VegasChatter

Tags: Summer Relief / Bellagio / Gelato / → All Tags

Before Summer Officially Ends, Stop at Bellagio’s Café Gelato

It is not as if the Bellagio needs any help from us to push business for them. But as we hit the final days of Summer (and this is Vegas, so the heat will be with us for just a few more weeks) we cannot resist the instinct to tell you of Bellagio’s Cafe Gelato.

The Cafe Gelato is located near the Bellagio pool, the setting is a wide open parlor space with wicker furniture and quaint tables. The variety of gelato and ices are impressive too, with the hazelnut, mint chip and raspberry ice to be heaven for those who crave such things.

Cafe Gelato does offer some other fine temptations like pastries, cappuccinos and frappuccinos, but even though summer is (unofficially) over, it's still hot in Vegas so we fervently insist on the gelatos and ices. With the rumor that they make all their fresh items on the property, the texture and presentation make it all especially inviting.

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Tags: Food / Summer Relief / Town Square / → All Tags

Lollicup: Town Square's Boba Tea Boomtowns

Town Square: Las Vegas’ sprawling, homey, outdoor mega mall for tourists and residents of the city, right off of the Strip. It's armed with plenty of reasonable shopping choices to tempt you when you’re roaming around the premises, but choices for a cool drink can be cumbersome. Given that, we'd like to wholeheartedly endorse these little kiosks that pop up from time to time on the property that go by the twee moniker of Lollicup.

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Tags: Food / Summer Relief / Local Hangouts / Capriotti's / → All Tags

Capriotti's Sandwich Shop :: Vegas' Best, Hands Down

Vegas is known for three main qualities amongst its accessible fast foods: cheap, big, fast. Unfortunately, quality sometimes gets lost in the scrum. Among those victims: sandwiches. Finding solid tastes between two pieces of bread just isn't an easy task in Vegas, a city known for a lot of things, but simple specifics (like subs) not being one of them. They're often relegated to chains like Subway or Port O' Subs, and left for dead (tastes). Unless you know better.

Enter Capriotti's Sandwich Shop, the first (and last) word on sammies in Vegas. Even better is that - since arriving to town in the early 90's, and locals consequently going craving-crazy over their gluten masterpieces - there're now plenty of locations in the Valley. Ground zero, however, is on Sahara, just west of the Strip, where low-key business lunching is a sport. But what makes them so good?

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Tags: Happy Hours / Summer Relief / Bars / → All Tags

Stay Cool and Save Money With These Five Happy Hours

Hot summer weather tends to bring out our inner Betty Ford. Give us a cold beer or cocktail and a kicking air-conditioning system, and we can struggle through the way-too-hot season. That’s why we’re always on the prowl for decent Happy Hour deals to enable our stay cool and sedated efforts while saving money. (Don’t’ blame us – we can’t help but multi-task.)

Here are five happy hours that will help you get liquid locked and loaded and survive the summer heat:

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Tags: Summer Relief / Gelato / Gelato Cafe / Fashion Show Mall / → All Tags

Gelato is a Proper and Tasty Solution For Keeping Cool

Trust us, it is not going to get any cooler in Las Vegas for awhile. We should know, we live here. As a tourist, or even as a local, you are going to need relief from the searing heat. So we suggest something essential - gelato!

Naturally, we here at VegasChatter.com know just where to go, the aptly titled, Gelato Cafe in the Fashion Show Mall. Everything works here, the pleasant decor (rich in nice earth tones and smartly choiced Italian memorabilia), the relative inexpensiveness (get some nice, big scoops for under $4), some good sugar free alternatives (lemon ice being particularly good) and some terrific customer service.

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Tags: Summer Relief / Frozen Custard / Locals Vegas / Henderson / → All Tags

Sheridan’s Frozen Custard: The Valley’s 'Other' Custard Stop

Since our last plug for a custard shop Luv It Frozen Custard, we were asked by readers for some other choice recommendations in town. That and the other question being “what’s the difference between custard and ice cream?”

Well, we will gladly answer both questions. First, the all urgent custard v. ice cream question. In a nutshell (oversimplify?), custard is made with eggs and gives the cold cream a thicker richer texture and that makes for better shakes and sundaes because of it (at least according to custard enthusiasts. And as for another custard shop in town, we suggest Sheridan's Frozen Custard.

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Tags: Summer Relief / Lake Mead / Outdoor Vegas / Adventure / → All Tags

Lake Mead Will Always Be An Option For The Summer

Look, you could go the website and read a briefer on the Lake Mead Recreation Area and take what you would need to know. We just want to share you the information of the fun you might have just to get there.

But first, the formalities. it is officially titled the Lake Mead National Recreational Area (say it slowly, it’s a mouthful) and it lies about 35 miles from the heart of Las Vegas. And the beauty to it is that within a 40 minute drive from the infamous Strip, you really are in another world that ends up being that rare thing these days - a rewarding getaway for the whole family.

In the summer, it's pretty hard to top this hotspot of outdoor activity as there is everything from swimming, water skiing, boating, wind sailing and fishing to curb your athletic appetite.

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Tags: Spas / Caesars Palace / Qua Spa / Summer Relief / → All Tags

The Arctic Room at QUA Baths and Spa Should Cure All That Ails You

Bloody Marys be damned. It’s QUA Baths & Spa at Caesars Palace Palace that has saved us from more than a few Sin City hangovers. You know when it hurts to move and you can’t bring yourself to face sunlight? Yep, QUA (Latin for “here”) is the cure those ails.

Here’s how we do it: Turn off that Blackberry and stash your stuff in a locker. Slip into the warm cocoon-like comfort of QUA Baths & Spa’s high thread count robes and slippers.

Swing through the tea room and swig down a bottle of water. Extra credit if you can tackle two. Hydration is your friend.

Next, plant your booty in the single sex Roman Baths. There are baths in a variety of temperatures – Tepidarium, Caldarium and Frigidarium – so feel free to experiment to find the perfect temperature fit. We find that this stage of recovery, the sauna and steam rooms are a bit too dehydrating and the heat only makes us more nauseous. Don’t be afraid to sack out on the über-comfy loungers that surround the baths.

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Tags: Summer Relief / Chinatown / Boba Tea / DNA Snack House / → All Tags

It’s Boba Tea, Not Bubble Tea!

One of the grooviest kinds of relief you can have if those temperatures get too high is a delicious rush of boba tea. Some of you might refer to it as bubble tea, and either way, the effects they have to revive you on a frustratingly hot day are considerable.

Those tea drinks, which were originated in Taiwan, are referred to by those chewy little pearls (or tapioca balls) at the bottom of the cup, and while you can find a boba tea spot anywhere in town, but the best of them can be found around Chinatown.

Located just east of Las Vegas Boulevard on Spring Mountain Road, Las Vegas’s Chinatown (C-Town or A-Street as locals call it) is actually a long stretch of Asian shopping malls, retail shops, restaurants and boba tea spots that cover at least three miles from Valley View and extending out to Rainbow Boulevard.

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Tags: Food / Summer Relief / Local Hangouts / Luv-It Frozen Custard / → All Tags

Luv-It Frozen Custard :: Because We Said So!

Now that it's officially Summer, we here at VegasChatter feel the need to start pushing some "Summer Relief" ideas. When temperatures start zenithing beyond the 110f mark, we know tourists will always look for a reason to wander off Las Vegas Boulevard to get some shade or a cool drink. But did you ever think about the relief a nice, cold, flavorful cone of custard might provide? If not, can we suggest Luv It Frozen Custard?

This small hut located just a block east of Las Vegas Boulevard off Oakey has been a mainstay of the city since 1971. It's one of the city’s great cornerstones (The Killers’ frontman Brandan Flowers stops here when he’s in town, if we can just name drop this once) and visiting here you’ll see why. There really is no overhead other than one employee on the premises and nowhere really to sit, other than just hanging out on the street to indulge in some classic custard.

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