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Woodbury Punch with MK (and a lot of rain)
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It had been a minute since I’ve been in Las Vegas (can it really be three years?), so I was excited to get an invitation to attend the league technology conference at the Wynn Encore. I’ve never stayed at the Wynn or the Encore, so I was interested to see how it stacks up. My cab driver also insisted that it’s not the Wynn Encore – you are either at the Wynn or at the Encore. Noted, boomer.
According to the Wikipedia List of Largest Hotels, the combined Wynn and Encore towers are the third largest in Vegas at 4,748 rooms. I was surprised to see The Venetian listed as the largest in town, as I always thought the MGM Grand was the largest in the world. Turns out they count the Venetian and Palazzo and the Venezia as one (at an astounding 7,115 rooms), but the Green Monster at the south end of the Strip is still the largest *single hotel building* in the world, with 6,852 rooms.
Damn, that’s a big housekeeping and maintenance lift.
Side note, the only two U.S. hotels on that list not in Las Vegas are the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu (3,386) and Disney’s Port Orleans Resort in Orlando (3,056). Interesting.
So what was the Encore like?
Speaking of dated, one of my old favorites really seemed to have lost its luster: The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. I spent a fair amount of time there with a colleague from Allegiant Stadium and just found it to be a bit run down, dirty in too many areas and we had to endure that awful Las Vegas sewer smell throughout much of the casino floor. Bellagio and Caesars had none of these issues and I was generally impressed with the new Fontainebleau.
Sahara on the other hand…
“The Mirage is a defunct casino resort on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States.”
So begins the Wikipedia page for one of our favorites spots on the Las Vegas Strip. I was fortunate enough to find out just in time to visit one last time before my work conference began this week. Literally by a few minutes: the roads in and out had already been barricaded, but they were letting people in for a farewell press conference with staff under the porte-cochère in front.
I took a bunch of pictures outside of the Siegfried and Roy Plaza and the iconic volcano, then headed in the entrance on the Caesars Palace side. The door was unlocked, but almost everything was closed (not Starbucks) and all of the slot machines were powered off. I wandered back by the Cirque Love theater (last show there was July 7), then up to the tropical dome and over to the front entrance (all the fish were gone, but the bronze mermaids remained).
Colleen and I stayed at Mirage a number of times, including our trip for the Morrissey concert in 2021 (which was probably the last time). We also picked the Mirage as the place we stayed for the girls first Vegas trip in 2018. The rooms had just been refurbished and they really liked going to the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. SK and I also went to see the Beatles-themed Cirque show as part of her landmark birthday trip in 2019 and I also remember having birthday dinner there with the Millers in 2009 (and the first time I saw Love). Lots of visits to the Carnegie Deli too.
Thanks Team Mirage for all the great memories!
Thanks to CK for tracking this down online (nobody in town seems to carry it – been looking since they handed them out at Get in Gear)
* for a limited time. Agent Cooper says potato cakes are back at Arby’s, so my boycott is now over (although they dropped ham and cheese for burgers – WTF?)
Can’t believe I messed up the Lynx game time. Still arranged for a Carbone’s visit (and still hope to make it to the Turf Club in time for The Baseball Project). Twins on the bar TV was nice bonus
The Dive was closed, so we tried the Highland Dave’s – if you like spice on everything, Dave’s is your spot
It won’t help my waistline, but Heggie’s six pack is delicious (and I haven’t had one in a long, long time)
The Minnesota restaurant scene is so lucky to have food writers like Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl covering the local beat. Her review of Joe Rolle’s new Minneapolis spot Dario was the root cause of us booking our quarterly night out with friends John and Cathy. The somewhat hidden spot in the North Loop is a hot ticket, so we had to reserve several weeks out (for a Monday!).
The friendly greeter who seated us recommended the Gardener’s Break cocktail (Song Cai spiced roselle and floral gins, lime) and we were off and running. Turns out the bar program is headed by former Marvel Bar alumni Stephen Rowe, so not surprised it was strong. And of course Chef Joe comes from the Jack Riebel lineage, along with stints at Haute Dish, Vincent, Martina and Borough (where Dear Dara says he invented the Parlour burger). There are lots of great lines in her review, but this part really hit me:
Go to Dario, get the double chambered ravioli-like stuffed pasta called doppio. Use your fork to slice through one and marvel at the two different sorts of filling—one chamber holds caramelized sunchokes, mascarpone, and aged Parmesan; the other is filled with whipped ricotta with nutmeg and Parmesan. Please know: This pasta is made daily, starting at five or six in the morning, using a blend of different flours Rolle imports from Italy.
Like a ricotta cheesecake, but savory; like an arrow of rosemary, but mellowed; like hazelnuts, but herbal; like nothing but the essence of pleasure, pastified?
Here are all the items we ordered from our server Maddie:
We also spied a number of tables ordering the Potatoes (Crispy and creamy with Comté, caramelized onion, Tabasco), so I’d probably get that next time. John and Cathy also had the beets and one of the items from the raw section of the menu. I followed up the Gardener’s Break with the Bad Apple (Sweet vermouth, valvados, amaro, orange bitters), but preferred the first one. Prices are a little on the high side, but well within the market for that area and quality (a 5% health & wellness charge is added to all bills). The room is bright, hip and loud.
“Did you see the Lemmy portrait?”
Oui, chef!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
This one had been on the list of lists for a long, long time. Had the Henry VIII burger (“A kitchen specialty since 1941”): add blue cheese crumbles and bacon. Solid, but probably not in my metro burger Top 10…