theLaconic

Vegas a mini review

So I'm just on the flight back from our Christmas holiday in Las Vegas. I think it's safe to say it wasn't a traditional Christmas in fact it didn't feel like Christmas for the most part, a few of the Hotel Casinos had some good decorations that added a certain glitz to Christmas. The Hotels we liked and funny enough had the best decorations were at the Bellagio and the The Wynn the two hotel/casinos that might require a second visit next year.

In the past few years Vegas has had a culinary invasion with several notable and celebrity chefs opening signature restaurants in the hotels. Kayla and I managed to eat our way round Las Vegas and cross of a few notable chefs form our 'to eat at lists'.

Don't eat at Shibuya, living in San Francisco and being fortune enough to eat at some great sushi restaurants it might have been a slight mistake to decide to eat at this restaurant but the space was great and it was our first night. Anyway the menu was all over the place to quote Kayla. The service was great but the food was defiantly not
worth the price I paid.

Do eat at CraftSteak, a vegas outpost of one of our favorite New York restaurant Tom Colicchio's Craft. And as I've just found out as sister restaurant to his New York CraftSteak it offers a simpler menu than the up market Craft and surprising for Vegas quite good value compared to the meal we have had at Shibuya. I can heartily recommend the Bison New York Strip.

We also ate at Wolfgang Puck's Spago in Cesar's Palace and Mario Batali's Enoteca San Marco in the Venetian. Spago was quite good overall; good space, good service and good food but nothing stood out as being great or anything special. That can't be said of San Marco. We met Angie and her English boyfriend Warren for dinner before La Reve at 8pm, were we shared some cheese and meat plates for appetizers. And that's all we ate because it took over 1 hour for our entrees to arrive a which point we had to run to make the show, literally.

Don't go and see CrazyHorse review in the MGM it's not bad but it's not that great either. Do go and see La Reve at the Wynn - I think I am safe in saying this was the highlight of the trip for Kayla.

Do fly Virgin America. It's fascinating to me that this new airline seems to get everything spot on, as Kayla point's out Richard Branson is a genius. Even though we were delayed by over two hours because of fog at San Francisco airport all of the staff were cheery and helpful and this a had a great effect on the passengers - there was little if
any complaining. It's the second time I have have flown with them and I find myself excited about the prospect of flying with Virgin America again.

Here's a little taste of how Virgin America gets it pitch perfect again: Their safety video which is very well done.

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas, Virgin America, Review, Restaurants

An English Christmas

I've gone all Martha Stewart, no not avoiding paying taxes and going to jail but being all domestic. So I've spent the last day baking and cooking for a little Christmas get together that we are having at my apartment. I've made mulled wine, sausage rolls, mince pies and a big freaking 10lb ham that has a glaze of Bourbon and Pecan nuts.

I have to admit I am quite proud of myself, it all tastes great - of course I had to check if it tastes good...

Watching the Golden Compass at Pixar

I work with some cool people, although I think I can fairly say that I have always worked with cool people (and of course a couple of idiots along the way to help balance things out).

Ben is one of the cool people I work with, and yes this is pretty good tangent even for me but stay with me. Ben's finance Katelin works at Pixar and they have been inviting us to go and watch a film in Pixar's in house cinema for quite a while.

Well on wednesday we finally took them up on the offer and went to see The Golden Compass.

The film was okay but the being in Pixar was great. The whole building is amazing, it's like a cathedral to modern creativity in animation and film making, there is art displays documenting the creation of Ratatouille their latest release alongside other films like Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc and the Toy Story films.

The theatre is pristine with wooden well cushioned and spaced seats with plenty of leg room. And to me and Kayla the best thing is when the lights go down the ceiling illuminates with thousands of stars and the sounds crickets play through the sound system and as a few shooting stars fly across the imagined sky. It's a place to watch a film even one as average as the Golden Compass (that Kayla really enjoyed).

I think it's safe to say that I can't wait to be invited back especially since they have a fridges full of bread and milk for peanut butter sandwiches pre film and the great exhibition of Pixar film memorabilia.

Oh and the visitor badges they gave us were cool too. I'm a stranger from the outside...

Oh Christmas tree

Because we are staying out west this year I decided to get a Christmas tree for the apartment an go the full hog in decorating it.

I've had a mad November and December at work and literally had three days off (including weekends) of work so I didn't really get a chance to do anything (including writing this blog) Christmassy until now.

We bought it from the Delancy Street Project which is a charitable organization which helps ex-cons rehabilitate back into society there was something funny about seeing two large tattooed men tie a six foot tree to the roof of our zip car.

I've put it up in the bay window of the apartment and of course I got these sweet LED lights. Kayla and I also bought a load of decorations and had a lot of fun trimming the tree I particularly like the wonky star which you can't see in the picture.