In Vegas, It's all about service...

July 2007

I just flew in from Vegas. And boy are my arms tired!

Literally, not as in the old hackneyed comedic opening.

The reason I’m tired, and actually a little sore, is from the fabulous wave pool, and other aquatic amenities at our resort of choice, Mandalay Bay. Being this was my initial trip to Las Vegas, I opted for that complex, at the southern end of the famous Strip, largely due to its outdoor, recreational options.

In addition to the huge, popular wave-riding zone, we indulged in at least three other separate swim and sun spots. That’s not mentioning a narrow, currentdriven half mile or so course that the folks at Mandalay like to call The Lazy River. Truth be told, there is nothing lazy about it, as my deltoid muscles and rest of my upper body will attest.

Navigating this winding route is great fun, but also a substantial workout, especially if one chooses to forego the inner tubes offered.

All in all, with the exception of a problem at check in, Mandalay impressed us as much as any resort we’ve visited, anywhere.

Food was almost universally wonderful - with one significant exception to be discussed later - and the world-class breakfast buffet the finest, most diverse, and highest quality imaginable.

Think I’m exaggerating? Try this sampling of the options provided: omelets to order, smoked trout and salmon with all accompaniments (including red and yellow tomates- gasp! - as good as those in southern New Jersey), endless varieties of breakfast meats, assorted fruits, including quartersize blackberries by the tubful, carved roasts, chicken fried steak, pork chops with peppers and onions, breakfast pizzas, eggs benedict, pancakes, cheese and fruit blintzes, mini-waffles, blueberry pancakes, ethnic Asian items like miso soup and seaweed salad, a complete salad bar, and a separate pastry station including soft-serve ice cream. Whew! At $17 a person I could hardly imagine a better bargain.

Two of our trio of dinners were magnificent. Upon arrival, late on Sunday of Memorial weekend, we scurried downstairs for a last-seating repast at Michael Mina’s Stripsteak. As you might imagine, this is the celebrated West Coast Chefs take on steakhouse cuisine, but with a much broader seafood bill of fare than one might expect.

Like my tuna sashimi sampler, offering two small slices each of big eye, albacore and prized double O Toro, the tuna often retailing for as much as $500 a pound in Japan. These silky, undeniably fresh cuts seemed almost out of place in the Nevada desert, until one recalls that Las Vegas is only one hour by plane from the California coastline.

Wanting to experience the essence of steak house cuisine, I followed our server’s sagacious suggestion and opted for an American Wagyu rib eye cap steak. This cut, taken from just above the center of the eye, provides an extraordinary depth of both flavor and texture. A real meat-eater’s steak, the finely marbled beef was a surprisingly perfect portion at exactly one-half pound. We find that is often the case with very high-grade protein, a smaller, healthier serving being more than suff icient.

Mina’s restaurant also subsidizes diners with a cool amuse bouche of epic proportions; three different styles of duck-fat French fries, sizzling hot and plated with a separate dipping sauce for each on cool attached wooden cups.

While certainly not inexpensive - my entrée was $64 - this was decadent, big-city cuisine at its most elevated. T h e real surprise? Just how many young people, and by that I mean under the age of thirty, dining at Stripsteak that late evening. Trust fund, anyone?

Fast forward to our third and final evening, at the Vegas outpost of San Francisco-based celebrity chef Herbert Keller, Fleur De Lys. Classic, luminous, inspired French cuisine, offered in three, four or five course pre-fixe menus.

Servers were slightly snooty and a bit haughty, just like those in their food’s country of origin. Still, we couldn’t help but marvel at the level of skill in preparation and plating demonstrated by the kitchen. Every morsel of food we consumed had been scrupulously fussedover, and it showed. Again, not for the faint of credit card limit, our meal cost $300. Trust me, it could have been double that had we really indulged in one of the restaurant’s many spectacular vintages.

In case you’re wondering about that noticeable-by-its-absence second evening, it was at Rumjungle, Jeffery Chodorow’s Caribbean themed restaurant. Let’s put it this way, very gently.

Recent news that Chodorow’s Atlantic City Rumjungle, set to finally open at the Pier at Caesar’s, will not serve food at all, may well be a boon for Atlantic City residents and visitors. On this night, we received resoundingly mediocre eats, accompanied by horrible, amateurish, pushy service. Maybe these folks should stick strictly to nightclub patrons, since they don’t have a clue about providing high-end victuals nor attending to their customers' personal comfort. Case in point: our assistant server, who during the meal hovered near our table (they weren’t busy, go figure!) waiting, vulture-like, to snatch up plates the moment our forks were down.

He even wiped the table, with a nasty, dripping wet rag, while we were still seated and waiting for our check. It was all I could do to keep from screaming out loud.

Otherwise the experience on site at Mandalay was a resounding success. Our only regret was not substituting the disastrous Rumjungle for master chef Alain Ducasse’s Mix, high, high, high atop Mandalay’s sister property, boutiquey The Hotel, next door.

We did, however, venture up the glass elevator - which climbs precariously along the outside of the spired building - for after dinner drinks at Club Mix, which operates alongside the restaurant, providing an amazing 650 foot sky-scraping view of the entire Strip. Trust me, this is one place not to be missed, even if it’s only for that terrifying, seemingly endless elevator ride. The club itself isn’t bad either, suitably dark with floor- to- ceiling open glass views and populated by a glamorous, sexy crowd of partygoers.

Subconsciously, we couldn’t help but compare virtually every moment of this Vegas sojourn to our home market of Atlantic City. What we saw was largely a glimpse of things to come here. Casino hotels rapidly becoming mega-complexes, allowing patrons access to a wide array of facilities - Mandalay alone has more than twenty restaurants - much like the manner of all-inclusives in the Caribbean, but of significantly higher standards, with walloping price points to match.

Another thing that made an indelible impression upon us was the courtesy and professionalism of almost everyone we came in contact with during the four days. These people - right down to our taxi drivers - all seemed to truly grasp what working in a “service industry” really means.

Atlantic City, by comparison, still lags behind this level of sophistication. Some of that is a training issue, some of it is due to the pool of available workers. Either way, for our region to compete more effectively for tourist dollars with places like Vegas, service simply must improve.

******

If you’re a sports fan, the beaches of Wildwood are the only place to be for the final weekend of July this year. That’s because, for the fifteenth summer, Wildwood hosts its annual Beach Ultimate Frisbee tournament, an event that has grown to include over two hundred- yes, two hundred- teams from around the nation, and the globe, for that matter.

For those unfamiliar, Ultimate is like a combination of soccer, field hockey, and football played with a Frisbee. It’s also the only sport ever invented in our own state, created at Maplewood High School in 1968. The action is fast and frenetic, as one significant feature of the sport is the lack of pauses between offensive possessions.

This particular event is worthy of your attention, if only for its sheer scope and spectacle. Close to five thousand players will participate, splayed out across the impossibly wide Wildwood sands. And it’s a fully co-ed event, making the athletic appeal - and the eye candy - universal. For more information, check out the tournament’s official website: www.wildwoodultimate.com.

Frank Gabriel may be reached at Thaibasil@AOL.com