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Do you think there will ever again be a buffet in Vegas comparable to the Sterling Brunch?
Our first impulse is to say no.
The Sterling Brunch at Bally's was a one-of-a-kind epicurean experience and these days, with the number-one priority of the casino companies being increasing shareholder value, the trend is high prices for, alas, garden-variety caliber. Even a humdrum dinner buffet like Bellagio's is $75-$85 per person, including tax and tip.
The Wynn's spread is a noticeable notch above Bellagio's for $80-$85 and it's $90-$100 for the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars. That's approaching the price of the Sterling Brunch right there, which was charging $125 per person when it closed last year.
So how much would a buffet comparable to the Sterling have to be today? $130? $140? $150? Of course, it included king crab legs, American sturgeon caviar, and unlimited Perrier-Jouët Champagne, so -- what? $350 for a couple including tax and tip?
Who would pay that?
But as we say, that was our initial inclination. Given the prices of high-end dining on the Strip these days (we recently ran a QoD about how much it costs to eat at some of the restaurants at Resorts World, where $350 for two would be a bargain), it's not inconceivable that a food and beverage executive at, say, Paris, Park MGM, Cosmopolitan, or Circus Circus (kidding) might give it a shot, though probably not at Bally's, in the process of being rebranded as the (rustic downhome country-cousin) Horseshoe.
And considering how buffet crazed Las Vegas visitors are, it's possible that enough of them would pony up that kind of money for the kind of out-of-this-world AYCE experience that the Sterling Brunch represented.
So which is it? To us, it's a pick 'em.
But what do youse say? Let's take an informal poll on the question. Did you ever pay the freight to eat at the Sterling Brunch and would or wouldn't you fade, say, $350 for a reincarnation of it?
We visited the Mob Museum on our last visit. We saw that the museum is housed in the courthouse where the Kefauver hearings were held. I didn't think I was interested in that, so I didn't read about it while we were there. But later I began wondering about them. Who was Kefauver, what were the hearings about, and why were they a big deal?