An Open Letter to John Unwin

http://themintymusings.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/cosmo.jpg

Mr. John Unwin

President

The Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino

3708 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

Dear John,

It is with great distress I write this. I consider you a friend and colleague, and you know I hold your food and beverage bona fides in the highest regard.

You also know how much I love what you have done with The Cosmopolitan — turning it from an almost financial disaster to the most talked about hotel in town…and maybe the country. The murderer’s row of restaurants you and your team assembled on the third floor puts any aggregation of great eats to shame — save for the Time Warner Center in New York City. Foodies from far and wide have flocked there, the national food press has been effusive in its praise, and, most importantly, you have developed a strong following of locals who consider dining there one of the great amenities of living in Las Vegas.

One of the small reasons people have been so excited about your food and beverage venues is because of the ease of ingress. The access that Costas Spiliadis, Scott Conant, and you, among others, bragged to me about a year ago when touting how easy it would be for locals to come, park in the convenient underground garage, and zip up to the third floor to bar hop, table hop, restaurant hop, nightclub or whatever. And how right you were. Your parking garage has been a breeze to navigate, a joy to park in, and within steps of an elevator to take you wherever you need to be in your fabulous hotel.

That is, until a couple of weeks ago.

Continue reading “An Open Letter to John Unwin”

BLUE RIBBON Reviewed in Las Vegas Weekly

ELV note: The following review appears in today’s Las Vegas Weekly, and can be accessed on its website by clicking here, if you want to read it in its original, on-line format. Our staff suggests doing so…but also suggests scrolling down this page to indulge your eyes in some of our tasty snaps.

[nggallery id=1276]I don’t get Blue Ribbon. That doesn’t mean I don’t like it; it just means I don’t groove on its pricey, all-over-the-map menu. I’ve eaten there six times and never had a bad bite, but still can’t explain why it’s so appealing to everyone from fussy food-o-philes to the clippy cloppy heeled set. But wildly popular it is. Raw fish aficionados flock here, carnivores crave it, and women who’ve seen way too much Sex and the City practically use it as a private club. Maybe it all comes down to the fried chicken.

Continue reading “BLUE RIBBON Reviewed in Las Vegas Weekly”

Porkapalooza!

[nggallery id=1237]

Lovers of cooked and cured pork in all its forms were in hog heaven this afternoon, as Cochon 555 hit The Cosmopolitan in all its porcine-perfect glory. It was a much more food-focused event than many of our dine-around festivals — with celebrity chefs taking a back seat to the butchers and sausage makers who are re-defining American charcuterie.

Continue reading “Porkapalooza!”