lowden and the Culinary Union.

In the wake of the Great Trop Show Massacre comes word from multiple sources that impressionist Rich Natole won't be venue-less for long. Could be he doesn't even have to leave the intersection of Tropicana Ave. and the Strip.

Mommie Queerest. At the risk of praising with faint damns, if you like this sort of thing then this is the sort of thing you'll like. Does the general public have even a dim recollection of Joan Crawford anymore?

Go ask Alex

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:04:00 -0700

Without further ado, we present S&G's much-hyped interview with Tropicana Las Vegas CEO Alex Yemenidjian, a trim, nattily attired man of impeccable manners and refreshing directness, as you will see. I led off with questions from the readership ...

Nelson asks, “What’s your game plan for motivating the staff into offering quality service to your guests?”

First of all, we have a lot of staff that’s already very motivated. When I took over here, it was a very pleasant surprise to see that there is this reservoir of good will. Many of the employees have been here a long time. They love this place, it’s home for them, they are proud of it and they are happy to be part of the future of it, and they’re very excited because these changes that we are proposing is something that they have been waiting for for a very long time.

In addition to that reservoir of good will, we’re going to be implementing a new training program, a new guest-service-quality program to make sure we elevate the service to a whole new level. So I think the combination of those is going to do the trick.

The last time I walked the property, it was very lightly staffed. I saw two maids to a hotel floor, even on a floor with 44 rooms. Rockymet asks, “Will they staff a full size cleaning crew [and] will they spruce up what is/was one of the best pools in Vegas?”

The answer to the first question is, yes, we’re actually increasing our staff in many areas. We’re reducing in certain areas and increasing in others, as the particular area dictates – particularly in the area of guest-room attendants. One of our objectives is for our new rooms that we are designing to look perfect at all times. It’s a whole new image, it’s a whole new brand that we’re putting forward, so we want to make sure that service matches the new brand.

As far as the pool is concerned, [the question is] very timely. I just finished final touches of the design this morning. We will be getting permits by December 1 so that we can open the new pool area by April 1, which is the beginning of the next summer season. We recognize that the pool area is renowned and we want to make sure that we do it justice, so we’re going to be spending a little more money than we originally thought. [smiles] But it’s going to be wonderful.

Jeff in Oklahoma City wants to know if Onex Corp. “is keeping the property warm for MGM until [MGM’s] debt structure gets better” and if this your way back to MGM Mirage?

I can speak for Onex when I tell you that they are not in the business of keeping things warm for anybody.

Your proposed executive team for the Illinois casino you were seeking included Karen Sock and Joe Billhimer, a couple of heavy hitters in the business. Are they or any other well-known executives going to be joining you at the Trop?

At the moment we have an excellent team here. I am very proud of my team. I actually have a team that I wouldn’t trade for any other team in Las Vegas at the moment. As our company expands – and Onex and my intention is to expand by either acquiring new ones or building new hotels – hopefully we will have more openings and more opportunities to have people like Karen and Joe join the team.

Does that mean Trop President Ron Thacker is staying on?

Ron hasn’t been here. Ron decided to retire. He had actually come out of retirement to take this job as a favor to Tropicana Entertainment.

How serious are the deferred-maintenance issues you’ve had to address?

Well, we were spending a significant amount of money on the deferred maintenance that was left to us, courtesy of the previous owners. We addressing all issues, including roof, elevator, escalator – all items of deferred maintenance that have been ignored for a very long period of time, and we are spending whatever it takes to make sure that the property comes up to a top-notch level.

You’ve said that one of the priorities was redesigning the buffet, but what about the food itself? I’ve eaten there and it was one of the worst buffets in Las Vegas.

I agree with you. Lucky for us, you ate there with the previous chef. We have just hired a new chef. He is in the process of changing the quality of the food. He hasn’t gotten to the buffet yet; he is very busy right now in the new restaurant we just opened, an Italian restaurant called Bacio. Pretty soon he’s going to move from there to significantly improving the quality of food at the buffet.

The last I read, Dirk Arthur was on an interim contract, into the autumn. What’s his status going forward?

I think he had a six-month contract. I’m not quite sure when it expires. We’re really quite happy with Dirk Arthur. But we don’t have any particular plans one way or the other. We’re just happy to have him.

How are you able to incorporate Let’s Make a Deal without significant interruption? What kind of infrastructure is involved with having a TV show where Bodies and Titanic used to be?

That’s the pavilion space. It’s 55,000 square feet. It was really sort of custom-made for this kind of a production. We really don’t have much disruption. We have a really large property – 34 acres and we have plenty of space for the additional traffic that is being created.

We welcome the traffic. A little bit of commotion is fun in a casino. It’s actually funny because [contestants] come in these great costumes, walk in and out. We have some major events planned in the pavilion but it turns out that the taping of the first 50 shows will be complete by the time we need to [switch].

You’ve outlined a very ambitious, multi-phase program of changes. How are you going to execute all of that on $175 million, considering how expensive construction and renovation have become in Las Vegas?

Two things. One is, because of the current economic conditions, we are getting at least 30% discounts on all material and all labor. So we only pay $70 million for something that costs $100 million. If we were building this two years ago, it would have been a very different story.

The second aspect to that is that, as you undoubtedly know, a lot of construction projects here in Las Vegas are done with little regard for budget and sometimes people end up overspending. We can’t afford to do that, so we have to make sure that every dollar that we spend counts as $5.

So we are being very cautious and very smart and very careful about making sure that every dollar that we spend, we have an opportunity to impress the customer. And the combination of that and the fact that we’re getting unbelievable bids for the work means that if we announce a $150 [million]-$175 million project, it’s really equivalent to spending $300 million-plus.

Are you ready for some football? No!

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:45:00 -0700

Galaxy Theatres' multiplex at The Cannery has scrapped all its big-screen showings of Monday Night Football, it was announced today, one week into the NFL season. Perhaps the incessant jabbering of Jon Gruden sent patrons screaming out onto the casino floor.

"Historic Announcement" at Trop: New CEO Alex Yemenidjian has booked a press conference on Wednesday morning with a "Special Guest" who represents an "exciting new partnership" in the entertainment sphere. It's the worst-kept secret in Vegas that Mr. Special Guest is better known as blogger Chuck Monster's least-favorite Strip headliner, Wayne F. Newton.

Also, the Sahara is (finally!) pulling the plug on Larry Marshak's ersatz Platters/Coasters/Marvelettes revue. Alas, the last act in this shameful saga of exploitation has yet to play out. The Marshak troupe will actually move up the Strip food chain, to Planet Hollywood. However, its new home is the Wyrick Entertainment Complex, otherwise known as the "Venue of Death." If that doesn't kill the show, nothing will.

Well that's ... weird: The Las Vegas Sun's Brendan Buhler reports that waitresses at Monte Carlo's lounge within the Dragon Noodle Co. restaurant "are dressed as characters from Japanese animé cartoons, a hobby known as cosplay." This strikes Buhler as odd because the U.S. cosplay cosmos is dominated by teens and pre-teens, and is "geeky." (He said it, I didn't.) He likens it to a Miley Cyrus-themed nightclub, before noting that the uniforms resemble "schoolgirl outfits."

Which would explain a lot.

Eight isn't enough. Yet another GOP challenger enters the lists against Sen. "Hapless Harry" Reid (D-NV). Just FYI.

Salvation for the Trop? Definitely!

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:09:00 -0700

From our Today's News pages: "As part of the fruits of its $125 million property-wide renovation, Tropicana Las Vegas today announced it's to open two new restaurants: Havana Go Go Cafe is a breakfast joint/cafe open daily at 7 a.m. Menu items include Cuban bread pizza, paninis, deli-style sandwiches, soups, salads, bagels, muffins and a range of specialty coffees and will debut shortly in the Island Tower soon. Bacio Pasta & Vino is an Italian bistro that debuted today and will be open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m."

Talk is cheap but Alex Yemenidjian is quickly establishing that he means what he says. Now if he can get that balky Wayne Newton contract settled, he'll have a proper headliner for the joint. It's cheering to see some of the entrepreneurial spirit that made Las Vegas great but which has lately been smothered by a Wall Street-driven mania for competition-killing mergers and acquisitions.

No more "free" play?; Sahara sleaze; Donny & Tina; Criss F. Angel

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:29:00 -0700

In a decision that could have wide-ranging implications, Foxwoods Casino Resort and Mohegan Sun have been ordered to count (and pay taxes on) "free play" coupons as though they were revenue. This isn't a sock-it-to-the-players move like the one the Hawaii Legislature just pulled, taxing any money won at a casino (even if it's lost right back and then some). However, the ramifications for consumers if free-play coupons are targeted for taxation are discouraging. Play 'em while you've got 'em.

That stale "sleeping giant" analogy has been dusted off (and I use that verb advisedly) for some pimpery of the Sahara. On the glass half-full side, classy and romantic dinner spot House of Lords has been revived. It used to be a perfect place to take your Special Someone and hopefully will remain so. It's just off the main casino floor -- the most Moorish-themed part of the Sahara and the best "retro" experience to be had in town. (Almost everything else of newer vintage is bland grind-joint crud that needs to go.)

As for the empty half of the glass, that'd be the news that owner Sam Nazarian continues to go downmarket with a vengeance. Because nothing says "classic Vegas" like a tattoo parlor and a biker convention. Worse still, the tramp-stamp place will be in the otherwise elegant main lobby, with extended weekend tattoo-ing times ... since you never know when you want to do something you'll regret the rest of your life.

This "desert jewel rich with history and nostalgia" will continue that tradition with "a wet wife-beater contest, bikini tricycle races, a bourbon paired beef dinner with leatherwear fashion show, and an all-you-can-eat beer fest BBQ with one lucky rider winning a 2009 Harley Davidson Cross Bones bike." It's probably just a matter of time before Nazarian converts the big rear parking lot to a trailer park, too. That's Sam Nazarian for you: "class" with a capital "K."

"Tina Sparkle," flanked by Donny Osmond (evidently still in his pajamas) and Marie, who's looking damn fine from here.

It's old news that Donny Osmond is going to be on the next season of Dancing with the Stars, but I hadn't known he was going to be paired with Aussie Kym Johnson. The latter is known to my Better Half and I as "Tina Sparkle" (it's a Strictly Ballroom thing), which would make for great DWTS levity next season, except ...

... for the soul-crushing news that the gorgeous and talented Cheryl Burke has been twinned with the repulsive (and potentially prison-bound) Tom DeLay, one of "Casino Jack" Abramoff's band of Beltway scoundrels. (Was scum-tastic sleazemeister Rod Blagojevich not available?) Bad luck for Cheryl, good news for DeLay because Ms. Burke could be matched with a tree stump and get aforesaid stump into the final three. If she could carry a woodpile like Cristian de la Fuente to the finale, DeLay should be easy lifting. It looks like he's got the requisite arboreal quality.

Does Criss Angel have compromising photos of high-ranking MGM Mirage executives? The company's "branding" him now, evidently having convinced itself that Believe is beyond wonderful ... and never mind that 11-year-old O regularly outdistances Believe in ticket sales by several country miles. Having sunk $85 million into this Cirque du Soleil turkey, MGM is evidently going to stick with it until the last dancing rabbit is hung.

Stat of the Day

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:43:00 -0700

Beloved by critics and bloggers, Encore is proving to be something of a millstone around the neck of Wynn Resorts. Average daily rates at 'Wynncore' are down 39% for the year to date, compared to a "mere" -25% at neighboring archival Palazzo-Venetian. Unlike Wynn, however, Las Vegas Sands does not seek to be King of the Price Point.

Wholesale revision of Encore is in the works after only eight months, which if nothing else proves that Steve Wynn is at least tacitly willing to admit that it's time for Plan B. If his nightclub expansion translates into the imminent demise of Switch, tant pis. That gimmick-driven restaurant has been Encore's inarguable flop. Possible loss of the conservatory-like atrium would be a more serious worry: Without it, Encore would become a considerably darker and more claustrophobic casino -- as though it weren't having foot-traffic problems already.

Abraca - OMFG!

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:53:00 -0700

Scarlett, Princess of Magic has settled into her new revue, Scarlett and her Seductive Ladies of Magic, which finally gives me a reason to encourage people to visit the Riviera. The video below is taken from Scartlett's family-friendly V Theater show (long since closed) but many of the same tricks are reprised, on a bigger scale -- and with far less clothing. Her instance, the one-piece has devolved into a 'barely there' red bikini. Make sure your pacemaker is in working order.

There's some incredibly perfunctory toplessness from two assistants/dancers but it's Scarlett who brings the sexy -- and how! If this doesn't work out, she'd make a formidable contestant on Dancing with the Stars, too. I'm no great judge of magic but Scarlett is definitely the most hot-cha Strip headliner not named Marie Osmond. In a classy gesture, Scarlett's former presenter, David Saxe, was at the Riv last night amidst the well-wishers.

As for the Riv itself, corner-cutting is omnipresent, sometimes amusingly so. The post-Scarlett cocktail party featured but a lone plate of bruschetta and some cheese cubes. When they were (quickly) gone, they were gone. The Riv is just hanging on by its fingernails, even if it's not fallen off the cliff yet.

Amazed. It looks like an open-ended run is assured for this afternoon comedy show, highlighted by guitar-playing impressionist Mark Rayburn. (After you've seen him, you'll never take Gordie Brown seriously again.) Tickets are just a wee bit steep for a 2:30 p.m. show, but this is a winner, much better than certain comedy shows which I've seen and/or reviewed recently. I can't recommend it too highly. My more extended impressions of Amazed and Scartlett are due for publication in the near future.

Buffet bulletin. No word yet on whether MGM Grand, Luxor, Excalibur or Stratosphere are reining in their all-day buffet specials. Ben Bernanke's confidence notwithstanding, optimism in Vegas should be tempered with caution ... and price increases probably should not even be contemplated until those downward-trending visitation numbers start heading up for a change. One needn't be an economist to see that Nevada's recovery, when it happens, will be slow in coming.

The juice behind the juice. Could the speedy restoration of Privé's liquor license, following some cosmetic changes in management, have had another motive? Like maybe a precipitate dropoff in Planet Hollywood foot traffic? Xania Woodman reports, you decide.

Goliath gets a clean bill of health.

Goliath adopted? There's a glimmer of hope that little Goliath may soon find a new home. Why then am I so melancholy?

Economic recovery in sight?

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:24:00 -0700

Vegas casino F&B directors seem to think so. From our trusty LVA research department comes word that The Orleans and Mandalay Bay are ending their one-price-all-day buffet specials. Better/worse still, Palace Station is hiking the price of its buffet -- by four bucks. One doesn't know whether to applaud this apparent harbinger of better times ahead or deplore the swift yanking of the "Welcome" mat out from under customers' feet.

Contract talks with magician Lance Burton, you'll recall, went right down to the wire. One possible sticking point? Burton has lost his 10 p.m. slot, which as of today belongs to Frank Caliendo, who'll be doing a 9:30 p.m. show four nights a week.

Good move. Burton's family-friendly act seems an odd fit with the late-show crowd. Besides, Caliendo is on network TV regularly, which Burton isn't. Between this, recruiting musical act Zowie Bowie and rolling out Hotel32, Monte Carlo is making a spirited attempt to stay in the limelight, even as CityCenter looms larger and larger next door.

Study Hall. Just what Nevada needs, another "study" of the tax structure. What's to study? At least 27% of the tax base comes from gaming revenues, which have been in decline for 18 months. A comparable portion comes from retail sales, which have been down two entire years and counting. The problem is obvious but the will to rethink it is rather less in evidence. Here's a hint: We need a plan which is not simply another variant of "Soak the tourists."

Kitty rescue at Caesars; Stingy Station

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:43:00 -0700

As we were driving to LVA HQ this morning, we spotted a disoriented-looking little cat running through the Flamingo Rd./I-15 interchange, across from Caesars Palace. We were in a quandary about what to do until it turned and started ambling down the I-15 "on" ramp, heading straight for certain death. I ran down the ramp after it (the kitty's a fast little bugger), scooped it up in one hand and ...

Well, what to do? I am now the custodian of a small, tuxedo-patterned kitten who may be carrying God knows what infections. It's too docile to be a feral cat but it's definitely going to need a new residence. So if anybody reading this can lend a helping hand to a homeless kitty, contact me at dmckee@huntingtonpress.com. I could just plop the wee bairn out in the LVA parking lot, along with our resident strays, but they're all massive and it would be a very Darwinian situation, I fear.

Cheesparing at Station: The formidable Jean Scott has news of some recent and untoward developments at Station Casinos, as the bankrupt company resorts to new "economy" measures. While the Fertitta clan sinks approximately $90 million into Orange County mansions, they're recouping the cost of their poor business decisions out of their customers' hides.

Random observations: Last night, we celebrated my Better Half's birthday, partly at Cadillac Ranch, which seems to have an identity crisis. Its menu is slightly countrified (in a C&W sense), its walls are covered with photos of Baby Boomer rock stars (think Steven Tyler) and the video feed is heavy on hip-hop. Go figure. The root beer float is very good, though. At 10:30, as though by prearranged signal, an incoming tide of douchebags flooded the joint and we split ...

... the classy southern façade of Mandarin Oriental has now been marred by a building wrap, high up on one corner. It's small by building-wrap standards, managing to both spoil the view and look like a timid half-measure ...

... speaking of building wraps, Criss F. Angel has long since been evicted from the eastern façade of Luxor. A new wrap was placed on the northeast corner of Luxor's ancillary hotel, but it's also smallish and -- due to way the hotel's buttresses jut forward -- hard to see if you're driving into Vegas from the south. Then again, if I were MGM Mirage, I'd probably want to downplay with association with the widely ridiculed Mr. Angel, too.

Neverland Station?

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:22:00 -0700

So long Viva, hello Michael Jackson?

According to NBC News, parts of Neverland Ranch are going to be dismantled and moved to -- you guessed it -- Las Vegas. Who owns Neverland Ranch? Colony Capital? Who has amassed enormous tracts of Vegas-area real estate? Station Casinos. And who is the majority owner of Station Casinos? Colony Capital.

NBC reports that New!Neverland would be (re)built "near the Las Vegas Strip." I humbly submit that now we know what "Tropicana Station LLC" is going to be and why it was shielded from the recent bankruptcy filing.

The current home of ramshackle Wild Wild West and proposed future home of $11 billion metaresort Viva, Station's Tropicana Ave. site owns the acreage Colony would need -- and no other Station- or Colony-held asset quite fits the NBC-outlined criteria. Also, if you're feeling peckish, there's an Inn 'n Out Burger across the street. (If the Fertitta clan tried to drive that away, not even their newly acquired Orange County mansions would keep them safe from pitchfork-wielding mobs.)

Case Bets: Hard Rock, Puck, Station, Greek Isles

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:55:00 -0700

Morgans Hotel Group has never seemed able to make up its mind about what to do with the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (one of the stranger acquisitions of recent years). Then-CEO Ed Scheetz came in talking big about classing the place up and raising ADRs. Fast-forward to '09 and the HRH is staking everything on its skanky Rehab parties (does the staff have to don hazmat suits when cleaning up afterwards?) and going for the mid-price market midweek.

One can't fault the latter half of that strategy, especially if you're in an off-Strip location and could use the traffic. However, if Morgans goal was to increase Hard Rock ADRs, perhaps it shouldn't have embarked on a ginormous expansion that practically obliterates Peter Morton's original hotel and dilutes the asking price per room. Also, I don't know whether to praise Morgans for doing the impossible and completing (sort of) its Paradise Tower well ahead of schedule ... or criticize it for being in such a hurry to churn some EBITDA that it's opening it in an unfinished state.

But here's hoping the business model works. The HRH is one of the few places in town that's hiring, not downsizing. At lot of people's jobs are riding on its success.

One less Wolfgang Puck restaurant on the Strip? That's hardly a culinary tragedy, given that he's still got -- what? -- five other places in town and has become the Ronald McDonald of haute cuisine. A laughable poster in McCarran International Airport uses Puck's visage to push the message, "Less celebrity, more chef." Uh, better put that the other way 'round.

The real tragedy here (aside from the loss of jobs) is the temporary demise of Poetry, one of the few venues in town to cater to an upscale African-American clientele. Harrah's Entertainment and the Forum Shops went out of their way to put the dagger in Poetry. Now they congratulate themselves on a job well done. Thanks for nothing, fellas.

Bondholders finally lost patience with Station Casinos, tripping the bankruptcy lever. Interestingly, all Station casinos (small "c") are shielded -- which implies that it's Station's imperial expansion plans which are are shot and that its considerable real estate holdings could be up for grabs. It looks like über-resort Viva, long-suffering Durango Station, Losee Station and umpteen other projects are kaput.

Too bad for Station partner Colony Capital; if the latter goes forward with its Neverland Ranch tourist-trap plans, it may have to disassemble the old Michael Jackson Xanadu and relocate it, lock, stock and menagerie. And what does/did Station have in abundance? Raw land. It was a marriage made in businss heaven but it surely won't reach the altar now.

Speaking of suffering, what's back on the auction block but the Greek Isles, which is $23 million underwater. Even at a revised valuation of $44 million, isn't that far too much to ask for this unremittingly unsuccessful property, the second coming of the Castaways? Perhaps it's time to exorcise this ghost which haunts the dead zone that is Convention Center Drive.

Longoria meets CityCenter

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:44:00 -0700

A power outage really f-ed up our computers here and destroyed a finished S&G entry ("Save," my ass!). So, to lighten the atmosphere, here's actress Eva Longoria, who stars in a TV show I cannot stand, trying to look excited about a model of CityCenter:

The two gentlemen are CityCenter CEO Bobby Baldwin and Crystals at City Center prexy Frank Visconti. You've got to feel sorry for them because if Eva Longoria's in the photo, you might as well stay home. Ms. Longoria is tactfully posed to conceal the newly truncated Harmon, aka Baldwin's Bump. The actress was in town to tout the opening of a Strip branch of her Beso restaurant, which will be in Crystals. Yeah, I know, like you cared about that.

OK, so it's not another Carmen Electra picture, but I'm doing the best I can, guys. (Photo courtesy of Kirvin Doak)

"Link" to Nowhere

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:49:00 -0700

On and off, over a four-year period, Harrah's Entertainment teased journalists (and, by extension, the public) with hints of a really big project to be announced really soon ... whenever they got around to it, that is. Well, the Harrah's mountain hath labored and produced ... a mouse.

"Project Link" isn't without virtues, even if they're largely negative ones. It isn't another high-end, multi-billion-dollar megaresort. It's not a budget-buster, period. It's not über-expensive food and retail. And it does entail giving modest facelifts to a couple of Harrah's tattier Strip properties: O'Shea's would lose its faux-Dublin façade and the Imperial Palace's Strip frontage (and pagoda roof) would be supplanted with what appear to be enormous LED screens.

It also acknowledges what's long been one of the problems of Harrah's consolidation of the east side of the Strip into one ginormous province. Namely, that to redevelop it in any significant way would involve taking one or more of a string of multi-story cash registers out of business. True, you could start from the back, maybe knock down the IP first, but at some point push comes to shove and a major cash-flow-producing Strip casino (most likely Harrah's Las Vegas) would have to give way. In a sense, the real estate was already too lucrative to be redeveloped.

Arrival at this plan involved acknowledging certain factors that should have been obvious long before CEO Gary Loveman went on a buying spree. For instance, that MGM Mirage/Wynn Resorts-scale megaresorts are a low-ROI proposition. Or that such a creation might impinge on business at ever-growing Caesars Palace. (It never ceases to amaze me that Harrah's spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to determine what, say, Hunter Hillegas could tell them for free.)

Of course, any new resort built in Lovemanville wouldn't have to be high-end/low-return. That's just the industry group-think of our day; that you "justify" the land's cost by superimposing a hella expensive megaresort atop it, then justify that outlay by charging prices that relatively few can afford.

The notion of luring pedestrians off the Strip and down a multi-dogleg side street is an untested notion. Give Harrah's points for thinking outside the box here. It'll mean getting Vegas visitors to break ingrained habits but it could eventually stimulate further off-Strip development.

For all I know, it could be Gary Loveman's longstanding fantasy to own a 600-foot Ferris wheel with an (at least) 200-foot "HARRAH'S" logo lighting up the night sky. But do I believe this is what he had in mind when he supervised the purchase of vast tracts of Koval Lane real estate at top dollar? Not for a moment. Especially not when you consider he's been sweeping it clean of low-rise housing developments that might otherwise have been of income-producing use.

Now, like Gershwin's Porgy, he's got plenty of nuhtin' and nuthin's plenty for him. His projected Ferris wheel will be sitting (as you can see from the rendering) smack in the middle of a wasteland, a void, a whole lotta nowhere. At least the circus can pitch its tents there the next time it comes to town.

It's harder still to believe that this (mini-)master plan was concocted two years ago and kept under wraps until now ... unless it was a before-the-fact, low-budget, "Well, we've got to do something" concession to the development-crippling effect of the LBO. Even so, secrets just aren't that well kept in this town.

Then again, it often seems if Loveman himself does not know what Loveman has in mind. Take for instance, his recent contention that building a Strip megaresort was too big a risk for Harrah's. Not compared to taking on $24 billion in LBO debt it wasn't. And you could build a megaresort and a half for the $5 billion in company value Loveman recently wrote off.

The biggest threat to Project Link may be Loveman -- or rather his short-attention-span style of leadership. While some cunning master plan may be apparent to his inner circle, the leitmotif of Loveman's tenure as CEO has been to jitterbug spastically from one short-lived initiative to another.

Having gotten right up to the threshhold of having to decide what to do with Lovemanville, his trigger finger grew weak. He pulled a U-turn and flung Harrah's into the arms of Texas Pacific Group and Apollo Management, a move with disastrous consequences. (Especially for the consumer, as TPG/Apollo's plan was to gut the company all along.) At least it had the short-term benefit of sparing beloved local institution Battista's Hole in the Wall from Loveman's bulldozers. As with his jihad against revenue-participation games like Wheel of Fortune, Loveman often seems oblivious or (far more likely) indifferent to what customers like or want.

In the two years or so it will require for Project Link to obtain startup capital, the odds are considerably better than 50-50 that Loveman will have lost interest and moved on to something else. If he doesn't, it would be a very pleasant surprise.

Not what the doctor ordered

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:29:00 -0700

While the Better Half and I managed to quaff at least some of the infamous bacon martini w/o negative ramifications, we were not so fortunate with Sunday night's visit to a certain casino buffet. Suffice it to say that the carnitas cosseted a modest case of Montezuma's Revenge and that blogorrhea was KO'd by otherrhea.

So I'm taking advantage of a 20-minute lull between a doctors' visit and a trip to the dentist to bang this out. The big news in Vegas this morning is the collapse of a rebar column out at the McCarran International Airport expansion, injuring five. So far there have been no fatalities, thank God.

A Bataan Death March of shows continues tonight with Sin City Bad Girls at the Las Vegas Hilton. I wriggled out of seeing Todd Paul at Hooters last night, though I hear he was very funny. (Hooters scares me; is death contagious?) Wednesday brings yet another visit to Phantom of the Opera, followed on Thursday by Peepshow 2.0 and a Friday pair of one-acts featuring members of Insurgo Theater Movement. After which, I will not leave my apartment for a long, long time.

Quote of the Day

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:27:00 -0700

"With the economic downturn a fact of life and the attendant drop in tourism equally incontrovertible, Las Vegas has had to climb off its plush ass and start offering people deals again." -- Lissa Townsend Rogers, surveying happy hours at Mandalay Bay.

Goodman for governor ... again?

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:21:00 -0700

It's been bruited since at least 2002 and it's happening yet again: Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is mulling a gubernatorial run for the umpteenth time. "Spoiler!", cry some. I look at the uninspiring field (Montandon, Heck, Midnight Jim, Buckley, R. Reid) and ask, "What's there to spoil?"

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story: Drove the Chevy (Cobalt) to the levee but the levee was dry. How do you stretch a 75-minute tribute act into a two-hour/two-act Broadway musical? Badly, it seems.

Xanadu: It wasn't just a wretched Olivia Newton-John movie, Kubla Khan's pleasure palace or Charles Foster Kane's crib. It was also was also Martin Stern's unbuilt casino magnum opus. Dr. David G. Schwartz has revived his online museum dedicated to this project, "Paradise Misplaced." If it had been built, over 30 years ago, Xanadu would probably be one of those Strip casinos we now chuckle at, thinking it small, quaint and perhaps overdue for implosion. But it might have saved us from having to look at the oversize eyesore that is Excalibur, which looks laughably crude next to Stern's elegant designs.

Dr. Schwartz even recreates the Vegas of 1975. We've come a long way since then ... but who wouldn't want to hop into the Wayback Machine and experience the more spacious Strip that existed 34 years ago?

In between trying to wrap up Question of the Day essays on Carl Icahn, Stan Fulton, and condo sales in Las Vegas, I'm clearing the blotter of a few things that have fallen through the transom lately, such as ...

Elements: CityLife's Al Mancini didn't care for this new eatery, just off Tropicana Ave. The not-quite-missus and I ate there on opening night and had a better experience for our money. This review, intended for the most recent Las Vegas Advisor, didn't make the cut, so I offer it for your delectation:

Oscar didn't turn up for the May 13 opening but he'd definitely be in his, uh, element here, considering that the menu boasts no fewer than 253 martinis. Choosing but two was difficult but we opted for a chocolate-banana martini and the Miami Vice. If you want Strip-quality (or better) eating and drinking at off-Strip prices, you cannot go wrong with Elements. Both the martinis and the small plates inhabit the $7-$9 range, while the costliest entrée tops out at $25.

We started with the Kona beef short rib on gorgonzola polenta ($9) and it did not disappoint in either tastiness or generosity of portion. There are only two steaks on the menu but both were outstanding, though the black angus flank steak ($21) is quite a bit spicier than even the peppercorn-garnished black angus filet ($25). Both were accompanied by mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables. Only the dreaded cold butter-on-cold bread basket and sluggish service (despite a small crowd) detracted from a flavor-rich experience.

"Livestock exchange at Circus Circus soon to follow"

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:55:00 -0700

That was how Daily Fiasco tweeted (twat?) an amusing essay on the Mario Batali farmers' market at -- of all unlikely places -- The Palazzo. It begins: "If there’s one thing casinos have been missing, it’s bushels and bushels of fresh produce. Sometimes, when you’re sitting there pounding away on the max bet button at nickel slots, all you want is a cold beer and some just-picked arugula. Or do you have to be some kind of high roller ..."

Quote of the Day

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:28:00 -0700

“People don’t want high-end these days, certainly not from this place. We’re getting all kinds of business from the Venetian, the Wynn, [T]he Mirage, from people who don’t want to pay $15 for orange juice.” -- Treasure Island owner Phil Ruffin, on the changes he's making to the pirate place.

Quote of the Day

Thu, 28 May 2009 18:24:00 -0700

"He may have trouble completing his 2-year contract on an exclusive diet of Mr Lucky's chicken fried steak & eggs ..." -- e-mail reaction to a PR agency's blasting of the info that Carlos Santana went to aforesaid eatery and "ordered chicken fried steak and eggs, his usual and according to him, for the seventh time in a row." [S&G author clutches at heart.]

I knew him when ...

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 13:07:00 -0700

Even when we were both students at Macalester College (Class of '83) in St. Paul, Minn., the future courses of both Matt Entenza and myself were set: I was the consummate underachiever and he the consummate politician -- a term that is often meant pejoratively but not so here. Matt knew when to hold them and fold them, with the consequence that he got a great deal accomplished within the system.

However, when the Significant Other and I attended a 25th reunion party at chez Entenza on a sticky late-spring Twin Cities evening last year, I hadn't so much as an inkling of the surprise that Matt had up his sleeve ... although anybody who'd known him should have seen it coming decades in advance. Today he announced his candidacy for the Minnesota gubernatorial nomination on the Democratic-Farmer-Labor ticket. (And, yes, I've already been hit up for a campaign contribution.) Even without knowing who his opposition will be, I think it's safe to say that Matt's extensive DFL connections and not-inconsiderable skills give him the inside track.

S&G doesn't endorse individual candidates, not even ones with whom we attended school. So let's just say that after the erratic Jesse Ventura and underwhelming Tim Pawlenty administrations, a Matt Entenza governorship would be by definition an improvement. (So might a Donald the Duck administration, but I digress.) The same might be said for previous DFL gubernatorial nominees, who have tended to put the "L" (as in "loser") in "DFL."

It's certainly nice to think that the party's standard bearer might be someone I admire, instead of yet another election cycle of, "Oh no, not that clown!" The Peter Principle is a founding tenet of DFL politics but perhaps now 2010 will be the exception to that rule. Also, until further notice, I am holding myself available for the position of Minnesota's Special Emissary to Las Vegas ... especially if it requires "fact-finding missions" to various and sundry casino buffets.

Survey says ... that 90%+ of Americans think the economy is an important issue. Pardon my bluntness, but who the Sam Hill are the -10% of Americans that think the economy isn't important right now and what are they smoking? Wait, I've got it: They must be the ones filling up Internet messages boards parsing, prasing and profaning the profound pensées of Carrie Prejean, Miss California ... although I'd swear she hails from the great state of Mattel™.

Quote of the Day

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:26:00 -0700

"WTF is up with the people who write about restaurants these days? After yesterday's Aria madness, now we get 'dining rituals' at the Ritz-Carlton. Are they sacrificing virgins out at the lake?" -- e-mail reaction to the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas' announcement of new "Weekly Dining Rituals."

A too-florid 'Aria'

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:47:00 -0700

As MGM Mirage winds the clock toward Aria's Dec. 16 debut, it's launched a Web site to showcase the resort's restaurants. The over-the-top verbiage was too much for one LVA staffer, who annotated it thusly:

AMERICAN FISH by Chef Michael Mina

Is that like "American Gangster"?? And how do you truly tell the nationality of a fish?

SIRIO RISTORANTE by Restaurant Legend Sirio Maccioni

Oh, so no longer do we have "celebrity chefs"; now we have "restaurant legends"???

AND;

"Ingredients from the earth, sea and air …"

As opposed to??

JEAN GEORGES STEAKHOUSE by Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten

"The expected becomes unexpected"

Haha!! So when you order a steak, we bring you a cauliflower!!!!

OH!OH!OH!, and this one's my favorite:

"Green pastures, cows and the theory of human vanity"

This is a description of the decor?? HAHA!!!

Inside the wizard's lair: If they sold tours of Steve Wynn's office, it'd be the hottest attraction on the Strip. Steve Friess got the next best thing -- a peek behind the curtain of Wynn's design nerve center. More accurately, he was able to tour the office of Roger Thomas, the aesthetic guru of Encore (above) and many another Wynn property, and take copious photographs. Love or hate Thomas' work, it's set the trends that the rest of the Strip follows.

'Golden' customer service

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:16:00 -0700

Kudos to Mark Brandenburg, the managing partner of the Golden Gate. His frequent on-site presence and accessibility to guests really brightened the experience of some recent Vegas visitors. They'd had multiple bad experiences at Binion's Gambling Hall and the Four Queens. (So much for the new service ethic that Terry Caudill supposedly brought when he purchased those Downtown institutions.) By contrast, their stay at the Gate was distinguished by good customer service, and by Brandenburg's gracious and good-humored interventions on their behalf.

They also give the Gate praise for its ginormous Cobb salad -- haven't tried it myself, but maybe I should -- among other gustatory pleasures. (Could it be bigger than the Peppermill's banana split? That thing's the size of Palazzo.) There was less praise for other Downtown casino restaurants, including one that served what is described as shoe leather masquerading as fish.

Back when I profiled it for Casino Executive Magazine (R.I.P.), the Golden Gate was by far the most charming of the Downtown casinos. I'm glad to hear that, in this age of mega- and meta-, the "small is beautiful" mindset is still paying dividends. If you want to see "old" Vegas in the truest and best sense of the term, it's the place to go.

Un-Believe-able discounts

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:15:00 -0700

Seen yesterday at the Luxor ticket booth: A video message promising 35% off Believe tickets if you stay at the King Tut place between Tuesday and Thursday (inclusive).

Heck, just last week Luxor trotted out one of the most "george" package deals I've ever come across: For a two-night/$420 stay, you'd get: "all you can eat at the buffet" (LVA readers don't like it and neither did I), plus pairs of comped tickets to the Titanic and "Bodies" exhibitions (S&G recommends the former, won't go near the latter -- creeptastic); free admission to both LAX and CatHouse; Nurture spa day passes; and, yes, a pair of freebie seats for Believe.

At a very conservative estimate, that's $431 in comps for a $420 room (not including hotel taxes are sundry add-ons). Yes, Vegas is giving away the store.

And yet ... not so desperate that you can score free tix for Fantasy. No, you are condemned to see Believe. If it wasn't clear right after opening night, it's painfully evident now that if this vanity production were any more of a dog it'd have mange. Forget a 10-year contract. This turkey will be lucky to eke out 10 months.

(The best Cirque du Soleil show remains Ka, which has some famous fans.)

What's more, you can enter a drawing to win Criss Angel's automobile (a Corvette, I seem to recall). If that car is anything like Angel's show, as soon as you get the keys and registration, it'll have to go into the shop for weeks of vague "fixations."

'M' is for 'mobbed'

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:08:00 -0700

Local naysayers have been gleefully predicting the swift demise of M Resort for weeks now. And I'll admit I even entertained a few doubts as we drove out there yesterday morning. I mean, unless you live well south of Vegas proper, you have to drive all to hell and gone to reach M. Was that initial fortnight of frenzied business just a novelty phase?

Boy, were my doubts misplaced. M was crawling with players and other customers at 10 a.m. on a Sunday, with lines soon forming for just about every restaurant on the property. That's to say nothing of the number of people queuing up to join the players' club. That was about a half-hour wait, followed by what must have an even longer one for the buffet, although my bad back was flaring up so fiercely that A) it played hob with my sense of time and B) I was sure I'd be leaving M on a gurney.

That buffet is no doubt one of the main drivers of M's early success. (Savvy marketing is another.) Both in breadth and quality, it rivals the two buffets at The Rio, thereby putting it in the top three among off-Strip buffets. M manages the not-inconsiderable feat of putting Station Casinos' Feast buffets in the shade and the respectable Sam's Town one is left completely in the dust.

Leaving M, you'll pass the once (and future?) site of Gary Goett's Olympia Gaming casino-resort (above, as originally conceived), now retitled Legends at Southern Highlands. One billboard vows an April 2010 opening, which is preposterous, while another -- right next to it -- only promises 2011. As of this writing, not so much as a spadeful of earth has been turned. This project was announced before M but has slipped into the "believe it when it happens" category.

Donald Trump likes to sue but this time he's on the receiving end. Depositors in insolvent Trump Ocean Resort Baja are claiming "fraud, negligence, unjust enrichment and violating federal disclosure laws" after the project blew through $31.5 million worth of deposits with nothing to show for it but a hole in the ground. As is quickly becoming the case whenever a Trump-branded product goes belly-up, the orange-haired TV star is claiming he had nothing to do with it.

Encore encores: Restaurants up the Wazuzu

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 15:12:00 -0700

Wazuzu: The iconic dragon's head alone weighs 800 pounds.

Society Café: Roger Thomas' favorite of the various Encore restaurants. If you don't mind dropping $30 on breakfast, you'll like it too.

Botero: At this size, sadly, the photograph doesn't even come close to doing the place justice. It's a little cramped, but memorable, and the cuisine is the best at Encore (and also the priciest).

The bar area, complete with a Botero original. They serve the wickedest sangria in town.

Sinatra: It was to have been "Theo" and the Chairman of the Board theme was a late addition -- but it works.

Not a bad place to wait: The Sinatra bar, complete with two obelisks and an ornamental ship that Thomas salvaged from a defunct New York City hotel. Bon voyage!

Errata

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:49:00 -0700

I was wrong: Bloggers were being comped at Encore, after all. Both Hunter Hillegas and Chuck Monster were enjoying its hospitality this week, among others, including one local fixture nicknamed "the Hindenburg."

(Digression: Wynn Resorts might want to rethink the emphasis on theatrics at Switch. Costume changes and sliding walls are all very nice, but service errs toward the slow. The most sophisticated -- and most expensive -- food is to be found at Botero, so I'll give the overall nod to Sinatra for (slightly) more affordable cuisine, prompt service and the most atmospheric setting.)

Also, I made a goof on the most recent Vegas Gang taping. In my attempt to plug Bob Dancer's brand new Video Poker for the Intelligent Beginner, I erroneously referred to it by the name of his software, Video Poker for Winners. The new book complements the software, but I apologize for promulgating misleading information.

Rogues' gallery

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:08:00 -0700

After a fitful start, blogorrhea is sweeping the business desk of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, resulting a veritable flood of news nuggets today ...

Planet Hollywood prexy Michael Mecca has resigned to pursue the proverbial "other opportunities" at a time when revenues have been up. On the next Vegas Gang, Jeff Simpson predicts -- with unassailable logic -- that Mecca is going over to Crown Ltd. to head up James Packer's North American gambling operations (in which case Mecca will have his work cut out for him, but congratulations all the same).

A less-charitable alternative theory would be that Mecca has been scapegoated by Planet Ho for having been in charge when it got dragged into the Omar Siddiqui scandal. (The indicted ex-Fry's Electronics exec lost $9 million there in one gambling session alone.) Planet Ho's lawsuit against Siddiqui got tossed last month.

"No more wire hangers!" Whatever the case, somebody leaked Siddiqui's player profile to the San José Mercury News and, geez, this "whale" sure is a whiny little bitch. (Sorry, I meant that to read, "a high-value, loyal customer and a good friend of our casino staff, who look forward to his every visit.")

Good news for visitors: The Nevada Department of Transportation is at least talking about widening I-15 south of Tropicana Ave. Whether NDOT can get the money from Gov. Jim "Scissorhands" Gibbons is another matter, but it can at least remind Midnight Jim that he himself identified California as Nevada's Numero Uno tourism priority in the course of disparaging Asian marketing as "a waste of taxpayer money."

And who knew that the Circus Circus RV park was the new "in" place to stay?

Randy Black, aka Mr. Thrift. Many of his employees are out of work, the former Si Redd's Oasis may be a hollow sepulchre these days and his Black Gaming has defaulted on debt. But we don't need to pass the hat for the self-aggrandizing Black Sr. quite yet.

Seeing financial havoc all around him, Black decided that austerity measures are for other people (like his employees) and awarded himself a nearly 4% raise for this year, escalating to 5% for each year afterwards. Whatever meagre EBITDA Black's Mesquite casinos achieve, 5% of that will be redirected into Black's pockets as a "management fee," on top of $21,200 in other goodies.

At a time when Nevadans from all walks are being asked, or sometimes told, to accept wage freezes and outright reductions, Black's greed is a disgrace to the state. R-J reporter Arnold Knightly is to be commended for keeping tabs on SEC filings and ferreting out not-so-niceties like this.

In other news ...

Folies Bergere: 49 is the new 50.

From showgirls to no-girls: What's Ron Thacker's first official act as president of the Tropicana Las Vegas? What else but shut down Folies Bergere well shy of its 50th anniversary? The no-frills spirit of Columbia Sussex remains, protestations to the contrary, clearly alive and well [sic] at the Trop.

Thacker's press release made noises implying that the Trop had a replacement for Folies waiting in the wings but, when pressed by Norm(!) Clarke, a Trop flack could only weakly respond that it was "exploring options" and was "definitely not closing up shop." (The Trop gave the Las Vegas Sun a different, more definitive story, saying it does have a new show en route.) Unspecified property improvements are also promised. Pardon my skepticism, but we've heard that before -- and are still waiting.

Geez, first Titanic and Bodies take a hike over to Luxor (where they're doing even bigger business). Now this. Since it's a just a wee bit too cold for swimming right now, is there any reason left to visit the Tropicana? Bueller ... Bueller?

Harmon blame game: It looks as though the truncation of The Harmon into a 25-story stump is ultimately the fault of the same people who overlooked scofflaw remodeling jobs at sundry Harrah's Entertainment properties: Clark County's ever-(not)-vigilant building inspectors. "What? Fifteen floors of deficient rebar you say? Gosh, I guess I missed it. My bad. When's lunch?"

The Las Vegas Sun's story comes with a helpful graphic that shows how Perini Building Co. and its subcontractors ineptly installed and then further compromised the rebar that ultimately turned the (would-have-been) 49-story Harmon into what we might call The Half Harmon. In the accompanying video, Clark County's Ron Lynn threatens the culprits with a "potential disciplinary hearing." Oh, they must be quaking in their boots.

Peppermill exec in line for state job. No, not the beloved Peppermill restaurant on the Strip but rather Reno's Peppermill Resort Casino. Director of Marketing Kim Stoll is one of six finalists for the job of Nevada's tourism czar. Not making the cut was underqualified Gibbons crony Kirk Montero. Then again, Gibbons wants to eliminate the selfsame job that he tried to gift-wrap for Montero, so maybe the also-rans in this competition are its real winners.

The red badge of comping

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:48:00 -0700

Once again, the Post-Eating Server (our technologically evolved version of Charlie Brown's nemesis, the Kite-Eating Tree) has devoured something intended for the "Comments" section, so I hope you'll indulge me while I respond to reader mike_ch lthusly ...

I used to slag you when you were on That Other Site [Las Vegas Business Press -- Ed.] and were calling Wynn childish names over his labour dispute, but now it's starting to float in the other direction. And you're not even the first person I've heard say that the best channel is the one where Steve talks all day long.

When you see the rest of the channel lineup, you'll realize that's not quite the compliment it seems (since I didn't notice any free HBO, Showtime or Cinemax in the repertory). However, the dance-competition show on Italian network RAI did give "Steve TV" (or maybe "sTeVe") a run for its money.

Also, I forgot to mention that the TV is set (deliberately?) to the incorrect scaling mode, so that non-HD channels display in that "stretched" setting that makes everybody look 50 pounds heavier. (Gotta use the whole screen, y'know.) Re-set "aspect ratio" to "native" and everything will be fine. However, since my apartment complex -- among its many other crimes against humanity -- balks at replacing a corroded cable-TV line, staying at Encore is as close to HD cable as I'm going to get for a while.

Those of you who weren't around for the "childish names" not only didn't miss anything but need only know that they were pejorative references to some plastic surgery (or Botox-ing maybe) that had very unfortunate -- but temporary -- side effects on Steve Wynn's face. It was a lapse on my part that I'd like to think I've outgrown or am at least trying to (ditto Sheldon Adelson's coiffure).

Per the ongoing dispute over Wynn's tip-confiscation regime and his generally shameful treatment of his dealers (covered in detail at LVCityLife.com), I'd like to paraphrase something once uttered about composer Richard Strauss: To Steve Wynn the casino impresario, I take off my hat; to Steve Wynn the person, I put it back on. His tip grab was not only a giant blotch upon an otherwise industry-leading record in labor relations, it was petty, stubborn and -- unless he relents -- it will follow him to the grave.

Seriously? And I've been hearing about this "media day," but did they really shack said journos and bloggers up in complimentary rooms?

More like a week, actually. Four days of events. As for who was comped: Journos, yes. Bloggers, I dunno. Not me, though. My (red) badge relegates me to the anonymous status of "Media Guest." Which serves as a useful restraint upon one's ego.

And nobody wondered whether that would affect credibility? (Note I'm not singling out you here, I've heard about this event from others on Twitter and I figure if they're bringing bloggers along then the Medium-Large Media must be getting this, too.)

Some of Wynn's most favorable coverage comes from Greenspun-owned media outlets and those folks aren't allowed to accept anything worth more than a buck, so I question the efficacy of comping. It certainly doesn't make a substandard experience (names withheld to protect the guilty ... for now) any less irksome, especially since you're receiving something of dubious financial value in return for the surrender of that which is priceless and irreplaceable -- your time.

Also, if I've been comped to something, I try to include that caveat in my postings, so that readers can weigh my coverage accordingly. (Constantly mentioning that yours truly was the proverbial "plus one" does, however, have the bathetic side effect of seeming like a constant proclamation of, "Look! Look! I have a girlfriend!")

As for my opinions of Encore, the Dec. 22 media walk-through set them pretty much in stone, with slight amplifications and alterations during "Media Week." If/when I can afford it, I'll be back as a paying customer, as I've been at the Venetian (very good) and MGM Grand (not so good). Which reminds me that I have to book an anniversary dinner at Sinatra ...

Of course Steve Wynn knows how to run a company, but I'm not so convinced that I'll join his Official Fan Club, even if he does leave members a personal message on their birthdays.

If you're like me and think that, with a few exceptions, most other casino operators on the Strip wouldn't have a clue (or would be stuck 10-20 years in the past) without Wynn's example, it's easy to sound fan-clubby. But I don't harbor any illusions that I'm even a blip on Steve Wynn's mental radar, so I don't expect to receive any birthday greetings from him ... and would be mighty suspicious if I did.

(Actually, if I got a personal message from Steve Wynn, I'm extremely confident that it wouldn't be "happy birthday" but would be of a rather less pleasant nature.)

Anyway, since S&G is meant to be more of a conversation than a sermon, I hope that my impromptu dialogue with Mike has provided something of value (at least reaching the Greenspun-mandated $1 threshold).

Now I must be off to find out what the heck -- if anything -- ever happened to that "For Sale" notice Don Barden hung upon the downtown Vegas Fitzgeralds property.

Deep Red: Encore

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:53:00 -0700

As much as casino-watchers have been vexed by the total media clampdown on all but the smallest scintillae of revelation about Steve Wynn's Encore, it was worth the wait. Or, to put it differently, Aria and Fontainebleau have just been given an exceptionally difficult act to follow.

I say that as someone who was disappointed with Wynn Las Vegas when it debuted in 2005. Despite the modernity promised by the exterior, what I found inside was a pastel-colored version of Bellagio -- smaller, muted, rearranged and more than a bit fussy.

Let it not be said that there is anything pastel about Encore, nor anything tentative. For starters, primary colors are back "in" with a vengeance, specifically red. Now, I like red but we're talking RED!!! For relief, the VIP area is dominated by green. But did I mention to utter profusion of RED??? If Dario Argento designed a casino, this would be it.

My tour group, which included fellow Vegas Gang-sters David G. Schwartz, Chuck Monster and Robert Earl's favorite writer, Hunter Hillegas, had the good fortune of being in the tour group led by Wynn Resorts design guru Roger Thomas. For the latter, Encore represents his Vegas swan song and it closes the circle in other way: As Thomas put it, when Wynn and he remade the downtown Golden Nugget, it was the death knell of that Vegas staple, "the red casino." Not another would be built after that. "We killed [the red casino], we get to bring it back," Thomas says by way of explaining the riot of scarlet luxuriating throughout Encore.

Above and beyond its coloristic impact, Encore is the most tactile casino on the Strip and probably in the U.S. You'll be wanting to "cop a feel" many times over, whether it's of the wood finishes, the wall coverings or the sculpted textures like the "wall of bodies" that ushers you into nightclub XS. (Once you get in -- if you get in -- the view across the dance floor and the "European" [read: topless] pool to the al fresco bar opposite is one of the bigger "wow" effects at Encore.)

They mix a mean sangria there, too. The color scheme is as gilded as the casino is reddish and Thomas confesses, "I'm certain Goldfinger had a little to do with it." Whatever the case, it's like Christian Audigier -- The Nightclub (right down to the fashion boutique) but for people with taste.

There will be other articles and blogs appraising the aesthetic and functionality of Encore, so I'll leave the assessment to experts and confine myself to various jottings made while trying to walk and scribble simultaneously.

Thomas, who's been with Wynn since 1981, describes himself as the "partial author" of The Mirage, the seminal property of contemporary Las Vegas, and "full author" of Treasure Island. He's not necessarily patting himself on the back, as he says that one of the lessons learned at the Island was not to fully theme a casino (a lesson that several non-Wynn casinos failed to heed) and not to have one designer do the entire hotel. His subsequent approach has been to assemble teams he knows and admires, who hit it off with Wynn himself, and who have the reputation of being on time and on budget.

Despite those last criterion, not every last light fixture or handrail was in place (some uninstalled fixtures, left carelessly in the middle of a hallway, nearly cost posterity the future writings of Dr. Schwartz). Nor did we get more than the teensiest peek at the Encore Theater, which has been redone -- again -- for Danny F. Gans. The proscenium has been moved back but that's the only specific we were given.

Flocked with butterflies. Other than the ocean of RED, the design element likeliest to be mentioned are the omnipresent butterflies. They're in the moldings, the tiling, the wall coverings ... in short, everywhere. Not only do they "represent an abudance of good luck," they provide Thomas with a metaphor for the transformative process he and Wynn enjoy: turning the unromantic elements of cement and steel into an escapist paradise. There are no Strip views at ground level because, Thomas says, "When you're cocooned at Wynn, everything is beautiful." (He did not, however, croon" ... in its own little way.")

The third design element, less obvious to the eye, is a running motif of garlands of laurels. These were inspired by the most famous tale of metamorphosis (no, not Franz Kafka's), the myth of Daphne, depicted in a statue in the Lobby Bar & Café. Yet another reinvention is Switch, the restaurant whose decor changes every 20 minutes. It sounds godawfully corny but, in actuality, it's wondrous to behold -- like a dining experience by way of Cirque du Soleil. The revelation of multiple 18-foot chandeliers is a particular coup de theatre. "Steve can't help himself," Thomas explains. "He's a lover of theatre."

Encore's Esplanade mall has less natural light, more space than its opposite number at Wynn LV, which was one of the areas where it was most obviously "Bellagio II." The decision to mix design styles is evident in the amalgam of sharp angles and wave forms in the conjoined Rolex/Wynn & Co. boutiques. It provides relief from the overall aesthetic -- as intended -- without making a violently contrasting statement.

(My favorite design element, in truth, was the chair in Wynn & Co.; pure Heaven to anyone with an aching back. I want one, dammit!)

If natural light is somewhat lacking in the mall, Encore's atrium more than compensates. This vaulted, latticed space is Wynn's biggest "You have arrived" statement to date. Its conservatory-writ-large style manages paradoxically to be both grandiose and subdued. It's crowned with a pair of huge sconces salvaged from a demolished hotel in Cap d'Antibes.

Path of Excess = Palace of Wisdom? In the mall and, in fact, throughout the property, Thomas' preference for layering details sometimes induces sensory overload. The stated intention was to create a property that would require several visits to fully appreciate and one can report: Mission Accomplished. For instance, if there's a spa in town more ornate and in-your-face indulgent than the mere lobby of the Encore spa, well, I've not seen it. Several in my group agreed that Wynn could charge people for audio tours of Encore, and rightly so. It feels less like you're being shown through a resort and more like being given a walk-through of a working palace.

A good thing, though, that Wynn's attempts to buy up and demolish the nearby Guardian Angel Cathedral were rebuffed, though. Not only could Wynn use some guardian angels in the current economy, Encore's beauty parlor overlooks the cathedral and, were it not there, you'd have an all-too-clear view of some genuinely craptastic buildings on Covention Center Drive. The Catholic diocese did Wynn a favor by turning him down.

Of the many iterations of "suite" at Encore, we were shown two: a Tower Suite that makes up in comfort what it lacks in size (it's generous to call it a "suite," though it may make you feel better about what you're paying to stay there) and a Salon Suite in which you could land a helicopter. Something very intense and Asian was going down in what appeared to be an even larger suite at the end of the hall -- a huddle with the CEO of Tagruato Corp. perhaps?

Even the elevators are differentiated in their decor. One had a red alligator-skin motif while another was clad in butterflies rampant on a field of purple. I mean, we're talking spare no expense here, folks. The fabric for the drapes in the VIP room was purchased three years ago and kept under wraps until now.

The Sinatra restaurant is dominated by gargantuan, larger-than-life-size portraits of the Chairman of the Board himself. Is it a restaurant or a shrine? I felt I ought to genuflect or at least make the Sign of the Cross. But the real conversation-starters here are two hefty obelisks which flank the bar, while overhead sails a bejeweled galleon. Thomas rescued these from the shipwreck that was a failed New York City restaurant.

Society will be, for want of a better term, Encore's bread-and-butter restaurant, as well as a must-visit for chocoholics. Thomas' goal here was, "A room that Oscar Wilde would like."

Now stop for a moment. Can you imagine Thomas saying that to William Weidner and getting anything more than a basilisk stare? Or having a conversation with Gary Loveman about the metaphorical significance of butterflies? The Harrah's Entertainment CEO would probably just want to know what the return on invested capital from butterflies was going to be.

Which goes to the heart of what makes a Wynn property different from anything else in the marketplace: His willingness to invest monetary and artistic capital in things which don't translate to the bottom line in a quantifiable way but which create a "must-see" factor. I have no idea what the ROI of the Bellagio fountain is but it's -- and not arguably, I'll contend -- the fulcrum of the Strip, the icon off of which everything else plays. Wynn is an anomaly: a casino industry CEO with the temperament of an artist ... but an artist who's chosen a very unusual art form by which to express himself.

To have come all this way and not have spoken of the Encore casino floor itself is not to imply that it's an afterthought (the way the Venetian's casino floor feels like a waystation between the super-grandiose lobby and the Grand Canal Shoppes, for when you simply must shoppe 'til you droppe). Actually, quite a bit of thought has clearly gone into the casino, the part of Encore in which Wynn's experience with Macao is most prevalent.

Even more than Wynn LV, it's dominated by semi-secluded areas. But unlike the serpentine traffic patterns of its sister property, Encore's casino is neat and orderly, laid out in a street-and-block system, with superior lines of sight. Bucking the "more is more" trend, Encore has only 850 slots, which we're told are on an infrastructure ready for server-based-gaming when (or if) it takes off.

The innate conservatism of Wynn's approach here is the sort of thing that stands him in good stead with the banks. (Server-based Aria could be a triumph of gaming technology but it's a helluva ski jump.) In the mass-market area, each '21' table is flanked by a pair of table lamps, providing an appealingly homey (or "very residential," in Thomas-ese) vibe to the table game pit.

Steve Wynn looks suspiciously like he's been Photoshopped into his own atrium at Encore, but at least it gives you a sense of scale.

It's difficult to rank Encore in the pantheon of recent Las Vegas megaresorts because Wynn's most serious competion in the last decade has been ... Steve Wynn. Even had Palazzo's rollout not been a near-total botch, it still has that expensive-shopping-mall-that's-doomed-to-fail look about it. Planet Hollywood, had it all reopened simultaneously, would have flung some serious "Wow!" at its audience, but Robert Earl's had to relaunch it incrementally and progress of late has been agonizingly slow. Other than the Criss Angel bomb Believe, it may be the Strip's most expensive work in progress.

So ... will Encore create excitement unto itself? I believe so. Does it represent not only a leap forward for Wynn but an even bigger one than expected? Yes and yes. But ...

Will it drive business? If I owned WYNN stock (which I don't), I would sleep very well tonight.

Steamed at Suncoast

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:23:00 -0700

Every so often, both Jean Scott and I yield the floor to casino customers who have a beef with The Man. One such gentleman approached me today and, with his permission, I am reprinting his letter, which he has also shared with Jean and with the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Heidi Rinella. I've made a couple of discreet elisions and bold-facings but otherwise you are reading the letter as I received it.

"I had a major incident concerning a comp/coupon I received in the mail early in September that I feel I need to relate. This incident made me 98-degrees angry. Please read the following as I attempt to explain ...

"Early in September, I received a coupon from Suncoast for a $50 credit for dinner at the newly-opened Salvatore's Restaurant in the Suncoast Casino. I decided to go over there tonight to redeem this coupon, have a nice dinner and gamble for a few hours afterwards. When I approached the maitre d', I asked for a table for one (I am single) and informed them I had an offer I received in the mail. After about a 10-minute wait, I was ushered to a booth located in the back corner of the room, a location I really did not mind. I was brought a menu and wine list and a glass of water. The restaurant was not crowded ... However, I was refused service: I waited a good 25-minutes before I walked out without having anyone approach my table to take my order. As a matter of fact, no one approached my table. No waiter/waitress. No busboy. No bread sticks. No acknowledgement. I was left there and forgotten.

"I then went over to the Club Coast booth across the casino floor and asked to speak to a manager. I was given a Supervisor after I was told the manager was off-duty. Not a problem. The Supervisor offered to make a call to the restaurant owner and I was told to wait a few minutes while a representative from the restaurant would come over to offer an explanation/apology.

"Finally, after several long minutes, the Assistant Slot Shift Manager came over to apologize. The restauarnt [sic] personnel didn't even care enough to come over to discuss this matter. The Slot Shift Manager ... was gracious and apologetic, and offred [sic] to comp me and a friend a meal on a subsequent visit. I told him -- and on this I will stand on -- that I would never step foot in Salvatore's again, and I will not come back to gamble at any Coast Casino as long as that restaurant remains in the confines of Suncoast. I then proceeded to go to Red Rock Casino, where I had a quick meal and gambled a few hours.

"I cannot believe how I was treated at Salvatore's. If they didn't want to serve me, they should not have shown me a table. And, they should not have been part of this comp! I am not only angry, but offended, and consider this offer a cheesy way of getting me into the casino.

"They have lost a valuable customer."

Strike three for Lucky Strike

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:04:00 -0700

As of tomorrow, there'll one less amenity at The Rio. Its bowling alley, Lucky Strike Lanes closes at the end of business today. Harrah's Entertainment completely misread the market on this one. The only time I saw it a-swarm with the sort of yuppie-dom (or yuppie-dumb, if you prefer) Harrah's hoped to attract was on the grand opening, which was graced by some "reality" TV personage -- such is the debased currency of "celebrity" in Las Vegas today.

Every other time I went by, Lucky Strikes Lanes was either A) filled with families or B) pretty much empty. The one time we tried to reserve a lane, we were snottily informed that none would be available for hours -- although almost no one was playing at the time. Throw in an overpriced menu and you had a venture that thought it was too cool for the room.

Wrong! Don't let the doorknob hit you on the way out, guys.

Case Bets: PR, Trump

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:49:00 -0700

Press releases are always manna on a slow news day but sometimes you get one (OK, many) that make you want to pull your hair. For instance, I received such a specimen late yesterday from an agency that shall remain nameless -- last name rhymes with "Coke" -- breathlessly informing me of a new restaurant at Luxor. There was all the usual, meaningless verbiage: "fun, high-energy vibe," "rock-n-roll flair," etc.

The kicker was the announcement that aforesaid restaurant would be "Exploding at Luxor in mid-September." And when did I get this super-urgent blast? That's right, September 29, the next-to-last day of the month; this Tail End Charlie goes right back there with the time that Tilman Fertitta didn't announce the grand opening of his Golden Nugget steakhouse until two weeks after the event. (P.S., The food was greasy, Tilman.)

As for all that "high-energy," "rock-n-roll" mierda, if I'm going to this place (called T&T), my intention is to enjoy my dinner at a pace and in an ambience that don't give me indigestion, not to shake my booty 'til I puke. If want to rock out, I'll go home and put on my ABBA at Wembley Arena DVD (if the climactic rendition of "Hole in Your Sole" doesn't get you moving, check your pulse). And when I want to eat ... I probably still won't go to T&T after this lame-ass promo.

One more thing: The press release also mentions that the Titanic exhibit, still anchored at the Tropicana, will be making port at Luxor "in 2009." Which could mean 14 weeks or 14 months. (Translation: Luxor has no idea.) But at least we know we shouldn't expect its trans-boulevard voyage to happen anytime soon.

Pleasant surprise. I was able to tag along for a tasting menu at DJT, in Trump International, which is subdued and even posher than it looks on the Web site (the restaurant, that is). At the moment, it's also the best-kept secret in Las Vegas, judging from the handful of diners on a Friday night. The recently repriced menu is quite affordable, depending on how closely you watch your budget: You could also find yourself dropping $75/person here without even trying.

The hotel lobby, too, is quite restrained by Vegas standards, although the superabundance of gold leaf, gold glass and onxy would scream "TRRRUUUUUUUUUUMMPPP!!!!!" even were his name not already writ large on the building. The main problem it faces boils down to three words: location, location, location. Unless your prime directive is to log considerable quality time at Fashion Show Mall (Trump's porte cochere is directly opposite Nordstrom's), you're a bit of a hike from anything else. And, if and when Elad Properties gets started on redeveloping the vacant land where the New Frontier once stood, you'll be on the backside of a construction site, too.

One doesn't normally equate the words "Trump" and "bargain play" but the hotel's saving grace may be its room rates. Our top-notch research team vetted a series of October-December dates and found Trump to be consistently competitive with -- and sometimes cheaper than -- Paris-Las Vegas. It's also less expensive, whether by $40 or $170, than Wynn Las Vegas. Then again, my hunch is that customers would probably pay the extra $40 for the cachet of staying at a Steve Wynn property and right on the Strip -- not to mention being at the front door of Fashion Show Mall rather than the back one.

Casino woes hit tribal turf

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:18:00 -0700

Construction at two Seneca Gaming Corp. projects in New York State has ground to a halt. The stoppage is blamed on "challenging economic and capital market conditions, greater demands on the company's available cash and increased competition and construction costs.''

Sound familiar? What happens at Echelon not only doesn't stay there, it may be coming to a casino market near you sometime soon. In the Senecas' case, the National Indian Gaming Commission is threatening to cut off their part of the flow of casino cash altogether. But it still adds another casualty to the list of scrapped, frozen, delayed, bankrupt or scaled-back casino projects around the country.

Newest casualty: Seneca Allegany Casino

It's been a longstanding fundamental of casino development that it was self-sustaining: the more supply, the greater the demand. Wall Street analysts never thought there was anything wrong with Las Vegas that wouldn't cured by "the next round of megaresort openings." (If they had their druthers, we'd be opening a new one every week.) Hence the long queue of states wagering greater and greater amounts of their fiscal health on casino taxes.

As the state of Nevada is learning the hard way, the elasticity of casino-revenue growth is finite -- and tightening. Since that's the lone arrow in the Silver State's financial quiver, we're going to feel the pain worse than other states, but other legislatures and governors are going to wake up the fact -- if they haven't done so already -- that the casino industry isn't just some magical pump from which an infinite and ever-larger gusher of money doth spout.

Speaking of matters tribal, it'll be a poke in the eye with a sharp stick to Native Americans if Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is the GOP veep pick. During his tenure -- I was going to follow that with "in the governor's mansion," but Pawlenty refuses to live there, actually -- he's been a divisive figure on the tribal scene, pitting Indians against other Minnesotans and against each other. It would be difficult to find a White House more inimical to tribal interests than the current one, but Pawlenty's ascendancy hardly augurs well for the future.

Media event done right. With much grumbling and many misgivings, I tagged along to media night at BLT Burger (and thus finally got to meet lovely MGM Mirage PR stalwart Sandy Zanella, after many years of e-communication). Surprise, surprise: The event wasn't overbooked, the music wasn't too loud, there was plenty of space to sit down, and the food offerings were actually representative of the restaurant's menu. (I'm looking at you, Brand.)

Admittely, the fried pickles didn't come around nearly often enough ... well, only once, actually. But there were generous portions of everything else, and the service was both frequent and solicitous (something that evidently has not always been the case). I'm still unsure what to make of BLT's upscaled versions of diner favorites -- falafel burgers, anyone? -- but it put its best Buffalo wing forward.

"Self righteousness is its own reward." That's what my Dad always told me and it's certainly true of this wretched documentary. By the way, the unidentified woman in the photo is Darlene Jesperson, the bartender that Harrah's Entertainment fired because she wouldn't wear makeup (a requirement, it goes without saying, that was imposed only on female employees). Harrah's beat the rap, freeing it and the rest of the industry to carry on with a plantation mentality that should have been swept out decades ago.

'Vox' populi, vox dei

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:20:00 -0700

Prices for Sunday brunch on the Strip can make one light in both the head and the wallet. All the more reason for residents to feel justifiably smug as we make out like bandits at Vox. Two can dine quite well here without spending even $30 -- much less, in fact. We sampled the gazpacho, the (very rich) chorizo, as well as the coffee-crusted steak with eggs and were well pleased with everything put before us.

Nor does that take into account the live music, the cheese tray, the pastry tray, the bagel tray ... we'd run up the white flag before they could wheel out dessert. Perhaps our only miscalculation was to opt for the Bloody Mary (bland, with no olive -- a cardinal sin) instead of the mimosa. And, alas, the chaise love seat is impractical for dining purposes.

But, on balance, this is a steal and the atmosphere can't be beat. Shhhhhhh! Don't tell anybody!