PX This.

PX This presents THE F&F REVIEW

Hey, sorry we couldn’t make it to "Friends&Family," we were out of town/ had to work/ not invited. We’re really glad we finally managed to come by, though— it’s so nice to see you!
What’s that? You would still like us to take the time to fill out the F&F survey, because you’d love to take advantage of all our vast experience, knowledge, insight, and expertise as long as we’re already here? Because you invited 75 people to F&F, and afterward all you got was 41 "Congrats[es]!" 22 "Awesome[s]!" 3 "Ciao[s]!" and 9 "Best of luck[s]!" ?
Of course, we’d be honored. Oh ha, yesss, we’ll be honest— brutally honest even, ha ha! After all, that’s what friends & family are for!
No no please, don’t send anything more, we’re stuffed, we can’t breathe, you’ll have to roll us out of here, ha ha ha… !

Guy Savoy – Bubble Bar (Las Vegas)

What was your first impression?
huh. this is kinda… ugly, actually. i mean, the little fireplace thingie is sort of nice (?) i guess, but the polar bear head encased in the plexiglas is just a bit silly. and the crates stacked in the corner aren’t quite as cute as i suppose they’re meant to be.

Please rate the Bar:
the bar itself is underwhelming, unwelcoming, and uncomfortable. there’s no bartender— it’s up to the (lone) hostess to serve you.
now, i totally "get" it’s a champagne bar, but believe it or not, there is a difference between simple and ordinary. here’s a hint: at least one of those shouldn’t cost millions to build. when it does, it’s beyond "ordinary" or "simple"— then it’s just stupid.

Please rate the drinks/ cocktails/ wine:
cocktails are n/a. and since i’m not such a fan of champagne generally, i opted for a glass of sauvignon blanc (from sancerre) off the sparse ‘by the glass’ menu. i was a bit surprised when i’d turned my head for a moment and then turned back realizing both our glasses had been fully poured without a taste first (i’m not fussy, but i mean, this is GuySavoy, right?) but then i remembered the poor girl had to leave her post at the hostess stand for this and was perhaps unaccustomed to serving wine at all. well, it ended up being unfortunate, cuz the wine had turned already. i felt a prick of compunction at returning two full glasses of wine, so i asked for a sommelier to come and confirm the wine had indeed gone bad. the hostess was very nice and replaced the glasses immediately, but it did make me curious… no sommelier at Guy Savoy? or is the Bubble Bar simply unworthy?

Please rate the Dining Room:
not my style. at all. which is why i opted for Bubble Bar in the first place.
as a person who’s spent 20+ years within the industry and currently dines out nearly every night of my life, a subdued grandiloquent four hour dining experience is nothing short of sheer torture for me. but i’d heard such good things about GuySavoy, i figured it might be travesty to leave las vegas without at least a sampling.
sigh…

Please rate the BOH:
like i need the fucking hate mail from hysterical foodies, right? puhleese, spare me that much.
alls i’m a say is: personally, i wish i’d gone back to Sage instead.

How was the staff?
she was a perfectly proficient hostess/bartender/waitress, but maybe just a wee icy. but it was rather amusing how the back waiters from the dining room who occasionally came to fetch the table accoutrements (all the fancy salt and pepper ramekins for the tables are stored behind the bar, bottom shelf, below the row of cognacs) seemed rather unnerved by our presence.

What did you eat?/ How was the food?
the oysters in ice gelée, the "mosaic" of poularde, foie gras, and black truffle, and beef tartare with little potato croquettes. yessss, i realize these are hardly the world renowned signature "colors of caviar" or whatever the hells (bad me. bad me.) but umm— foie gras and tartare— these just happen to be the same things i ate last night at Sage. and yah, Sage was better. so maybe if i hadn’t dined there the prior evening, i would have enjoyed GuySavoy more? i’m not sure, quite frankly.

What did you like?
that now i get to say i’ve been here.

What did you dislike?
overall, i can’t exactly say it was an enjoyable experience. although it was interesting…

What was your last impression?
i’m rather glad i didn’t opt for the full dinner. (and the professional in me can only conclude the Bubble Bar, as ill-conceived and ill-managed as it is, could very well be the bane of their endeavors.)

Would you come back?
i’m afraid not, but thank you.

Thank you, and hope to see you soon!
well that’s sweet of you to say. good night.

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.