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.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/61759
photography CoUrtESy oF hULtoN arChIVE/gEtty IMagES (DIMaggIo) so many dinners... so little time flaming fruits these desserts are hot orders at the Steer. Many guests request impersonators. Here, "Elvis" sits between Golden Steer owner Dr. Michael J. Signorelli (left) and marketer Jon D. Fondy. continued from page 74 Goodman have a table at Golden Steer in their honor. The Mayors out. These days, Bette Midler or Sammy Hagar is likely to be found in one of those tuck-and-roll cor- ners (most with the original leather still in place). Muhammad Ali dropped by for his 70th birthday dinner; even the "Mayors Goodman," Oscar and Carolyn, hold court at a table named in their honor. And Madame Mayor has declared that henceforth, April 7 will be celebrated as Golden Steer Day. Speaking of courts, lovable rapscallions O.J. Simpson and Tony Spilotro both enjoyed their last restaurant meals here before the law (as it were) caught up with them. Ong, who has been a waiter here since 1972, remembers Spilotro and his Hole in the Wall Gang coming in all the time in the early '80s. "Their Gold Rush Jewelry [read: fencing] store was right next door, and they had their own private entrance and dining room in the back," he says. "I waited on Tony and his brother Michael in the back room in June 1986, just two days before I heard that their bodies were found buried in an Indiana cornfield." Simpson took his last meal as a free man at the Steer, the night before being convicted for deciding armed robbery was the best way to settle a property dispute. He'd booked a table for a cele- bratory meal the next night—a reservation that was never kept, as he instead ate his first dinner in jail. No one said Vegas's history was innocent. 308 W. Sahara Ave., 702-384-4470; goldensteersteakhouselasvegas.com V The view from outside what was once a favorite hangout of the Rat Pack Caption will go here tk xerit lore del utpatisit velisl Diners have enjoyed the steak and lobster at Golden Steer for decades. Waiter Henry Daft estimates he's made at least a half-dozen cherries jubilee or bananas Foster a night for almost 22 years. When asked, he recites the recipes as easily as if he were telling you his address: "Sugar, white for the cherries, brown for the bananas, melted-in butter, then some orange and lemon zest along with orange juice. Then, in go the pitted cherries or bananas..." He flames them with a healthy dose of 151 rum before finishing the dish with either Bols Cherry Brandy or Bols Creme de Bananes liqueur, and pouring it over vanilla ice cream. Since the Steer is one of the few restaurants in town with a grandfathered-in open flame permit, these tasty pyrotechnics flare up constantly on a busy night. "Once one table sees it done, everyone wants one," says Daft. joe dimaggio doubles down the yankee Clipper gets two-booth salute. Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, who became legendary for his winning ways on the baseball field, used to wine and dine his ex-wife Marilyn Monroe in adjoining booths in the early '60s. Although their 274 days of marital bliss had ended in 1955, they dined together more than once, as he sought reconciliation with her (or to save her from herself, depending on which biography you read), while she consorted with everyone from Mafia hoods to then-President John F. Kennedy. But when the Yankee Clipper found out she had been to Golden Steer with another guy, he demanded a new table, across the restaurant in a separate dining room. The suitor with whom Marilyn made him jealous is lost to history, but we like to think she was with Ol' Blue Eyes, of whom she once said, "He was good, but he was no DiMaggio." Ouch. Regardless, Joe got further revenge by having two booths named after him. 76 VEgaSMagazINE.CoM