Vegas!;California and Rebelle; Part 1

Las Vegas

We took a trip to Las Vegas and then on to California. We stayed at the Aria https://www.aria.com/en.html?kbid=2584521&cvosrc=ppc.google.aria%20vegas&cvo_crid=107281943483&Matchtype=e&ef_id=21dOSEGQx0oAAIH5:20160917213530:s, a fairly new and supposedly deluxe hotel. (5 diamonds, AAA) The rooms were nice, curtains opened electrically but service was strange. We stayed 2 nights and on the second day our room was not cleaned at 4:30 so I had to call housekeeping. The room finally got cleaned around 5:30. Not top flight. Vegas was boring. Times Square on steroids and that is not a complement. Every top chef in the world has a restaurant and the prices are New York high but what do you really get.

We ate lunch at a Bobby Flay Burger place. It was forgettable. Bobby should be ashamed as the burgers were too salty and the staff knows it.

We ate the first night at Bardothttp://www.michaelmina.net/restaurants/las-vegas/bardot-brasserie/ , a french bistro in the Aria. Michael Mina is the chef responsible for the place. (We had good experiences at his restaurant in the Borgata which closed several years ago.) It was very good and a relative bargain. They had a Summer in Provence prix fixe meal for $65 with wine for $35 more. The food was tasty and well prepared and the wines were good  and varied. Some even surprised me.

Wines were a Vouvray from the Loire, Pinot Gris from Alsace, Rose from Provence (Whispering Angel), Coudelet de Beaucastel 2013 a Rhone wine made from the Chateau Beaucastel folks and du Bugey,  a sparkling red wine for dessert.(see menu below) The wines were really good and as you can see quite interesting. The meal may be the best deal in Vegas. My wife and I shared everything so we had an 8 course tasting menu.

Tuna tartare

 Melon with ham

 Cocquilles st Jacques

 Duck wings

 Branzino

 Lamb chops

 A pavlova. This looked better than it tasted.

 About $230 with tax an tip, which for what we had was a bargain. When we paid for the meal we tried to charge it to the room. The waiter said it would not go through as we were not showing a credit card on file. I told him that  was impossible as you can't check in without a credit card. However the restaurant could not do anything and we had to pay separately.

After the meal we went to the front desk of the hotel and were told to go back to restaurant and have them undo the charge. We asked the person at the front desk to take care of it and she finally did. Not what I call top service.

Day 2 we were bored with Vegas so we rented a car and drove to Hoover Dam. It is a short 40 mile drive. We took a tour of the inside of the dam which showed us the turbines and other things. It was fascinating. The dam itself is awesome. It was bright and sunny and very hot.

The bridge behind the dam. You can walk across it.

 Walking across the dam. You can drive or walk across it.

 When they built the dam,they needed to divert the river so they could build the dam on dry river bed. They built huge tunnels around the dam site to divert the water. This is one of the tunnels.

 The turbines used to generate electricity. Everything about Hoover Dam is extraordinary and on a monumental scale. Read about it.http://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/

 You can see how low the water in Lake Mead is currently.

 A view of Lake Mead. There is a brewing controversy about dams in the west and about dams on the Colorado River. The amount of  water lost from evaporation from Lake Mead is enormous. The dam connects Arizona and Nevada and depending on the time of year, you cross into another time zone. Arizona does not switch to Daylight Savings Time and is on Mountain Time all year.

We returned to Vegas and tried to figure out where to eat dinner. We decided on Lago https://www.bellagio.com/en/restaurants/lago.html in the Bellagio because it has big windows that give you a view of the lake in front of the Bellagio. The lake has a water fountain show every 15 minutes. Lago is a small plate Italian place that would make Olive Garden proud. It was awful and the service was pathetic. The water show was  great. BTW Lago is considered a top Vegas restaurant.

The water show from Lago.

Rebelle

For our anniversary we went to Rebelle http://rebellenyc.com/in NYC. It is the sister restaurant to Pearl and Ash. The restaurants have one of the top wine lists in NYC. They have a chefs table tasting menu and in the summer you could bring your own wine with no corkage to the chefs table. I brought Domaine Drouhin's Louise Pinot Noir 2012. This is the top of the line DDO pinot noir. Availability is very limited and I only have the wine from the 2012 vintage. It was great. Balanced, lots of terroir and intense flavor. I also brought a half bottle of Veuve Clicquot. The beauty of being able to bring your own wine was that we could have great food and still drink great wine without spending a fortune. The tasting menu was relatively a bargain as it $230 for 2 inclusive of tax and tip.

The food was very good. We about 12 courses and sat facing the kitchen. The best part was that everyone was so nice. No NY attitude. We talked to other diners, shared wine with them and just had a great time. The chef and cooks all chatted with us as well.

Foie gras

An egg with Bayonne ham and greens "Green Eggs and Ham."

 Roasted bass.

 The kitchen from our seats

 Lobster with brown butter and potato chips.

 Lamb.

Yogurt with granita.

 Strawberry ice cream, sorbet and other assorted delights.

 Our California(Santa Barbara, Cambria, St Simeon, Carmel and San Francisco) part of the trip coming soon.

Wine tip of the week -- Daou Winery in Paso Robles, California. More about it next time.

Enjoy