Lemondrop martini research

My wife and I spent last weekend in Vegas celebrating our 29th wedding anniversary. The gambling was brutal so I will skip straight to the booze. My wife enjoys lemondrop martinis but will only order them at what she considers to be the upper tier of casinos. Her ratings are as follows:

1. Bellagio. She had her first lemondrop martini at Bellagio a couple of years ago so it may be the sentimental favorite. Drink is served in a martini glass with powdered sugar on the rim and a generous peel of rind. Tastes fresh and smooth with a potency that gets the buzz started without overpowering your senses. Drink service at both blackjack and videopoker was prompt and friendly.

2. Venetian. A notch below Bellagio but still quite good. First round had salt instead of sugar on the rim. Wife said that was different but not bad. Drink service was good both at blackjack and video poker.

3. Wynn. Drink quality was good but lost presentation points because it was served in a cocktail glass instead of a martini glass. No powdered sugar on the rim. Good service at blackjack pit and great service in video poker area. We were playing a quarter machine one person at a time, but the nice young lady took orders from both of us and kept coming back every 20 minutes or so. We were tipping a dollar a drink and she seemed very pleased and never hesitated to take orders from both of us.

4. Alladin. Maybe it was too soon after the Sunday brunch buffet, but my wife thought the martinis were quite average. The beverage lacked a clean, fresh taste suggesting the lemon juice was bottled rather than fresh. The cocktail waitress was efficient but not particularly friendly.

At lower tier casinos we generally drink Coronas. Had an interesting experience at Imperial Palace late Sunday night. We were playing a $10 blackjack table. Sitting first base was about a 50 year old lesbian with her early 20 something friend standing dutifully at her shoulder. The player was playing $25 to $50 per hand. The cocktail waitress came by and the player tried to order a Budweiser for herself and a rum and coke for her friend. The waitress said drinks were for players only. The player complained to the dealer and the pitboss who was nearby and the waitress said "she" will have to go to a bar. The player then tried to give 3 red chips to the waitress who snapped "Drinks are for players only!" and left. The young friend did not get her drink and did not leave the shoulder of the player (the player did not leave either as the dealer had been busting regularly and all of us were making $$$). The waitress brought several rounds but never did anything for the friend. The pitboss and dealer never attempted to intervene.

It seems to me that I have seen the "friends" of $25 to $50/hand players get treated with a little more respect. Was this experience a hard and fast rule, a bit of gay bias or just an unusual occurrence??

 

no drinks for the friend??

that waitress must not have wanted a tip.... on several occasions I have ordered a drink when hanging with friends (but not playing....and vice versa). I can not recall ever having a problem. I would of course would always tip for the drink.

 

I'd guess that the line has to be drawn somewhere, and the casino chose to draw it so that only those playing get booze.

Consider this, if one friend of a High Roller (sex/gender/relatinship not factoring into my statement at all) gets drinks, then what about the player who has his wife and 21-year-old kid? Or the football player with his 6-man entourage? or MC Hammer with his traveling circus (when he was wearing parachute pants he had a HUGE group with him).

I suspect giving drinks to non-players could negatively effect this waitress's employment status, and personally wouldn't look for anything malicious unless other evidence came up.

 

my wife and I have never had a problem getting drinks while 1 of us plays slots.

 

I would say that this was not the waitresses fault for playing by the rules. I might suspect that she was relatively new like a new desk clerk who won't comp an upgrade in exchange for a toke. It would stand to reason that the pit boss could have given the thumbs up though but not the dealer. Unfortunately, pit bosses sometimes have Napolean complexes (just ask Mikey). Personally, most times I've ordered a drink for a bystander, it was delivered without question.