VegasChatter

Tags: Louie Anderson / Vegas on Film / Craig Ferguson / Comedy / Palace Station / → All Tags

Does Naming a Theater After Yourself Make You a Douchebag?

The Louie Anderson Theater: coming soon to a casino near you

Anyone catch the Late Late Night Show with Venetian regular Craig Ferguson last night? We did, thanks to the glories of Jetblue’s in-flight TVs, and lo – who did we see on there but everyone’s favorite diminutive, rotund comic, Louie Anderson.

Lozza was talking about his transfer from the Excalibur to the Palace Station, and as well as confirming that Palace Station definitely doesn’t have a train station in it, he also let slip that he’s having what he called “my own showroom”.

Ie, his own showroom, named after him. Interesting, cos that seems to be the latest trend in Vegas. What with the four month old Gossy Room (which, it has to be said, we’re slowly coming round to, although it still brings out the smirk in us) and the new Human Nature Theater adding to the Terry Fator and Lance Burton Theaters and Chippendales Showroom, it seems that you’re nobody in Vegas unless the room you perform in bears your own name. How hubristic!

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Tags: Snapshot / Artisan / WTF / Do Not Do / Gyms / → All Tags

Would Anyone Actually Work Out in the Artisan Gym?

Um, nice picture?

We keep hearing good things about the new-look Artisan, and we enjoyed our salad there last month, even if it was weirdly packaged. But one thing we’re not feeling is the gym.

This, people, is the gym. A tiny room, dark as f*ck, split into two halves. In one is an elliptical trainer facing a mirror. We repeat, *an* elliptical trainer.

In the other half, there’s a rack of weights against the mirror, and a few big ones propped up against the wall. Nothing to lie back on, mind – you’d have to manoeuvre them onto the floor and pick ‘em up from there. But then, maybe that’s the best workout you’ll get here.

We assume, at least, that use of the gym is included in the roomrates.

Tags: Snapshot / Artisan / Food / Restaurants / → All Tags

The Artisan Could Do With Working On Its Food Presentation

Is this a McDonalds salad? A packed lunch from your mum? Why no, it’s actually the $12 Cobb Salad we lunched on at the Artisan yesterday.

When loveliest of lovely waitresses Chloe brought out the little white tablecloth, we were very excited. When she laid it with plastic cutlery and a plastic cup of water, not so much.

And then, when she brought the salad like this, we were a bit horrified, to be honest.

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Tags: Artisan / Bars / Drinking / Dudes in Vegas / DJs / → All Tags

The Artisan is Working Out the Bugs

We appreciate a unique spot to get your drink on. Collecting oversized souvenir drinks was so last night. The Stripper Bar‘s crotch cam is still crotchless. And Gilley’s isn’t quite open yet.

We suggest swinging into the Lounge at the Artisan Hotel. If the Artisan doesn’t ring a bell, it’s a non-gaming boutique hotel off the beaten path but still close to the Strip. The interior has been described as ritzy, swanky, elegant, hip and smooth. We just call it Vegas cool. Dark woods. Walls and ceilings that are covered with paintings by Italian artists we can’t keep straight. But not overly pretentious or exclusive.

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Tags: Bars / Locals Vegas / Off the Strip / → All Tags

Beware of the Cellar Lounge, Its Charms Could Keep You There Through the Night

Serendipity--the feeling, not just the ice cream shop at Caesars-- can be a good thing, case in point - the Cellar Lounge. It’s the kind of basement bar just west of the Strip that you may have discovered while driving past it, curious of its interior, but may never had the time to step and take a look - and that’s where we come in. The bar's name states just what you’re going to get with this place - a cellar, an underground bar that gets to the business at hand, smart bartenders serving affordable cocktails in an atmosphere that we like to call...festive.

It’s a hideaway for sure, with a nice courtyard patio in the back of the building to grab some fresh air if things feel a touch crowded inside. The interior is sparse but still inviting and thankfully, they didn't go overboard with any sports memorabilia.

As for the mix of people here, there are tourists who took a 10 minute cab ride from the Strip, divorcees looking for a new lease on life, casino workers trying to unwind, or literature majors who just want to hang and observe.

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Tags: Strip Malls / Donuts / Locals Vegas / → All Tags

Even 'Jesus' Hangs Out at The Spring Mountain Plaza Strip Mall

In keeping up with our hip credibility, we continue to strive for those out of the way places that are not too ubiquitous, and that normally means some interesting mom and pops and a few offbeat minor chains. Now we do understand that with rising gas prices and our ever dwindling spare time, it’s hard to roll off the couch and head out to that one quirky store or restaurant. Instead, we will again recommend a keen, under the radar "Low-Fi" strip malls that just you’ll most likely find amusing.

Spring Mountain Plaza at Spring Mountain Road & Decatur Boulevard.

Just up a few blocks west from Chinatown and generally just a 15 minute drive west from the Strip is the Spring Mountain Plaza, a contagiously fun little strip mall that’s quite popular on a daily basis. It suffers from an unbelievable tight parking area, but those in the know will seek out Ronald’s Donuts (702.873.1032).

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Tags: Special Events / Palace Station / Belly Dancing / → All Tags

An Alternative to the Three-Point Stance: Belly Dancing

Ladies, looking for an alternative to all the NFL hoopla that will be consuming much of The Strip this weekend? The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive & Festival will be wiggling and jiggling through the weekend over at Palace Station and the Clark County Library Theater.

Billed as “an event that serves to promote & celebrate the full spectrum of belly dancing-from Oriental to Tribal, from Folkloric to Fusion,” the festival sounds like it could be a truly eye-opening thing to behold. It started yesterday, but there are numerous events with space still available.

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Tags: Shopping / Secret Vegas / Showgirls / → All Tags

Indulge Your Showgirl Fantasies at Rainbow Feathers

Of course there’s a shop like Rainbow Feathers & Crafts in Las Vegas. Even if you didn’t think of it until this moment, your subconscious knew it had to be here. Because, in addition to being able to support those shops on West Sahara Avenue that purvey all kinds of stripperwear, this town would have an abiding need for all things flouncy and feathered.

Rainbow Feathers & Crafts is located downtown on Main Street, which is technically in the Vegas’ Arts District neighborhood. Perhaps for that reason, it’s the feather’s artsy potential rather than its kitschy glamour that’s emphasized; the store’s slogan is “Welcome to a World of Crafts and Gifts.”

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Tags: Food / Charity / Cheesecake Factory / Henderson / → All Tags

This Weekend: Eat Cake and Help End Hunger

Timed perfectly to coincide with Restaurant Week, The Cheesecake Factory’s "Drive Out Hunger Tour" will make a stop in Las Vegas this Saturday, September 5th.

Teaming up with Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief charity, The Cheesecake Factory will be giving away a free slice of Stefanie's Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake in exchange for a donation of two cans of soup.

In case you aren’t privy to the deliciousness of this slice, it layers Red Velvet Cake and Original Cheesecake with Cheesecake Factory cream cheese frosting. For future mental note: if you dine at the restaurant, 25¢ from the sale of each slice is donated to Feeding America.

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Tags: Classic Vegas / Restaurants / Golden Steer / Steakhouses / → All Tags

Golden Steer Makes List of 'Must-Visit Classic Restaurants'

With a half-century-plus in operation, the Golden Steer is doubtlessly one of Las Vegas’ oldest restaurants. It’s a novelty destination for a lot of locals and frequent visitors for its swanky, old-school atmosphere if not the stellar cuisine.

Don’t get us wrong: it’s not bad at all, but with so many uber-chefs opening up cutting-edge, contemporary steakhouses in town, the Steer’s fare can seem by comparison a little – oh, shall we say – fusty.

The restaurant, which is located in a tiny strip mall on Sahara Avenue just west of the intersection with Las Vegas Boulevard, has just earned recognition by the restaurant editor of Bon Appetit magazine for being one of 10 “must-visit classic restaurants” in the September issue. He says:

For a taste of vanishing Vegas, you can’t beat this steakhouse (circa 1958) where an order of Caesar salad, New York strip and multiple Martinis would make Sinatra proud.

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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: 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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