Author: John Curtas

This Just In: Middleton Moving to Boulud; Stratta Returning to Marche Bacchus

Jeff and Rhonda Wyatt will announce tomorrow that Executive Chef David Middleton will be leaving Marche Bacchus to accept a position as a chef with a very famous, New York-based icon of French gastronomy, who may or may not be named Daniel Boulud, who’s very, very French and very charcuterie-centric outpost  may soon be coming to the Venetian.

Middleton will be departing the Desert Shores destination in mid-January, at which time Alex Stratta will reclaim the title of top toque in this kitchen. According to the Wyatt’s, Stratta will be launching a new menu soon, and will continue to serve as the grand fromage and consultant to the restaurant even after a replacement for Middleton is found.

Translation: Stratta will continue to lend his considerable chops to the menu, and maintain the exec chef title, even after they find a Chef de Cuisine to run the day to day operations.

I Suppose We Should Say a Few Words About the Closing of HOPS & HARVEST

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Hops & Harvest bit the dust a few days ago less than six months after it opened to great fanfare in Tivoli Village.

Its ignominious demise was hardly a surprise, as we had received a stream of reports over the past few months about how empty it was even on weekends.

H & H marked the first time in Las Vegas’s history that a nationally acclaimed chef had ventured off the Strip and into the neighborhoods. The fact that Bradley Ogden‘s star had dimmed a bit over the past twenty years in no way diminished this milestone, and lot’s of us kept our fingers crossed that his bold move to the ‘burbs would herald a new dawn in quality, off Strip dining.

Alas, it was not to be.

Continue reading “I Suppose We Should Say a Few Words About the Closing of HOPS & HARVEST”

Letter of the Week – Tiny Bladder Tom

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Dear ELV,

I have lived in  Las Vegas for almost 10 years. Like you and your readers, I have eaten in many of the finest establishments this town has to offer. BUT I do not understand why there are no customer bathrooms in almost every casino restaurant on the strip. As a single adult I have found it rude the few times I have needed it, to be forced to go out of the restaurant to find a restroom. I cannot fathom how irritated parents feel fighting their way around a casino to the elusive restroom for their child, and then back. Is there any reason or logic as to why a simple 100 square feet could not have been set aside for the customers comfort?

Unrinatingly Yours,

Tiny Bladder Tom

ELV responds:

Dear TBT,

Your overt concern for your own comfort misses the whole point of Vegas — and that is and always will be to get the customers to the gambling tables and keep them there as long as possible. In the casino’s mind, it is “DAMN THE BLADDERS FULL HOUSE AHEAD!” Or so they would have you believe. And those of you who actually think that excretory convenience is something to be considered are obviously NOT WITH THE PROGRAM.

For decades prior to 1998, it was a rule in every single casino in Las Vegas that anyone needing to use the facilities from anywhere in the hotel/casino had to wind their way past banks of slot machines or rows of table games. The thinking of the hotel’s was: No matter how bad you had to go, if you did this, you wouldn’t be able to RESIST TEMPTATION and not stop to try some game of chance. No kidding. The average casino executive’s only thought was to inconvenience you into gambling, no matter how hard nature was calling.

All of this changed in October, 1998 when Steve Wynn opened the Bellagio. For the first time in Vegas’s history, restrooms were actually located inside some (not all) of the better restaurants. Simply put: When the food got better, so did the ability to relieve oneself when partaking of a first class meal. In short order, hotels like Mandalay Bay and the Venetian abandoned the idea of making customers wind their way through the friggin’ casino to take a leak whilst in the middle of a $300 dinner.

Unfortunately, many of the older hotels have refused to retrofit their restaurants thusly, causing the insult and discomfort you complain of.

ELV’s suggestion: Start eating in the better (newer) restaurants in the better hotels and you’ll be able to piss away the evening to your heart’s content.

Excretingly yours,

ELV