Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF GALE (VAN CLEEF); BARBARA KRAFT (XS); COURTESY OF THE VENETIAN (RECEPTION) poker player Phil Laak is one of the lucky holders of a box near the main cage at Bellagio. "I got mine 15 years ago, when the casino was still giving them out, but I remain wait-listed for one in the poker room," says Laak, who contends that the casino's 24 -hour surveillance and round-the-clock operation make it more secure than any bank vault. "When Aria opened, I went to t he poker room on t he f irst day a nd got myself a box. It holds one and a half racks of chips and is liquid gold." DU R I NG A BUSY N IGH T AT T H E N IGH TCLU B XS, inside Encore, information is worth more money than Bellagio's largest box can hold. To keep his spenders happy, Jesse Waits, managing partner at XS and Tryst, continually puzzles together pieces that will merge to produce memorable night s. A mong t he 170 t ables at X S, si x st a nd out a s elite spots: the four onstage not reserved for the DJ and his entourage and the two at the base of the staircase, overlooking the dance f loor. Of course, everyone wants them. Although tables are assigned early, by midnight the system can easily f ray: Customers come a nd go, some fa il to show up, occa siona lly t he wrong person is placed at the right table, or maybe Steve Wynn himself materializes and wants his regular spot. To prevent a complete meltdown a nd sa feg ua rd t he hund reds of t housa nds of dolla rs in bot t le ser v ice potentially hang ing in the balance, Waits's soft ware keeps things orga- nized a nd a llows for rea l-t ime shuff ling. "W hen we f ig ure who's most important for a [prime] table, it's not always about the money," he says. "Maybe it's somebody who doesn't spend $100,000 in a night but has been coming here every week for five years. When somebody super-important comes in, we start moving people around." That way a VIP doesn't acci- dentally end up in Siberia. The front podium invariably becomes what Waits describes as "a snake pit," with customers jockeying for impressive perches and hosts working dili- gently to get their clients what they want. In his column in the Las Vegas Sun, Robin Leach gave a widely disputed account of what can happen when things go wrong. Quoting a "highly reliable insider," he revealed that a certain Middle Eastern billionaire was turned down for a table at a hot Vegas night- club. The "disrespected" billionaire vowed to "open his own place to teach them a lesson." Could a messed-up table reservation really have launched Hakkasan? Waits says he has no idea: "It's possible.... You never know." It's no secret why people strive to get one of the few prime spots in a club f illed w it h pret t y good t ables a nd excellent ser v ice. "You ga in lim ited access to something and it connotes your insider status within an already elite group," says Wedeman. As for why it feels so good to be up on the stage at XS, among 10 0 people part ying within 10 feet of a fist-pumping DJ, she says, "Gaining limited access is a marker for your identity." NOT THAT THIS MATTERS TO THE SEA CR EATUR ES that have pride of place at Wynn's Bartolotta R istorante di Mare. Chef Paul Bartolotta is known for delectable spiny lobster, tast y brown crab, and peerless langoustines, mostly f lown in from the Mediterranean and kept fresh until they're served up for delighted diners. The crustaceans are shipped live, then coddled in holding tanks to reacclimate them. Then they're transferred to larger tanks prepared by a marine biologist with pre- cisely the correct oxygen, salinity, and temperature levels—all in an effort to ma ke t he chef 's g rade -A sea a sset s feel a s if t hey never lef t home. Bartolotta pampers his crustaceans as if they were guests in a Wynn Tower Suite. "They're jet-lagged, man, and highly sensitive," he says. "They've traveled all the way from Europe. I need to feed them what they're used to in their environments." He also needs to keep them safe and secure: "I lock my tanks, with real locks, at the end of the night. You don't want a night cleaner g rilling a dozen langoustines that you're going to sell for $45 a piece." A ll of t h is cosset ing t reat ment is lost on t he la ngoust ines, but Bartolotta's diners are acutely aware that their dinner is truly something special. And if the price sounds steep for several bites of sublimely sweet seafood, rarity and mystique are part of the allure. "When you know the story behind an ingredient, that increases value," says Dan Ariely, a professor of psycholog y and behavioral economics at Duke University and the author of Predictably Irrational. The idea of feast- ing on superior-tasting sea creatures f lown to Las Vegas from exotic coasts is irresistible to alpha diners. As Ariely explains, "The fact that something is rare gets people thinking that the things might not be there again and it signifies desirability." PAMPER ING OF A DIFFER ENT SORT TAK ES PL ACE across the street from Wynn inside the Paiza Club, at Venetian and the attached Palazzo. A member-by-invitation-only operation, the club is an alluring complex of private gambling rooms as well as 24/7 fine dining, cocktail- ing, and cigar smoking for the casino's best customers—usually from Asia. The zebrawood-paneled lair is set up so that players from the Far East can check in and feel right at home, literally. A Hong Kong – worthy four-star dinner can be whipped up at 4 AM—which is 7 PM, or dinner hour, in Hong Kong. Once they're stashed in the Paiza, Sheldon Adelson's favorite cus- tomers become the casino's most precious possessions and are happily treated as such. One of the most compelling features of the Paiza is that high-stakes gamblers can play baccarat or blackjack for ungodly sums behind closed 124 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 122-125_V_F_SecretVegas_MAYJUNE_14.indd 124 4/21/14 1:17 PM