Society Cafe; The Encore, Las Vegas

First, Second, and Third Breakfast at Society Cafe - Come for the Food and Stay for the Drinks!

Perhaps I suffer from food-related obsessive compulsive disorder; perhaps I'm the most anal vacation planner you've never met; perhaps I'm just really, really hungry.

Note to reader: if you guessed "all of the above," congratulations! I would buy you a drink to celebrate your accomplishment but we spent our life savings on this trip in anticipation of the worldwide cataclysm forecast for December 21, 2012. Like I said ... we plan ahead.

But knowing that we were going to be getting up at 4AM (also referred to as the deep, dark, buttcrack of stupid) to catch a 6:30AM flight out of Stinktown for Vegas meant that I also knew Jay and I were going to be incoherent with hunger by the time we reached the Encore to check in for a week of shameless gluttony. So I did my research well in advance of our travel dates and decided that the Society Cafe - with their fancy-schmancy bloody mary selections, monster sticky buns, and wee baby quiches - was the perfect place for us to stoke our vacation engines. Jay's aunt and uncle, who had been kind enough to meet us at the airport and provide taxi service, joined us for breakfast and we spent a lovely morning with them over some mighty fine food.

We started with the most important part of any morning vacation meal: booze! Jason ordered the Society Bloody Mary which is also known as a Cajun Bloody Mary; it wasn't nearly as spicy as he expected it to be but had wonderful flavor. The big, fat shrimpie that garnished his glass was coated with a Cajun spice blend that lent a bit of a kick to the drink when least expected.

Nothing says vacation like a suicidal shrimp in tomato juice


As for me, I love a good mimosa and will usually order one any time I see it as menu option. While I'm not crazy about oranges in general, I was intrigued by the idea of a blood orange mimosa so I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised to taste a drink that was a nice blend of sweet and tart with just the right amount of tiny bubbles to tickle my nose.

Blood Orange Mimosa


One of the fun things I love about Vegas dining is the unexpected little offerings patrons will sometimes receive from the chef. I have to say, however, that we've never been on the receiving end of a breakfast giftie ... until we visited Society Cafe. In this case we were all given a sweet, cool, refreshing apple juice shooter that really hit the spot!

If it's yella, you've got juice there, fella!


My breakfast selection was the restaurant's take on traditional eggs benedict, with the sauce on the side since my intestinal goblin doesn't tolerate much in the way of sauce. It also included some grilled 'maters and herbed 'taters, precious! I have to admit that I was a little taken aback by the size of my eggs benedict since the menu didn't mention that they would be served in miniature, but they were tasty and well prepared so I promptly forgave the chef for using his de-bigulator on my breakfast.

Baby eggs benedict


Fran ordered the Belgian waffle, served with maple syrup, huckleberry compote, and lemon cream. As you can tell from the photo below, it was an enormous waffle; not only did it look and smell delicious, it apparently tasted delicious, too.

Belgian waffles are almost as good as Belgian chocolates!


Frank went with the society omelette (French spelling, please don't wave your spelling sticks at me on this one - haha!) which came with a choice of three fillings but damned if I can remember what he selected. I do recall that he thought it tasted quite good, though, and that's what really matters.

Omelet or Omelette? They're both right!


Jason chose the egg white frittata, made with asparagus, crimini mushrooms, spinach, oven roasted tomatoes, and goat cheese. While an appallingly healthy selection with which to begin our vacation feeding frenzy, Jason said this was a well prepared dish with good flavor. He also ordered a side of plump chicken sausage which he really enjoyed and which brought the bile to the back of my throat due to the cloying sweetness of apple which had apparently been ground up with the chicken. We all like different things, that's what makes life so interesting and amusing, but chicken sausage just strikes me as wrong; it's like a screen door on a submarine or a rubber crutch - it just doesn't work. The only chicken I want for breakfast is the liquid kind that comes right from the egg. And as for morning meats, give me the good stuff from that most magical of all animals: the pig!

Egg white frittata


Chicken sausage

As if the food weren't enough to ensure that we were happy with our dining experience, Society Cafe has a roaming Bloody Mary Cart that circles the restaurant between 10AM - 2PM, Thursday through Sunday. The drink pusher (heh heh heh) will mix your drink table-side and on the right day at the right time he may even have a bottle of bubbly hiding in the ice in order to make certain lucky guests a fresh mimosa!

I'm not easily distracted ... look! A roaming drink cart!!!

Jason and I liked Society Cafe so much and it was so convenient, that we ended up visiting them two more times for breakfast during our stay. While enjoying second breakfast a few days later Jay and I shared the seasonal fruit plate; thank goodness we shared because the portion was huge! It also included a nice variety of fruit: honeydew, cantaloupe, mango, watermelon, pineapple, tangerine, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries.

Tutti-frutti!

On this second go-round I ordered the mini-quiche trio and a side order of beautiful, tasty bacon. The quiches included in my breakfast were a ham and gruyere, a smoked salmon and chive, and an asparagus and goat cheese. It was a given that I would enjoy the ham and cheese quiche - that's always been a favorite of mine. I wanted to like the salmon and chive but there was far too much smoked salmon in the quiche for its size - I'm sure some would say that's generosity on the part of the pastry chef but in my opinion it overpowered what could and should have been a subtle mix of flavors. The asparagus and goat cheese was rather nondescript except for a slightly bitter aftertaste. I will say that the pastry and the egg filling were cooked perfectly - our serving team told us that they were made fresh daily and it definitely showed.

Mini-quiche!

Sweet, glorious bacon ...

Jason ordered the eggs benedict on our second visit and the only reason I'm posting another picture is just to demonstrate how this item looks when it's served as intended rather than with sauce on the side.

Proper eggs benedict!

Before getting to our third and final breakfast visit, this might be a good time to tell you a little about the decor at Society Cafe. The primary colors are black and white, accented with surprising, playful bursts of lime green and shocking pink. Society provided a casual dining environment that managed to be both elegant and relaxing - I loved the place and thought it was a lot of fun. My only regret is that we didn't give it a try for a different meal!

Entrance from the casino ...

My blood orange mimosa and the hot pink sofa that I lounged against while enjoying breakfast!

Our final breakfast included the Continental which was a selection of three pastries and a serving of fresh fruit along with juice and coffee. The pastries - croissant, cheese danish, and babka - were all very good and fresh. The fruit cup left a lot to be desired because it was comprised primarily of watermelon chunks which still had seeds in them. Shame on the lazy fruit assembler in the kitchen ... if I'd wanted a cup of seedy watermelon I would have ordered that (and for the record I would never order such a thing because I hate watermelon and seeds in my intestinal tract would result in super colon blow), but fruit cup implies a variety of fruity goodness which I did not receive on this day.

Continental breakfast

Jason's breakfast selection was disgustingly healthy again, but in his defense this was the day we were scheduled to have dinner at The Mansion, so I can't really fault him for trying to save room for that 16-course degustation menu that was looming on the horizon. His choice this morning was the organic vanilla yogurt and homemade granola with mixed berries. He really enjoyed this - it's similar to the breakfast he has every morning before leaving for work. I tried the yogurt and found it very good and not overly sweet or sticky-sour as yogurt can sometimes taste.

Yogurt, granola, and berries, oh my!

All in all we were very pleased with Society Cafe. For the most part the food was tasty and well prepared and the service was always good. The location was convenient and the menu options were varied enough that even a sometime picky eater like me could find plenty to choose from. We'd definitely return on a future visit and suggest you give Society a try if the opportunity presents itself - we think you will be pleasantly surprised!