B&B Burger & Beer

Although I have my favorite restaurants that I enjoy visiting while in Vegas, I also like trying new restaurants.  While in town for the opening weekend of March Madness, my buddies and I decided to try out B&B Burgers & Beer, which was conveniently located across from the sportsbook at The Venetian.  Although the restaurant was packed, my friends and I were able to secure some seating where we could still watch the big TVs at the sportsbook.  

In addition to a few speciality burgers, the menu also boast a build your own burger menu with various buns and toppings.  I chose to create my own with bacon, cheddar, and garlic aioli on a pretzel bun.  It was a good burger with quality ingredients.  Whereas most pretzel buns are somewhat tough, this one was extremely light and fluffy, yet still had the pretzel taste.

Bacon Cheeseburger on a Pretzel Bun w/fries

Several sides are offered, including fries, onion rings, slaw, chips, warm potato salad, and lettuce wedges.  I was able to sample both the fries and the onion rings.  The fries were pretty good, but the tempura onion rings were really good.

Onion Rings

It ended up being a pretty good meal and I would go back there again.  While not my favorite burger joint in Sin City, it was certainly above average.  While we were pleased with the food, we were not pleased with the outcome of the game we were watching and had put money on.  Oh well, you win some and you lose some.  The food was was winner.

B&B Burger & Beer
http://www.venetian.com/restaurants/american/b-and-b-burger-and-beer.html
Livin the Good Life Rating=3

Bouchon

On our last day in Vegas, my wife and I woke up early and wanted to grab breakfast somewhere close.  Since it was 7:30 a.m., most of the Venetian/Palazzo restaurants had not opened for breakfast/brunch yet.  The concierge's desk recommended Bouchon, which is a French restaurant owned by Thomas Keller.  Having heard good things about the restaurant, we decided to give it a try.  For those unfamiliar with Thomas Keller, he has won several James Beard Awards and was voted Best Chef by Time Magazine in 2001.  

Fresh Bread, Butter, and Jam

While looking over the menu, our waitress brought us out some fresh bread, butter, and jam.  The bread was still hot and the butter and jam were both great.  I didn't want to have a heavy breakfast because I planned on working out later that morning, so I ordered the Fruit Salad and a Chocolate Croissant.  The fruit salad had honeydew, cantaloupe, pears, and pomegranate.  All the fruit was fresh and delicious.  The chocolate croissant was also very flaky and the chocolate was very rich.

Fruit Salad and Chocolate Croissant

My wife ordered the Petit Dejeuner Americaine (small American breakfast) with over easy eggs, bacon, toast, and jam filled beignets.  She thought it was very good and I was able to sample the bacon and the raspberry-filled beignets.  Both were good, although I prefer beignets with powdered sugar and without any filling.

Petit Dejeuner Americaine

Beignets

Our breakfast hit the spot and was  enough for us to start the day on a good note.  The service was absolutely spectacular and the rich and robust coffee may have been my favorite part of the breakfast.  The breakfast was good enough to where I would like to try out their dinner menu on a future visit.  The Venetian/Palazzo complex has some very good restaurants and Bouchon matched the quality that I have come to expect from all of their restaurants.

Bouchon
http://www.venetian.com/restaurants/signature/bouchon.html
Livin the Good Life Rating=3

Yardbird Southern Table and Bar

Every year that I go to Las Vegas, I make a list of restaurants that I want to try during my trip.  One restaurant at the top of my list was a new restaurant called Yardbird Southern Table and Bar.  I have a friend who is also a foodie and she has raved about the Miami location for some time, so I was pleased to see that the restaurant had opened up a second location on restaurant row in the corridor between The Palazzo and The Venetian.

Dining Area

Shortly after checking in to The Palazzo, my wife and I took the short walk to grab some lunch at Yardbird.  We decided to try out several items, including the Fried Green Tomato BLT, Lewellyn's Fried Chicken, Buttermilk Biscuits, and the Macaroni and Cheese.  The restaurant makes a point of delivering items as soon as they are finished cooking, so we sampled the biscuits first and they were still piping hot.  The biscuits were wonderful in every possible way and were made even better when you added the honey butter and strawberry jam to them.

Buttermilk Biscuits, Honey Butter, and Strawberry Jam

Next up was the fried green tomato BLT.  Normally one associates a BLT with a sandwich, but this particular item was a fried green tomato topped with pork belly, greens, house-made pimento cheese, and tomato jam.  My wife is more a fan of fried green tomatoes than I am, but I really enjoyed the pork belly and pimento cheese which added flavor to the dish.

Yardbird's version of a BLT-Fried Green Tomato, Pork Belly, Greens, Tomato Jam, and House-Made Pimento Cheese

The fried chicken and mac and cheese arrived shortly after we finished off the BLT.  The fried chicken was very good and it was easy to see why it made Southern Living's list of The South's Best Fried Chicken.  I would certainly put it among my fried chicken top five.  The mac and cheese was made with a combination of Torchio pasta, five cheeses, and was topped with a crispy herb crust.  It was good as well, but it was not as good as the other items we tried on this visit.

Lewellyn's Fried Chicken and Macaroni and Cheese

I also dined at Yardbird a second time on my third day in Vegas.  My wife was at the pool, so I sat at the bar, watched some college basketball, and ordered the Smoke Brisket Sandwich and the House-Cut Fries.  The sandwich was made with brisket, tomato, and Swiss cheese on grilled bread.  This plate also included house-made ketchup and some pickled veggies.  I was a little surprised that the brisket didn't have a lot of smokey flavor and didn't include any bark.  Although it was very different from the brisket sandwiches I am used to, I really liked the flavor of this sandwich.  It tasted more like a spicy pot roast, but the flavor went great with the grilled bread.  The fries, which were topped with bacon salt (aka salted bacon bits), were amazing.  A buttermilk dipping sauce accompanied the fries and really added to the flavor of the fries and bacon.

Brisket Sandwich and Fries with "Bacon Salt"

Since I dined here twice, you can already guess by now that I really liked this restaurant.  The service at both the tables and the bar was excellent.  This casual restaurant has some excellent Southern cuisine and I can certainly see why the original location was nominated for best new restaurant of 2012 by the James Beard Foundation Awards.  If I had stayed another day in Vegas, I might have eaten at Yardbird a third time.  This restaurant is a great addition to the Venetian/Palazzo family.

Yardbird Southern Table and Bar
http://runchickenrun.com
Livin the Good Life Rating=4

Public House

While recently staying at The Venetian in Vegas, I discovered Public House by accident.  Three of the four in our group had just arrived in Vegas and we were looking for a place to watch March Madness while waiting on our other buddy to arrive.  We had just bet on our games for the day and happened to notice several TVs that had different games on, so we went into the Public House.

I really enjoyed sitting in this area with all the TVs.

We ate here in the late afternoon, so they were still serving the lunch menu.  I decided on the chicken sandwich with herb fries, buddy #2 went with the pub burger, and buddy #3 saw the large selection of beverages and decided to drink his lunch.  My sandwich had grilled chicken, ham, provolone, and spicy sour beer mustard served on a pretzel bun.  This was unquestionably the best grilled chicken sandwich I have had in some time.  The flavors blended perfectly and the pretzel bun was the icing on the cake.  The herb fries were pretty good too.  My buddy that had the pub burger said it was great as well.  The third member of our party who decided to drink his lunch did not complain about his meal either.

Great chicken sandwich on a pretzel bun

Pub burger and fries

I really liked the food here and it was a great place to watch games.  It was crowded, but we were able to find seats in the lounge.  On top of the good food, Public House ended up being a great place to visit with friends while watching March Madness as well.  The service was great and the waitresses were easy on the eyes.  I would rate Public House a 3 on a 5-point scale.  The menu had several other items that looked great, so I look forward to going there again next year, watching some hoops, and trying some other menu items.

March Madness and My Favorite City

View from room during the day

View from room at night

I just returned from my seventh trip to Las Vegas.  For the second straight year, some friends and I were lucky enough to get to meet up and have a guys weekend for the first weekend of March Madness.   This is the fourth time I have been in Sin City for my favorite sporting event and it never gets old.  Although our main reason for going was to bet on some hoops and watch games, we also enjoyed going to a show, playing some table games, and eating like kings!

Hallway in The Venetian

I took this picture for my daughter because she would love to see a pink tree.

Venetian Waterfall

For our trip this year, we stayed at The Venetian.  It is a beautiful hotel with very nice rooms, a spacious casino, a huge poker room, and several world-class restaurants.  I enjoy placing bets on the basketball games that I feel good about and then finding a restaurant or sports bar to watch games.  Although I enjoy playing poker, craps and blackjack, I usually don’t do much gambling until after the games are all finished for the night.

When most people think of Las Vegas, they think of gambling.  As soon as you exit your plane, you can hear the sound of slot machines at McCarran International Airport.  Those huge casinos were built with the money that was brought in from gambling, but Vegas is a lot more than gambling.  It is also a major destination for shopping, shows, and fantastic food.

Front of The Venetian

Speaking of food, we ate at some great restaurants such as SUSHISAMBA,  Public House, and Carnevino.  I will blog about each of these and give my reviews in the near future.  If you like high-end dining, you can’t walk three steps without finding a restaurant owned by the likes of Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali, Gordon Ramsay, Bobby Flay, etc.  Some people prefer quantity over quality when it comes to food and Vegas will not disappoint these people either.  Almost every hotel casino has its own buffet.  This trip we tried the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesar’s Palace and it was so good that it will get its own review later as well. 

Getting my eat on during our visit to Caesar's Palace!

If you have never been to Vegas, I would highly recommend taking in a show.  There are a wide variety of shows that a visitor can take in.  There are several Cirque du Soleil acts, musical acts, musicals, and comedians.  Comedian/Actor David Spade, aka Joe Dirt, was doing a show on one of the Friday and Saturday that we were there.  We talked it over as a group and decided it would be fun to go see David Spade.   Some tickets became available the day of the show and we were able to get tickets on the third row, directly in front of Kelsey Grammer.  Apparently we had better connections than he did since we were a row in front of him. 

Since he sat behind us, Kelsey Grammer obviously couldn't afford our tickets

Typical of a comedy show, it began with an opening act and then followed by Kevin Farley (Chris’s Brother).  Both the local guy and Kevin Farley were very funny.  Following Kevin Farley’s set, he introduced David Spade.  But it wasn’t David Spade that came out.  Instead, some little known actor/comedian named Chris Rock came out.  All four of us were shocked and excited that Chris Rock was on stage and we looked at each other with complete amazement.  He did about a 15-20 minute set and was absolutely hilarious.  If given the choice of seeing any comedian, Chris Rock would have been number one on my list and I got to basically see him for free since he was not advertised to be a part of David Spade’s show (at least it seemed free using Vegas logic).  David Spade followed Chris Rock, but although hilarious, he was no Chris Rock.  Getting to see Chris Rock and David Spade might have been the highlight of my trip.

Kevin Farley

Chris Rock

David Spade

Overall it was another amazing, fun, and sleep-deprived visit to my favorite city.  I ended up going 12-9-1 on basketball games and ended up making some decent money on March Madness.  Unfortunately, blackjack, craps, poker, and slots didn’t treat me so kindly.  I still left Las Vegas a happy man.  I got to watch some great basketball, hang out with some great friends, and ate some great food.  I was also smart enough to use some of the money I had left on a gift for my wife.  These gifts to the wife seem to help with met getting permission to go on guys trips.

Don't forget the gift to the wife so she will let you go back next year!