fear of choosing in las vegas (part one)

Today's blog goes far from the food of Savannah because this year for our annual birthday trip, Jennifer and I went to Las Vegas.  There we found everything from $1 Margaritas with all-you-care-to-eat bacon to Nathan's hot dogs and  99-cent fried Oreos and Twinkies.  Yes, you know I noticed the egregious apostrophe error.

We also found that LV is a mecca for well-known chefs looking to open new restaurants.  Twenty-one restaurants were listed in our hotel, scattered in the nooks and crannies of the luxury designer Grand Canal Shoppes in the Venetian and on into the Palazzo next door.  Featured chefs include Tom Moloney, Mario Batali, Thomas Keller, Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck, and Kevin Wu.

According to Forbes.com:

Once upon a time, celebrity chefs would merely put their name on a Vegas outpost, and never return. But those days are gone.

Today Vegas is a who's who of celebrity chefs, includingWolfgang Puck, Tom Colicchio, Emeril Lagasse, Joël Robuchon, Thomas Keller and Mario Batali. These famous chefs actually care about the food that's being served in their name--and their presence in Sin City makes Las Vegas one of the top food cities in the U.S. The only problem? Choosing which restaurants to hit while you're there.

And that was our dilema, too...choosing a restaurant from such a large selection.

That's the Venetian in the background, or at least a small portion of it.

Inside the Grand Canal Shoppes

Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich's B&B

Fresh seafood is placed in the window of the 

Venice-inspired Canaletto each morning.

We stopped to admire the glass sculpture in the High Limit Lounge of The Mirage on our way to the Cirque Beatles tribute show LOVE. 

If you can see only one show in LV, this is the one. 
Music in the show:

1. Because

2. Get Back

3. Glass Onion

4. Eleanor Rigby/Julia (Transition)

5. I Am The Walrus

6. I Want To Hold Your Hand

7. Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing

8. Gnik Nus

9. Something/Blue Jay Way (Transition)

10. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You (She's So Heavy)/Helter Skelter

11. Help!

12. Blackbird/Yesterday

13. Strawberry Fields Forever

14. Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows

15. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

16. Octopus's Garden

17. Lady Madonna

18. Here Comes The Sun/The Inner Light (Transition)

19. Come Together/Dear Prudence/Cry Baby Cry (Transition)

20. Revolution

21. Back In The U.S.S.R.

22. While My Guitar Gently Weeps

23. A Day In The Life

24. Hey Jude

25. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

26. All You Need Is Love

Humorous menu at First Food and Bar

We decided on Wolfgang Puck's Postrio one night 

and they started us off right with melt-in-your-mouth homemade

bread served with fresh butter.

I ordered the Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail and it lived up to its name.

A half-dozen fresh, delicious shrimp with homemade horseradish cocktail sauce

Jennifer ordered the meatloaf on cauliflower puree with tempura fried onion rings 
accompanied by a pomegranate mojito.

I opted for the Atlantic Salmon with artichokes and fingerling potatoes.  
Including drinks, appetizer, and main course, pricing was well below the that of comparable restaurants in Savannah (The Pink House or Garibaldi).  The food was outstanding and service was impeccable!  We felt like pampered guests.

After dinner we crossed St. Mark's Square to the gelato carts 

and faced the challenge of deciding which flavor to order.

I finally decided on coconut rum 
and 

Jen's choice was stracciatella gelato 

(cookies and cream).

An early morning surprise was Cafe Presse which serves some 
kind of special Italian coffee Jennifer was really excited about.  
I was equally excited to finally find a Diet Coke, because 
LV unfortunately is an Evil Pepsi kind of town.

The coffee shop also featured full cases of bakery items.

New York cheesecake

to be continued...