This and that

Restaurant checks nationwide rose 3% last year but that didn’t keep Las Vegas out of WalletHub‘s #6 spot for foodies (cue operatic outrage from Sin City restaurant critics). Las Vegas hit the #1 spot for “affordability and accessibility of highly rated restaurants” but was pulled down by being 26th in average beer and wine price (well earned, sad to say) and 26th in craft breweries and wineries per capita—Ellis Island can’t do it alone. Sin City was also 26th in number of grocery stores per capita. On the upside, Vegas ranked #1 in coffee and tea shops per capita and fourth in restaurants per capita, as well as sixth in gourmet specialty food stores per capital (whoda thunk it?). Congratulations to all Las Vegas restaurants for making it happen.

* James Packer‘s recent austerity moves have not extended to his yachting hobby. A 354-foot behemoth, IJE, newly launched, includes a sauna, fire pit and cinema. Just the sort of thing to evoke the Captains Courageous era on the high seas.

* Metro institution Hogs & Heifers is embroiled in a lease scrum with landlord Downtown Grand. The latter wants the biker bar gone but Hogs & Heifers vows to stay on, no matter how unwelcome.

* We are in receipt of the following bit of Halloween advice: “How do you frighten a Millennial? Put them in a room with a rotary phone, an analog watch, an old typewriter & a tv with no remote (add rabbit ears for fun). Then leave directions for use in cursive.” Based on that advice, Millennials should avoid Downtown’s newly reopened (but vintage) Hotel Apache.

* Got $550 for a round of golf? Then you, too, can take advantage of the much-ballyhooed reopening of the Wynn Golf Club, previously closed and partially torn up in one of Steve Wynn‘s worst decisions. Tee times start Oct. 11. Wynncore President Marilyn (Winn) Spiegel was preoccupied with the 19th hole, telling Golf magazine, “We’d never create a ho-hum golf experience at Wynn. We take huge pride in everything we do, and we’ve done the same thing with the golf course. Imagine coming off the course and having a Thomas Keller steak or hamburger here. This is going to be a flawless experience.”

Golf reports that Wynncore not only lost revenue from closing the only course on the Strip but also from the gambling that well-heeled golfers did. Presumably the latter will not notice the extra $50 it will cost to shoot a newfangled 18 holes at Wynncore. Here’s hoping the Tom Fazio-designed course retains its original, 2005 beauty in its Fazio family restoration.