First, let’s talk about the visual revisions. When it was a simple Café, the space was open to the MGM Grand casino and featured a vibrantly colorful design scheme that worked well with noise and drama of the gaming action happening a few feet away. The new design is dramatically elegant with sleek lines, plenty of bleached wood details, and a muted earth tone jazzed up by bold splashes of color by way of faux-stained glass panels placed strategically around the room. It is instantly more appealing than the old design but since it is still completely open to the casino it doesn’t work quite as well as an integrated whole. I would’ve thrown up a wall to do the nicer décor justice but that’s just me.

The menu has moved up a notch as well. While you can still get soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, and pizza that were the mainstay of the old place, those options have been reduced in number and now sit side by side with things like steak, shrimp scampi, veal ravioli, and lamb osso bucco plus a variety of fresh seafood options. It’s all done in Puck’s well-known California cuisine style and while the saffron, polenta, and leeks (for instance) that get added on to otherwise simple dishes may be intimidating to some, there is still plenty on the menu to discover and enjoy for folks of all levels of culinary discernment.

We started with an appetizer of duck sausage with spicy mustard and sweet relish accompaniments. Grilled to a delicious golden brown the sausage was robust with flavor, not too fiery as some can be but still with enough of a bang that my taste buds were able to recognize that something cool was going on.

Since we were still holding on to the past, we went for the dinner items that most evoked the former Café era of this restaurant including a ham and cheese calzone, an Italian sausage pizza, and good old hamburger complete with Vermont cheddar cheese.

The portions were typically huge, with both the calzone and the burger big enough to feed a small village and the pizza verging on what would be called a medium when delivered in a box to your home. I’m not going to get into a discussion of waste and our national obsession with over-consumption but it struck me, right around the time when I noticed that the burger actually cast a shadow, that perhaps we could all just agree that we really don’t need this much food at any one meal? Yeah, losing battle. I get it.

I felt guilty leaving so much food on the plate, not just because of PC guilt but because everything was so darned good. The hamburger, with its gooey mountain of smoky cheese and an onion marmalade that set the standard for mutually exclusive yet totally complementary tastes, was divine – and this is coming from a guy that is very happy with a Sourdough Jack so you know that fancy burgers don’t automatically impress me.

The calzone, epic in scope and presentation, was a terrific combination of the four food groups (grains in the flaky crust, meats, dairy via the cheese, and vegetables via the tomato sauce) and the pizza reminded me that Wolfgang Puck got famous for a reason that isn’t properly expressed in the frozen versions you can get at your supermarket.

So then you get to the prices. For a burger, a pizza, a calzone, an appetizer, non-alcoholic beverages, tax, and tip our bill approached $100 for three people. Not bad in the grand scheme of things for a Vegas restaurant but significantly higher than you’d expect in a casual dining environment. And keep in mind that we actually went for the least expensive things on the menu. Go for the more upscale entrees and a couple of glasses of wine and that $100 will barely cover two people.

Is it worth it? Based on the quality of the food and the exemplary service I’d have to say absolutely, yes. There are few restaurants in this town that fall into this upper middle price range that I’d say that about. But while the old Café was never exactly what you’d call “cheap,” there’s still a part of me that believes if the Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill would offer slightly smaller portions and a slightly smaller bill, it would get unqualified raves instead of hesitant ones.

The Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill
MGM Grand
3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV 89109
877-793-7111
Website
Hours:

Question: I read your Q&A last week about what’s coming up for 2006. What’s going away? Are there any hotels that are going to close this year?

Answer: That’s an excellent question Melanie and the short answer is that nobody knows for sure. Well, somebody may know but they aren’t saying.

Of course The Boardwalk Hotel & Casino has already closed this year to make way for a proposed $5 billion complex of hotels, condos, entertainment, shopping, and a casino from MGM Mirage. But that’s the only major property that is a done deal for 2006. The others will all probably survive the year with one major exception. Here’s the rundown on what’s on the chopping block:

The Stardust – It was announced recently that the Stardust, originally opened in 1958, will be torn down to make way for a $4 billion development of hotels called Echelon Place. However Boyd Gaming, the parent company, said the Stardust would remain open for business throughout the bulk of 2006 if not the entire year. While that could change at moment’s notice, it will most likely be 2007 before the hotel shuts down and is demolished.

The Tropicana – If you go back and search my past columns, there are stories about the impending closure of The Tropicana going back for years and yet there it is, still sitting there, mocking me. While I am loathe to continue making a fool of myself, I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb to suggest that 2006 is finally, probably, maybe, perhaps the last year for the Tiffany of The Strip but no one is saying anything official yet so while I think its likely, it’s also possible that I could be spending my social security retirement check at a slot at Tropicana so who knows?

The Frontier – Plans have been filed to replace the hotel with a new mega-resort with more than 2,800 rooms but a formal timetable has not been set for closure of the existing property or construction of the new one. In interviews, owner Phil Ruffin has indicated that the Frontier will most likely not close until 2007 but if he manages to come up with the money to build the new place sooner than expected that could change.

The Imperial Palace – Harrah’s bought the Imperial Palace last year and fully intends to close it and tear it down eventually but that probably won’t happen in 2006.

Harrah’s and The Flamingo – There are rumors that Harrah’s is considering tearing down these two hotels, which sit on either side of their recent Imperial Palace acquisition, to build a super-mega-development like the Project CityCenter and Echelon Place projects. If that happens it won’t be until 2007 at the earliest.

Bally’s – Another Harrah’s property another rumor of redevelopment. In this case the most expected outcome will be a new name and a visual overhaul instead of bulldozers and implosions. Whatever they wind up doing with it will probably be announced this year when they unveil their plans for Harrah’s, The Flamingo, and Imperial Palace.

The Riviera – A group of investors has started buying up stock in an effort to take control of the hotel and possibly redevelop it but again, the place is almost definitely safe through this year.

The Sahara – There are rumors that the property is actively being shopped to potential buyers and if that happens it will almost definitely close and be replaced with something new. I predict a sale announcement in 2006 but the hotel will remain open into next year.

Circus-Circus – Believe it or not but the last hold-out for families on The Strip is rumored to be at risk as parent company MGM Mirage tries to decide what to do with a property that doesn’t fit into their upscale portfolio. Some speculate they may sell it to help finance their $5 billion Project CityCenter development while others say they would prefer to redevelop it themselves so they don’t lose the one foothold they have on the rapidly growing North Strip territory. I don’t think anything major will happen this year.

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