Stripsteak; Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas

And Now a Reading from the Stripsteak Scotch Bible ... Tonight's Lesson: Blended Scotch is Crap.

I could bore you with all kinds of reasons as to why we ended up at Stripsteak on Friday evening: it was in the same hotel as the restaurant we had dinner reservations at (true, dat); we were meeting a friend for drinks in their lounge (we do have some friends); the sweet siren song of Michael Mina's duck fat fries floated down Las Vegas Boulevard and we were helpless before it (resistance is futile); but the truth of the matter is we went to the restaurant primarily for scotch. Stripsteak doesn't just have a selection of single malt scotch to choose from ... it has a Scotch Bible.

Yeah; that's right ... a Scotch Bible with fifty pages of featured single malt joy ranging in price from reasonable to downright obscene. Once I passed this nugget of information along to my hubba it was a foregone conclusion that we would find a way to visit Stripsteak so that he could worship at the altar of the West Highlands ... or the Lowlands ... or Speyside.

To document our pilgrimage we first snapped the obligatory self-portrait ... don't you just love that Vegas strip view behind us? Our room at the Encore was amazing, but I will wax long-winded about that in another post.

Scotch questing is a serious business ...


Given the distance from the Encore to Mandalay Bay, we nabbed a taxi and enjoyed a wild ride around the backside of the Strip to avoid the rapidly building traffic jam. In short order we found the restaurant, grabbed a table in the lounge, and proceeded to place an order for those fries so many people had been raving about. And not just any fries, but Duck Fat Fries ... a seasoned trio cooked up in a vat of duck fat! From left to right in the picture below we had Paprika seasoned fries with barbecue dipping sauce, Truffled fries with truffled dipping sauce, and Herbed fries with disgusting, vile, ketchup.

Triumvirate of Tasty Taters!


We are not normally fry people ... and by that I simply mean that unless we're having a burger or a dawg you will not find us eating french fries for the sake of eating french fries. But I must go on record as stating that these are the best fries I have ever eaten; they were perfectly cooked - lightly crisp on the outside and hot and pulpy on the inside with just the right amount of subtle seasoning. I would even go so far as to say that to eat these fries with another food item would detract from their amazing flavor and lessen their overall impact.

They did however, taste great with booze! Which leads me to the Scotch Bible and Jay's subsequent Sermon on the Malt. It took some time for Jay to find the the right book, chapter, and verse but once he did ... the words poured forth with brilliant simplicity. "Let not your single-malt barrels intermingle, lest they become unclean; for blended scotch is crap and an offense to mine eyes."

The Book of Glenrothes; Chapter 1991


Let us pray ... for good scotch!


Jay's selection was the Glenrothes, Vintage 1991 ... a new scotch to us both. According to the tasting notes this scotch has a palate of vanilla, honey, and fudge. Vanilla and honey I can agree with, but fudge? I don't think so and neither does Jay. However, despite the fudging on the fudge, Jay said this was a fine single-malt with a smooth finish and he looks forward to adding it to our already groaning liquor cabinet as soon as we've financially recovered from this trip.

Glenrothes ... and the largest ice cube known to man


I decided to bypass the scotch, which I usually prefer to drink after dinner, and instead ordered a Harlaw: Highland Park 15-Year, Domaine de Canton, Fresh Lemon, and Pomme Lambic served short with an orange slice. I liked this a lot ... still got some scotch along with some ginger-flavored cognac and the result was a refreshing, tasty beverage that paired quite well with our fries.

Har-Dee-Har-Har!


Catherine ordered a Pear Sidecar - Hangar One Spiced Pear, Hennessy VS, Belle de Brillet, Cointreau, and Fresh Lemon served with a Cinnamon Sugar rim and an orange peel. She was kind enough to let me taste this and it was good! If we'd stayed for another round of drinks I would have been tempted to order one of these.

Pear Sidecar


We parted company not long thereafter - Catherine to join her parents for dinner at Aureole and Jay and I to the casino to kill some time playing penny slots before our dinner at Fleur de Lys. Stripsteak was a great place to stop for a snack and a beverage, and while their restaurant menu doesn't do much to tempt Jay and me (meat, meat, meat, and meat), those fries were just as amazing as everyone said they were - and at only $8 for the trio, it's one of the most affordable and tasty snackeroos on the Strip. Give the 'taters a try the next time you're in Vegas, Precious!!