Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Vegas - This Time with Less Running Day 3

Tuesday morning, our last full day on site. Breakfast should have been simple but the E. germans at the bakery didn't want to sell me coffee so we had to go up the escalator to the coffee shop where the son of the Rico Suave guy, a girl and a guy with an impressive afro shaped by his visor hat. Afro guy was literally dance humping the girl when I arrived trying to convince Rico's kid that he (Rico's kid) knew the lyrics to the Back to the Hotel song and using his dance hump to trigger the memory for lil Suave. He was unsuccessful as Gerardo was already (or still) stoned. After repeating my order 4 times (medium Americano) we got the man paid off and moved on. The pastries, yogurt and coffee were all great.

The girls went shopping again and we shot dice for a bit at the Venetian, losing again and had no drinks. An executive decision was made to go back to the CR and stop flushing money at the Venetian. It was not a mistake.

We played some craps and met the greatest cocktail waitress of all times. We didn't catch her name because she never stopped long enough for a good look at her badge. Upon delivering my second drink she wouldn't even stop long enough for me to tip her. SERIOUSLY. When I got a later drink I gave her a handful of white chips to make sure I didn't get behind and she was a machine after that. I don't recall the end of the crapping but I eventually convinced the boys to try out the live 3 card poker table. We sat down with a ginormous hawaiin lady dealing who was having more fun than our happy drunken selves. She was a riot, making fun of the silent asian guy that eventually joined us and just about everybody that walked by. Hawaii was spelled for a few by some weird Canadian-ish white guy who was a real buzz kill. She made fun of him too. I remember betting for her alot but no idea if she made money from us. Dan hit one of the small jackpots with a straight flush or 6 monkeys or something. Other than that Sprintwaitress didn't slow down and I was pretty smashed by the end of all this ( I assume the other guys were too). Waiting at the slots for the others to relieve I played a dollar on the penny slots (AND GOT 2 DRINKS IN 5 MINUTES!!!!!) and turned it into 1,000 on one of those video slots that has lines that go everywhere. When the lights started flashing I began laughing uncontrollably and when the screen came up asking me to play a memory game to quintuple my win I think I actually started crying with laughter. I somehow picked 3 cameras together so I got up to 6,000 or so and finally cashed out with like 4,000 pennies. I desperately hoped they'd pay me off in pennies but a very nice lady gave me dollars instead.

Lunch at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba was really good and I am thoroughly impressed we were able to navigate there on foot. We met up with the girls and had some unimpressive white and red sangria along with a wide selection of tapas. Again I wish I had made notes but I was a little sloppy by this point.

We split a small paella plate. It was pretty good but not great, very little crust on the rice but it was very moist.

spanish white anchovies, avocado & roast pepper - very good but the avocado wasn't ripe

spanish cheese - manchego and a few others I don't recall for sure but all were very good.

squid a la plancha, olive oil, garlic - was good and seemed pretty fresh

rioja short ribs, manchego mashed potatoes - again very nice but I didn't catch alot of wine flavor

beef skewer, horseradish cream, red onions - this one was so good even ate the caramelized onions. seriously

spicy potatoes with tomato alioli - were good but I prefer my homemade version

I think there might have been a couple of other plates in there but I frankly lost track.

We walked through the Wynn to get back which was very posh but for cripes sake is just another casino and I don't care at all. As near as I can tell I stumbled back to the room and took a 2 hour nap until dinner missing the first half of the final NBA game. I got up and showered and realized I had just enough time to get down to the book to make a halftime bet. I literally ran to the window and didn't even look at the score just caught that the Celtics were getting 5 in the 2nd half. I jumped on it and then later realized that the Cs were up like 20 at the time. They wound up covering for me but it just goes to show you that no matter what you cousin sal tells you with sports betting its a coin toss everytime.

Dinner was at Pinot Brassiere and I gotta give it a mixed review. I think the food was great across the board but again the service was well....problematic. I hate to sound like the guy that totally gets hung up on that but I guess for this trip I'm that guy. First up big points for the no corkage policy. I'll need Dan to fill in details but he brought a magnum of chateauneuf de pape, a great pinot and an outstanding one from bordeaux. The wine was fantastic and Dan gets several merits for arranging its delivery.

There was a long delay in having someone come over and deal with us but not a huge deal as were in no rush and having a nice evening. I should mention here that TinaH ended up having to send back her steak requested m. rare when it came a few degrees past medium. It took a while to make but they handled the best you can, the manager came over and comped the plate and she and the waitress apologized. It happens sometimes just saying that there were several missteps like that.

The waitress was very nice and even brought us a decanter for at least 1 of the bottles. I was looking forward to trying the sweetbread foie starter having still never tried sweetbreads but it wasn't on the menu and in its place was a foi and seared scallop so I got that instead. The foie was great and the scallop would have been perfect but it was like 5% too dry. So I guess thats either from being frozen or cooked just a few seconds too long. It was still buttery delicious just saying it wasn't perfectly perfect.

For dinner I had the pork belly from the regular menu. I was debating between that and the osso bucco and asked the waitress to help me break the tie. She did the 'both are good' routine for so long that I finally threw a dart. This is a pet peeve of mine, if I want you to recommend something then freaking do that. I'm sure they are both good.....you tell me which to get. Anyway it was delicious but I'll always wonder about that osso bucco I missed out on. I loved the citrus flavor with the pork. I'm going to have to find a way to infuse that the next time I smoke some butt. The truffle vinagrette was a light background, not overwhelming. I really liked that someone thought this dish through and 1) didn't go crazy with flavors and textures and 2) balanced the few flavors on there with the fundamental flavor of the pork which is the right thing to do. There were vegetables and they were fine but didn't do anything else one way or another.

For dessert I had a plate of cheese that offhand I know had Savarin, Humbold Fog, Pierre T something and a hard Basque sheep's milk. They were fan-freaking-tastic. It was served with little crackers and a plate of currants, honeycomb and celery (maybe celery I can't be sure). We basically licked the platter on that one. As we were ruminating waiting for the check one of the waiters moving a table lost control and dropped the point of the corner into the center of my back. It hurt and I got a little bruise (cue the awwwww from the crowd) and the waiter asked if he got me and apologized but on the whole made it seem like that happens some time. Someone might crash into you with a table, you know it happens. Again the food was great but the service wasn't so much.

There was no question we would end up back at the CR to shoot some dice and introduce the girls to our new dark mistress. She did not dissapoint and I had all I wanted for drinks and we had a good craps session. It was a packed table and we each had to elbow in for room. At the other end of the table a couple of youngish guys bought in for like 2K (at CR...come on). Our dealers were a weird lot we had a very grumpy slovak that refused to pay Dan off on the $10 change only bet he made. The stickman had a stool to make him the same height as TinaB. He moved slowly and Dan named him Lawrence which seemed to fit. We hit a run of bad shooters until Bill from Chicago got us all back on track. I ran off to the restroom and returned to find everyone heading for the cage to cash out. Apparently my TinaB had called game over right as Kerrie was about to get the dice. She has been properly chastised and it won't happen again.

Dan and Kerrie flew home in the morning and we were on the road around 9 I think. The only notable part of the return trip I recall was at the cowboy cafe in Wickenburg. We all ordered and TinaB was last looking at the ham and cheese sandwich. Let me set the stage a bit and say that this is the cowboy cafe. Posters (many signed) of pro bull riders cover every wall and there are handmade doilies everywhere. ANYWAYS, my little wife asks "in the ham and cheese sandwhich what kind of ham and cheese do you use" to which the now exasperated waitress replied "I think its boiled ham and american cheese". TinaB will argue this point but I swear I heard her say 'that won't do' under her breath a little and she went with like a chicken salad or something instead. They obviously spit in our food after that but my club sandwich and chili hit the spot.

I think everyone had a great time and I'm looking forward to the next trip which probably won't be to Vegas but if it is will take us back to CraftSteak.

4 comments:

G$ said...

Sometimes,a piece of literature so perfectly captures theme and setting that it can not be improved upon. Sometimes, that literature even comes in the form of a terribly long blog paragraph consisting of 2 enormous run on sentences. Perfection.

Such was my reaction after reading the main stanza regarding "Tuesday's with Casino Royale". For example:

"GOT 2 DRINKS IN 5 MINUTES!!!!"
"I actually started crying with laughter."
"ginormous hawaiin lady dealing who was having more fun than our happy drunken selves."
"I was pretty smashed by the end of all this "

Some notes:

Dan did not hit "a small jackpot" at 3 card poker, except in the sense that any jackpot there is small. It was the Straight Flush, the highest possible jackpot, and was totally awesome.

Sprintwaitress is the rare type of person that makes you stop and consider, "who are the VERY BEST people in the world in their field of work?". I mean this unironically: she may be the best casino cocktail waitress in the world, and she toils in (previous to now) anonymity at the CR. The drink velocity was astounding.

You have no segue between CR and our lunch at the Tapas place. This is good by me because I can not tell you how we got there. It was literally 114 degrees out, and we walked half a mile along concrete and asphalt. I think at the time I had vague confusion reconciling this with my last trip along the same route, running in 36 degree weather 6 months earlier. Both rewarding in their own rights.

I did think the Tapas place was very good, other than the dissapointing Sangria, which was specifically mediocre. I loved the cured meats, short ribs, and cheeses. I could frankly take or leave the paella - there was no crustiness by the time i got to it, and it was merely flavored rice. All in all, since this place is right on the strip at the fashion show mall, and is my kind of food, I definitely will be back as a matter of convenience and "goodness". Only problem is my recollection is the joint was empty save our raucous table so it may not make it.

After that, you made the decision that we should stop at the starbucks, and this was a wise move because I think the iced coffee is what propelled me home.

Regarding dinner, I had the onion soup to start, which they apparently wanted me to eat directly from the bowl. No spoon was provided, and the dude acted like this was an odd request when I asked if I might have a soup spoon after a minute of me rooting around the table trying to locate a hidden one. The soup was 'ok', Probably a 7.5 on the Schnellometer. The cheese was good, if surprisingly mild Gruyere, and the broth as well was relatively tame. Also, no "cheese scissors" provided, and although only one place in the world apparently does this, I am going to start marking everyone down on points until they catch up. I had the short rib on celery puree with green apple. It was "good", but actually gould have used additional braising time. Not all the collagen was broken down, and sometimes beef rib collogen can become gummy like "rubber Cement" when it just getting to the rendered out stage. I would have preferred potato to the celery puree, and I am reminded that my dinner was serverd later than others at the table.

All this to say that while I liked the food, and liked the no cork policy, I thought the service was actually pretty terrible, to the point I could not stop thinking about it, and I am not all that hard to please: Bring utensils for people to eat with, don't ram them with furniture, and when you fail on either count, at least be sorry about it.

Remarkably, I WOULD go back and give them a second try. But, as you mentioned, Craftsteak was about 25 times better, and I need to get back there.

Lastly, thanks for the reports. One of my few regrets on this trip was, again, we did not capture it in pictures much at all. I am not "picture guy", but we should have snapped a few here and there.

Good Times.

G$ said...

Also, net/net:

We did the needful and had the boozes, man.

Dan said...

You left out a few important pieces here Chris. The Hawaiian lady was indeed having a good time, and the fact that her current, every day cell phone came out of a casino royale urinal is a testament to her awesomeness. "Blackberry out of a casino royale toilet" really is a good euphemism for Las Vegas and modern American capitalism, don't you think?

Also, I think G$'s use of "drink velocity" is the kind of thinking that earns one a nobel prize, fellowship and crackpots on the periphery trying to profiteer.

The paella was bad for a paella. For gooey rice, it was fine. The sangria was also bad. Everything else was good.. esp the chorizo(s).

Pinot Brasserie was a bit unremarkable. The privilege of free corkage was awesome - the wine rocked. But the physical abuse and cold indifference of the waitstaff was not appreciated.

The needful was done. I think next time I am getting a casino royale players card, which is your name written in pen on the back of a Subway coupon.

Anonymous said...

Dinner place could use some lessons on how to cook meat but loved the no corkage fee.

Spanish tapas place was good but sangria could be much better. If I had the menu in front of me I could tell you all we ate since I ordered as BOYS were not in an ordering state. Location at the Showcase mall is a plus, if you like to shop.