Vegas Blogs

A Las Vegas and Casino Design Commentary Blog. The Las Vegas Strip, casinos, restaurants and more. The weblog focuses on the gaming industry and how it works.

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Mark and Sazzy give you an insiders view on almost all things tourist in Las Vegas

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Last news: September 6, 2010 23:09:36

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International Travel and Dining Blog

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Las Vegas Restaurant News & Reviews

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With 5000 people moving here each month, somebody had to spill the beans.

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Las Vegas's Favorite Idiot Tells You How It Really Is

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Last news: June 25, 2009 23:21:24

Restaurant Reviews and Culinary Miscellany

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Real Life in the Shadow of the Strip

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Restaurant Week has ended but one meal is still on my mind. Sage inside CityCenter’s Aria is a real gem; it is transforming California’s freshest harvests into inspired culinary delights. [Read more] - [Read more]

The 2010 edition of Las Vegas’ Restaurant Week has come and gone and what a week it was!  I love Restaurant Week. I love it very much.  After a week of eating some delicious food, my wallet got a hell of a lot lighter and just when I thought it wasn’t possible, somehow I got [...] - [Read more]

Because the video is over-sized, you’ll have to continue after the jump to see and hear ELV rhapsodizing over the food at Monta, with Emmy-Award winning Denise Valdez.

ELV note: Here is the link to this article as it appears today (in somewhat truncated/adulterated/less colorful form) in the Las Vegas Weekly. Or read on if you want to make things easier (and funnier) on yourselves. ALOHA SPECIALTIES Hawaiian people eat so much white food, it’s a wonder their bowels ever move. It’s almost as if [...] - [Read more]

I had heard earlier this month that a lion attacked a trainer at The Lion Habitat at MGM Grand.  Come to find out, a tourist was shooting video when it all took place!

Here’s a thought – let’s stop thinking that putting a wild animal in an unnatural environment isn’t going to eventually piss it off.

This is the final part of a series about the problems that MGM Resorts International faces at CityCenter and how those problems may be impacting the important relationships they need to run their businesses. Based on fascinating new insight into operations at the various CityCenter components, we dive deep into... - [Read more]

How well do you know Las Vegas? Match your wits against the other Geo-Sleuths who swing by here every Thursday mornings.... [Read more] - [Read more]

Vincenzo Scarmiglia’s cheese and salumi platter at Sirio is so damn gouda, it’s put us on another cheesy binge. ELV and his staff cantal-p themselves sometimes. Perhaps you Camembert it, but ELV promises, there’s Stiltons more. There’s only one thing to do with such puns? You Edam! As puns go these should get your goat, and the yeast you [...] - [Read more]

ELV learned something last weekend in Mesquite (Nevada, not France). He learned that the KCBS-sanctioned barbecue contests are taken very seriously by the contestants, the organization, and the multitude of judges that show up to sample and rate the ‘cue. He also learned that a lot of the competitive stuff (at least as it appeared in [...] - [Read more]

This is part two of a three part series about the problems that MGM Resorts International faces at CityCenter and how those problems may be impacting the important relationships they need to run their businesses. Based on fascinating new insight into operations at the various CityCenter components, we dive deep... - [Read more]

Hes my new roomie, hes a puppy (ten months at the time of this writing), and hes a Wineaux. Since hes not yet of legal age, I dont let him indulge, but he manages to let me know that he likes wine. I mean, *really* likes wine! . . . → Read More Here: Jake, the Wineaux Dog - [Read more]

Hey all! The Husband and I are back in the Outer Banks in one of our favorite coastal towns – Nags Head, NC.  Our family and friends try to come here at least once a year and we’re loving being back.  For those of you who don’t know, we were married here exactly 2 1/2 years ago and we’re actually staying in the same beach house we stayed in then – a beautiful house that brings back great memories!  Last year, when we came to the beach, the weather was awful and I had to head home early for my grad school classes so I’m soaking up the beautiful warm weather and my opportunity to be here all week!

For the most part we’ve been lounging.  Eating and drinking (there’s more than enough food here to feed an army in this house!), playing Wii, enjoying football and movies in the entertainment room, riding bikes, and just driving around the island.  The Husband and I haven’t made it to the beach yet but plan on it tomorrow.  The highlights of today include my first ever golf game (I just started lessons a few weeks ago which we plan to tell you all about!) as well as dinner at our favorite Outer Banks restaurant – Outer Banks Brewing Station (check out our previous posts).

So… no photos or longer posts yet but we hope to catch up with past weeks as well as the fun things we do while we’re here.  Stay tuned for hopefully some beautiful photos (seriously, this is the best beach weather I’ve experienced in years) and good eats.

Hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

When Champion Gourmet closed last April (at about the same time as Paymon’s folded its tent downtown), there was much gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over the latter, but nary a peep about losing the former. Guess which one represented the loss of a true gem on our gastronomic scene? We’re happy to report that [...] - [Read more]

Vodkus Absurdus

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A spiritual spirit

ELV asks: Is there anything more absurd than celebrity vodka?

And who are the fools buying this sh*t anyway?

This spirit has a spiritual history behind it, if you believe the b.s. slung by its marketers.

It also claims it’s “…literally, pure spirit,” because it’s distilled through diamonds(!).

Ignoring the fact that the USDA defines all vodkas as a “…colorless, neutral spirit…” By law, it cannot have a distinctive character, aroma, taste or color.

The whole point of vodka is that it has those characteristics….which are really no characteristics at all….in order to make it easy to mix with non-alcoholic mixers that will mask its true purpose of getting women drunk so they are more likely to have sex with you.

Who doesn’t know this people?

So why do people shell out $50+ for stupid marketing tricks for something that is, by definition, without substance, and by taste, wholly neutral?

Especially when good ole $15 Smirnoff tastes as good or better than all those “premium” brands.

Eating Las Vegas wants to know why people are such fools? And if any of you have the answer, he can be found tonight at some watering hole, coaxing heavily-adulterated Grey Goose down some girl’s throat, so she will be more likely to have sex with him.

Or something like that.

Usually my First Impressions posts are based off of only one visit, obviously not enough time to do a qualified full review.  Some of the “professionals” in town apparently feel that a full review can be done with only one visit…I guess that’s why they must be “professionals,” right?  However, I’m breaking my own rule [...] - [Read more]

A few days ago, ELV was thinking about his first meal at the original Postrio, eighteen years ago, in San Francisco. He remembered how striking the food was — an amalgam of all that is sacred and holy about the freshness of California produce, sparkling seafood, well chosen meats and inventively presented proteins. He remembers [...] - [Read more]

This is part one of a three part series about the problems that MGM Resorts International faces at CityCenter and how those problems may be impacting the important relationships they need to run their businesses. Based on fascinating new insight into operations at the various CityCenter components, we dive deep... - [Read more]

There’s been a flurry of bullshit swirling around regarding the status of Silk Road at the Vdara hotel, none of it good.  I’ve read everything from they will be closing to they are already closed.  However, I just took the 30 seconds necessary out of my day to call down to Silk Road and I’m [...] - [Read more]

Does the Strip really need another impressionist? With his new show ICONS that opened at the Riviera on September 2nd, Greg London convinced me that Vegas just wouldnt be Vegas without the entertainers who take their sound from everybody else. [Read more] - [Read more]

[Show as slideshow]

North Main Street, about a quarter of a mile north of the Main Street Station Hotel and Casino, is not an area where most gringos often tread….especially after dark.

Truth be told, we’re not sure anyone travels this forlorn strip of road populated by a few flea bag motels, and used auto parts shops. The only time we usually get up this way is when someone we know dies, and we’re forced to find a parking spot somewhere in the vicinity of the Palm Mortuary.

But every so often, we get a hankerin’ for some Salvadorean (or is it Salvadoran?) pupusas — those stuffed, cornmeal pancakes — and when we do, the Salvadoreno is where we head.

It’s a big, open friendly place, where there’s always a soccer match on the telly, and lots of Salvadoran (or is it Salvadorian?) families chowing down on the food of their homeland.

When we walk in, it’s usually like one of those western movie scenes where a gringo walks into the cantina and the whole place comes to a halt while everyone thinks to themselves: “What’s HE doing in here?”

Regardless, the proprietress couldn’t be friendlier, and the pupusas couldn’t be more pulchritudinous. We’re also partial to their slightly sweet and tangy curtido (coleslaw), and that thick-but-still-a-little-runny Salvadorian (or is it Salvadorean?) crema — a whiter and tangier  sour cream than you get in Mexico. ELV ain’t no expert, but he knows that many a difference exists between the sour creams of many a Central American country.

We like the Salvadorean (or is it Salvadorian?) variety for just those reasons, and find ourselves addictive-ly dipping our eggs and papusas in it. We even find it makes the re-fried beans more palatable. In fact we must say that it makes those frijoles so much more tastier here than in any mediocre Mexican joint we can think of.

The above lunch for one, with a couple of huge glass of tamarindo, came to $20 – $16+$4 tip, and is worth every penny of it for this handmade, Central American succulent sustenance.

SALVADORENO RESTAURANT

720 North Main Street

Las Vegas, NV 89101-1914

702.385.3600