Venetian SHUT OUT on Michelin Stars

NOTE: MICHELIN GUIDE DIRECTOR JEAN-LUC NARET JOINS US LIVE ON TUESDAY@ 7:15 pm PT ON "THE STRIP" TO DISCUSS.

As I predicted, Michelin completely snubbed the Venetian in terms of handing out stars in its first-ever Las Vegas dining guide. The guide was supposed to hit today at noon, but the evidently leaked it on their website by accident and then went all the way with a press release.

The guide includes 127 restaurants in Vegas and just 16 of which received any stars. Still, that's a lot more than I thought they'd give out.

The big winner was not a surprise: Joel Robuchon (MGM Grand) got three stars, the highest rating. Alex (Wynn), Guy Savoy (Caesars) and Picasso (Bellagio) landed two stars, all excellent choices. You can go back and hear "The Strip" podcast's interview with Robuchon from earlier this year by clicking here or right-clicking here.

One-starrers were: Alize (Palms), Andre's (downtown), Aureole (Mandalay Bay), Bradley Ogden (Caesars), DB Brasserie (Wynn), L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon (MGM), Le Cirque (Bellagio), Mesa Grill (Caesars), Michael Mina (Bellagio), Mix (Mandalay Bay), Nobu (Hard Rock) and Wing Lei (Wynn.)

Steve Wynn, 4. Adelson, 0. (I'm giving Wynn credit for Picasso, too, since he created the place. Not giving Wynn credit for Le Cirque as it was an established NYC institution.)

Anyhow, Adelson's gotta feel the pain there. Adelson gets Thomas Keller, Wolfgang Puck and Mario Batali and can't buy a star. Painful. But equally painful for Wynn might be that Bartalotta di Mare got shut out. That's interesting because it was Paul Bartalotta and not Alessandra Stratta who was nominated for a James Beard Award the year the hotel opened.

A few thoughts:

* They were awful generous with the one-stars and yet left off some really amazing places including Craftsteak and Nob Hill (both MGM Grand), Charlie Palmer Steak (Four Seasons), Tableau (Wynn) and Hugo's Cellar (Four Queens).
* We've eaten at Alize at least three times and always found it below average for the price.
* Bradley Ogden and L'Atelier are in the "don't go" section of "Gay Vegas." Miles has famously referred to the decor of L'Atelier as having "the look of an upscale Chilis" and we were so disappointed we left it out of Conde Nast Traveler's Hot List that year.
* We're fans of Mix and Mesa Grill, but I can't say it meets the level of technical excellence I believed the Michelin stars required.

A couple of other interesting details: They only checked out 13 restaurants that would cost $25 or less per person. That gives quite a bit of insight. By contrast, for their first-ever Los Angeles guide, which also is out this week, they reviewed 263 restaurants and gave out just 18 star-ratings -- and not a single three-starrer.

Wow. Vegas food has really, really arrived.

Inside the FRONTIER Implosion, Part II

OK - I crawled all over the Frontier today and will post more pix probably Monday morning. In the meantime, though, I also just posted a special BONUS edition of "The Strip" in which implosion dude Mark Loizeaux explains in depth the details of how this implosion will work, what's next in Vegas -- the Island Tower at the Trop, in January or February! -- and what sort of $$$ is in the implosion biz. He also notes that the Elad Group, owners of the site and future Plaza Hotel, are having the implosion piped via closed circuit TV to their investors in Israel. At least they get to watch at a less ungodly hour, huh?

Hear that chat here or right-click here to download the conversation and hear it whenever you wish.

I've got a piece on the Loizeaux family running in the New York Times on Monday that you can read here. Plus, we'll be on site early Tues to do some video.

Inside the FRONTIER Implosion, Part I

Today I got to walk around the New Frontier site and interview the owners of Controlled Demolition Inc., the Loizeauxes. This is the Baltimore family behind every implosion on the Strip since the Dunes. I'm working on a feature on them for a major national paper to run Monday in advance of the implosion early Tuesday. The sun was setting fast when I was done with my interviews, so I'm going back Sunday to shoot some inside pix. And yes, I grabbed some trinkets for keepsakes -- some pieces of glass, some old ticket-in tickets and the Associate Handbook pictured below from the floor of the vacant space.

I'm obviously very proud of the above image and its cool Wynn reflection. Below are more shots, including one of the Loizeaux family threading dynamite to stuff into pillars in the building. One surprise is how intact so much of the building is -- why didn't they take down the Frontier lettering and auction it off or give it to the Neon Museum? And the pool area still has all its grown palm trees; I would think there would be a market for those, too.

Loizeaux explained that the contractor on this job is not the same as the Stardust's and does not have the same eco-friendly approach. There are tax breaks and other perks to stripping buildings of their wood and carpet and such and recycling most of the building materials. Not this crowd. Oh well. Enjoy the pix and, if other sites or bloggers want to use them, go for it but give us credit.

Product Placement in the OJ World

Here's the top of a fun entry I've penned today for The New York Times' blog, The Lede:

Product Placement at the O.J. Simpson Trial

LAS VEGAS — Move over, Bruno Magli — the preliminary hearing of O.J. Simpson is just a day old and already there’s been more product placement references than an episode of “Mad Men.”

Of course, the setting itself, Las Vegas, is nothing less than the pop culture zeitgeist, and references to the trendy Palms, where Mr. Simpson is staying, and the Palace Station, where the football star and his group confronted a pair of memorabilia dealers, have been rife since the Sept. 13 incident.

But now that Mr. Simpson and two co-defendants are in court to determine whether they will be tried on armed robbery and kidnapping charges for bursting into the room and leaving with a trove of memorabilia, memories of how Bruno Magli shot to fame when the treads of the expensive Italian shoes owned by Simpson were pondered at his 1995 trial for the murders of his ex-wife and her friend. Mr. Simpson was acquitted.

This round’s Bruno Magli may turn out to be the Sprint Katana cell phone. Memorabilia dealer Bruce L. Fromong, who said Mr. Simpson stole $100,000 in merchandise in the raid, complained loudly on Thursday that Mr. Simpson also snatched away the $280 phone that Mr. Fromong had just bought earlier that evening.

Read the rest here.

Since that piece went up, a few more products have come up, including the Essex House in NYC and Radio Shack. Fun!

In addition to that offbeat little thing, we've also posted this more formal Day Two report.

This thing is supposed to resume Tuesday and could last to Wednesday, too. All the other journalists are moaning. I'm happy for the paydays.

OJ v Goulet

I'm sitting here in the courtroom wading through the second day of the OJ probable cause extravaganza, as you can see. That's me with my hearing assistive headphones on. Not very stylish, but they really work. They also make my earlobes ache after a few hours. My butt, too, is miserable thanks to these hard-as-boulders benches. I just asked OJ Simpson's sister how this courtroom rates versus the other courtrooms her brother's antics have made her sit in and she said this is the most uncomfortable. Nice job, Vegas.

That said, the Wi-Fi and extra power strips are very hospitable to my ilk. And so I'm checking my email constantly and I get this press release from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority:

Dear Las Vegas Media Partners:

I have just learned, as you may also have already heard, that there is scheduled to be a Metro-led motorcade with Mr. Goulet's hearse traveling south-to-north on the Strip following the 1 p.m. funeral service at Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer. This motorcade is ESTIMATED to begin sometime between 2:30 and 3 p.m., although it is impossible to know this for a fact as there are a number of eulogies slated to take place during the service.

This is merely an FYI...

And at first, I thought to myself, "How trivial!" Then I realized, I'm spending as many as four days of my life on this OJ hearing and untold thousands of dollars are being spent by the international media. So I guess Goulet's motorcade down the Strip isn't so silly, huh?

NYT on OJ, Day One

OK - here's my day one report for the New York Times. There might be an updated one later as testimony continues right now, but I've gotta go to UNLV now. See some of you there!

here we go...

Alrighty... we're seated in the third row, a space away from Marcia Clark, Thomas Roberts and the AP's legendary Linda Deutsch. It's quite a bench. OJ is here, looking cocky. And I've got the hearing-assistive headset on, which is enabling me to hear every bit of chatter of the lawyers and such up front. Sadly, they're not saying anything of interest, but one can only hope...