Back On The Road Again

Back on the road again.  It's fairly obvious that post-Covid travel is changed a lot.  The first thing you notice is the crowds.  Having just spent a month visiting the Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Europe which included Britain and Croatia I was amazed by the number of people traveling.  Every flight was full and there were masses of people at every Gate, restaurant, and security line.  Because of the crowds, it is obvious that you have to get to the airport at least an hour or two earlier than in the past.  Compounding the increase in crowds is the decrease in staff.  Everyone is short-staffed. They are trying to improve but the way they're improving is by hiring completely inexperienced young untrained staff and training them on the job in the middle of the battle and it only adds to the problem and confusion and is not really helping. But on the other hand, what are you going to do?  At least in Europe compounding the crowd issue is the increased utilization of discount Airlines such as EasyJet.  EasyJet provides inexpensive no-frills tickets for traveling and it seems that everyone was taking advantage of cheap tickets.  One of the new requirements that created issues for us was everyone wants you to check-in online 24 hours in advance and if you haven't checked in online then it slows down your process of getting through the lines. This applied to restaurants, especially hotels, and Airlines.  Of Interest, I read an article, and I don't know if it's true, but in Belgium, if you show up at the airport without checking in online they fine you €65.  One hotel canceled our reservation on the day of arrival because we did not check-in online. Another area that shows change is the use of QR code scans in most places.  Airport lounges and restaurants asked you to use a QR Scanner to pull up information, menus, etc and this was across the industry and pretty much everywhere.  Airport lounges have become much more critical to improving your comfort on a trip.  I recommend you either get a credit card that allows for Lounge access or if necessary purchase Lounge access.  Even then the lounges that we visited had overcrowding with no staff and a lack of amenities in some cases. One recommendation I can make at this point is to avoid British Air and especially Gatwick Airport.  I always thought British Airways was a premium airline with some of the best business class amenities. Having flown them 4 times this month the price was twice the price and as far as I'm concerned the amenities were half the competitors.  Gatwick Airport is one of the worst airports I've experienced in terms of transfers and changing plans and making flights.  Both times we went through Gatwick it took over 2 hours just to check in and go through security and almost missed connecting flights.  British friends that we spoke with confirmed that instead most Brits try to avoid Gatwick and fly out of Heathrow.  The main reason Gatwick is so busy is that it seems to be the primary airport in Europe for EasyJet.  Buyer beware!

News Flash just announced Gatwick Airport has requested all airlines to reduce the number of arrivals as they have no staff to meet the need, on the news wire this morning!!  Go figure!!

Wine Travel with Covid, Or Not!

So we are all bummed out right now as we felt compelled to cancel our upcoming trip to France to attend the Tastevin St. Vincents festival in Puligny Montrachet.  Despite having boosters after speaking and emailing plenty of friends and associates in France this is what we learned.  In order to enter France, you have to have some kind of negative Covid test no later than 24 hours before entry at the airport.  The problem is that gives you no wiggle room for delays or other issues that might delay your flight, not to mention dependent on your time schedule and flight schedule it might be near too impossible to meet that requirement.  After Customs and Immigration let you enter you then have to obtain a French Health Pass which requires another negative Covid test within 24 hours, your passport, and original vaccination cards.  The problem there is you can only obtain it at certain pharmacies and we were told as of today, just like the USA, it is impossible to get tests done and there are lines down the block at most pharmacies to get the tests done.  So it could be days or weeks before we could obtain the said pass.  We were told today that weeks ago museums, restaurants, etc. would accept your vaccination card but no more.  The French Government is now enforcing the law to the letter and levying heavy fines for anyone who they catch breaking the rules.  In addition, anything public including metro's, train's, supermarkets, you have to have the pass.  Murphy's law always applies to us so no question we got over there and would end up spending the next two weeks in a hotel despite being fully vaccinated and with that in mind we felt compelled to cancel.  So far everyone has refunded any advanced funds except the airlines which only offer a credit good for one year.  Bummer.  And to add insult to injury, Ireland announced today that they were lifting testing restrictions, and with only your vaccination cards you can come on over and go where you wish!  A complete 180-degree change from the Continent.  The problem with that is there are no Irish wines we want to buy right now.  So Covid continues to be a problem.  I wonder how much business France will lose because of this at the same time I understand the need to protect the public.  It is too simple and would take years to put in place but why not have a testing area on arrival at the airport that could do your test check your passport and vaccination cards and issue the health pass before you left the airport?  Too easy probably.  And if you think all of this is a problem be aware that before the end of the year the EU is instituting a new requirement to have a visa prior to entering that you will have to obtain online that from what I can tell is a security pass and similar to the USA Global Entry card that of course will require payment of a fee and good news is at least good for 3 years.  It won't change the length of time you can stay, which is 3 months, but you won't be able to enter without it.

It's Vegas Baby!

Due to some medical appointments, I was unable to get a week or two of blogs out but I am back in the saddle so to speak and can report on a recent Las Vegas culinary and wine trip with recommendations on places to go in Vegas. I have been going to Las Vegas for years, my last trip was in 2016. In each and every trip the amount of building and expansion of Las Vegas has been epic and nonstop. I remember going a few years ago and the hype then was wow Aria is getting ready to open and it is the first billion-dollar casino, shopping, dining destination every built. Well, surprise last week I saw two or three more "new" billion" dollar complexes being built. It is just an orgy of building going on right now. Every celebrity chef in the world has multiple restaurant venues to visit now. The possibilities seem endless. I was only there for 4 nights so I really did not get to see much new as the main purpose of the trip was to eat at Picasso's at the Bellagio. In my opinion, Picasso's should be on your bucket list. If you don't order expensive wine and stick to the basic Prie fixe menu's the cost is more than reasonable, less than $150 a person. Surrounded by millions of dollars of original Picasso artwork you simply cannot beat the atmosphere. Julian Serrano, a great friend, has been the head chef since opening. He was recruited out of Masa's in San Francisco where he started as the sous chef then being promoted to head chef of Masa's after the original chef, Masa was killed. I met Julian and his Maitre D' Ryan Worell at Masa's in the late 1980s. Julian has always had an original unique cuisine with a Spanish flair. In 30 years of having dinner at both places, Julian has been in the kitchen cooking and supervising each and every time. I often ask him when does he take time off. This trip he came out to greet us before dinner, still in the kitchen. Julian is passionate about gourmet cuisine and you will not find a better meal in the world. We had many of his specialties which include lobster, Foie Gras, scallops, and fallow deer. All meals are prepared to perfection and the presentation is a work of art. For our dinner this trip Julian had fresh shaved White Truffles we added to a dish or two. We brought our own wine and the wine highlight of the evening was 1990 Chateau D'Yquem Sauternes served with the Foie Gras as well as dessert. Do yourself a favor and get to Picasso's once in your lifetime. He also has a second-place at Bellagio Lago's that our friends highly recommend and he has a tapas place at Aria called "Julian Seranno's" that I have eaten at and can recommend highly. 

We also got to have dinner at Jose Andre's new place "Bazaar Meats" at the Sahara Casino on the strip. It was ok, and the concept is interesting but it was not a great meal that maybe we had expected. The restaurant is large and in the center is a huge fire pit where they cook the meats on a grill. Meats and seafood are displayed very nicely and will wet your whistle so to speak. The menu is extensive and sort of reminded me of Bern's Steakhouse in Tampa's menu. There are many choices of meats to choose from including Japanese Kobe. The appetizer list is also extensive and you can get lost in it. We never figured it out but our server was a little beyond "pushy" trying to get us to order multiple appetizers before the entree's which we did not want to do. He must get a commission on appetizers. He was also sort of rude. He told us well if you just order entrees you are going to have to wait at least 45 minutes for your food as we take a long time getting entrees out? What does that have to do with anything? In any event, we ordered one appetizer then our entree and then dessert and the entree's came out in about 25 minutes, not 45. The food was prepared as ordered and the meats were very tender, you could cut them with a fork. I would go back at least one more time. It was a fun place and it is definitely a place for meat lovers but service could probably be improved. 

My next recommendation is the Bacchanalia Buffet at Caesar's Palace. I can hear it now, you are kidding me? right? yanking my chain? a buffet???? Well, yes I am recommending a buffet. Years ago we had breakfast at the buffet at Caesars and were impressed. Years ago we had fresh prepared eggs Benedict and thought what great food. So travelzoo.com had a coupon for both breakfast and dinner there so we bought a couple of coupons and went. All I can tell you is WOW. Number one there are somewhere in the vicinity of 500 items on Caesar's buffet. Most regions of the world are represented, Japan, Mexico, France, etc. My major surprise was they had fresh stone crab for breakfast! I would never consider having a stone crab for breakfast. Multiple egg courses and preparations, the same eggs Benedict as before all prepared fresh and wonderful. There was only one problem, we had so much wonderful food for breakfast we did not need to eat the rest of the day. We ended up giving away our dinner coupons as we just were not hungry. I suspect if you were to go a little later and just have lunch it would fill you up all day. I must emphasize the food was freshly prepared and cooked in my opinion perfectly, another reason to recommend it. We didn't go anywhere else this trip but on past trips, we have also enjoyed the buffet at Paris Casino. 

It is important to be clear that Las Vegas is a fantasy and adult playground and cannot be duplicated elsewhere. One reason there are so many superior places and chefs to visit is the restaurants and kitchens can only be replicated in Vegas. Year ago Herbert Keller gave us a kitchen tour at Mandalay Bay and told us the casino paid close to $20 million to build just the kitchen. Think of what chefs can do with a $20 million kitchen. But outside of Vegas no one can afford that kind of kitchen and turn a profit and stay in business. So you go to Vegas to take advantage of the outstanding food there as you won't get it back home. The truth is the gamblers subsidize the restaurants and pay for your meals.

We stayed at the Platinum Hotel & Spa that we also highly recommend directly behind Bally's.  We had a one-bedroom condo around 900 square feet lots of room, clean and comfortable and had breakfast one morning in their restaurant on the 5th floor that was wonderful and well prepared with great service.  It is a 15-minute walk to the strip or a 5 minute Uber ride.