Barry Jonas called it. His report on MGM Resorts International‘s 3Q25 earnings was headlined “The Summer the Strip Turned Pretty … Bad.” Ouch. But true. He kept a “Buy” rating on the stock but shaved a dollar off his price target, now $47/share. Jonas reported that MGM is leaning on high-end business, hoping for stabilization in 4Q and growth next year. Is CEO Bill Hornbuckle seeing the same indicators we are? Because the latest “Beige Book” for the Upper Midwest was pretty dire. If the rest of the U.S. is suffering comparably, MGM is going to feel the pain.
You can find them year-round, but oyster “season” is currently in full swing – and will be through April. And while they can be pricey, Las Vegas still has some great deals on the little mollusks, many of which are limited to Happy Hour menus. They shuck, and you suck – but at least the bill won’t.
Basilico (6111 S. Buffalo Drive) – This Italian restaurant located within the Southwest Valley’s Evora apartment complex has a great Happy Hour, seven days a week from 4 to 6 p.m. But Wednesdays are special, because that’s the day they add $1 oysters. There’s a 6-oyster minimum on the deal, which will still leave enough room in your belly for the salads, pastas, flatbreads, beer, wine and cocktails of the everyday Happy Hour menu, all of which are priced between $5 and $10.
Palate (The Arts District) – A sister restaurant to Basilico (above), Palate also offers $1 oysters every Wednesday, as an addition to their usual Happy Hour menu, which is available Wednesdays through Fridays from 3:00 to 6:00 and Saturdays from 4:00 to 6:00. Other deals include $5 beer, $8 wine, $9 cocktails, and small bites from Chef Sterling Buckley from $7 to $10.
Proper Bar at Proper Eats (Aria) – Proper Bar, adjacent to Aria’s Proper Eats Food Hall, is the only part of the food hall that offers a Happy Hour promotion, and it’s a good one if you like Oysters: Blue Point oysters for $2 each and specialty oyster enhanced cocktails from $9 to $16 each. Try the Mezcal Kicker (Fresh Blue Point Oyster, Mezcal, Grapefruit Juice, Lime Juice, Agave Nectar, Jalapeño, Sea Salt) or keep it simple with a half-dozen oysters for $2 bucks-a-shuck. You can take advantage of the Oyster Happy Hour promotion every Monday through Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.
Momofuku (Cosmopolitan) –Celebrity Chef David Chang’s Cosmopolitan flagship is known for combining Korean, Japanese and American influences with signature dishes like bao buns, ramen and a large-format roasted duck. From 3 to 5 p.m., seven days a week, their Social Hour Menu has ten items priced at $10 or less, including a half dozen oysters for $10. You’ll also find draft beer for $8, Highballs for $10 and wine or sake for $12.
Sugarcane (Venetian/Palazzo) — Located on The Venetian/Palazzo Restaurant Row, just across from the Voltaire Theater, Sugarcane offers modern American food with global influences, with a heavy emphasis on their raw bar and sushi offerings. Their two weekday Happy Hours, which run from 3 to 6 p.m. and again from 10 p.m. to midnight every Sunday through Thursday, include a few Spanish dishes, but lean heavily into the seafood side of the menu. That includes Chef’s selection oysters for $2.50 each. Wash them down with one of four $7 craft beers, or a nice selection of cocktails and wine for $8 apiece.
Circus Circus – Circus Buffet: This weekend’s Breakfast Buffet is Sat & Sun, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. for $32.95 and dinner’s Fri & Sat, 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m. for $40.95.
Nobody does luxury like Las Vegas, where a small but significant portion of visitors are always looking for a way to make their experience a little extra. In the restaurant world, that might mean touches like freshly shaved truffles, edible gold leaf or, of course, caviar.
Up and down The Strip, chefs have found that adding a touch of briny sturgeon roe can take any dish, from appetizers to entrees, to a new level. (And let’s be clear, when a foodie talks about caviar, they are only talking about sturgeon eggs.) Many restaurants offer cute little caviar snacks to entice the curious. Some have gone so far as to create seasonal caviar tasting menus. And others pull out all the stops with elegant spins on traditional service. The result: caviar is more popular than ever in Las Vegas.
You can probably find caviar in most of Las Vegas’ more luxurious resorts – if you look hard enough. These four properties, however, have some of the best offerings on The Strip.
Caviar is prepared tableside at celebrity chef Michael Mina’s Las Vegas flagship, on a cart dedicated exclusively to the delicacy. Options include three distinct types of sturgeon roe: Imperial Golden, Tsar Imperial Daurenki, and Royal Baika. You can get one, or a flight of all three, in a classic presentation. But I prefer the Caviar Parfait the chef created for his wife on their honeymoon, which layers caviar, chopped egg, diced salmon and horseradish crème fraîche atop a tiny potato pancake.
Located just off the Bellagio lobby, Petrossian is ideal for daytime tea, late-night cocktails, or caviar at any hour. Owned by the most famous family in the caviar world, it’s no surprise that several of their best products are offered with the classic accompaniments. What might surprise you are the caviar-infused small bites, which include tacos, deviled eggs and tuna cones. Snack on them while people-watching and enjoy the live pianist in the lounge.
Wynn’s elegant new lakeside seafood restaurant offers classic caviar service as well as small bites. The former is meant to be shared by the table and includes anywhere from 27 grams to 100 grams of Golden Ossetra roe alongside the classic accompaniments of blinis, crème fraîche, chives, egg whites, egg yolks and shallots, for between $250 and $725. For curious newbies, Chef Martin Heierling also offers bumps of Kaluga caviar with salmon and whipped kefir on airbread for $50 apiece, and “classic caviar” on Iberico Ham Croquetas, adorned with gold leaf, for $48.
Wynn’s sultry supper club offers refined cuisine with old-Hollywood glamour to create the perfect atmosphere for a caviar indulgence. Ossetra is served with delicate waffles, egg mimosa, and crème fraîche. Indulge as you listen to a jazz singer, or perhaps a famous pop performer, belt out classics on the small stage positioned in front of a stunning art deco bandshell. But don’t snap a selfie; Delilah has a strict no-photos policy.
French master Guy Savoy and his team of Las Vegas chefs have no trouble making use of caviar in all sorts of dishes. None, however, are as beloved as the signature Colors Of Caviar appetizer, created specifically for the Las Vegas restaurant. It’s a savory parfait with layers of caviar, caviar crème, green bean purée and warm sabayon sauce, offered on both the tasting and à la carte menus.
Located in the space that was once home to Cleopatra’s Barge, Caspian’s is part lounge, part music venue. Drop by the front lounge to sample caviar-based snacks like tacos, deviled eggs, and lobster rolls topped with roe. The bar program offers playful cocktails. And when you’re done here, the Montecristo cigar lounge (just a few steps away) ia a great place to continue the luxury experience. But before you leave Caspian’s for a smoke, make sure to check who’s performing in the live music speakeasy, assuming you can find the secret entrance.
Aqua was originally known as Caviar Bar, before broadening its focus to celebrate a wider range of seafood. But sturgeon roe still features prominently on the menu. Chef Shaun Hergatt offers six varieties of his own brand, Caspy Caviar, including a luxurious Golden Ossetra. They offer it with traditional service, and atop appetizers like Steak Tartare, Sushi Rice Cakes, Shrimp Toast and Wagyu Toast.
Caviar is featured on a dedicated menu at this spinoff of a beloved Beverly Hills wine shop, alongside charcuterie and fine cheeses. Service is traditional, with four options on the caviar — Reserve Ossetra, Polish Ossetra, Polish Siberian and Kaluga Imperial — priced from $150 for 28 grams of the Kaluga to up to $1,800 for 250 grams of the Reserve. The menu even suggests the perfect beverage to accompany each.
First things first: Crossroads Kitchen is a plant-based (vegan) restaurant that does not use any animal products, so no, they don’t serve real caviar. But vegan chef-to-the-stars Tal Ronnen is a master at offering plant-based alternatives to non-vegan dishes. And when he came to Las Vegas, he created vegan “caviar” to channel this city’s luxury vibe. It’s made from kelp, which gives it the ocean notes you want in caviar.
For more seafood recommendations, check out the Neon Feast list of Las Vegas’ Top Seafood Restaurants.
This post could also be titled, “The One That Got Away.”
Treasure hunts require patience and lots of false starts. Discover an opportunity that gets shut down by the house? Join the club. But finding that elusive 102% game or major house miscalculation? JUMP! (My nod to Van Halen.)
I didn’t jump. I found it. Then missed it. That’s the VIP lesson today. Find. Confirm. Jump.
I’d been studying non-linear recurrence theory and discovered the Birthday Paradox. This is a counterintuitive expression where, within a surprisingly small group of people, two can have the same birthday.
Most people assume, okay, two people, 365 days, half of 365 would be 183 people. Right? Wrong. The correct answer is 23. From 365.
The birthday paradox is Any X = ANY X.
With each pair, the match percentage increases exponentially, because ANY 2 can match. It’s not two people matching one number; it’s any two numbers matching.
With 23 people, its breakeven is a 50% chance of a match. With 30 people, it’s 100%. Believe it or not.
So what does this have to do with advantage play?
Double-zero roulette has 38 numbers. A new game, Double Action Roulette, was introduced at the M years ago. It had two wheels, one inside the other. You could bet on either wheel or both. You could also bet on when one number lands on both wheels. Max bet $5. Payout 1,200-to-one. Massive house edge (17%). And major house mistake.
They’re thinking: two wheels, one number, 1,444-to-one — and not any two numbers matching with just 38 numbers. Jackpot. I’m very excited, but am leaving that day. So I called a roulette AP associate, with whom I was working on another roulette project. “Go to the M right now and hammer this! It’s going to pay off 5 to 10 times a day!” (In other words, $24K to $60K. A day.)
Due to other time commitments, he declined. My plane took off. I looked down at the M, sighing.
Back a few weeks later, I headed straight to the M. Double Wheel Roulette was nowhere to be found. Innocently, ahem, I asked the floor manager, “Where’s Double Wheel?”
“Oh, we had to take that out. It was hitting at least five times a day.”
Go ahead. Hit me. Again. Harder.
My mistake? I never should’ve left town. I should’ve confirmed and jumped. I’d identified a major opportunity. Great! But I also missed a potential $24K a day. Not so great. Painful lesson learned.
Still, that’s the nature of the beast. Keep seeking. And when you find, confirm, then go ahead and … JUMP !
Note: Maybe I was spared. To overcome the massive edge, you’d have to eliminate seven numbers through charting wheel bias. Aspects of live roulette that no longer exist allowed for wheel bias to overcome the house edge. Roulette manufacturers eliminated that possibility with shallower wheels, which are now much more random.
An updated lower-payout Double Wheel version exists at El Cortez. Don’t play it. Also, don’t play Quad Roulette at Palazzo.
And remember, “Friends don’t let friends play triple-zero roulette.” Ever.
It’s a good thing that Las Vegas has diversified its economy since 2008. Were that not the case, the subpar performance of the Las Vegas Strip would be pulling everyone down with it. But September’s gambling grosses show resilience in the locals-casino sphere … and the weakness of the Strip starting to infect Downtown as well.
I rarely go to movies and don’t remember if I’ve ever recommended a movie in my blog, but here goes a rave review.
After hearing several positive things about the experience, Bonnie and I decided to go to the Sphere and see The Wizard of Oz. The Sphere is a big ball, just east of the Palazzo on Spring Mountain, and the entire inside of the big ball is the movie screen.
While this is the original 1939 movie, it was color enhanced sometime along the way and shortened by a couple of songs so they could have back-to-back shows in the same day, the experience at the Sphere is immersive and different from anything I’ve previously witnessed.
I suppose I should offer a spoiler alert here — but this is an 86-year-old movie, with a couple of sequels out there, and I’m guessing most of you are generally familiar with the story.
The first and last scenes, in mid-19th-century Kansas, are in black and white — actually brown and white. When the tornado strikes, the theater rumbles, lights flash, and wind blows. Thousands of leaves (actually paper) fly around the theater. This kind of multisensory experience is what the Sphere was built to deliver — and it delivers it well.
While I was enjoying the spectacle, Bonnie was squeezing my leg. She was actually scared while the tornado was going on! In her own way, she was getting more out of the movie than I was. I suspect small children may also be frightened by the tornado, and later by the Wicked Witch.
After the tornado, when Dorothy wakes up in Oz, the colors are spectacular — all the more so because it was black and white previously —- and the colors cover the entire sphere above and around you.
Just before Dorothy and the scarecrow meet the tin man, apples fall from trees. In the VIP seat area, foam apples fall from the “sky.” Many get sold on eBay for prices as high as the tickets to the show!
There was one thing about the show that puzzled me until I slept on it. The Sphere seats around 18,000 people — and there were areas on the side that were totally empty! Tickets are in high demand, so why did they leave thousands of unsold tickets?
I think the answer was that we were in a 5:00 p.m. show. The show lasts 90 minutes, and there was also an 8:00 show scheduled for the same night. I’m guessing the logistics of emptying and cleaning the theater before the next show was such that had they sold those extra 3,000 or 4,000 tickets, they couldn’t get it all done.
The biggest “problem” with the Sphere, in my opinion, is the location. While it is walking distance from a few casinos, it’s not a short walk. We went on Wednesday, October 15, for the 5:00 show and it was cold. While Vegas is warmer than many places in the country, it’s going to get colder through the winter months.
There is parking on the site for $20, which might be the best option. There were many thousands of Uber, Lyft, and regular taxis involved in getting so many people in and out. I was walking briskly to our car, feeling underdressed because it was so cold, and I didn’t stand around and watch how the taxi and ride sharing worked. I suspect it worked pretty well — the whole affair was run efficiently — but I can’t testify to that from personal experience. The show is scheduled to run through April, at least. I suggest you check it out.
Be careful what you wish for, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, you are liable to get it. Silver wanted sports betting and, over the last seven years, has seen the consequences come home to roost in his league. Whereas the NFL cleaned up its sports betting problem (consisting mainly of player stupidity) fairly expeditiously and Major League Baseball comes down like a ton of bricks on offenders, the NBA remains dogged by scandal. (Can you say “Jontay Porter“? We thought so. How about “Malik Beasley“?)
