Vegas Getaways: 11 new ways to party in style

Here's a list of Las Vegas' hottest new hotels, restaurants, and shows.

Whether it’s a hotel opening, closing, imploding, or a celebrated chef hanging their shingle or hanging up their apron, Las Vegas is an ever-changing landscape of fun, food, and mischief. Fresh from a quick Sin City jaunt, and in an effort to keep Diablo readers in the loop about a few places you may not know about—yet!—we’ve compiled a list of gotta-sees, dos, and eats

RESTAURANTS

MARCHE BACCHUS
About ten miles off the strip in the suburban community of Summerlin, the sophisticated and charmingly French—yet so not full of itself—Marche Bacchus sits overlooking a manmade lake. The restaurant has an amazing chef in Jean Paul Labadie, who spent 14 years working in Emeril Lagasse’s organization, most recently as Chef de Cuisine at the Palazzo’s Table 10. Menu musts include lobster pot pie and scallop risotto. The restaurant also has one of the city’s best wine programs: Because they function as a wine retail shop—touting more than 950 labels—Marche is able to charge a pretty penny less than most restaurants in town. Customers can buy a great-priced bottle inside, and then enjoy it outside for a $10 corkage fee while relaxing to live jazz. Open for lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch. marchebacchus.com

PAYARD
This sugary outpost of its namesake’s famed New York institution arrived at Caesars Palace in late 2007. A bustling combo pâtisserie, bistro, and retail shop, Payard is the whimsical creation of renowned pastry chef, author, James Beard Award winner and all around dessert rockstar, François Payard. The space, with its white leather banquettes and fanciful gumdrop-looking crystal chandeliers makes for elegantly sweet surroundings—think Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory meets super-swank café. Sweet-toothers nibble on Payard’s famous truffles, almond croissants, peanut butter napoleons, and brioche French toast with berries and cream, while savory fans nosh on classic croque monsieurs and fluffy, custom-made crepes and omelets. Blowing to chocolate bits the myth that no clocks exist in casinos, the 13-foot high chocolate clock displays nine different time zones and dispenses free truffles to lucky passersby every 15 minutes. Open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch, dinner. payard.com/lasvegas


DINING DEALS

MIRAGE PRIX FIXE SPECIALS
One of the best dining deals in Vegas (four, actually), can be found at the Mirage Resort, as $29.99 gourmet prix fixe menus are offered at the following four fine dining restaurants: Stack, a sleek American style bistro, (try the mini-filled jelly doughnuts for dessert); Kokomo’s, with its tropical island atmosphere, complete with waterfalls and lagoon; the gorgeous and serene Chinese hotspot, Fin, and Onda, where rustic meets sophisticated as the homemade pasta will gnocchi-your-socks-off. Also of note at Onda, two great regular events in the cozy wine lounge include a complimentary “Rush Hour Wine Tasting” every Friday from 5pm-7pm, and 50% off wine list bottles (except for the pricey Bordeaux) on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Prices for the prix fixe specials do not include tax, gratuity, or beverages, and are limited to parties of eight or less.  mirage.com/restaruants

VALUE PASSPORT AT NEW YORK NEW YORK
Cab fare got you down? We feel you—getting around Sin City can hit your wallet harder than parking at a blackjack table all night.  So if you’re looking to stay in one location for the evening, check out the Value Passport deal at New York New York Hotel. Just $25 lets you experience six unique venues under one roof, including: Center Bar, where the Passport gets you one specialty cocktail (try one with absinthe…it’s legal again!) Pour 24 puts an all-malt handcrafted cold one in your hand. Sudden urge to simulate a jet fighter’s barrel roll? The Passport lands you a seat on the hotel’s signature ride, The Roller Coaster. Afterward, hoist a pint or sip a cocktail at Nine Fine Irishmen, an authentic Irish pub imported straight from the Emerald Isle. The Passport gains you entry and a beer at The Bar at Times Square with its dueling piano show. And finally, hit up Rok Vegas (pictured, right)—a high-energy club with rock, house, and Top 40 music that basically justifies the whole cost of the Passport, as admission alone is normally $20 for gals, $30 for guys.  nynyhotelcasino.com/promotions

HOTELS

PALAZZO
Not only is the 50-story Palazzo, which debuted on the strip in January of 2008, a gleaming marble and glass phenomenon, it also owns bragging rights as the largest LEED-certified building in the world, conferred by the U.S. Green Building Council. Adjacent to sister property The Venetian—and adjoined in three places—the all-suite hotel touts 3,066 rooms, the smallest of which is 720 square feet—nearly two times larger than the average hotel room. Fans of celeb chefs will be thrilled, as the Palazzo is home to restaurants of heavy hitters Puck, Batali, Trotter, and Lagasse. (For a more casual bite try Dos Caminos—the guac is insane). The Shoppes offer everything from the massive (Barneys) to the intimate (see write-up below on Annie Creamcheese). In the market for some new wheels? (Or just have an overactive fantasy life?) Either works at the hotel’s 20,000 square-foot Lamborghini dealership: Ten bucks gets you into the two-story facility where you can spy Spykers, ogle Bugattis, and skulk amidst Saleens and Koenigseggs. palazzolasvegas.com

ENCORE
Opening its doors in December of 2008, Mr. Wynn’s latest opus has already managed to land itself on Travel & Leisure magazine’s It List as one of the “Best New Hotels of 2009.” With a slightly more boutique-y vibe than the megaresort feel of big sis Wynn Las Vegas, Encore pulls off blending mega-bling with intimate warmth, resulting in an oxymoron-seeming atmosphere of grand-scale tranquility. Encore is connected to the Wynn via a retail esplanade, seamless to the point where you’re not quite sure where one ends and the other begins. Rooms are chic and modern with floor-to-ceiling windows, and boast the largest flat-screen TVs of any standard U.S. hotel rooms. Wynn, who was a close pal of Frank Sinatra, has opened a restaurant eponymously honoring the Chairman of the Board.  Though not for the faint of pocketbook, once can’t deny the fun of seeing a few of Sinatra’s awards on display—including a Grammy (Strangers in the Night), and his sole Oscar (From Here to Eternity). Head downstairs to XS, an extravagant, full-tilt, pulsating ultra-lounge overlooking the pool, with go-go dancers perched on raised columns and decadence oozing from every cranny. (Hmm...extravagant, full-tilt, decadent…does Mr. Wynn do things any other way?) encorelasvegas.com


SHOWS & VENUES

BETTE MIDLER
Check out the Divine Miss M’s The Showgirl Must Go On, and see the four-time Grammy winner sing, dance, and debauch her way around the stage at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The raucous diva began her stint here in February of 2008 and will continue on a varied schedule through 2010. Midler delivers her irreverent jokes, gags and guffaws, belts out hits and ballads alongside her “Kiss My Brass” section, and entertains with boundless energy alongside her “Caesar Salad Girls” in this glitz and glam Broadway-style show. The gal can still rock a mermaid costume. Intended for mature audiences. caesarspalace.com.

LION KING
Simba, Nala, Mufasa and Uncle Scar are alive and roaring on the African plains—or, rather, the Mandalay Bay theater, which welcomed the New York smash in early May to overwhelming kudos. Director Julie Taymore, Broadway’s first-ever female director of a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, brings all the usual savanna suspects to life, from wildebeest and zebra to 18-feet tall giraffes. The production is a refreshing alternative to the countless burlesque and Cirque-esque shows that blanket the strip. And to stave off hunger during the two-and-a-half hour production, eight restaurants throughout Mandalay Bay offer pre-theater menus, starting at $8.95 for the kids menu at Giorgio’s, up to $59 at Hubert Keller’s renowned Fleur de Lys. lionkinglasvegas.com.

TERRY FATOR
Million-dollar winner of the 2007 season of NBC’s America’s Got Talent, funnyman Fator tickles audiences with his family-friendly show, “Terry Fator & His Cast of Thousands.” The awesomely talented ventriloquist, comedian, singer, celeb impressionist—and the man who Simon Cowell called one of the “top entertainers on the planet”—performs five nights a week at the 1,265-seat Terry Fator Theater at the Mirage (formerly the Danny Gans Theater, before the late Gans moved down the street to the Wynn in 2008). Fator wields his jokes, songs, puppets, (to whom he refers as his “guests”), and does pretty hilarious impressions, channeling Cher, Justin Timberlake, and even the Pussycat Dolls. (Dark Sunday, Monday.)  mirage.com/entertainment.

THE JOINT AT HARD ROCK HOTEL
Bay Area fave Carlos Santana and company recently debuted at “The Joint,” rocking the sophisticated, state-of-the-art venue at Hard Rock Hotel with their show, Supernatural Santana, A Trip Through The Hits. The gig is slated for two years, (though sporadically, so check event listings).  Also playing The Joint this summer are Blink 182, Earth Wind & Fire, Chicago, Motley Crϋe, and No Doubt.   hardrockhotel.com/las-vegas/clubs/the-joint/

RETAIL

ANNIE CREAMCHEESE
All we have to say is…the name alone, right?  Annie Creamcheese, birthed from a concept of watching Julia Roberts’ portrayal of Erin Brockovich, started as a small clothing venture in 2001, run from the tiny second bedroom of engaged couple Annie Lee and Garrett Bauman’s Arlington, VA apartment. The first store took root in 2004, also in Arlington, and then moved to Georgetown in 2005. The newest outpost now exists among the swank atrium shops in the Palazzo, featuring vintage fashions, accessories and knickknacks from the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s. Fans include the likes of Victoria Beckham, Nicole Richie, and Jessica Alba, and Annie Creamcheese has been profiled across the airwaves from the Discovery Channel to MTV. So much fun…ya gotta check it out. anniecreamcheese.com.