Tao of Pauly

hollyweird > las vegas

By Pauly
Las Vegas

I had another restless night and woke up at 5am. Couldn't go back to sleep so I wrote until sunrise. When Nicky eventually woke up, we headed down the street to Nick's for breakfast. I went with their version of a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich on wheat toast.

After breakfast, we packed and loaded up the car. We traveled super light, and all this recent traveling has made Nicky into a light packer. She used to bring a few bags to Vegas for a weekend jaunt. Those days are over!

However, since Nicky is a California pothead, she totally spaced on a few things. As we pulled out of the driveway and drove about ten feet up the street, she screamed, "Awww, shit!"

She turned the car back around and ran inside. She forgot her cash, which is a necessity in Las Vegas.

Take 2. We drove a few blocks and gassed up the car before we went on the freeway. That's when she realized that she forgot her coat. Sigh. We drove back and got the coat.

Take 3. We were behind schedule 20 total minutes. Lucky for us, we missed any congestion getting out of LA. In fact we made it to Las Vegas in less than four hours including one piss stop in Baker. The drive went by so fast, that all of a sudden we were at the Nevada state line. Time flew.

We checked into the Bellagio. Nicky had won the media tournament at the WPT Championships in April. Part of the first place prize package was a free room at the Bellagio and a free diner at any of their restaurants. The room was super swanky with marble floors and a bathroom bigger than most NYC studio apartments.

While Nicky got ready for dinner, I headed down to the sportsbook. I put a bet on the fight. All my British friends keep telling me that Hatton is gonna whoop Mayweather. So I threw down $100. Just enough to keep me interested in the fight.

For dinner, we decided on Craft Steak, which is a high end steak joint at MGM instead of Michael Mina's joint at the Bellagio. We had a $600 credit and went to work right away with an expensive bottle of wine. $125. It was probbaly worth about $50 but all wines are grossly marked up.

For starters, I went with prosciutto and it melted in your mouth. Nicky ordered some sort of yellowfin tuna dish and that also melted in your mouth. We both ordered the same thing for our main course. It was a 10 oz. Waygu Kobe filet. It cost $110. I never had a steak cost that much! We first tasted Waygu in Australia, and we discovered that it's top of the line Kobe that is raised in Australia, then flown back to Japan. Amazing.

The sides were a mushroom mix and a potato and leeks gratin. Since it was a classy joint, I didn't bust out my camera. We ordered two desserts and shared them. One was a chocolate molten cake with hot chocolate insides and served with ice cream. The other was something called cinnamon monkey bread. Also pretty yummy.

We didn't spend the entire comp and I was surprised that they didn't allow us to comp the bottle of wine! Had I know that booze was not included, we would have gone for a cheaper bottle. Alas, we had a $500 meal for like $140 plus tip. Good stuff.

After dinner, a few friends had arrived in town. We showed Maudie our swanky room at the Bellagio, and walked around the flower conservatory in the lobby. Then we met up with Gracie and Sweet Sweet Pablo at the Imperial Palace. They arrived in town shortly before Midnight and we knocked back drinks at the bar.

When Nicky and I left the Imperial Palace around 2am, the entire Strip was empty. I dunno if I have seen Las Vegas so... desolate. It's weird. I actually like it less crowded.