AN OASIS IN VEGAS

CASINOLAND CASHES IN ITS CHIPS FOR MORE DESIGNER FOOD words: bethan ryder LAS VEGAS – probably the US’s greatest chameleon technicolour city – is undergoing yet another billion-dollar transformation. Forget gambling. Playing for high stakes is being superseded by indulging in high cuisine. Think of any top international Michelin chefs – Alain Ducasse, Joël Robuchon, Daniel Boulud, Jean-Georges Vongerichten – and you can bet they’ve set themselves up an outpost in Vegas, what’s more it’s probably designed by one of the world’s best architecture and design practices. No longer just for high rollers, Las Vegas is emerging as a sophisticate’s paradise, a place where the well-travelled gourmand can entertain their tastebuds weaving their way from one fabulous show-stopping restaurant to another. There’s a string of culinary oases in the desert that has no night. Sure, Las Vegas may never completely shed its brash ‘Sin City’ image. After all, this adult playground was founded on the ill-begotten gains of mobsters, but it is doing its best to compete with the designer and haute cuisine establishments of New York, Paris and London when it comes to sophisticated wining and dining. Glancing at the glittering metropolis (which is at this present time America’s fastest growing city), it’s hard to imagine that barely over 100 years ago this neon artifice was a desert oasis, as its name, which is Spanish for ‘the meadows’, attests. It wasn’t until the 1940s and 1950s (the state of Nevada legalised gambling in 1931) that the mass of Hoover Dam-powered light-bulbs of the razzle ‘em, dazzle ‘em kitsch spectacle we’ve come to love and loathe in equal measure, first lit up the desert skies. Welcome to The Strip – the stretch of road where the first string of casino-hotel resorts that heralded this post-modern urban landscape of fantasy pastiches. Dapper gangster Bugsy Siegel funded one of the first, the $6 million The Flamingo, which was promoted as the world’s most luxurious hotel when it opened in 1947. The concept was to offer all-round entertainment. Instead of just sawdust joints where cowboys could play cards, here were vacation destinations that promised a diverse variety of glamorous theatrical and musical amusements, accommodation and restaurants. As a slew of hotel casinos followed, owners drew upon worldwide influences and exotic theming to create the wildest, most extravagant resorts that would outshine the rest. There was the North African styled Sahara, the Mississippi paddle-steamer inspired Showboat, followed by the high-rise Euro-flavoured Riviera and then Dunes, an Arabian Nights affair guarded by a giant turbaned Sultan. In the 1970s, gaming was legalised in Atlantic City, and Las Vegas slightly lost its edge. Many credit entrepreneur Steve Wynn for rescuing Vegas from its somewhat seedy low during the early 1980s. He upped the ante, pioneering a new wave of mega-resort casinos with the opening of his $700 million Mirage Hotel and Casino in 1989. Wynn charged for hotel rooms. Previously they had often been complimentary, but he proved that revenue could be generated from the entertainment and hospitality on offer rather than just the slot machines and roulette tables. The hotel hosted flamboyant tiger tamer showmen Siegfried and Roy, and the outlandish ‘theme park’ iconography became very much in evidence in the form of a 54-foot high volcano which spouts flames hourly. Wynn’s vision sparked off ‘extreme theming’, including lavish dreamscape novelties as the Egyptian-inspired Luxor, Excalibur based on a medieval castle and finally, not forgetting the Italian confection, The Venetian. Business boomed as a result, with the number of visitors to Vegas doubling throughout the 1990s. Today Las Vegas lures in 35.5 million visitors a year, and this new millennium heralds a more stylish form of design which is usurping fantastical theming. Ever since 1998, when Wynn opened the more elegant $1.6 billion Bellagio, inspired by the Italian Lake Como resort, complete with its own lake, the dining scene has changed. Instead of fast-food joints, he called in designers such as Jeffrey Beers to create restaurants to rival those in New York, like Vongerichten’s Prime Steakhouse. Gourmet was the way to go. Others followed suit. The Mandalay Bay Resort commissioned Adam D. Tihany to design Aureole for chef Charlie Palmer and soon a whole new, far more discerning Vegas was born. Thomas Willemeit of cool Berlin firm Graft, which has designed restaurants there, dubs Vegas an ‘urban laboratory’ where anything goes. He says evolution defines it. “About 10 years ago Vegas discovered another group: design oriented consumers to inhabit malls with their usual luxury goods chains and high roller areas. Since then Vegas is coming up with high-end restaurants, bars, clubs, and casinos to compete.” Competition drives relentless reinvention and over the past seven years designer restaurants have become prime currency. Indeed, for the first time in the resort’s history, the revenue gained from ’support venues’ (hotels, shows and hospitality) is on a par with gaming revenues. The restaurant revolution has spread like wildfire. In 2000, Wynn sold the Bellagio to MGM Grand Inc., and made his triumphant return with the $2.5 billion curved copper tower Wynn Las Vegas which includes the Daniel Boulud Brasserie amongst others. Meanwhile, at the MGM Grand their restaurant roll call includes Nob Hill designed by Tony Chi, Fiamma and Shibuya by Yabu Pushelberg, chef Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak plus acclaimed ‘chef of the century’ Joël Robuchon’s L’Atelier and The Mansion. And there’s more to come too. CEO of Planet Hollwood Robert Earl is redeveloping the Aladdin to turn it into a Planet Hollywood resort with a dozen restaurants created by the best names in design. Not to mention George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s residential and casino complex Las Ramblas which includes input from Starck and Arquitectonica. So when it comes to dining Las Vegas style, the stakes are high. MIX Opened: 2005 Why: Probably the most beautiful restaurant in Vegas, the silver and white dining room is decorated by 15,000 hand-blown Murano glass ‘bubbles’. As the designer says, “Many Las Vegas restaurants have no view. This has a fantastic ‘Bladerunner’ type view of the city and desert because it’s on top of a tower.” Design: By Paris-based Patrick Jouin, a former employee of Starck now Ducasse’s preferred designer responsible for his restaurants in Paris, NYC and St Tropez. Diners: Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Nicole Ritchie. Dish: roasted Maine lobster au curry. Where: THE hotel at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. FIX Opened: 2004. Why: Enjoy classic American dishes whilst admiring the sweeping padouk ceiling in this casual but cool restaurant owned by the team behind the Light nightclub. Design: By Graft, an agency with twin offices in Berlin and LA, responsible for the Berlin boutique Hotel Q. They also count Brad Pitt and Will Smith as clients. Diners: Sly Stallone and Nicky Hilton. Dish: Small plates such as Thermidor style jumbo crab cakes or the steaks, grilled over cherry-wood. AUREOLE Opened: 1999. Why: To watch catsuit-clad waitresses abseil down the 42-foot high glass award-winning wine ‘cellar’. ‘Progressive American’ cuisine from Charlie Palmer. Designer: Adam D Tihany, veteran New York-based designer and the chef’s favourite, also responsible for Thomas Keller’s Per Se in Manhattan, Bouchon at the Venetian in Las Vegas, Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and various Bice restaurants. Diners: Bill Gates, William Shatner, David Schwimmer, Michelle Pfeiffer, David Kelley and Steve Wynn. Dish: Sea scallop sandwiches in potato crust. Where: Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. FIN Opened: 2005. Why: To taste the delights of contemporary Chinese seafood in refined surroundings that are decorated by delicate screens of stringed glass spheres. Designer: The respected Canadian interior design duo Yabu and Pushelberg. Diners: Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono. Dish: Lobster tail with XO sauce, wok-fried beef tenderloin, imperial peking duck. Where: The Mirage. SHIBUYA Opened: 2004. Why: To chow down on Takase Eiji’s Japanese food at the 50-foot long marble Sushi Bar. Within six months of opening this restaurant stole the title of ‘Best Japanese in Las Vegas’ from Nobu. Design: Again by Canadian duo Glen Pushelberg and George Yabu, designers of Bluefin restaurant in the Times Square W hotel and interiors for the Four Seasons and Tiffany & Co. Diners: Nicole Kidman, David Arquette, Ray Liotta, Larry King, Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis. Dish: Toro Tartar with beluga caviar, miso wild salmon. Where: MGM Grand. THE MANSION Opened: 2005. Why: The food. Back from retirement, French Michelin-starred ‘chef of the century’ Joël Robuchon is a legend. Expect spectacular French dishes with Asian and Spanish influences. Fancy 1930s Paris style interior with Swarovski chandeliers and black lacquered tables. Designer: Pierre-Yves Rochon, creator of interiors for the Four Seasons George V and many other luxurious hotel interiors. Diners: Celine Dion Dish: The 16-course $325 tasting menu. Where: The Mirage. BAR HOPPING MIX BAR, THE HOTEL AT MANDALAY BAY is attached to the restaurant and is dark, red and moody. Blag your way into the VIP mezzanine ‘eyrie’ that sprouts up from the central oval bar and is enclosed by a red lacquer organic enclosure. CHERRY, RED ROCK CASINO RESORT & SPA Hot nightlife operator Rande Gerber’s latest offering is designed by David Rockwell and includes a pool deck. TAO, THE VENETIAN is Las Vegas’s outpost of the Manhattan restaurant and bar designed by Thomas Schoos and features the signature hand-carved 16-foot tall Buddha. TEATRO EURO BAR was Voted Wallpaper’s ‘Best Designed Bar of 2004.’ This cocktail bar by Adam D. Tihany and architect Leo A Daly was modelled on the interior of a Ferrari with acres of plush red leather and walnut burl panelling.