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!!

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!

Prelude to Full Belly Achieved

We've finally made it to the month of May! And that means Vegas for Jason's fortieth birthday, baby!

We have our reservations all lined up, and while it's always possible that something could change at the last minute, this is what we have booked... we will be taking plenty of pictures along the way and will be sharing them here with reviews of the events and restaurants we're going to be trying on this visit.

Here's a list to whet your appetites (and ours!):

Enoteca San Marco (Mario Batali)
Bradley Ogden (Vegas Uncorked Signature Dinner)
Cut (Wolfgang Puck - Vegas Uncorked Signature Lunch)
Fleur de Lys (Hubert Keller)
Bouchon (Thomas Keller)
Payard's Patisserie (Vegas Uncorked Afternoon Tea & Dessert Demo)
Eiffel Tower Restaurant (Sunday Brunch)
The Mansion (Joel Robuchon)
House of Blues (breakfast)
Petrossian Lounge (Bellagio - Afternoon Tea)
Dos Caminos (Mexican)
Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay)
Table 10 (Emeril)

We have plans to lounge hop as well and that should include visits to places like Stripsteak, Red Square, Shibuya, Bradley Ogden, Luna Champagne Bar, and some place over at the Aria with an Absinthe Bong!

Can't wait to come back and share all the food and booze love with everyone!

EDITED TO ADD VACATION POST-SCRIPT: well, we ate and drank at almost of all those places. We skipped Bouchon, House of Blues, and Dos Caminos and missed Shibuya due to our hightened interest in the absinthe bong at Aria! Still, that's not a bad result for seven days in Vegas and you can include Julian Serrano, Sage, Daniel Boulud, Double Helix Wine Bar, Lagasse's Stadium, The Lobby Bar (Encore), and Serendipity to the list of reviews. It was a gut-stuffing good time!

Chandler Hill Winery

A few weekends ago Jay and I decided to visit Chandler Hill Winery for lunch - it's a fairly new establishment and the vineyards are young, but luckily Chandler Hill has a sister winery in California so there is still a nice selection of wines to choose from. It's located in Defiance, MO, only about 20 minutes from our homestead in outer Stinktown, and is situated on rolling hills in the Missouri River Valley ... prime wine-making real estate for Missouri wines. The winery is really lovely with a large, rustic, indoor tasting room and massive outdoor wine deck that overlooks the wee baby vineyards. There is usually live music out on the deck on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and it's a great place to relax with a bottle of wine and some snacks from the kitchen.

The place was jam packed when we got there and we had to wait about ten minutes for a table to empty out, but once it did we were fortunate enough to find ourselves with a primo spot at the edge of the deck looking right down into the vineyards. Admittedly my pictures aren't the best, especially because it was the middle of April and the vines were just starting to show some green, but I can tell you from experience in late summer or in the fall, this setting is truly spectacular.






We ordered a cheese plate and a bottle of 2005 Savage Norton to start our lunch - the cheeses were appropriately mild so as not to overpower the wine and included Brie, Gruyere, and a lightly smoked Gouda. Norton is a grape varietal that finds a lot of success in Missouri and some of the best wines you may ever taste from the armpit of the Midwest are likely to be reds that incorporate it - the result is usually a dry, yet rich and dark red wine with hints of berry that is very drinkable. The notes from the winery state that their Savage Norton is combined with Cabernet Franc to yield a bold taste of black currant and dark cherry.

Cheese plate and Savage Norton


As we nibbled on cheese and enjoyed our wine, Jay and I couldn't help but notice how much winery hopping has changed since our younger days when we used to make a day out of it driving from one Missouri winery to the next along highway 94. It used to be a casual, lighthearted experience but now apparently the rules of the game have been re-written. There were a handful of couples and groups scattered around the deck like Jay and me - comfortably dressed and there to enjoy the fabulous weather, lovely setting, and tasty wine - and then there was everyone else. These people were dressed to impress ... someone. A number of women were wearing white dress pants; nearly all of them were wearing heels and lots of makeup. And a few in particular were trying to out-aroma the wine with their perfume.

They were obviously there to be seen and smelled ... hahahaah!

On a purely academic note, I would really like to know how these ladies were able to make it so that their hair didn't move in the not insubstantial breeze that day.

To be fair, it's possible that many of them had arrived three hours early for a private event the winery was hosting later that evening. But still, I don't think I like being around this younger, trendy, hang-out-at-the-winery-and-drink-beer crowd. Those of them who were actually brave enough to drink wine didn't even know how to properly hold their wine glasses. We're not wine experts by any stretch of the imagination, but folks, you don't need to be an oenophile to know that the glass has a long stem for a reason - for gawd's sake, use it!!!

And then it was time to stop snarking at the younger generation and have some lunch before taking our crotchety selves back home. I ordered a tuna salad sandwich on a fresh croissant with a side order of kettle chips while Jay ordered the turkey, pesto, and dried cranberry sandwich on a baguette, also with a side of kettle chips.

Tuna salad


Turkey, Pesto & Dried Cranberry Sandwedge

Both selections were tasty and generous - nothing to make us do back flips, but just well prepared, solid food offerings that really hit the spot. Chandler Hill's restaurant menu is a little limited but the items we tried were quite satisfying and we would go back again. The winery itself is lovely and their wines, at least the ones we've tried, have been very good (except for the ruby port which set my teeth on edge it was so damn sweet). Jay and I look forward to going back to visit them again, hopefully with some friends next time so that we can share the fun. For those of you here in the Stinktown metropolitan area who haven't stopped at Chandler Hill yet, we strongly recommend that you do - it's worth the time!

Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen

Downtown Disney, Anaheim, CA - The Last Supper before the Sad Return to Stinktown ...

We didn't have concrete plans for dinner but found ourselves wandering through Downtown Disney perusing various menus. Eventually we rolled the dice and decided on Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen which, like so many Disney-property establishments, gets decidedly mixed reviews.

I'll pass on this stew ...


We were seated in the restaurant's outdoor courtyard, which has been decorated to resemble a nineteenth century French Quarter dwelling - there's lot of wrought iron and sculptures and even a fountain slopping water cheerfully on the floor, so when you slip and fall and bust open your spine on those beautiful tiles you can do so to the sound of happy water gurgles. Not that anyone fell while we were there, but it sure seemed like a law suit waiting to happen.

The four of us had to order drinks to celebrate our last dinner together - when I saw a sazerac on the menu I had to order it; Jason and Jason ordered spicy bloody marys and Chelis went with a mint julep. The drinks all tasted quite good but my sazerac showed up in a half-full cocktail glass with no ice and was the color of children's cough syrup. *SIGH* Doesn't anyone outside of New Orleans or our house make a proper sazerac? Absinthe is legal for crying out loud ... do it right or don't do it at all!

Cheers to us!


And then the appetizer parade began! In our defense, not that we needed one, we really hadn't eaten very much throughout the course of the day. And while I can speak for Chelsi and Jason, my Jason and I wanted to do as much as we could to prolong the evening since it was going to be the last one we'd spend with our dear friendies for another six months. So what did we start with and why did our waitress secretly think we needed a second table?

Chelsi's Jason ordered the Soup of the Day, which I think was a seafood bisque (correct me if I'm wrong, Jason).

Mystery Soup of the Day


I ordered the Louisiana Crab Cakes which were served with fire-roasted corn and black bean salsa with horseradish cream and chili aioli. These were pretty tasty but a little more spicy than I typically like - undoubtedly that chili aioli was tough to avoid.

Sweet crabby patties!


My Jason ordered the Soup 1-1-1 ... a tasting trio of the Soup of the Day, Gumbo Ya-Ya, and Creole Onion Soup. The hubba really liked this - he had a chance to try more than one item that he'd really enjoy but the portion sizes were small enough that he wouldn't be bursting at the seams due to liquid overload.

Soup times three!

Chelsi ordered the Gumbo Ya-Ya ... a heaping, helping of spicy gumbo chock full of everything but Plankton!

Gumbo!

And to help absorb all that liquid-y goodness ... grilled garlic cheese bread! Our waitress recommended this and it was excellent - chock full of buttery, cheesy goodness with a mild garlic flavor.

Mmmmm, bread plate!

The two Jasons ordered Krusty the Fish, also known as Andouille Crusted Mahi-Mahi which was served with Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli Rabe, and Smoked Tomato Chardonna Reduction. In a word: Excellent!

Krusty the Fish!

Chelsi ordered the Caramelized Pork Chop with Bacon Braised Turnip Greens, Jalapeno Potato Croquette, and Calvados Demi-Glace. In another word: YUM!

Porkie Chop

And I ordered the supremely boring, but always safe to eat before a long day of tavel, Grilled Chicken and Penne which included Pancetta, Basil, Asiago Cheese, and Pink Vodka Sauce. It was supposed to include a bunch of caramelized onions but I asked our waitress if the kitchen could please leave them out and they very kindly obliged. I enjoyed this dish but had the same problem I usually do with pasta dishes - too much food to finish in one sitting.

A whole lotta drunken pasta!

The weather was getting much cooler with the setting sun and the wind was picking up - we'd left our jackets in a locker earlier in the morning when we'd arrived at the park because it was too warm to wear them during the day and no one wanted to lug them all over Disneyland and CA Adventure. The only warm-up option left to us was alcoholic coffee! And I wish I could remember which alcohol went into whose coffee but I don't any longer - all I do know is that these were some tasty caffeinated boozie concoctions and definitely did the trick.

Mmmmm, swirling boozie coffee

Chelsi is soooo cute!

One of us had to drive back to San Diego and that meant the sad, sad prospect of non-alcoholic coffee reared its head for Jason, who generously took one for the team.

Sad, plain coffee ...

I would be sad, too!

Dessert was a foregone conclusion and we decided to share the Creme Brulee sampler, but our cute little waitress saw Chelsi's birthday button and brought her a plate of complimentary beignets! Who doesn't like warm, fresh beignets coated with powdered sugar? These were really good, especially with our boozie coffee.

Birthday Girl!

Beignets!

The creme brulee sampler included a generous portion of Grand Mariner, Cafe au Lait, and Vanilla Ginger Creme Brulees with a yummy cookie. These were all well cooked, creamy, and flavorful and provided a sweet, but not too heavy end to a wonderful meal.

Trio of creamy goodness

All in all our dinner at Brennan's was a tasty and enjoyable experience. We received great service and really flavorful ,well prepared food - it ended up being a good choice and was a lovely end to a wonderful trip. Jason and I couldn't have asked for a better evening, unless it involved winning a mega lottery that would have enabled us to stay in San Diego with our friends indefinitely!