The Vegas Experiment – Joel Robuchon, Mix, Emeril's New Orleans Fish House and Babbo for good measure

NYC is my world. I’ve lived here for all of my 30 years and attended school up through grad school here. I don’t really like to travel outside the city when I take vacations, but I realize this is kind of limiting in terms of my view of the world and is frustrating to my wife. So, since I was just voted Husband of the Century I figured I might as well live up to my rep and take her somewhere outside of the city. Mind you, I let her decide where she wanted to go during our week off and said Vegas would be our fall back. Somehow, despite doing tons of research for Scottish castles and Island getaways I ended up winning….off to Vegas we went.

By this point, over one week later, it is going to be hard to remember everything. I write this blog for the very fact that I have a bad memory and want to capture everything before I forget. I should have brought a laptop but I didn’t think I'd have time to type – I would have. Now because I drank so much wine with every meal and a week has passed, I really don’t remember things very well. This is further compounded by the fact that I’m drinking a glass while I write this.

The flight there on JetBlue was okay. I saw these strange circles outside the plane when we got to the corner of New Mexico.

The Bellagio is a nice hotel. The bathrooms in my room were the best part. However, the place is very crowded with a lot of old people, kids and tourists.

On Sunday evening (9/2/07) we went to Joel Robuchon. The restaurant is located in the MGM Grand hotel. Apparently the real high rollers go in through The Mansion, but wannabe’s like me go in through the main entrance of the hotel, make our way through the casino and head to the back corner. I didn’t realize L’Atelier was also there, but I have that in NYC so it’s not important. We went over and looked at the 6 course and 16 courses menus posted outside. My wife gave me the go-ahead to select whatever menu I wanted. Looking at what came with each, thinking what she would really like and trying to make myself feel less guilty about what was sure to be a super-expensive bill, I kind of pre-decided to do the 6-course but I figured I would ultimately decide once I was at the table.

JOEL ROBUCHON

We entered and being early, we asked to sit in the lounge. The place is dark, both the lighting and the décor. A lot of plush fabrics and black surfaces. The waiter came over and I ordered us tap waters. I figured that was a good way to mess with their heads – my wife thought it just made me look like I’m a poor cheapskate. But how do they know she isn’t pregnant or maybe I'm a recovering alcoholic? After a few minutes we were escorted to the dining room. This area has the feel of a very nice living room. We were given a nice corner table.

The bread cart was brought over. They have over 2 dozen different types of breads for you to try. Partly because I love good bread and partly wanting to get my money’s worth, I asked for a few to start and took more every time the server asked if I would like more. The servers here were very friendly and accommodating. The restaurant does not have a stuffy, pretentious feel to it. There were many times during the meal that we were chatting away in normal tones and even laughing. No one seemed to mind and everyone seemed to be having a nice time.

My memory is failing me – I don’t remember my amuse or my first course really…I do remember the next course. It was a ‘ravioli’ of sorts – it was lobster in a sweet and sour turnip ravioli type skin, flavored with nutmeg and rosemary. It was amazing. I say ravioli of sorts because I remember the pasta skin was soft and translucent so I thought it was their take on ravioli. I don’t think it was traditional flour based pasta dough. Another thing I really appreciated about Robuchon was when it came to wine; they had bottles at all price points. They even had bottles and half-bottles below $100. I pointed to a bottle for $100 and asked the sommelier to pick something in that general range to go with the meal. He asked us both about what flavors and types of wines we liked and after a few minutes of talking he went away with a smile. The white wine he brought back was excellent (I’m ignorant when it comes to wine – I just like to drink it) and only cost $115.

The next course was a soup of sorts. It was an onion custard that same with a shot of light pea puree on the side. You were to pour the pea puree over the custard. So we did and it was a wonderful mixture. The savory onion and light creamy custard with the fresh pop of pea puree went together in a wonderful way. Next was a turbot dish but I can’t really remember what that was like. This isn’t because the food wasn’t very memorable or anything, it really is all my fault. I do remember that next was a piece of wonderful Kobe beef. I remember each piece had that wonderful taste of great beef and yet the way the fat and meat was melting in my mouth was more like butter. After all of this food from the main courses began the dessert process. Like most very high end restaurants I’ve gone to, this is a long, elaborate and delicious process. We started with a pink peppercorn infused strawberry and iced peach mix in a martini-like glass. The fresh fruits and cream like textures cleansed the palate and prepared us for the rest. I began telling my wife how I hoped they had a dessert trolley because I am obsessed with those things. We didn’t see one and I was a little let down. Then, out of nowhere, the serve rolled over a trolley brimming with every sort of goodie imaginable. Of course we tried to not appear like gluttons and pick a few choice items. The good-natured server, sensing that we were being reserved in our selections, chose several other items from the cart. He let us pick more when we were done with those.

Finally, we were done, full and extremely happy. Total bill came to $832 with tax and tip. As we were leaving they gave us a bag with a take away. I’ve received muffins, macaroons and other small but nice goodies before, but Robuchon gave us an entire loaf of pound cake with candied fruits on top. The buttery loaf lasted me an entire week!

MIX (Monday, 9/3/07)

I picked Mix because it was an Alain Ducasse place and even though I didn’t have a great experience at his flagship in NYC, I figured I’d give it a try. This place is at the top of the hotel called theHotel (next to Mandalay Bay). We entered the hotel and navigated to the place where we were told we could catch an elevator that would hug the outside of the building and give us a view of Vegas as we went up. I hate elevators and I hate heights. My wife got a kick out of it all. We got to the top to an empty lounge / bar area. My wife got nervous and wanted to leave but we approached and were offered a seat. We started with some overpriced cocktails and after realizing I’d probably need to drink a lot more to endure this experience and bill we made our way to the main dining area next door. We were given a table near the window so that we could view the Strip. Originally we were going to be seated outside on the patio, but considering that Vegas was 100+ degrees everyday, I thank them for keeping us indoors. The key feature of the restaurant is a glass sculpture in the center which consists of hundreds of glass spheres hanging from chains from the ceiling. It has an organic, underwater feel to it.

Many things on the menu sounded good, but my wife was really drawn to the tasting menu and demanded that we do wine accompaniment. I agreed even though I knew it would mean we’d be full before the end and overly drunk. At least I wasn’t driving. I remember that the menu was also broken down into Mix entrees as well as some classic Ducasse entrees. Even though we were doing tasting menu, it didn’t include any foie gras dishes so she ordered an additional preserved duck foie gras terrine with apricot chutney. It came and like most FG of good quality it was like a thick, meaty, buttery spread. FG is actually growing on me a bit, but I could live without it. My wife eats it so much she is becoming a goose.

Again, due to time and alcohol I can’t fully remember what happened here and even worse, I didn’t take a menu with me. I believe that we started with a curry lobster cocktail in martini glass. I recall that two dishes – a gnocchi dish with asparagus and truffle and a halibut dish were very bland and unexciting. I actually was putting salt and pepper on the gnocchi and I didn’t think I would need to season food at the table in a place like this. It wasn’t a matter of my taste, the pasta was just bland. We had bison tenderloin with "sauce au poivre," and a mix of vegetables. But this point, I know we were full and couldn’t really eat much more, especially knowing that dessert was coming. There may have been other courses before dessert, but I don’t remember them. Dessert was a chocolate creation. It actually reminded me of what I had for dessert at ADNY. It was very good as far as chocolate desserts go, which usually aren’t my favorite.

Overall, the place was nice, but considering that with tax, tip and wine the bill came to $607, I think I could have done without it. But I guess it could have gone either way.

Emeril's New Orleans Fish House (Tuesday, 9/4/07)

My wife wanted a seafood dinner and wanted to experience Emeril’s and what she imagined to be a good New Orleans style meal. Imagine is the key word because you’d really have to use your imagination to enjoy the food here. We went with a tasting menu and absolutely NO ALCOHOL because no single app / entrée combo sounded enticing. I couldn’t imagine eating a large portion of what was listed. I figured that eating smaller portions of many things would give me a better sense of the Emeril style and what the food was like at the NOFH. I won’t go into the details, you can go find a menu online somewhere, but most stuff was amateur execution with presentation and flavors. I felt like I was eating at a McCormick’s Seafood or something. It’s not that I’m some elitist who needs to eat Robuchon every night – I’ll take a great home cooked meal anytime – but this stuff was just so average and boring. Halfway through my six course dinner I just wanted to pay the bill and go. I was bored and was leaving half the plate for each tasting. The flavors were all muddied and just not what I was interested in eating. Maybe it was just a bad day for us but I know that if I was being unfair my wife would have said something. She agreed with everything I was saying and feeling. I’ve heard good things about Emeril’s places in New Orleans so maybe I’ll check those out if I go down there. As for this place in Vegas, I wish I had just gotten a sandwich at Wichcraft or a burger at MickeyD’s.

Babbo (Friday, 9/7/07)

I don’t know what else I can say about Babbo that I haven’t already. It’s obvious that I love the place. We sat at the bar and surprisingly, my wife really wanted the pasta tasting menu. Last time she agreed to do it because I hadn’t had it in a long time. I thought for sure that she’d demand the Traditional Menu, but she was in the menu for several nice servings of perfect pasta – and that’s what Babbo does best. She also wanted to do wine accompaniment. When you dine at the bar and do wine accompaniment with the bar tender as your server, you are in for a treat. These guys and gals know the wine extremely well and they also know the food very well. The bar is just a great place to eat and really makes Babbo my favorite place to dine in the city.

We started with a Black Tagliatelle with Charred Corn and Castlemagno cheese. The squid ink pasta is thick and chewy and the salty taste is cut by the sheet roasted taste of the corn. Next was a Casunzei pasta – which is like ravioli. It was covered in poppy seeds and stuffed with beets! You cut open this golden pasta and inside were these bright red, fresh beets. Wonderful. Next were thick, ridged rolls of Garganelli with funghi trifolati – 3 mushrooms. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the mushrooms were fresh and delicious. The had bite and each had a distinct and wonderful flavor. The pasta here is all covered in light sauces – not drenched – but the flavors are so clear and distinct. Babbo doesn’t have to overdo things to get the point of each dish across.

Next were Domingo’s pyramids with passato di pomodoro. Maybe I was getting full and drunk at this point but I found it hard to finish these. They were good, but I think the abundance of everything was diminishing my ability to enjoy. Next was pappardelle Bolognese. Due to my feelings towards pasta at this point and since I’d had this dish here many, many time before, I had them wrap the whole thing up. It would make a great lunch the next day. For our 3 part dessert we were first given a fritelle di caciotta with figs and honey – a cheese fritter covered in figs and honey. Next was a fior di latte with raspberry vincotto – a milk panna cotta in a small thimble with cooked wine flavored like raspberry on top. Finally, a chocolate polenta cake with espresso gelato. All very good and I was very full at this point. Total damage was $326 with tax and tip.