Daniel Boulud; Wynn, Las Vegas

Mexican ... Japanese ... French ... I don't Care, Just Gimme a Cheese Plate!!!

Let me tell you all a story 'bout a chef named Boulud,
had a bistro at the Wynn serving really tasty food;
We stopped in for a drink just to scope out the place,
and the next thing we knew we were stuffin' our face!

With food that is - cheese plates and seafood platters ...

And now it is my sad duty to inform you that Daniel Boulud's restaurant at the Wynn is no more - they closed their doors the first week of July. So while I will gladly share the lounge-love with you that we unexpectedly discovered there one night, there will be no more Gingerly Sage, Basil Gimlet, Indochine, or Blueberry Lavender Lemonade to sip in the dim, comfortable bar with its deep cushioned leather seats and comfy pillows. There is no artisan cheese plate waiting to be ordered - three cheeses ... no, five ... wait, seven ... hold on; we are famished, precious, gives us all sixteen of them!! And there is no shellfish plateau left to ascend ... no hungry hordes to sweep the seas clean. Gone, gone, gone ... all of it gone.

Ahem.

We did not have plans to dine at Boulud on this evening - we actually had a reservation for Dos Caminos, a Mexican place with a skull wall over at the Enrique Palazzo. But when the time came to leave, in a supreme gesture of laziness, Jay and I decided that we really didn't want to leave our hotel complex and brave the elements by going outside. We were jonesin for seafood and so decided that we would visit Okada, a Japanese / sushi place over at the Wynn. Turns out the staff at Okada didn't want to seat people who weren't hotel guests or who didn't have dinner reservations ... imagine their surprise when we flashed our room key. The look on the hostess's face was priceless: "they let people like you stay at Encore???"

I don't know if we stumbled into one of those Vegas places that requires their clientele to be young, hip, gorgeous and anorexic or if we encountered a hostess having a really bad night; either way it was their loss. We eat and drink well on vacation and tip generously for good food and service - Jay and I could have done some serious damage at an upscale sushi joint; instead we did serious damage and had a lot more fun at a French bistro operated by an award winning chef who just happens to have his own private label caviar. Who knew?

Boulud's was located on the Wynn's lower level just to the right of the Parasol Down bar. The cafe had both indoor and outdoor seating that overlooked the Waterfall, Lake of Dreams, and the giant frog. Yes, you read that correctly: giant frog. The hostess gave us our choice of seating locations and we opted for the lounge which was cozy and much less busy.

Some day we would like to install a bar like this in our house ...


We thought the cocktail menu had some really interesting drink options, and after a few moments of discussion with our server, Jay and I were ready to take an alcoholic plunge into the deep end of "I've never tried anything like that before." Jay started off with a Basil Gimlet, which was made with Fresh Basil, Right Gin, Lime, and Sweet and Sour.

Gimlet? Giblet? Just add Gin and we're fine!


I opted for a drink called the Gingerly Sage - Tru Organic Gin, Harvey's Orange Sherry, Yellow Chartreuse, Sweet & Sour, Sage, and Ginger Beer. This could have been a complete and utter mess, but their bartender was a magic-man and I thought this was the best mixed drink I had over the span of our week in Vegas. It was one of those "sneak attack" drinks that are so smooth and delicious you don't realize how much alcohol is in them until you order three more and enough food to feed a small family for days.

Gingerly Sage ... so so so good!


Do you know what I love the most about Frenchie restaurants? They always have cheese plates - with lots and lots of fromage to choose from. And Boulud was no exception. The thing that we really liked about their set-up was the number of options provided cheese-loving guests. We could create our own plate of 3, 5, or 7 cheeses or choose from a pre-selected offering of cheeses. Had we been more bold ... or more drunk ... we would have ordered Le Royale of Cheese: a sampling of every cheese offered at the restaurant for the bargain price of $85. Granted, that's a lot to pay for a cheese plate, but it included sixteen different types of bacterial joy! Knowing that the restaurant has since closed, I have a poignant sense of opportunity lost when I recall how close we came to ordering the Royale and getting drunk on cheese.

Considering that we'd inhaled a lot of fromage the previous night at Robuchon when his cheese trolley made an appearance at our table, I suppose we can be forgiven for creating our our own plate at Boulud with a mere seven cheeses. They were predominantly French and ran the gamut from soft and creamy to firm and crumbly - our accompaniments included fig bread, fresh fruit, dried fruit, compote, sunflower honey, and candied nuts. This was honestly the best cheese plate we tried all week - a nice mix of cow, sheep, and goat's milk cheeses with tasty sides that was large enough for two Stinktown piggies to share.

Best. Cheese. Plate. Of the week.


You'd think this was enough for two people who had already inhaled lunch and afternoon tea within the past eight hours, but Jay and I are remorseless eating machines while vacationing. We joked several times before leaving for Vegas that we would order a massive seafood platter similar to the one that Anthony Bourdain enjoyed while filming No Reservations in Brittany. It's just not possible to find huge, yummy crustacean platters like that in Stinktown - we're landlocked except for the rivers and I, for one, don't want a platter of mudbugs although they can be tasty if prepared correctly.

But I digress. There we were ... all heady with the fabulousity of our cheese plate, somehow still hungry, and with a pretty fine bar buzz, when we took a second look at the menu and spotted it ... The Shellfish Plateau: east and west coast oysters, lobster, shrimp, littleneck clams, peekytoe crab, mussels, tuna tartare, and ceviche.

It was amazing.

And delicious.

I wish we were all eating one right now.

This is all Tony Bourdain's fault ...


Look at these two pigs ...


We don't know the reason behind Boulud's closure - not enough traffic; a possible decline in food quality; too many Frenchies in Vegas - what we do know is that we received wonderful service from a personable, accommodating, and very generous staff. The food and the drinks were very good and our visit to Boulud ended up being one of our favorite evenings in Vegas - completely spontaneous and worth every penny we spent. This restaurant was on our short list and we're sad to know that it won't be an option on our next trip. So long Danny; we hardly knew ye.