PX This.

Welcome to: Where I Spent My Week Off —by a NYC Restaurant "Insider"

So, what do you do in the industry?
I was a floor manager and beverage director for a [very popular] 110+ seat restaurant in SoHo, but I recently left. I’m currently on hiatus to travel until March.

And you have how many weeks off a year, generally?
It seems to vary a lot from year to year. This year I took off about 11 weeks.

What made you choose Las Vegas and Santa Monica for this vacation?
It was a last minute trip. I just decided I didn’t want to stay in NYC for the New Years holiday, because so many of my friends were going out of town. I have friends living in both Las Vegas and Santa Monica, so I decided to visit before I flew to San Francisco where my family lives.

And where did you stay?
In Vegas, at The Wynn. I think I would have preferred to stay at THE Hotel at Mandalay Bay, but my friend booked this stay through his company somehow, and that’s where we ended up. In Santa Monica, I stayed at The Viceroy.

How was the ambience/service/amenities etc?
The Wynn was fine, but a little cheesy— like almost everything in Vegas. I thought The Viceroy was beautiful and I really liked it a lot, but then toward the end of my stay, I started to get this sort of "swinger" vibe— like it seemed as though people were leaving their room doors open as some kind of sex invitation. I mentioned this to my friend who lives in Santa Monica and he just laughed at me like I’m so naive or something. I don’t know, maybe I am! That’s not quite my scene, sorry!

Any major glitches and/or disappointments?
Well, since you asked— Oh my god, why is the service so bad in Las Vegas? I mean, I guess that’s just Vegas, but the service was so bad. Ugh, we went to Alex and that was awful. Sooo awful. And Bar Masa? What a joke. I mean seriously— if you’re going to charge $80 for a bowl of risotto, you’d better get your shit together, what the fuck. OK, it was a $48 sea urchin risotto, but then they put truffle on it for an extra charge. Well, why wasn’t the truffle freshly shaved at the table? It’s supposed to be shaved last minute. But this was like they shaved it in the kitchen and then stuck it the window under the lamps or something. It was all messed up on top. And personally I thought the space was so ugly. Granted, not as ugly as the one in NY, but probably even uglier because you know they got millions of dollars to build this huge ugly place.
Ugh, we would have been so much better off just having dinner at Dos Caminos (where my friend is a manager)… and that’s saying a lot.

Any great standout experiences?
We did to go to Guy Savoy, too. And that was amazing. Really great.
Also, my friend works for Blue Plate Oysterette in Santa Monica so I tried dinner there. It was so good I went back a second time a day later.

How much did you blow all week?
Umm, well, I didn’t blow much. My friend paid for nearly everything in Las Vegas; I think he feels guilty because he makes so much more money than I. And I was "a guest" to my friends in Santa Monica so they took care of a lot of the expenses there, too. Right now I’d say I’m less than a $1000 down total.

Leave a Reply