In the beginning of June I headed out to Las Vegas with Julie for a wedding at the Platinum Hotel which just so happens to be at the intersection where Tupac was gun downed.  We stayed at the Paris Hotel & Casino for three nights and then moved to the wedding location for our final night.

Stratosphere

For a unique view of the city we stopped at the Stratosphere bar before heading to dinner. From the bar you get a 360 degree view of the city and you can get an appreciation for the scale of all the buildings in relation to one another.  Definitely worth a stop.

Golden Steer

One of the things I really wanted to do on this trip was make it out to Golden Steer Steakhouse. It’s a little out of the way but was worth it, a completely different vibe than any other place we were at the whole trip. The Golden Steer has been around since 1958 which I assume for Las Vegas rates up there as one of the older establishments in the entire city. It’s an old school steakhouse, the place is dark, the food is great. We made reservations on Open Table but they weren’t really needed, the dining room we were in was half empty.

Solo

A good portion of this trip I was on my own as Julie had wedding/bachelorette party obligations. Friday night I headed over to Blondies in the Planet Hollywood Casino to catch the Blackhawks – Kings game. It’s one of the few full-on sports bars that I came across. A ton of TVs, pitchers of beer, beer pong etc. They had the audio on for the game and there were probably an equal amount of Kings and Blackhawks fans.

After the game I wanted to make my way over to CraftSteak at the MGM Grand with as little outside walking as possible. I attempted to cut through the Miracle Mile Shops when I came across one of the Sin City Beer popup bars. I had the Sin City Light as I plotted how the hell to get out of this mall. After my beer I continued on walking for about 30 minutes before I came across the Sin City Beer popup again. I just walked in a complete circle. By this point I was getting worried that I wouldn’t make it to CraftSteak before they stopped serving. I managed to get out of the mall and then began the outside trek to the MGM Grand. The pedestrian walkways along the Strip become a nightmare as the sun goes down so it was a hot mess working my way down to the MGM Grand. When I finally got in I had to make my way through concert ticket lines and through the casino before getting to CraftSteak. I had an arugula salad and a ribeye that made the hassle worth it. The place was winding down but there were still a handful of people at the bar.

On Sunday, the day of the wedding, I had my morning and afternoon to make my own way to the wedding hotel. On recommendation, I stopped by O’Sheas Casino at around 10:30am and took at seat at the bar. About 10 minutes later I notice the security guard and the bartender discussing bags vs. purses. Next thing I know the security guard is asking me to leave the casino because they have a ‘no bag policy’. I’m allowed to finish my beer but then I had to go. For the record there were about 4 other people in the casino at this point, all of which were employees. I’ve carried my messenger bag with me throughout the entire time in Las Vegas passing through at least six other casinos and never had a problem.

I move along and head over to the Venetian to check out the Public House which was a highly recommended craft beer bar. Public House has around twenty taps and more than two hundred bottles. Their list was all on an iPad which allowed you to check off beers or curate a list to order. For someone looking to kill an afternoon, like myself, this was great. The selection was West Coast heavy and a good amount of European stuff that I hadn’t heard of before and nearly all of the decent beer bars in town were familiar with Untappd.  As I tried to make my way out of the Venetian, I suddenly found myself in a hallway full of people in Domino’s uniforms (blue polos).

Las Vegas 51s

Saturday night we had made a point to check out the Mets minor league affiliate, the Las Vegas 51s, who play at Cashman Field. We rented a car for a couple of the days we were in town just to make getting around and moving hotels a little easier. This helped out a lot when going to the game as it was about a 25 minute ride from our hotel and I’m not sure we would have easily gotten a cab after the game. There was a decent crowd for the game and the temperature cooled down once the sun set. Dizzy Reed from Guns N’ Roses threw out the first pitch.

Side Notes:

* In summary:  Times Square + Mall of America = Las Vegas.