Some of you — and you know who you are — get to Las Vegas several times a year but rarely have the chance to foray far past either the Las Vegas Strip or Downtown. (It’s the same with me and the greatest place on Earth, Manhattan: There’s a well-worn groove through the middle of the island that marks my usual axis.) Huffington Post has published a two-day itinerary for on off-Strip Vegas vacation, starting at Ichabod’s — across the street from where I lived from 1999 through 2003, and ending at El Taco Feliz (the adjoining bar is a favored haunt of Anthony Curtis, I might add). In between, there are stops at everything from The Platinum‘s spa — I highly recommend the couples treatment — and Zia Record Exchange to Clark County Wetlands Park. And NO visit to Vegas, none whatsoever, is complete without a stop at the Pinball Hall of Fame, either at its Tropicana Avenue headquarters or its Riviera offshoot. (The Family Guy game gets high marks, as well it should.) But what makes this guide extra special is that it was written by my lovely wife, Jennifer Prosser, so it will always have a special significance for me because she’s painted a picture of the Vegas that is near and dear to our hearts — and perhaps it will be to yours, as well.
Another Vegas institution, but only for the brave, is the Double Down Saloon, a watering hole the Los Angeles Times describes as a refuge for “disenfranchised, human tumbleweeds rolling away from regular society.” I’m happy to see that the LAT story references Double Down’s greasy, disgusting, oleaginous and utterly indelible Bacon Bloody Mary. I drank one of these and lived to tell about it, a feat that earned me a comped dinner from an impressed casino executive.
