In your honor, I’ve told all the mexicans in california to get drunk, drive around with the Mexican flag on their car, and shoot pistols in the air!

8:00pm  It was a tough last day in vegas.  After lunch at Mesa I headed to the Wynn.  And the Wynn pretty much totally pwned me.

But it was not that simple.  After going down by $800, I made it all the way back to the point I was up by $400 - sitting pretty with two five hundred dollar stacks of green in front of me with four hundred dollar chips piled nearby.  I should have left then, happy with not only making up my losses but posting a nice profit as well.  But I got greedy.  I mean, hell, it’s vegas.

So I kept playing - and by the time it was time to leave all my chips were gone, plus another $100, for a total $1100 loss.  When I started, the table minimum was at $25.  By the time I left, about 6 hours later, it had gone all the way up to $100.  Not that I had to bet that much actually, since I was grandfathered in.  But my bets kept on growing as I slowly lost everything.

The Wynn, by the way, is amazing.  The amount of money changing hands there is insane.  At one point, some guy came to our table, asked for $10k in $1k and $500 chips, and placed $5k on his first hand.  I’m not exactly sure how it works, but if you’re a high roller over there you get a line of credit - and boy did this guy have a line of credit.  I mean, I was right in front of this guy and it made me nervous - who wants to take the card of a guy playing with three month of rent in front of him.

After the Wynn I left to Caesars to pick up my bag that I left with the bellhop.  By that time, I was again completely drunk and in ‘make back’ mode.  That’s dumb in vegas.  It’s a marathon, not a race, I supposed.  It’s really hard to make back your money quickly.

At the Caesar’s blackjack table I put down $500 and played the lowest table they had - $100 a hand.  I lasted like 10 minutes.

Before I left, I went to the roulette table, and, in a desperate last attempt to break even, put $100 on my lucky number, 19 red.  And I swear to god that little ball landed right next to 19.  What a heartbreaker.  So I tried one last time, and of course lost.

Final tally?  Down at least $2,500.

Good times.

But me and vegas, we’re ok.  She tells me she loves me, so I will keep coming back.

1:32am  Back at home finally.  It’s good to be back home and relax.  I need sleep.  I need to chill a bit.  I looked at myself in the mirror and I look ten years older - eyes bloodshot, bags under my eyes, hair a mess.  Jesus.

It’s funny - for me I think vegas is as close to a religious experience I will ever have.  Seeing vegas emerge from the desert, just a huge spot of light in total darkness, for me that’s like how some people feel when they see the virgin mary on a piece of toast, I think.

It’s a constant sensory overload - lights everywhere, tens of thousands of dollars just sitting two feet in front of you, loud ringing from the slots, plus the occasional cheers and gasps…and smoke filled air.  I mean, it’s great.  What else can you say?  How can you sleep?

After leaving vegas I always think of moving there.  But that would ruin it, for sure.  I mean, locals there don’t play the casinos - at least the big ones - so that would be a bummer.  And the point of vegas itself is entering what seems to be a whole new country - after just an hour-long flight.

Plus, my body couldn’t take it.  I’ve smoked and drank constantly for the past two days, starting and noon and ending in the early morning.  My lungs are sore and I have a perpetual taste of cigarettes in my mouth.

That pic above - kind of not related to anything, but I took it when I was walking from caesars to the Wynn.  It’s a new tower that’s going up next to the Venetian.  It’s part of the Venetian hotel I believe, but it will have a different name.

In general, the construction in vegas is amazing.  For the last decade I’ve been going there it’s always more and more - and you think that eventually they’d run out of space, but now the strip is expanding downwards, older casinos are being demolished, and new towers are being added on to existing casinos left and right.

I actually heard from a cabbie that the imperial palace will be demolished soon.  I don’t know if that’s true, but it makes sense.  Why have $50 a nite rooms on the strip, across from Caesars, when you can charge five times as much for a new glitzy hotel.

Another trend in vegas is these night clubs.  If ten years ago the big deal was making vegas a ‘family’ city, with amusement parks and stuff, now the focus is on turning vegas into a big night club.  Nearly every hotel on the strip now has one, if not several prominent clubs with fancy decorations and big, prominent banners.  Lots of these clubs are open air as well, which is actually pretty cool - especially this time of year when it’s not too hot, not too cold.

Anyway, that’s that.  God that was fun.  I thought more than once about extending my stay for the weekend.  But I don’t think I could have sustained myself much longer - I know my bankroll wouldn’t have lasted.

Now it’s time for some sleep in a nice comfy, familiar bed.

11:43am  I’m at Bobby Flay’s Mesa grill now.  The place is pretty empty for lunch, although dinner last night was booked solid.  I started with an odd combination of drinks - coffee and a bloody mary.

As for food, I did two appetizers, a grouper ceviche, and tuna nachos.  For my entree, I got chicken tacos.  Seems like a lot of food, but I wanted to get some variety.

11:58am  Just finished my appetizers.  The tuna nachos were decent.  The tuna looked good, with a nice deep red color.  The fish was cubed, and unlike sushi places that use the scraps for cubed tuna, Mesa uses prime cuts.

12:19pm  Just finished my meal and the bill, including tip came out to $87!  I’m sorry, but this is ridiculous - I don’t care who’s restaurant it is, and even if it’s in Vegas this was a rip for the amount of food I got.  AND, the portions were so tiny, I had 3 dishes and I was still pretty hungry afterwards.

Anyway,  as for the food.  The tuna nachos were served on what I would describe as a runny guacamole, and a slightly sweet vinaigrette.  Both were so mild that they didn’t add much flavor to the tuna.  The dish was also drizzled with a chili oil that added a bit of spice.  Overall, good concept but overwhelmingly average in implementation.

I am a big ceviche fan.  I like the tangy citrus flavor mixed with fresh herbs like cilantro and some onions.  But Flay’s ceviche was quite disappointing.

First of all, I swear the lime they use was that ‘real lime’ stuff you see in bottles in the supermarket.  I mean, fresh lime has a very distinctive flavor, and this ceviche did not taste like it had fresh lime.

The grouper was also disappointing.  The pieces of fish were small, chewy and a bit fishy.  In my opinion, a good ceviche has little cubes of fish that are tender - almost flaky - with the fishiness ‘cooked’ off from the lime marinade.

The ceviche also had what I think was just one shrimp, cut up.  It was cooked OK, but didn’t really add much to the dish at all.  BTW, in the picture you can see these large fried banana slices that were served with the dish.  These were not sweet, actually more salty.

My chicken tacos were good, but again, not remarkable.  The chicken was cooked on skewers - nicely grilled so enough carbon forms to produce the authentic taco stand, fresh off the grill taste.  They came with cilantro, grilled onions, and interestingly mint.  There was also a sauce which can be best described as sweet and sour.

This was a make-it-yourself dish, and, i mean, it was decent.  The mint turned out to be a good addition, that I otherwise would not have considering including with a taco, but it produced a light, fresh and cool like of taste that worked well.

BTW, after my bloody mary I got a house margarita.  Not bad, but for $10 I don’t really know if it was worth it, especially because the drink itself was very small.

Now for the ratings:

Food:  B-  It was average, very very average.  This was disappointing, because you imagine these dishes being designed by flay…and I was not impressed.  The lime flavor in the ceviche was very suspicious - I mean, I can’t really think of any reason why they would use bottled, rather than fresh limes - but I’m almost certain they did.

The tuna was okay, but really lacked any sort of unique flavor.  Except for the nachos, you could expect to see this same time of tuna/sauce combination at a korean sushi restaurant.

Chicken tacos - OK - nice touch with the mint, the sauce was ok, chicken well cooked.  But nothing spectacular.

Service:  B+  Very attentive service, actually bordering on the ’stop bothering me’ level.  My waitress was very knowledgeable, but when I asked questions she seemed to revert to her knowledge of the menu, just reciting ingredients and cooking styles.  For example, when I asked her if my 3 dishes were too much food, she started telling me about the ingredients in the taco dish.  She should have said, go to the coffee shop and fill up with a burger first, because you’re not going to leave full here.

Ambience:  A-  It’s a nice place - odd though because it faces the Caesar’s sports bar.  This is actually pretty cool, because you can watch sports during your meal if you like.  But all in all, the place is very well done, from the hardwood floors, bright color combinations, and red leather chairs.

Selection:  C  But it doesn’t really matter at a place like this.

Overall:  B-  All in all, I was not impressed by Flay’s place.  Ambience aside, there was nothing spectacular, nothing befitting a ‘celebrity chef.’  Serving tuna with nachos is not inventive.  Nor is an undersized ceviche with, what tasted like off the shelf ingredients.  And the price - I don’t even know how my bill got that high - actually I do know, it was the two overpriced undersized drinks.  I mean, sure, it’s a nice restaurant in vegas, so it’s hard to be a cheapo and complain.  But in terms of value, it just wasn’t there.  I don’t mind paying a bit more for good food, but not for a meal that I could have gotten at any basic mexican restaurant for a quarter of the price.