August 25, 2005

• Viva Las Vegas, Day 2

  
  

  Day 2 of Vegas started off with a cool trip to the Wynn Collection.  It features artwork from Steve Wynn's personal art collection, as the name implies.  The audio guide is Steve Wynn talking also.  He's pretty knowledgeable, and self deprecating as well.  All the pieces were really good examples from each artist.  (Before going to the gallery, I lost 12 hands of black jack in a row, which cost me dearly).

  
  

   

  
  

  Here's a couple of my favorite pieces that day.  On the left is Bathers by Gaugin, and on the right is La Reve (The Dream), by Picasso.  They named the show at the Wynn (Cirque du Soleil-esque), after this painting.  At the end was a really funny Andy Warhol tryptich of Steve Wynn himself!!!  After lunch, we just walked right next door from the Wynn Collection to an excellent Italian restaurant that specializes in seafood, called Bartolotta Ristorante Del Mare

  
  

   

  
  

  The decor was real nice, and the outside overlooks a pool of water with silver balls floating in it.  It got a pretty good review by S. Irene Verbila in LA Times. 

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  Bartolotta specializes in fresh seafood flown in from Italy.  I had the Branzino which is a sea bass found off of italy.  They prepare these difficult to find fishes grilled or broiled simply with olive oil and lemon.  The fish is deboned at the table as you can see in the pictures above.  the meat is placed on a plate and then topped with a sauce of tomatoes and basil.  It tasted amazing, and was so simple at  the same time. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Mixygirl had an amazing dish called taglioni agli scampi con pomini all' origano (translatation=handcrafted thin ribbon pasta with langoustines, pormini tomatoes, and oregano).  The pasta was perfectly prepared and the dish was just amazingly executed (DHS).  On the side we both had a roasted veggie and fingerling potato dish. 

  
  

   

  
  

  We just relaxed during the afternoon.  First we laid out by the pool.  There's a separate pool for the suite guests.  On the right is my view of the hotel while laying down.  After the pool, we both went the spa and got massages.  Mine wasn't as good as it could've been, but I did enjoy the steam room a lot. 

  
  

   

  
  

  For dinner, Mixy and I went to Daniel Boulud brasserie.  We followed S. Irene's recommendation and started with the house-made charcuterie plate.  It was decent but nothing spectacular. 

  
  

   

  
  

  For our main course, we split the "Original DB Burger".  It consisted of a 9 oz sirloin burger, stuffed with braised short ribs, foie gras, and black truffle.  It sounded really good, however in reality it was too tall to eat like a burger, and you couldn't really appreciate all the different fillings.  It just tasted somewhat blaah.  Too bad, cause it looks really good, doesn't it.  Unfortunately our Boulud meal experience wasn't that good, but I haven't given up on it yet, because some of their other entrees sounded really good, and perhaps we didn't order the best things on the menu (There's always next time). 

  
  

   

  
  

  After dinner we caught a cab (the craziest cab driver I have ever had) to the Rio to see the Penn and Teller show.  I've seen it before, but Mixygirl hadn't however they added new stuff since I saw it a couple years back.  They hung out afterwards outside the theatre to sign autographs which I thought was pretty cool.  We were able to see Teller actually talking, albeit in a low voice, to people.  We didn't take any pictures with them or get any autographs, but I did get to talk to Penn Jillette briefly.  I asked him if he could tell us his version of the Aristocrats joke (He just put out a movie about differen't comedian's versions of the dirtiest joke ever told only behind comedic doors, called the Aristocrats).  He said he couldn't do it right then (little kids were standing around), but he asked me if I saw the movie, and I told him I did and that I had enjoyed it a lot.  So that was pretty cool, and a great way to cap off Day 2 of Viva Las Vegas.

  • 6:53 pm
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