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Where To Guzzle and Where To Swallow: First Thoughts On the Cosmo's Food and Drink Scene

Where: 3708 Las Vegas Blvd S [map], 89109
December 15, 2010 at 3:40 PM | by | Comments (0)

The Chandelier bar. Glitzy.

OK, enough procrastinating. Here’s an overview of what we thought of our Cosmo preview. We’ll keep it brief because we don’t like passing judgment on something we only saw on a walkthrough, but we’ll return to all of these and revisit our impressions once it’s up and running. First up: the bars and restaurants. Next we’ll move on to the casino and the rooms.

The restaurants
Looks like we were right to be excited about these. We went into China Poblano, and although it won’t be open tonight – they say Friday – the decor was fantastic – a mishmash of Mexican and Chinese masks on the wall, along with bicycle tires on the roof and Frida Kahlo for good measure. Also, a weird but potentially cool bunch of tiered seats there for people getting takeout – love.

We also went into Comme Ca, which has the best views of the restos we saw – directly over the Eiffel Tower – and an incredibly well priced lunch deal, 3 courses for $28. See you there tomorrow.

Scarpetta looks fabulous, although the views are more of the Bellagio than the Strip. Finally we went up to STK and although we’re sad there are no Strip views – they blocked them off intentionally, FFS – we seriously love the idea of lady-friendly steak portions in small, medium and large, and things like crab salad instead of crab cakes. Also, there’s a fabulous private dining room – padded black leather walls, and its own sound system – which we’re seriously considering booking for our bday.

The Henry is a 24 hour restaurant and the only one on the casino floor. The vibe is kind of masculine hunters with a hint of bondage. We’re not sure about the name (more on that another time) but it could be a fun place when the munchies strike.

Finally we got a view of the secret pizza joint - it's on the restaurant floor and you go down what looks like a service passage, but what turns into a walkway lined with Italian record covers. There's a pinball machine and a small counter. Not really much room to eat in. No idea of prices, none of the staff said they knew how much it would be. Could be fun, though, especially if it stays open late.

The bars
Love, love, love. There are very few places we can think of in Vegas where there are standalone bars that we’d want to spend a night there and be able to talk and sit, rather than an addition to the casino floor/part of a restaurant. So this was our fave aspect of the hotel. The Vesper Bar (as in the Bond girl) is right next to check in and looks pretty fly, with a frilly ceiling that’s based on Alice in Wonderland’s petticoats, randomly.

Book and Stage is the sportsbook, although it doesn’t look like it. It’s more of a standard casino bar with a stage. Here’s a list of who’ll be performing (thanks @eastcoastgamblr). No Zowie Bowie :'(. On the bright side, the Cosmo loves live music. Huzzah!

Queue Bar is next to the entrance for Marquee. It’s apparently the place you’re meant to go to meet your friends and rendezvous pre-club. But we loved it for its comfy sofas, slightly boho feel and the 22ft eye painted on the ceiling above the six gaming tables (the eye in the sky, geddit?). It was well cool.

Bond is the bar hoping to drag you in off the Strip – it’s glass-fronted and Stripside. It’s also the bar we liked the least – LED crystals waterfalling everywhere, lots of glitz and pods for DJs suspended from the ceiling. Glitzy, yeah, but slightly OTT.

The Chandelier Bar is the flagship bar – three levels in a giant chandelier (which would be the biggest in the world, were it not for pesky Brunei) with different signature cocktails on each level. The second level will be the fancypants one, with liquid nitrogen and stuff in the cocktails – we tried two, and they were delicious. The top tier is meant to be more sexy, with blooming roses projected onto the walls. We found the second floor a little cramped thanks to a low ceiling but that didn’t stop us digging it a lot. In fact, we thought we’d hate the glitz but we actually got to liking it, and loving overlooking the casino and the shops.

The best thing about these bars, though, is that none of them have bottle service and all of them have plenty of seating. So you can take a table to yourself and have one drink. This is awesome. Cocktails are reasonable at $10-14, which is doubly awesome. And all the juices and purees are made on site, which they are very excited about. Us, less so, but they tasted delish.

In short: we’re very, very excited. See you tonight/tomorrow/the rest of December.

[Photo: LV Sun]

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