April 7- April 12
Overall
While the trips keep getting better, we are now entering a stage of being harder to impress. That isn’t to say that I am less passionate about Vegas just a lot more comfortable in my excitement. I’ll continue to watch countless fountain shows but now I’m much more critical. On this trip, we didn’t venture out very far from the Bellagio with the exception of a journey to the Neon Museum for the new Brilliant experience. My first review captures the essence of our trip.
The Second Best Part of Vegas 26: Beauty and Essex
The absolute best part of Vegas 26 was going to see the Golden Knights in their first play-off game which also happened to be my our NHL play-off game. On Sunday night, Anne and I went to Beauty and Essex in the Cosmo for what was one of the best dining experiences we’ve had in Vegas with a horrendous ending. First, let me say that we will absolutely return.
Beauty and Essex has the ultimate hipster vibe. You walk through a fully operational pawn shop before entering a dark, sparkly and velvet covered restaurant. The music played just loud enough to be noticeable but not so loud to disrupt a conversation.
Our server was fantastic. Well, mostly. Anne ordered a glass of wine and I had a beer. The three items that are worth noting were the deep-fried tai shrimp, barbecue fried and the burrata and tomato on toast. All were excellent. My favorite shrimp is Emeril’s New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp. The deep fried tai shrimp is a close second. Not breaded, crispy on the outside and cooked perfectly on the inside, I would easily have ordered more. Anne is a connoisseur of French fries and she was very happy with the barbecue fries. She describes them as like eating really, really good barbecue chips but exponentially better. I wasn’t as impressed with the burrata and tomato. The burrata wasn’t all that creamy and the tomatoes tasted a bit like ketchup. The focaccia was great! I peeked over at a couple enjoying the ceasar salad toast which looked like a much better play.
At the end of our meal, we were relaxed and enjoying the vibe of the restaurant. In looking at the gluten free menu and reviewing it with the server who made some fantastic recommendations, we settled on two cappuccinos and the tiramisu ice cream sundae. I can’t recommend this dessert enough. The espresso ice cream was light and flavorful, covered with rich chocolate powder and chocolate nibs and a flavorful cake base. Wait? Did I say cake? We were halfway through the dessert when I took a bite of the cake and said, “this is not gluten free.” One of the servers came over to check on us and when we made her aware, she immediately reacted. Moments later the manager came over. Before we could even explain, he apologized, comped our meal and asked Anne how she was feeling and if he could do anything for her. It was so unfortunate because everything was so great. He gave us his card and asked us to call him if we return in the future but understood if we wouldn’t be back. Fortunately, Anne was only slightly impacted the next day. We will definitely return.
Hotel Review: Bellagio
The Bellagio just isn’t what we wanted it to be but is exactly what we expected. The property is congested because of the tourist traffic. The pool complex is large and nice enough but lacks any privacy from the tourists walking through the resort. The room is fine but is starting to show its age. The casino was incredibly kind to me! Finally had a very nice run on the slot machines. We ate at Harvest and Prime which we fabulous. The most disappointing aspect of the Bellagio was the service. We were mistreated on several occasions including a front desk associate who, when my wife complained about the music coming from the one of the clubs, was told to “get some earplugs from the gift shop.” And the next day when we spoke with one of the supervisors was told that we were “ in Vegas” and continued by saying, “what do you expect.” This type of treatment continued in several areas of the hotel including a security supervisor being incredibly rude and disrespectful to an elderly couple at the pool for being in Cypress (VIP pool). The couple didn’t understand at first and were berated. We shared our experience with Joe, a manager, who did an outstanding job of listening to everything. He kindly removed one night of charges and sent us a bottle of champagne and strawberries for our troubles. It is as if the Bellagio relies on its name but forgets that they need to continually earn their guest’s loyalty. We will go back to the restaurants and maybe to play but I don’t see us returning to stay there unless the deal is just too good to ignore.
New Experience: Brilliant at the Neon Museum
http://www.neonmuseum.org/brilliant
We loved the Neon Museum and when we heard that they had a new feature, we bought tickets right away. The Neon Museum features a collection of over 200 retired and restored neon signs from Las Vegas. Brilliant is a new feature created by artist Craig Winslow which utilizes many of these signs to capture the history and spirit of Las Vegas. A story told through music and cutting edge technology called “projection mapping” brings the signs to life. Vegas geeks like my wife and I will certainly enjoy the experience. Watching Liberace projected onto a neon sign of a piano as if he were playing once gain is surreal. I don’t know if most people would be as entertained or interested but if visiting the Neon Museum, I would recommend seeing Brilliant.
Aces of Comedy at the Mirage
The Terry Fator Theatre is a fantastic venue. We’ve now seen Terry Fator, Boys II Men and Ray Romano featuring David Spade there. One of the reasons I love Vegas as much as I do is that I don’t know of any other four-mile street (the Las Vegas strip) where you can have dinner at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant at 5pm, see Celine Dion at 7pm and Ray Romano at 10pm if you wanted. While the sets were shorter than we expected, the show was worth the money. Spade and Romano both delivered and even took the stage together at the end of the show for some Q and A. If given the opportunity, we would love to see George Lopez, Kevin James and many others who are featured at the Mirage.
Golden Knights: The Best Part of Vegas 26
This trip featured a lot of luck. The casino was kind but even more lucky was the fact that the Las Vegas Golden Knights played their first every play-off game on Wednesday, April 11th vs the LA Kings. Anne and I decided to be VGK fans the moment that the NHL announced that Vegas would have a hockey team. As a Yankees fan, I’ve been spoiled by lots of winning in my lifetime. This is different. The fans are still learning how to be fans. The city is figuring out what this means. The team and venue have done an awesome job in building a culture and winning certainly helps. In a closely contested game, the crowd stayed engaged throughout all three periods and the arena was explosive. However, until you’ve experiences some real hard losses and drama, you can’t find your intensity as a fan base. Conversely, I know this pain too well as a long-suffering Buffalo Bills fan. As both a Yankees and Bills fan, I can attest to the tension and anxiety that comes with each and every pitch or snap. I LOVE being a Knights fan but like the rest of the fans, I’m just happy right now. The pain will come and that’s when Vegas will learn what kind of fans they will be. Sitting in the “Fortress” for the first play-off game was a true “once-in-a-lifetime” experience and I’m grateful to have been a part of it. I didn’t need another reason to love Vegas more but as luck would have it, I certainly found one. Go Knights Go!
Vegas 27
Coming August 2018!
Back home. Back to Aria.
Conquering Vegas begins with Salvegas24. 