30 hours in Vegas - Wynn hotel, Alex dining, Prince show

[StevieG]

Long Story Short

I convinced my wife to go on a boondoggle. The wife and I flew to Vegas early Saturday morning, had a nice brunch at Tableau, and checked into the hotel. I played poker, she relaxed in the sweet room. We had a meal to remember at Alex, opting for the tasting menu with wine pairings. Saw Prince perform at 3121 in the Rio, he put down some nasty rock guitar, then funked it up. She slept all Sunday morning, I played more poker. She woke up and hit the salon. We split a bottle of champagne for lunch watching the fountain at the Wynn lake, then flew back home.

[*TT*]

You left out the part where I was sick.

Dude! More Details! Share the debauchery!

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[StevieG]

Writing details now.

[StevieG]

Long Story Really Long

Back Story

This is only background, so if you don't care, skip it and wait for the next post.

While visiting the in-laws over New Year's, I found out from the B&M Forum that Prince was doing live shows in Vegas. I read Mike Weatherford's review of Prince's show in the LVRJ and decided I wanted to go. During the mid 90s, I lived in Minneapolis, but never tried to go to Paisley Park or Glam Slam. This is a regret, since I think Prince is a fine musician.

So I mentioned this to N (Mrs. StevieG) and she laughsed it off. After all, we live 2100 miles from Las Vegas, we had our first kid last year, and N is reluctant to leave her alone for a night out, let alone a weekend getaway.

On the flight back from the in-laws, the airline magazine had a small article on Prince's show. About a dozen times, I would flip to the picture of Prince and show it to Nina, interspersing it with quick flashes of ads for "O", Vegas restaurants and bars, to warm her to the idea.

We've done Vegas with friends a couple times, but never went all out on a big meal, despite being foodies. I thought for sure mentioning Picasso would win her over.

Still, she did not realize I was serious.

When I got home, I checked with my mother for her availability on various weekends to watch the little one. Next, I started looking at hotel and flight costs. Finally, I brought up the idea with N.

At this point, she knew I was serious, but she was still reluctant to make a decision to leave our daughter for a weekend.

I decided to keep looking at travel costs and convincing N to go at the same time. I started to give N options, keeping Grandma's availability in mind. My first thought was go Friday, come back Sunday, then I had the idea to just go Saturday and come back late Sunday. Effectively, we would be leaving her just one night. N wasn't committing to anything.

This is where I caught a break out of something most others would find annoying. Prince was not confirming shows until a week beforehand. He had performed over New Year's, but skipped the week after, and had only just announced he was playing on January 12th and 13th.

For most people planning a trip around seeing Prince, this would suck. For me, it helped, because it meant that N could not put off the decision. On Friday the 12th, I got confirmation Prince was playing the next week. I had looked up various hotel and airfare costs and they were more than the night before. N had to make a decision...she asked for one night to sleep on it, and I agreed.

Saturday morning, the 13th, N made a long face. "I can't believe you talked me into this..."

I raced to the Internets and started looking up phone numbers. First, Prince tickets. Easy. Next up, airfare. That was another break, the airfare had gone up from Thursday to Friday, but actually dropped from Friday to Saturday.

Next, hotel. I wanted to stay where we ate dinner. With only 30 hours, why lose time in cabs?

Along with the 3121 club, Prince has a restaurant at the Rio called "Jazz Cuisine." You can get a package for VIP show tickets and dinner. The menu looked decent, but I wanted a lot more than that.

Picasso at Bellagio was what I had in mind. But posts here had been putting Wynn above Bellagio in just about any category. I liked the idea of staying at the Wynn, and I had just eaten there at Wing Lei in November and enjoyed it. So why not look at other Wynn restaurants?

I found this LVRJ review of Alex at the Wynn and I was sold.

Called Alex, booked us for 7PM the next Saturday.

Though time would be tight, I guessed I would play 3 hours Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, and booked through the poker room. That was easy too.

Grandma got the call after that, and she was excited because it meant a weekend of one-on-one time with her granddaughter.

As a last bit of prep I PM'd TT to try to meet. We've never met, despite doing some online work together. I prevaricated and then missed out on Ed Miller's bachelor party, had to cancel a trip to New York on another occasion where we had laid out plans to meet, and we missed each other in AC by a matter of hours when we had planned to meet.

N and I were all set for our 30 hours in Vegas.

[StevieG]

Long Story Really Long

In this part, I'm going to describe briefly the flight, then lunch at Tableau in the Wynn, then spend a lot of time gushing about the Wynn hotel. If this bores you, skip it.

Arrival

The week between booking and going I was on the road for work, so I could not really dwell on the trip, and I did only minimal talking with friends. Only Prince CDs playing in the rental car had me thinking about the trip. The long posts here are probably making up for lost chances to chat it up with friends and colleagues.

Back home on Friday, and still no time to think, because we had to get ready for a flight at 7 AM Saturday morning.

Grandma arrived, we packed, I printed out boarding passes. Frequent flyer status did its magic and we were bumped to first class. W00t!

Our daughter cooperated and was still asleep when we left for the airport. Not the kind of weekend where you save a buck with remote long term parking, we parked close and were at the gate in about 10 minutes.

Flight was good, movie ("The Guardian" with Kevin Costner) laughable, food in first (western omelette for me, cold cereal for her) pleasant, complimentary bloody marys super-soporific. N worked on the plane (ironically, it took going away for a weekend for her to get work done on a weekend) and I slept.

First off the plane, carry-on bags only, and no line at the cab stand. We were at the Wynn by 10 AM.

Called Grandma (baby was fine), walked around the shops at the Wynn. N was impressed with the line-up. Here are some Manolo Blahnik shoes, we both liked the brown ones:



I'm kicking myself now for not getting them for her.

Tableau

We went to Tableau for brunch. This is a tough place to find, as it is next to the Tower registration lobby, and not at all visible from the casino floor. Originally, it was planned to be an exclusive restaurant for the Tower suites, but since then it has been opened to all.

N had ricotta pancakes with tangerines and pecans, with honey butter. I had an omelette of ricotta, arugula, and caramelized onions. Ricotta is a secret ingredient I picked for Iron Chef OOT, though I could not compete because I was visiting the in-laws over New Year's. So I was really pleased that these dishes were so good. The Ricotta pancakes were creamy, and the tangerine chunks inside added sweet and tart flavor without overpowering. The arugula, cooked in the omelette, lost some of its pepper flavor, just as a caramelized onion loses its acridness, and so the ricotta cheese was not overpowered there, either. We finished with cappuccino.

One other note about Tableau. The seats are wide and comfy, and fuzzy on the back. I kid you not. Fuzzy like a mod pillow from Urban Outfitters. Every once in a while I would stop during the meal to reach back and feel the fuzz. Hey, that kind of weekend.


Registration was a breeze, and we headed up to the room.

Wynn Las Vegas Hotel

Just walking around the Wynn leaves an impression. The grounds are manicured to the point of looking almost too neat to be real. The public restrooms have elegant trough sinks and marble stalls. The design motiff of rich red and brown colors, creme, curved light fixtures, and squared off shades, repeat themselves all over. Tableau, for example, has curved chandeliers similar to what you see in other areas, and the same use of cream and brown. Even the poker room has the same brown wallpaper and red drapes that you see in other areas.

Checking in as a guest just reinforces that impression. The room keys have your name printed on them. The elevator lobby on the casino floor uses the old school "dial" display complete with moving arrow, to show what floors the elevators are passing. The hallway is curved, so you do not get that awful impression of an endless hallway that you get in so many other LV resorts (with MGM Grand's central corridor being the worst offender).

The rooms keep the design elements consistent. The wallpaper in our room, for example, was the same textured brown used in the poker room. There was bright modern art on the walls. Picture from cell phone:



The shades and drapes on the windows (by luck I got a corner room, with two windows) were controlled separately and remotely with buttons on the wall by the bed. Far be it from Steve Wynn to ask you to hold your finger down, either. One touch of open and the shade opened, one touch of close and it closed. A third "stop" button allowed you to get something in between.

This is the view we had from the room:



There were bathrobes, naturally, but also slippers. Plenty of toiletries by the sink, but the shower stall already had a set of shower gel, shampoo, and conditioner. Likewise, there was already a towel positioned on the rack outside the shower, and one in the corner of the tub. The tub had a waterfall faucet head, that released an arc of water in a sheet from the side of the tub. The bathroom had two light settings, one for the overhead lights, another for a night setting that illuminated the room elegantly from under the sinks. There was a glass scale.

Glasses in the bathroom were brown glass. In the room by the ice bucket, there were both lowball and balloon wine glasses, clear, with a textured pattern of large dimples. So much to like about the room.

When we came in, the flat screen TV had a background image of flowers and jazz piano music when we came in. We left it on for a while.

Later I saw on the channel guide, there was keno (which I had seen in other LV hotels) but also Poker. I tuned in, and found the wait list for the poker room. Brilliant. Just look at your room TV, find your game, then call down and have them lock up a seat.

Which is exactly what I did next.

[StevieG]

Long Story Really Long

Poker at the Wynn

There was an 8/16 game going but only one table, and I was guessing it was mostly locals. The 4/8 game I played in was all tourists, all the way. Great game, 4-5 players to the flop regularly, players either LAG or ABC. Example: at one point, a player who had seen one, maybe two flops in the hour I have been there is racking up to leave, then raises from UTG. I mean, what is that hand range? Sure enough he continues into an Ace high flop and winds up showing down and winning with AK.

One LAG opposite me was particularly entertaining. I joined him for a shot of jagermeister, and we were trading jokes with each other and the rest of the table. Just a great vibe.

Cocktail service good, cocktail servers comely.

The shame of it was I was completely card dead.

I tried calling TT to meet up, and our string of bad luck continued. He was sick and not going anywhere. At this point, I think it is a good running joke. We should keep trying just to see how many ways we can miss one another.

Around 5:30 I figured it was time to find N and get ready for dinner, and I was down about $50.

[HLS2k6]

Great report so far SG.

I stayed at Bellagio on my honeymoon in November. Alex was one of the two restaurants that we didn't make it to that is a definite for next time (Joel Robuchon's Mansion being the other). Looking forward to hearing about it and the rest of your trip.

[*TT*]

[ QUOTE ]

I tried calling TT to meet up, and our string of bad luck continued. He was sick and not going anywhere. At this point, I think it is a good running joke. We should keep trying just to see how many ways we can miss one another.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can think of at least 12 other ways that we can keep missing each other, shall we shoot for at least 8 of them? Seriously, we have bad luck in the getting together department.

note - Steve worked with me on a I worked on a biz venture, but never met in real life.

TT [img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]

[StevieG]

Long Story Really Long

This post is all about the meal. If restaurant reviews bore you, skip it. If it makes you hungry, I did my job.

Dinner at Alex in the Wynn

Before lunch at Tableau, we had stopped by Alex to look at the menu. So we had already seen the marble bridge spanning the koi pond that leads the way to the entrance of dark brown doors with lead glass.

It was good that we did that, because as we approached at night we were practically whisked to our table. Just as we reached the stairs, the doors swung out for us. The hostesses, out of sight from the entrance, had pushed the doors open. They greeted us, and we had no time to take in the small bar and lounge area before we were escorted down the sweeping staircase and into the dining room. Our chairs were pulled out for us, and the hostess told N she would be back with a stool for her bag.

N did not really register what she said, but I knew that was coming because I read a review that mentioned it. The hostess promptly returned with a stool (a small chair really, since it had a back) where N could set her evening bag.

I tried not to be gauche, but I had to capture that.



The waiter brought menus and explained the options. We could elect for the tasting menu, seven courses, sized appropriately, or select an appetizer, entree, and dessert from the choices of the prix fixe menu. He told us that any of the choices from the tasting menu could be prepared in a larger portion as part of a prix fixe selection.

We knew we were going to get the tasting menu, it was just a question of whether we would get the wine pairings or order a bottle. I looked at the wine list. It was extensive, hit many parts of the world (Slovenian whites, for example), and included a date stamp at the bottom of the page, bearing the day's date. Yes, it seems at Alex they reprint the wine list on a regular basis for accuracy.

There was no way I was going to pick a wine to match all of our food, and so we went with the wine pairings. We had done it before at other restaurants, and the wine portions were smaller, but you got more glasses, so that was fine.

Not at Alex, we discovered. The first wine we would get was a Pierre Peters champagne, and we got a full flute.

"How many courses?" N asked me.

"Seven, but I think we only get one dessert wine."

"I'm not going to be able to drink all that wine."

"Don't worry, I will."

After we ordered, our waiter brought out a small plate of food, four pairs of miniature dishes. Normally I would call this an amuse bouche, but the tasting menu included a course called "amuse bouche," and there were four of these, not just one so let's just call this course "nice [censored] bonus".

Bite number one: a panna cotta of celery root, with a sprinkling of fried leek. The panna cotta had been set in a propped up spoon, and chilled that way, then served to us as such so we could just pick it up and eat it. Celery root has a more subtle flavor than the stalk, and it worked well.

Bite number two: tuna tartar on a potato pancake. Maybe the size of a nickel. Excellent tuna.

Bite number three: a fritter, I think mushrooms. I was distracted because it was then I noticed that the panna cotta spoons are gone. Neither of us saw them cleared away. I love invisible hand service!

Bite number four: a breadstick about the size of a short pencil, with prosciutto wrapped on the end.

We looked around the room. Again, the same design elements, but even lusher. Billowy burnt orange drapes that spanned the large windows, high ceilings, the same curved chandelier shape, rendered in glass this time. On our table, a small oil lamp, again with the same squared off pyramid shape, also rendered in glass. A small glas vase on the table with a lone purple orchid. The main wait station in the center of the room had enormous glass vases, full three quarters with water, and floating on top of that dozens of the same purple orchids.

The first course (the real amuse bouche) was a cylindrical crisp, filled with a yellowtail (hamachi) salad and caviar served over carrot-ginger pearls. Yes, carrot-ginger pearls. There was a small bed of them, they were round, translucent, and orange, and looked like large salmon roe. They tasted of carrot and ginger, and I have no idea how they were prepared. Meanwhile the fish and caviar were great alone and together, and that was true of mixing them with the carrot-ginger. Plus the bubbly champagne did well to compliment the oil of the fried crisp.

Next wine, Turley "White Coat" a California blend of vmostly viognier and rousanne (a Rhone grape, I asked). Very flavorful, but very light mouth feel, not sweet cloying at all. Went extremely well with the first appetizer, scallops with parsley linguine served in a sea urchin sauce. The scallops cooked perfectly - to the point of doneness, and no further. Nothing remotely rubbery about them. The sea urchin sauce gave a brilliant pink-orange color and a mild fish taste. The linguine was flavorful and soft, melting in the mouth, just enough herb to offset the seafood of the dish.


At this point we also started commenting about the dishes. They were all different shapes. The small plate with our [censored] bonus course was a rectangle, the amuse bouche was a round dish with a small shallow bowl and exaggerated wide lip. Later dishes were diagonal, round plates, bowls or square. All with the same gold pattern around the edge. And of course, the silverware was silver. Back to the meal.

Next wine was another surprise. It was a white from the Loire Valley of France, Domaine des Baumard Quarts de Chaume. I can only remember this because after asking the sommelier later what it was we were having, he asked if we would like a copy of the day's menu. I am looking at it now. Although I had trouble with the name, I cannot forget the wine. It was a deep yellow, almost orange in color, thick, and sweet (hey got it right this time). Once again, it got even better with the food. The course was foie gras with a small salad of baby turnip greens, dried grapes (not raisins, the grapes were oven-dried) and blood orange, with a blood orange reduction.

It was beyond good.

I have had foie gras multiple times. I enjoy the rich fattiness of it, that round texture that is like other animal fat, but without any trace of a chewy texture. So I order it almost always if it is on a menu. This was a superior preparation.

The seasoning of the foie gras went almost to the edge of being salty, teasing out all of the flavor, melting the fat even before I could chew it. And the blood orange reduction added sweetness, accentuated by the wine, that mellowed it all out. Just perfect.

They could have served that to us two more times and we would have been perfectly happy.

As it happened we had fish next: turbot, which I find has the same moist smooth texture that Chilean sea bass does. It was cooked (probably pan seared) so that the skin took on a crisp texture and golden color, without burning. It was served in a red wine sauce and topped with a mix of salsafis, almonds, and black truffle shavings. The fish was delicious, and the wine, a French pinot noir, was another good pairing. But I want to talk about that little slice of truffle.

Unlike foie gras, or sea urchin, I had never had black truffles before. It looked like black glass, smelled like an earthy mushroom, felt like biting into a silky mushroom, and tasted of aged parmesan cheese. That was the unmistakable sensation I got - a mushroom of aged cheese.

Somewhere I had learned about umami or "savory", the fifth basic taste to go along with sweet, sour, bitter, and salt. I also knew that aged cheese could be high in umami. Tonight I checked, and truffles are busting with umami. So I am not completely crazy.

The last course before dessert was wagyu beef in a bordelaise sauce, with parsley puree, porcini mushroom, and potato gnocchi covered with a slice of aged parmesan. Here's a picture:



When we ordered the tasting menu, the waiter told us (in his delightful French accent) that the Wagyu beef was very rich, highly marbelized, and that the portion would be 2 1/2 ounces. If we wanted more, we could order it now at $30 an ounce. I shook off the idea, not because of the price, but because I figured - it's a tasting menu, I'll have plenty of other food, even if 2 1/2 ounces is a really small portion.

Wrong again, foodie wannabe! Those 2 1/2 ounces were unbelievably filling. I had no idea what I was in for.

I had also never had wagyu or Kobe beef before. I knew it was fattier, and shrugged off the reputation as snobbery. Not so, at least not with the selection of meat and quality of preparation we had that night. The easiest way to describe it is beef foie gras. It had that same unmistakable fat texture, only it was clearly beef.

The wine was a 2001 Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino, and it was delicious. The mushroom was really a stem, and a puree of porcini clinging to it like paint on a brush (gorgeous and delicious) and the gnocchi had to be as much dairy as potato. The parsley puree had a strong enough flavor to stand up to that richness, but a simple clean taste to balance it all out.

Still with me?

We got our dessert wine (a moscatel) just before the first dessert. That was a molten cheesecake, served in a shotglass, topped with a layer of passion fruit and a graham crumble. Imagine a cheesecake pudding, only more liquid. I almost licked the shotglass clean.

Next dessert - a vanilla nougat coated with a skin of dark chocolate, and praline ice cream with caramel hazelnut chunks. It was as good as it sounds. The nougat especially, had the consistency of a marshmallow, but the taste of egg, sugar, and vanilla. The chocolate skin was an unbelievably uniform coating.

Cartman voice: I could not possibly eat another bite of this goodness...wait, maybe I can.

Service all night was the same invisible feel as that first spoon vanishing. Dishes and glasses were taken away often without notice, new utensils and glasses often just seemed to appear. N used the ladies' room, and her napkin was not folded and put in place, but entirely replaced with a new one. The waiters were attentive without being obtrusive. The sommelier answered my questions without sucking up to me or talking down to me, and with humor and anecdotes.

We were sated, happy, and at least a little drunk. Time for coffee!

We both ordered espresso, and when it was served we also received a tiered plate of little sweets. The meal started with a gift course, and ended that way. But this time we simply could not do it. They were the size of dimes, and I could only manage a couple of nibbles.

Luckily for us, there was yet another gift. On the way out, a hostess gave us a small bag of macaroons to take with us. We ate one each the next morning, and had the rest when we got home. I still have the bag, now empty for close to two weeks. I'd rather not let it go.

[Mermade]

I thought I already got the whole story, but was wrong. I am loving all the details and am waiting for more installments. I continue to be green with envy.