See ya 2020, don't let the door hit ya!! dec 26-30 (liveish)

Dan had a good run on pai how he couldn't lose and I made some too... This is profit

 

Dinner was at Bugsy and Meyers, I had the forest mushroom canneloni on the Veg Menu (4.5 forks) Dan had the 45 day aged ribeye also very good. Sides of au gratin and brussel sprouts. Food was great, service was..meh.

 

Cigar of the day was brickhouse mighty mighty maduro, a great value stick ... I call it a great "daily driver" (3.75 puffs)

 

VP was pretty good today, was happy with it!!! hit a bunch of quads and a straight flush!

 

Glad to hear Bugsy & Meyer’s was good food at least - been hearing mixed reports

 

Thanks, the food was excellent... think the server wrote us off when we didnt order drinks. I hung up my drinking shoes, (Can recommend awesome NA beers) and Dan....had already had plenty for the day and needed some hydration!

 

Server write-offs..... don't get me started

Try walking in with an English accent and you can be written off before you sit down. Ofc not over-generalising, generally the standard of service is waaaay higher in LV than UK, but you can definitely get plenty of narrow-minded poorly travelled servers in amongst them. Some examples:

1. Travelling with my 6yo, breakfast I order her Frosties from the cereal menu and over-order for myself, knowing she will pick off my plate but be overwhelmed with an order of anything put in front of her. The server chirps up "as soon as I heard you speak, I knew you were ordering Frosties!" Well sugar tits..... if you travelled with your daughter to a foreign country where .... wait for it..... all the cereal brands are completely different and you only recognised ONE.... which one would you order?

2. I'm not a small guy, but I just can't put dinner away like some do, so I rarely order an appetizer or a dessert. You can see their soul leave their body as you order. It sometimes returns as you order several sides per person, and almsot never an entree to split, but sometimesthat soul already left the building.

3. I don't have a clue about American wine, but have a passable knowledge of European wine. So no point in trying to get me on the hook for a $200 bottle of Napa. I'm sure it is very nice, (I've drunk plenty when others have ordered) but I'm ordering blind. If I am by myself, maybe I'll order a glass and eat at the bar, where a poor order just can't ever be that much of a mistake. On the French wine list, lots of restaurants have silly prices, $100+ for an entry-level bottle of Chablis that would be $10 supermarket and I'd be paying £30max to have it dine-in. GL trying to sell me a bottle of that for $119. Conversely, somewhere like Hugos where there is (was?) an English sommelier and an excellent wine list with very reasonable mark-up, game on!

4. I'm sure those servers have had bad experiences, many English are unaware of the tiping culture or expectation. (Even when someone very kindly writes it all over the check for us) But the mistake some servers make is they immediately dial down the service accordingly and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - if it feels like my server went off shift halfway through my meal, expect that to be reflected in your tip.

OK, I said don't get me started

Anyway, your mushroom canneloni looked great, I could definitely order a small portion of that with a glass of wine at the bar as a scooby snack during happy hour or something, but the steaks keep calling my name!

 

@SimonG I'm with you.... I'm in the service business.. so the guy went from getting 30% to my "bad" tip of 18% And as for Hugo's recent TRs reference a Sommelier at Hugo's so he/she is likely still there. Hugo's is on my list

 

I've encountered 2 or 3 sommeliers there, the one I am thinking of is 'John from Leeds' - he has been there since God was in shorts. He usually has a small collection of stuff that is too transient to ever make the menu, but he springs to life if you show some interest in what he has. Typically the drill would be to describe what you are looking for, or maybe point out something on the menu that you would normally go for, and then allow him to beat it. Usually find a bottle of something great for $80 territory. Highly recommend letting him do his stuff.

I'm in the service business too, they'll know before the end of the meal that I'm not impressed with the service. It is recoverable, but if not, then 18% is a stretch target!

While loosely on the topic - a quick Qu if you don't mind: I'm generally going in with 20% in mind, and will move it up or down in line with how good the service is. What happens when I push the boat out on the wine though? One particular meal springs to mind where despite there only being 2 of us, we drained about 4 bottles during and after dinner, with cocktails before/cognac after. One bottle was quite an expensive champagne, and by the time the check arrived, unsurprisngly neither of us could see straight, never mind work out the correct amount to tip. Interested to hear if there is an array of opinions on this, as there wasn't a sommelier and we ended up pouring most of it ourselves, I really didn't feel like adding 20% on for everything, it would have been a very high $ amount for someone that desperately didn't deserve it.

 

I guess my thought is that you were still taking the server's table for the length of time to consume all those beverages, so in that case I would say that 20% would be the absolute max tip, with a little less being okay

 

Monday..... Ugh day

Started off with golf at Canyon Gate Country Club, it's a private club on Sahara up by Red Rock, course was in very good shape (3.75 golf claps) I was excited to try out my new driver a Callaway Epic Flash, and Mavrik Max Irons, both of which I got from Callaway's pre-owned program.


I was hitting the driver great, hitting many more nice shots than I generally do. Haven't really figured out the irons yet, and I will not figure out the gap wedge for a while as I was just carrying it around and the head broke...


Dan played a great front, hitting a 42. I ended up shooting 107 which is fair considering I havent played in a few months. I hit enough good shots to make we want to come back. And crushed my drive RDFM on 18.



Alas that's where the good part of the day ended. We went on a casino hopping tour, and I got killed. Lowlight was dropping about 750 on dreamcard at suncoast, then a litany of paper cuts leaving me -1100 on the day and wiping away profit. The best hit a managed was this on big pick multistrike at paris

 

Dinner--- Andiamo at the D

We had to wait for our table about 15 minutes, no big deal. I had the BBQ shrimp appetizer



Then for mains I had the Tortalacci , sans the sausage... and Dan had the Angoltti. Food and service there was good as always (4.25 chews)


Dan injured his wrist a little on the golf course (yeah right...I know how he injured it.) So we are pulling an audiable for tomorrow, breakfast at Tableau, then on the lazy river and we will see what happens, likely the M, Silverton, and dinner at Silverado at Southpoint.

 

Still takes some getting used to that golf course looks like mine in July! Dinner looked good, gambling... not so much

 

As a former Club Corp employee and then member, I must say playing Canyon Gate is a treat. The four hours on the course saved me a lot of money during our golf buddy trips. And I actually parred #18 on the last trip, it was a one putt, but a par!

Enjoy your trip!

 

Yeah, I love the pace of play from the members at Canyon Gate..... four hours is loonnnng for there... we were done in 3:25 And I've had rounds many time im the 2:45 to 3:15 range... I dropped two approaches into the water at 18 after one of the best tee shots of my life...... ugh.

 

Breakfast at tableau, I had gnocchi with impossible meat bolangase, dan went spanish omelet (4 forks)

 

First of the day

 

Followed three hands later by second.

 

And the third real quick .. plus 210... With five trips scheduled in 3 months, gonna lock this in for today... On agenda neon museum, westgate, m, silverton and south point

 

Found a multi-strike ultra deluxe for nickels, hit aces on double bonus, made a quick $50... then I never had done the High Roller....so....


Next up will a trip to westgate, silverton, m and southpoint for dinner at the Silverado