Saturday ~ busiest day in Las Vegas. The city was packed, both with tourists and conventioneers. This made it seem like good day to get out into the burbs, take a looksie at some different areas of town for potential home sites, and get Angry Bird washed after the traumatic trip to Pahrump. Flynn and Ollie packed a lunch and headed out. They drove from the far East to the far West side of the valley, and had a nice day deciding what locations would suffice, and which would be a hard ‘nope’.
The evening plan was to have the one and only “nice” dinner at THE Steakhouse at Circus Circus, which had come recommended by many locals as being excellent and slightly less expensive than other fancy-ass steak restaurants. Mind you, F&O have eaten at many-a-steakhouse in LV (despite not being huge red-meat eaters), and so they were looking forward to seeing how it stacked up.
Circus Circus is a casino they have not set foot in for years, as the last time they were there it was a run-down hot mess. Not much had changed. The place is a little creepy, it smells dirty and smokey, it’s in an inconvenient location, and it does not have a poker room. There is really no reason to go there as an adult with no kids, except maybe THE Steakhouse. Getting to the restaurant was even worse than they expected. The closest parking garage was closed, there was quite literally a line of 50 cars waiting to get in to the other one. The garage was narrow and dark, and the walk to get to the building was just stupid. Not the distance, which is fine, but hoofing it through the garage, non-working elevators in the garage, and then across parking lot traffic like a line of ants ~ with (no exaggeration) hundreds of families with children, strollers, and an excess of luggage. The inside of the hotel/casino (2nd floor, arcade, etc) was just as bad, if not worse.
THE Steakhouse itself was fine. It had the ambiance of an old gentlemen’s club, and was quiet with no spongebob pillows, strollers, or rolling suitcases. Having worked up an appetite from the arduous journey to get there, F & O each ordered their own steak rather than splitting one like they usually do. Most upscale beef places in LV serve everything a la carte, but here one actually got salad, veg, and choice of carb included with the entree. This was a refreshing change. The staff was very knowledgable about their history and the food. F&O’s waiter was a bit too friendly, and talked a bit too much, especially in an attempt to convince them that the food/beverages were the absoute best. (instert hand to mouth kissy here). In reality, it was alright – nothing amiss. Ollie’s cocktail was okay, but not good enough for a 2nd. The spinach salad had far too much dressing on it. The steaks were cooked on an open mesquite grill – which you can watch them do – but were not seasoned enough. F&O are purists, so the fact that they did not cover it with butter or lard, nor put any sauce on them was a testament to the restaurant’s dedication to grilling a nice slab of meat. The steaks were cooked perfectly to the right temp, but, the “light’ dusting of salt and pepper was not enough, and the diners had to add more. This is very, very odd for Flynn, who is not much into salt anyway. He might even have needed a little sauce on the side. Neither critter finished their entrees (the steaks were large), and had them boxed to go before splitting one piece of Key Lime Pie, which was good, but small and overpriced. The check was as high as any other place on the LV strip, and given the location (complete and utter cluster), it is unlikely they will return.
Moving on, they fought their way back to the flying carpet and flew to the Wynn to polish off the night with a little poker. Both F&O were seated at 1/3 immediately at different tables. The Wynn Millions was still in pogress, so star-sightings were commonplace. Flynn’s table was dull, the players were good, and Flynn went back to his old habits of raising pre-flop with best hand and losing by the river. He lasted maybe 1 hour on the table before dusting off his entire buy-in in two hands. (KK < 44, and 88 < 77). Ollie was near the felt, but made an epic comback in the last round to come out only slightly short before cashing out and meeting Flynn who was waiting for him outside. Best people watching ever is outside the Encore Beach Club, watching the line to get in – either day club or night club. How do those girls not break an ankle? Flynn really wanted to take a poll of those waiting in line to find out the average prep-time…
Turns out this was also the start of daylight savings, which was a complete suprise. Huh.
Fin
Flynn