But that’s not all there is to the club. Head through the back door and you’ll find an outdoor annex, complete with its own bar, lounge chairs, VIP cabanas, more music, and even it’s own pool. It’s a stunning area and a perfect place to catch your breath in between partying stints inside.

The primary reason I like the place are the relatively reasonable prices (cover charge is $20 but drinks are a bit cheaper than what you’ll find on The Strip) and the less attitudinal staff and clientele. Since the club is located on the far west side of town, you have a lot more locals here and although they can party just as hard as the visitors on The Strip, they seem to have a more genial attitude about the whole thing.

Much like Drop Bar at Green Valley, Lucky Bar takes the concept of casino lounge and makes it hip and modern with a low-slung, moody atmosphere (lots of leather and velvet couches, tons of crystal chandeliers) and an anything-can-happen vibe. Daytimes are fairly sedate but at night the place comes alive with a mostly local, mostly young, mostly male crowd grooving to the bass-pounding beats despite the lack of a formal dance floor.

It’s a fun place but since it’s small and partially open to the casino you’ll have to be seriously entertained by the company you keep and not afraid of people watching you have a good time.

The club is done by the same people who do Light at Bellagio and the pedigree shows. Although certainly a party spot, Jet doesn’t give off the kind of desperate, “I just want to get drunk and find people to take back to my room” vibe that some other nightclubs do. It’s more adult and sophisticated but still fun the way a dance place should be.

The room is divided into three sections with three distinct vibes. One of the rooms features house music in an ultra-lounge style environment while a second room is heavy on the hip-hop beats in a similar atmosphere. The main room, with its big dance floor, multiple bars, plenty of VIP booths, and great lighting and sound system is more mainstream, playing pop, hip-hop, dance, and more from all eras.

As with most clubs its expensive ($30 for guys, $20 for women at the door plus high drink prices) but if you’re going to spend that kind of money this is a place I could actually recommend you doing it.

Shows are scheduled Sunday – Thursday at 7 p.m., Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at 9:30 p.m., and Sunday at 4 p.m. Tickets are $41 and $29, 800-557-7428 or 702-262-4400.

What a surprise, more like shock, when this reporter had the opportunity as an invited guest to experience The Café at Monte Carlo, which has been completely remodeled. The 320-seat eatery, which had a coffee shop appearance, was closed on July 17 and reopened on Aug. 18 with a new sophisticated and dramatic look and menu. The new interior with rich woods and faux-mink-like tables took six months to design and the outcome can compete in the gourmet-dining arena.

The Café is open 24 hours everyday and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner at reasonable prices. My privileged group got to try many dishes including our starters… chicken fingers, spicy Thai honey chicken wings, shrimp cocktail, tandori beef skewers, and chili verde, followed by individual main dishes and three desserts. Every food dish was impeccably prepared and worth ordering. This restaurant is excellent.

The 9th Annual CineVegas Film Festival will return to the Palms and Brenden Theatres June 8-16, 2007. Dennis Hopper will continue to serve as Chairman of the Creative Advisory Board in 2007. He has been dedicated to growing the national presence of CineVegas since he was honored in 2003 with the Marquee Award for his lifetime achievements in the film industry.

Submissions for the 2007 festival will be accepted from Dec. 15, 2006 to March 15, 2007. For information, call 1-888-8VEGAS8.

CineVegas features world film premieres, honorees celebrities and holds panel discussions with renowned filmmakers, writers and talent. At night, the festival hosts nine nights of parties.

Not only is Johnathan one of Comedy Central’s top five most downloaded performers on iTunes, he is also a veteran of three previous highly acclaimed appearances with the network.

The Signature at MGM Grand is comprised of three 576-suite adjacent towers, each with luxurious junior, one-and two-bedroom suites ranging in size from 550 to 1,500 square feet and only 16 units per floor. Tower 1 made its debut this past June. Tower 2 will open in November and Tower 3 next May. The Signature is entirely private even though it is connected to the MGM Grand and all that the mega-resort has to offer.

Each custom-furnished suite features a deluxe king-size bed with 300-thread count, Egyptian cotton Anichini sheets and a plush down comforter. Marble and granite bathrooms offer dual-sink vanities and Jacuzzi-brand whirlpool tubs. Top-of-the-line appliances are located in each kitchen or kitchenette. The state-of-the-art technology includes high-definition, flat-screen televisions; high-speed wireless Internet service; DVD/CD players; and iHome clock radios for iPods. Most suites have balconies.

Hotel amenities include private, heated outdoor pools and cabanas, Lobby Lounge, retail shopping, fitness centers, Starbucks’ coffee shop and a delicatessen. There’s a Business Center, Executive Board Rooms, and flexible meeting space for small groups.

The flawless guest service really sets the place apart and makes it upper class. There’s 24-hour concierge service and in-suite dining.

The world’s finest and most complete original Wurlitzer jukebox collection is for sale for $250,000 at The Auto Collections at the Imperial Palace. The 24 antique machines are housed in a variety of ornate wood cabinets, play either 45s or 78s or both and work on 110 volts. They range in vintage from a 1934 countertop model 51 with stand to a 1948 model 1100 Chapel.

The Wurlitzers include several extremely rare machines including a 1939 model 500A; a 1941 model 850 Peacock upon which only 1,530 records have been played; a 1941 model 850A Tulip; a 1946 model 1015 Ambassador; a 1946 model 1015 Bubbler, the most popular jukebox ever built; and a 1947 model 1080 Harpe.

An additional 26 jukeboxes, including Seeburgs, Rock-Olas, Packards and AMIs, will be sold individually, with prices ranging between $10,000 and $20,000. Among these vintage pieces is a 1939 Mills Express previously owned by the late actor Steve McQueen.

The jukeboxes are nestled among the classic cars at The Auto Collections because they belong to an avid car collector in Switzerland who has spent the past 20 years gathering each piece for his set.

This includes service kitchens for the restaurants, lake pump equipment, soda and liquor distribution, uniform cleaning and control, security, IT and much, much more.

I even saw the room where they put the bad people before Metro grabs ‘em!

All that plus the VIP elevators and villa areas (sadly not the villas themselves) and other guest areas.

I left with am impression that Bellagio is a one of a kind masterpiece. If you want to read this very long entry, continue on after the jump.

Touring Bellagio’s back of house areas was easily one of the most interesting things I’ve done in as long as I can remember. When you’re on the casino floor it is difficult to realize just how massive the underground area really is – it’s bigger than the casino itself. We took the doors near the pool area and headed down.

Access to most of the facilities is through this central passage where a very long ramp heads down into the basement. The colors and designs are just like the casino itself – this area could easily pass as a convention area or something similar. Everything is very well done and nicely put together. There are overhead televisions running MGM MIRAGE TV, a loop of information for company employees running through details about important dates, department info, etc…

The employee entrance from Frank Sinatra is on one far end and then the passage heads all the way to the front of the property, ending where the lake would begin. That’s quite a lot of ground to cover and I can easily see getting lost. Many folks have seen the remake of Ocean’s 11 which features some scenes of a supposed Bellagio. Well, the ‘vault’ scenes are clearly ludicrous but some of the other scenes of them walking through pale yellow hallways are very close.

On this main passage you see many departments like payroll, HR, etc… Many appear as offices on either side of the hall. Some other departments open up into large rooms such as uniform control, where folks go to get their uniforms cleaned. This area looks like a huge dry cleaning outfit with everything mechanized, etc…

The employee dining room is called ‘Mangia’ and it looks a lot like the buffet upstairs. Supposedly the food is excellent and it is all free for employees. I didn’t try it but the food certainly looked good and pretty fresh. Certainly one of the best employee dining rooms I’ve seen in any business. From what I am told, Steve Wynn used to eat at the employee dining room on a regular basis when he was a Mirage Resorts executive.

We also passed the satellite cage, right below the main cage. Nothing like the vault in Ocean’s but still looking fairly secure.

Looking at all of the posters, papers and announcements on the walls, it is clear that the excellent service at Bellagio is no accident. Employees are constantly reminded how to provide an excellent guest experience.

Some longer time Vegas aficionados may remember the North Valet at Bellagio. Closed after 9/11 due to terror concerns, this underground garage is now used exclusively for valet parking. Apparently Bellagio has valet parking for every room in the building – a major number for such a large complex.

When asking about other back-of-house areas, I’m told that Bellagio is by far the nicest, even better than Wynn Las Vegas. The Mirage and Treasure Island are supposedly fairly unimpressive in that department where WLV hasn’t painted the walls, sticking with concrete colors. The walls under Bellagio are finished just as they are upstairs – pretty impressive.

Jumping in a service elevator, we took a look at some other guest areas.

First stop was the villa floor, just above the casino. In case you’re wondering, no, we didn’t go into any of the villas. Still, it was clear from the hallways that this is a swanky part of time. The walls are finished in fine fabrics and very subdued colors. I wanted to get a picture in front of ‘Villa 1′ but I didn’t have my camera. To get an idea, there are 150 rooms on a normal Bellagio floor. There are 14 villas and related rooms on this floor. These things are BIG. One detail I thought interesting – Bellagio is monograming the pillows in the villas.

The villas are usually accessed via private elevator from the VIP Services area just off the lobby. These also send guests to the 36th floor Penthouses. What I thought was funny was that the main guest elevators also stopped at the villas – I’m told that this route is rarely used. The VIP elevators are also quite done up, much nicer than the standard elevators.

From the 3rd floor we went up to 36. Like Treasure Island, this floor has extra high ceilings. While many of the suites haven’t been redone yet, the hallways have been. Suite renovation is planned but has not yet started.

From what I have been told, things have tightened up a good bit more since Bill McBeath is on board. After Wynn left, service got a bit lax but now things are supposedly back on track.

As we continued on our tour there were some other interesting areas we came across.

Besides passing rooms full of lake pump equipment, we also saw a room dedicated to pumping liquor out to all the bars in the building. This room was amazing! Bottles and bottles of top flight liquor, all attached to pump equipment. You’d hear the air push every couple of seconds, each time a shot left the building. The spot next door did the same thing for soda but the liquor was the interesting part.

The Bellagio security room is unmarked but interestingly enough, if you stand in front of it, they open the door to ask you what you want. True enough, we paused in front of the door for a second and then as we continued down the hall, I heard the door open and then close.

Beyond that there was also a huge amount of IT and telecom gear in classic data center looking rooms. Some of the server racks even had Bellagio logo stickers. Neat.

The tour continued for the better part of 90 minutes and included the Spa Tower guest rooms and the spa itself – that thing is very, very nice.

One of the last stops was a glimpse of the room where they hold folks before Metro can come and pick them up – a stark room with handcuffs attached to the chair. Not a spot you want to be.

I really, really enjoyed this tour. It was amazing to see a real, working casino from this perspective. Also, it was amazing to see how much there was. Bellagio is truly a mini-city that looks virtually self-sustaining.

Some elements of the service were impressive. The chairs for Prime are removed from the restaurant each day and reviewed by the manager to ensure only ‘good’ chairs go on the floor. It’s stuff like this that gives Bellagio the 5 diamonds.

Thanks again to the employee that went out of their way to do this and gave up time on a Sunday. It was very nice of you and hey, I’d love to do it again sometime!

I’m tired but I’m sure you’ll have questions so I’ll do my best to answer them as soon as I can. Hope this was interesting. There’s no way that I can explain how great it was but I did my best.

Visit Hunter’s Website at:
http://www.ratevegas.com

District Judge Mark Denton met privately with attorneys in his chambers Friday morning before denying the strip club’s request for a temporary restraining order to stop city officials from enforcing the discipline, which includes the revocation of the club’s liquor license. He then scheduled a public hearing for Tuesday morning, when he will take the next step of ruling on the club’s request for a preliminary injunction.

More from The Las Vegas Review Journal Here:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Sep-09-Sat-2006/news/9547776.html

That’s the kind of bad taste and ego that many expect from Wyrick, who taunts his critics in Las Vegas with his refusal to fail and/or simply disappear.

It looks as though he is about to disappoint them again.

Liza Minnelli’s ugly divorce is raising questions about the status of her long-awaited return to Las Vegas.

RAT PACK RANCOR

Why the onstage resignation? Because of a pre-show argument, one of many, with Feeney, and “I knew he would make it look as if I was fired.”
reviewjournal.com — News – NORM

Vegas Girl Kiss Leaves Eva Wanting More.

Eva Longoria has put boyfriend Tony Parker on notice: she’s interested in doing a bit of experimenting after sharing a passionate kiss with a female friend in Las Vegas.

Steve