Category: Lifestyle & Travel Tips

Veterans deserve the best support every day. Vets shouldn’t be payin’ for much of anything on Veterans Day. This is my small part in making sure they get that, at least next Monday.

All the following deals, unless otherwise noted, are for vets in Vegas. I’m listing only fully FREE meals, drinks, free play, and free services. The top 10 are first to make it easy for you to choose. Check location to confirm availability. Military ID and AD/Active Duty ID or DD-214 required. And note that the buffets will be packed.

1. Eureka Casino, $50 free play.
2. Palms, Free AYCE Buffet + $10 free play. Go early and first to the Serrano Club booth.
3. Rampart Casino, free buffet. Go early
4. South Point, free buffet.
5. Pizza Rock, free slice
6. Mob Museum, free admission.
7. Big Boy, pick up voucher for free future meal.
8. California Pizza Kitchen, free meal, dine in or take out, good 11/8-10 and you get
   a BOGO coupon good on 11/12-24.
9. Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, free Double Combo meal good for November.
10. Texas Roadhouse, free meal voucher on Veterans Day, use until May 2025.

Other freebies include:

car wash at Alamo

hair cut at Great Clips

coffee and donut at Krispy Creme

donut at Dunkin’

coffee at Einstein Bros., Peets, Circle K, and Starbucks

smoothie at RWB

6-ounce frozen yogurt TCBY

breakfast at McDonalds, Wendy’s, Denny’s, and IHOP

entree from a special menu at BJ’s

boneless wings and fries at Buffalo Wings

pulled pork sandwich at Dickey’s

chopped pork sandwich and side at Famous Dave’s (code VETERAN)

meal at Golden Corral and Sizzler

Legendary Burger at Hard Rock

Combo at In N Out

Lunch combo at Little Caesars

Burger and endless fries at Red Robin

Classic at Smash Burger

Shareable dinner at RA Sushi Bar

Dinners at Applebees, Chili’s, Claim Jumper, Dave and Busters, Lazy Dog, Macaroni Grill, Mimi’s Café, Olive Garden, On the Border, and Rosa Mexican.

Thank you for your service.

Dedicated to my dad William, pilot B17 Flying Fortress, WW II, received the Distinguished Flying Cross for more than 20 missions, chance of survival was rated one in four. RIP Dad. My hero.

I’m back in Vegas, it’s beeyootiful, and I’m killing it on the dance floor. Standing at the bar, a lovely asks, “I saw you dancing. Wow. Are you with the band?” Some guy offered to buy my hat for $100. It seems I’ve become the unofficial house dancer at Bruno Mars’ Pinky Ring. Though Bruno announced in his Saturday late-night set, “It’s not the Pinky Ring, it’s the Panky Rang.”

If you missed my article or Anthony and Andrew’s post-Super Bowl YouTube video, where I strongly encouraged you to high-tail it over to the “Panky Rang” and missed the super value play, believe me, in the world of Vegas club experiences, this is still so far above the rest, ya gotta go.

Everyone I’ve met there have been staggered by hanging with Mr. 24 K Magic, rockin’ it in his super-intimate ultra-posh penthouse lounge. (You never know if he’s there until, well, he’s there, but hint: Hooligans.) Remember, max capacity is an insanely tiny 186, so maybe 170 get in. And on busy nights, there’s a line.

If you come in between 5 and 8 p.m., there’s no table minimum — again, amazing by Vegas club standards. From 8 p.m. on, you’re buying the table for the night. This is a very good thing. Depending on whether the Hooligans (and possibly Bruno) are playing or the Diamonds, the rates change. You can get a table for two for $150, the minimum. But with the Hooligans on stage, it jumps to $300-$700. A larger table for 6 to 8 is $1,000 or more.

If you want to meet the man, be respectful. Don’t bum rush his space, as Carl and Michael, Bruno’s security, will stop you cold with THEIR pinky.

But do tell Baez, the host at the door, that Bobby Vegas sent you. Please.

The DJs spin around the band, who play at least two sets starting at 9 or 10. The Hooligans do mostly jazz and funk for the first set, then more funk, pop, and disco (my fave) the second set. If Bruno joins them, he plays maybe four songs.

I grew up on “Soul Train,” so believe me when I say that when Bruno sings Marvin Gaye, it’s nothing less than amazing. And I bumped into a big guy at the bar who I thought was gonna break down and cry. “I been comin’ to Vegas forevah! An’ I never seen anything like this this. We did shots with Bruno, man! Shots!”

Bringing this back to LVA, is the Pinky Ring still a value play? Let me answer a question with a question.

If two orchestra seats at Bruno’s Dolby Live show at Park MGM set you back $600-$700 smackolas, is it worth spending $700-$1,000 to hang with the man in his very own lounge, living the 24 K magic live? Your other half will love you forever and you’ll talk about it for years. So if you can’t figure that out, please just go back to where you come from.

Oh, and the final secret? SRO is still free, if you can get in. So get in, early.

What could possibly not happen in that time? Well, let’s see what did.

To start was a six-day Super Bowl event I’d been planning for 18 months. Even with all the client frustrations and a greatly reduced crowd of 15 people, it was a huge success. It took place at Stadium Swim at Circa and the bill was around $10,000.

Shaq’s Fun House at XS at the Wynn the Friday night before Super Bowl Sunday was, in a word, wild.

I got photo-hustled twice, once on Fremont Street and once in the Bellagio self-park.

(I also needed a pinky ring for — what else? — Bruno Mars’ Pinky Ring at Bellagio and bought some fake gold from a “broke Saudi” who needed gas money to get home to San Francisco. It’s okay. I didn’t have to go to a jewelry store, figured it was fake, and got a “gold chain” too, all $100 for what was worth maybe $20.)

Besides, before this trip, I learned that Bruno Mars was opening an intimate lounge at Bellagio and his band The Hooligans was going to play over the first two weeks. I’m a huge Bruno fan, having seen him twice in Vegas and North Carolina. I had to be there, especially Monday night after the Super Bowl. So I booked several reservations for opening night and other nights.

And baby, I became a star. Worked the Bobby Vegas LVA journalist thing all the way home. It was so incredible, I decided to stay in Vegas for the Hooligans’ entire 14-day run or until I fell over dead. I was there for six out of the first eight nights, dancing up a storm with all sorts of hotties and getting a massage the first three days to work out the kinks. The band actually asked to take a picture with Bobby Vegas. But there’s a rule: What happens in the Pinky Ring stays in the Pinky Ring. So the house photographer took the shot and I still don’t have a copy!

Bruno got up and shook my hand the second night. I don’t remember what he said, but let me repeat that. Bruno Mars got up and shook my hand.

I danced with Janelle Monae and her girlfriend (well, okay, there were like 10 of us). I bonded with Jackie Wilson’s son Bobby and danced with Tina Turner’s goddaughter Gladys, who said I was the best dancer she’s ever been with. Two 40-something African American ladies asked me, “You’re from Brooklyn, right?” And a 20-something Colombian I was dancing salsa with said, “You’re Latino, right?”

The hosts all welcomed me back every night like I was the celebrity. I became an honorary Hooligan, spent oodles of money going to the Pinky Ring six times, though it was mostly from wins at video poker and roulette, and brought home tons of swag.

Then I got COVID.

More than a month later, I’m still recovering.