Mark’s Las Vegas Blog - Your Source for Vegas Info

Finally! We’re over the cold weather and it’s into the 80’s. It’s that short time where it’s between wearing jackets and being 100 degrees!

Being that it was such a nice day my business partner and I hot the strip to check out some of the newer attractions.

One thing that the Strip has been strangely lacking is outdoor patios looking over the Blvd. Coming from South Florida it’s practically a national pasttime to sit at an outdoor cafe along A1A and have a meal or a cocktail & enjoy the view.

Finally someone’s decided to take the plunge and have some outdoor eateries. The new Trader Vic’s at Planet Hollywood opened a while ago but it’s been a bit on the chilly side to really enjoy. So being the warmest day we’ve had in quite a few weeks we decided to check it out.

They’ve done a great job integrating the Trader Vic theme into Las Vegas. It has a nice inside restaurant if you so chose and also an outside bar and tables to have dinner or just have some drinks.

It was a good choice! Local musician Tommy Rocker was set up playing some appropriate tunes and as you can see from the pics the view from inside and outside was quite nice!

After we walked past the massive City Center project. It looks like a huge Erector set! Even with all the construction going on it’s still 2 years from bgeing finished. It’s quite an undertaking and the property will redefine the strip for years to come.

We then checked out another new outside restaurant and bar Diablo’s Cantina at the Monte Carlo. It was briefly closed after the fire at the MC but is back open with it’s regular hours.

It’s a two story place. You can either sit downstairs or head upstairs and enjoy the view, which we did. They have a decent menu of Mexican food and some specialty drinks incliding some unique margaritas.

The food was pretty decent and provided a nice view of the strip. It was late afternoon when we were there and wasn’t too busy. I’ve been by there late at night and the place really gets hopping! They also have a live band playing most night and really adds to the festive atmosphere.

There’s a couple of other restaurants that offer outdoor seating on the strip. Morels Steakhouse and Bistro at the new Palazzo and Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris are nice places to enjoy the strip experience as well.

It’s nice to see that the strip hotels are wising up and giving us some places to enjoy the outdoors and also have some fun watching the people that come visit our fine city from all over the world.

We really had a great time out & about seeing some of the newer sites on the strip & we’ll be seeing more now that the weather is so nice!
 

So I was headed out to the strip last night & noticed the Mandalay Bay was dark and the light on top of the Luxor was out. Pretty unusual for 9 pm! I went over & tried to check it out but they had the parking garage closed at the MB because the lights were off inside.  So instead I headed over to the Luxor.

By the time I got there the light on top had turned back on & the moving lights on the sides were back on as well.

Come to find out power to the Four Seasons, MB, Luxor and the Excalibur had been knocked out about an hour before.  The casinos have back-up generators that kicked in and kept the lights on in the casinos but it took a while for power to be restored throughout the resorts.

Some people were stuck in elevators for a time but fire & rescue came and got them out. That was about the worst of it honestly.

It was a weird sight though because we’re so used to seeing the strip totally lit up.
The cause of the power failure was a blown transformer and they had everything back to normal in a few hours. Never a dull moment here!

It was really no surprise when it was announced a few days ago that the Hooters casino-hotel would be revamped into a boutique hotel and casino.

Since the San Remo was changed over to the Hooters theme 2 years ago it’s not been a big moneymaker. There’s a couple of reasons why. It’s in sort of a bad location being “off-strip.”

Perceptions are weird here. If something’s on the strip is thought of as closer than off strip, even though the distance from the Tropicana to the Hooters is less than the distance from the Mandalay Bay to the Excalibur!

Also, this is Vegas. Sin City. Hooters in North Dakota is a big deal. In Vegas? Not as much. You can see a lot more skin at the pools and many of the cocktail waitress uniforms are more revealing than the orange shorts & tank tops that Hooters girls wear. Hell at the new Hawaiian Tropic Zone they wear bikinis!

I do sort of miss the San Remo. They had a great 24 hour prime rib special and some decent odds at the tables. We had gone there the first night I had moved here & I won a few dollars.

The Hooters wasn’t a bad idea really just wasn’t the right fit for Vegas.

It’s that time again! Nascar comes to Las Vegas! The UAW-Dodge 400 race was here over the weekend and was another sellout. The race has become one of the bigger events in our little town and draws people from all over. Almost 150,000 attended this year and by all accounts was a huge success.

One new twist was they drove the truck haulers in a parade down Las Vegas Blvd. I’ve seen the convoy of trucks before on the road and it’s quite an impressive sight. But add the backdrop of the strip into the mix and it was just amazing. Literally thousands lined both sides of the street to catch a glimps of the spectacle. Here’s a couple of shots.

Several of the drivers made appearances around town as well. My favorite driver, Tony Stewart, made an appearance at one of the Home Depots here in town. I had hoped to get an autograph & meet him, but it seems like half the city had the same thought! The line was a mile long! Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet Tony but he had brought one of his cars and had it on display.

Las Vegas native Kurt Busch also made an appearance at the new Sierra Gold Ultra Lounge, which is part of the PT’s Pub chain here in town. Kurt is a spokesman for PT’s and it was only fitting for him to have his appearance at their new upscale lounge.

The owners of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway have invested millions in upgrades to the track and it’s become one of the showcases of Nascar.

Rumor has it they’re going to give us another race too. our race has always drawn a good crowds and c’mon, who doesn’t wanna come to Vegas? Pretty much all the drivers and crew feel it’s one of their favorite stops on the long schedule.

Nascar and Vegas. A good fit!