Two celebrity chef restaurants in a row? Why not? On Monday, we slept-in and ate brunch at Caesar's Palace in Gordon Ramsay's Pub and Grill. It was burgers and fries ( I mean chips) for both of us. This is definitely the place for a fancy, high quality burger. The decor is fun too, a low-rent Timothy Oulton.
I had been dropping hints all weekend that I wanted a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity 3. I've made the home version from a packet mix many times, but I had never actually drank one at the restaurant. We go to Vegas all of the time, but this experience had been eluding me, until now! Stars aligned, we shared one of their signature drinks at the outdoor bar.
We demolished it in five minutes. Heaven.
A cute picture outside of Caesar's Palace.
We went to Red Rock Canyon in search of wild burro. It was very, very windy.
We found one burro. He was our friend, until he realized that we didn't have food for him.
In the evening, we cleaned up for our big anniversary night out.
It started with Jubilee, Bally's long-running, old-style Vegas topless revue show. That was a mouthful! Here are a few pictures that we took the day before.
I have no idea what I expected the show to be, as any expectations were immediately erased by the experience of Jubilee. We got prime seats, right in center, in the second row of tables. This was far too close. Jubilee is a grand spectacle and needs to be viewed from a bit of a distance. There was just no way to take it all in up-close. The theater is small, so even the back row would feel close to the action.
Jubilee has an identity crisis. One moment, there are singers doing jazz standards, the next dancers doing a Samson and Delilah sketch, then all of a sudden, they are on the Titanic as they crash into the iceberg, there's a bit of tap-dancing, some guys doing the robot, boobs, feathers, sequins, et...Nothing is cohesive. Sometimes it's serious, like a segment with beautiful ballet dancing, but most of the time it's just corny.
The show is awesomely-bad. I was shaking from trying to contain my giggles. It's completely ridiculous. Christopher Guest is in on this, I'm certain. However, that doesn't mean that there isn't talent or enthusiasm on the stage. All of the performers were very talented, I just had to think that Jubilee is where their dreams went to die. It's so bad.
The other amazing aspect of the show was the clear tension between the two lead female singers. When each was individually in the spotlight, they shone, but the minute it was the other's turn, the one that was in partial shadows shot daggers at the one performing. They seemed to try to "out-sing" each other. This competitive/hate had nothing to do with their characters or a theme of the show. It was utterly compelling. When we walked out of the theatre, Dan had noticed it too, and said that they need to make a behind the scenes reality show of the Jubilee cast. Brilliant.
We splurged for dinner at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. This restaurant has the best views of the strip. Giada pales in comparison. We were given a table for two by the window. Here was our view. Spectacular.
We went with the tasting menu, which included bison, lobster, and foie gras. Delicious, but so filling that we barely made it to the dessert. Dan even did the wine pairing and cheese course.
Our server, who was the absolute best, even brought us a bonus dessert.
Our second anniversary vacation was a success!