VegasChatter

Vegas Uncork'd / Restaurants / Milos / The Cosmopolitan / Eating / Dining / Fine Dining / Greek Food / → All Tags

Five Reasons To Visit Estiatorio Milos

The Cosmopolitan's Greek restaurant, Estiatorio Milos, is one of those spots that's been on our must visit list for months, but we hadn't made happen. Friends have visited without us and endlessly rubbed it in raved about it. Yelp reviews are pretty amazing and, in fact, the only gripe we've ever really heard is that it's a tad pricey. Our doctor tells us we don't eat enough fish to boot yet still we'd failed to make our appearance until Vegas Uncork'd last weekend.

Disguised under the theme At The Fish Market with Costas Spiliadis where guests would learn chef's secrets from selecting quality fish at the market to preparations they could use at home, we accepted an invitation to attend and finally experience that Greek magic. Due to the format, we can't quite review a true first person Estiatorio Milos dining experience, but we can say what we did have was pretty flipping fantastic. So much so that we became that annoying diner that endlessly raved about it to anyone who couldn't escape cared to listen in the days following.

Pending a proper meal, which has officially now moved up our must-do soon and often list, we can confidently provide Five Reasons to Visit Estiatorio Milos, stat:

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Vegas Observations / Eating / Caesars Palace / Central / Carlos n Charlie's / Flamingo / Gordon Ramsay / Gordon Ramsay Steak / Paris / Burger Bar / Mandalay Bay / China Poblano / The Cosmopolitan / Public House / Venetian / → All Tags

What's Eating At Us About The Strip

To be honest, this makes us feel old. Please forgive our "get off my lawn" moment while we reflect on recent dining experiences on the Vegas Strip. This isn't meant as a rant, but more of a heads up and warning to prepare you for future trips.

Eating on The Strip is damn expensive!

In the past couple of weeks, we've eaten $20 burgers at both Public House and Central. We've paid $20 for fried rice at China Poblano and we've seen nachos at Carlos'n Charlie's between $15 and $20. Nachos! Seriously?!

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Food / Milkshakes / Holsteins / The Cosmopolitan / → All Tags

Holsteins Milkshakes Bring All The Boys (and Girls) to the Yard

This is a different kind of milkshake but just so you know, the server gals are still wearing these hot pink dresses at Holstein's.

When the craving for an ice cream sundae or anything sweet strikes in Vegas, you don't have to look far to get your fix thanks to the pop-up of old-fashioned desert shops like Serendipity at Caesars Palace and the proliferation of candy stores (i.e. anything with the name Sugar in it.)

But when the ice cream sundae jones came calling for us last week at The Cosmopolitan, we popped into Holsteins Shakes and Buns to try their Bam-Boozled shakes. Essentially, milkshakes with alcohol.

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The Cosmopolitan / Twitter / Gambling / Comps / Vegas Observations / Identity / Players Clubs / → All Tags

The Cosmo Doesn't Get Gamblers

What do we do when we come across something we don't like? We complain about it.

Sometimes we'll tell a friend, but sometimes we'll tweet it so everyone sees our complaint and, maybe, does something about it. We're not much to get in the middle of Twitter conversations, but a discussion last week between The Cosmopolitan and an unhappy gambler caught our eye.

Customer service via Twitter is a difficult thing to manage. Complaints are rarely resolved and we don't know how this ended, but what we do see is how it ended on Twitter. The final (public?) tweet shows us how Cosmopolitan's staff is disconnected from gamblers:

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The Cosmopolitan / Gambling / Penny Slots / → All Tags

Proof That People Really Do Gamble at Cosmo

We have proof that people do, indeed, gamble at The Cosmopolitan.

Earlier this month, a woman won a $150,000 car there playing a penny slot! Vegas Inc reports that it was her first visit to Cosmo. After winning something like a $150,000 car we have to think that she'll be back.

Numbers don't lie. Cosmopolitan hasn't reported earnings from the fourth quarter of 2011 yet but when they last reported earnings (third quarter of 2011), they had a loss of $58.5 million. Most of their income was from everything that wasn't gambling.

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Events / Food Trucks / Pop-Up Restaurants / Silverton / Fukuburger / Venetian / Palazzo / Epicurean Affair / Vegas Uncork'd / Bellagio / Caesars Palace / The Cosmopolitan / Mandalay Bay / Rain / The Palms / The Flame Steakhouse / El Cortez / Hot Dogs / First Food and Bar / → All Tags

Hunger Heaven: Foodie Fests, Championships, Qualifiers, Pop-Ups, Affairs, and More

This is what happens when we brainstorm story ideas before eating. For those about to eat, we're sorry. For everyone else that can't wait to eat, we salute you with an all almost (actually not even close if you can believe it) encompassing upcoming Las Vegas foodie event wrap-up.

LAS VEGAS' FIRST FOODIE FEST
Silverton Casino Hotel
Saturday, April 28 (noon to 11 p.m.) and Sunday, April 29 (noon to 9 p.m.)
Family friendly food and fun with over 30 gourmet food trucks, 15 food vendor booths, a farmer’s market, eating contests, beer garden, carnival rides and games, live chef demos, a tequila party tent, live bands, DJs, and after parties. Trucks you may know include White Rabbit Truck, Fuku Burger, Vizzi Truck, Devilicious and Mangia Mangia. Tickets are $7 in advance or $10 at the event. To buy said tickets or more info, visit Las Vegas Foodie Fest.

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The Cosmopolitan / Identity / Players Clubs / → All Tags

The Cosmo Changes Its Identity

In the ever shrinking comp market The Cosmopolitan has, essentially, doubled what it takes to earn Identity points.

In an email sent out yesterday, we noticed that the amount of money spent to earn comps across the board was different so we referenced a story from when Cosmo first opened and saw that points are, indeed, being doled out differently. Here's a comparison of how Identity points were earned when the casino opened and what it takes today:

Was:
· 10 points for every $1 you spend on your hotel room (as in booking the room)
If you book online via the Cosmo website, you get a bonus 1,000 points for every night that you stay (GONE)

· 10 points for every $4 you spend at the spa or in the restaurants

· 10 points for every $10 you spend in the shops

· 10 points for ever $15 you spend on the slot machines for every $50 you spend on video poker, and for every $100 you lay down on table games

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Pools / Pool Scenes / Adult Pools / Openings / Venus Pool Club / Rehab / Marquee Dayclub / Beachlife / TAO Beach / Venetian / Hard Rock / The Cosmopolitan / Caesars Palace / → All Tags

With Temps Hovering Around 100, Last of Vegas Pools Make Their Debut

If this screengrab doesn't convince you to plan a trip to Vegas soon, this will -- the last of the dayclubs (save one) splash into the Vegas pool scene this weekend.

Venus Pool Club at Caesars Palace opens today. Marquee Dayclub at The Cosmopolitan makes its picturesque return tomorrow. And, Rehab at Hard Rock gets back into the swim of things on Sunday. (Don't forget about Beachlife, either.)

The only adult pool that's still keeping the cover-up on is TAO Beach at Venetian which won't reveal itself again until May 5.

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Lucky Rice Festival / Asian Food / Foodies / Food Events / The Cosmopolitan / → All Tags

The Lucky Rice Festival is Coming to Vegas for Night

Usually, we're not surprised when New York outposts of restaurants, clubs and shows make their way out to Vegas, but this is one New York transplant that we can't wait to eat up...literally.

The NY Times reports that the Lucky Rice Festival is coming to Las Vegas on June 23 at The Cosmopolitan. While the NYC festival is five days long, the Vegas version will be only one night from 8 to 11 p.m. But, what a night it will be.

Food stalls featuring dishes from over 20 chefs from the U.S. (mostly LA and Las Vegas) will show off the best in Asian street food flavors along with someone called a "unique Las Vegas sensibility." Not sure what that means but we're hoping it's got more to do with food than stripper heels.

Tickets for the event start at $88 per person with the VIP experience by the hotel's Boulevard Pool from 7 to 8 p.m. going for $125. That might be worth it if it means you can nom nom an hour before everyone else. Get your tix here.

Pool Scenes / Pools / Marquee Dayclub / Adult Pools / The Cosmopolitan / → All Tags

Twitter Is Excited About the Coming Opening of Marquee Dayclub

Some Vegas pools have been open for a while. While others just jumped in. But, some of the most highly anticipated openings of the Vegas pool season have yet to occur.

That will change in a week and a half when both Rehab at Hard Rock and Marquee Dayclub at The Cosmo splash back into the picture.

On the Vegas social scene, folks are a'Twitter about receiving personal invites to Marquee's grand opening, set for April 21. The pool used old-style Viewfinders with discs featuring scenes from last year's season to snap up attention. We've even seen photos of the cutesy invite turning up on our Facebook feed. (And, no, we don't know how you can get one, too.)

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Art / The Cosmopolitan / P3 Studio / Events / Mai Ueda / → All Tags

Tea, Pandas And The Cosmopolitan's Ever Bolder Art Projects

The Cosmopolitan'sP3 art Studio is pushing the envelope of art and visitor participation with its latest installation. We've previously praised the virtues of Cosmo's art devotion here and here, but a very bold new residency by artist Mai Ueda promises to be their most daring and quixotic yet. For the rest of April, Mai will be conducting traditional Japanese tea services -- with a distinct twist. In the first event, we dressed and acted as pandas. Yes, we'll get to that in a minute.

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Caesars Entertainment / Players Clubs / Total Rewards / Identity / The Cosmopolitan / → All Tags

Total Rewards Becomes Latest Players Club To Take Away Benefits

Whenever we get a little cranky about players clubs taking away some of their benefits, we force ourselves to remember that casinos are businesses looking to make as much money as they can and eventually they'll look at places they can cut expenses. Cool things are usually the first to go. We may never understand the corporate mind, but we try.

Last month, The Cosmopolitan pulled back some of their Identity perks offered to their top-tier customers and we questioned why they might do this. After all the big spenders are, well, big spenders. Whether they're gambling or buying $1,000 dinners at a restaurant, these are the people spending the most money. We'd imagine that any business would want to focus on their biggest spenders.

This month, Caesars Entertainment made a similar cutback with their highest tiered spenders. Caesars' Total Rewards players club stopped offering Diamond and Seven Stars players monthly tickets to their lowest tier shows. Last year, we swore that we'd make it to one of these shows each month, but we never got around to it and now we never will.

In a vacuum, taking away free tickets to these shows isn't a big deal. However, in the grand scheme of players clubs we think that this is a bad sign.

In a previous corporate life, we always joked that business was bad when the water cooler was removed from an office. We never saw anything positive happen to a company after removing the water cooler. The expense of a water cooler for an office isn't a lot so what's left to remove after the water cooler? Businesses won't pull lower cost items, so they start cherry picking bigger ticket items.

By Caesars taking away such an insignificant perk we can only imagine that bigger ticket items will be next. Truth be told, we find that some of the best perks being an upper-tier player with Total Rewards don't come with dollar amounts. We love being able to skip lines in restaurants and valet. There's not a price that can be put on our time by a casino.

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