Vegas - 2015 - Issue 4 - Summer - Art of the City - J.K. Russ

ART OF THE CITY EMERGING STARS PUBLIC TREASURES DESERT MONOLITHS

SIZZLING SUMMER FASHION A NEW ERA FOR THE STRIP’S WILD-CHILD HOTEL PLUS ARETHA FRANKLIN PETE WENTZ BRIAN WILSON

vegasmagazine.com

NICHE MEDIA HOLDINGS, LLC

COVER ARTIST: J.K. RUSS

MOROCCANOIL: ONE BRAND. A WORLD OF OIL-INFUSED BEAUTY. Available at Barneys New York, Bluemercury, Nordstrom and Luxury Spas | Moroccanoil.com

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FRONT RUNNER

Of the $25 million that Jay Sarno (seen here with French singer Line Renaud) spent to build Caesars Palace, $1 million reportedly went to the threeday opening celebration.

Hail, Caesar!

When it celebrated its grand public debut the weekend of August 5, 1966, Jay Sarno’s $25 million Caesars Palace was the most expensive casino ever built. How fitting, then, that the festivities would feature all sorts of overthe-top performers, including flaxen-haired Cleopatras and an army of Roman soldiers. And at the center of it all was Sarno himself, shown here piloting a chariot, accompanied by French singer Line Renaud.

But the property’s shiny veneer masked a host of preopening problems.

The most stubborn of all, a nationwide airline strike that had severely disrupted commercial flight traffic, threatened to limit the number of deeppocketed out-of-towners and celebrities who would give Sarno’s ambitious venture the kind of patronage—and press attention—it required for success.

The resort’s interiors, meanwhile, remained in a state of design purgatory, with carpeting and plumbing uninstalled and furnishings sitting idle in storage facilities and empty parking lots.

Nevertheless, thousands of guests—nearly 2,000 of them “patricians” who

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had received personalized scrolls delivered to their doorsteps by armored centurions—streamed into the venue ready to partake in all manner of bacchanalian revelry. VIPs were greeted at McCarran Airport by chorus girls in thigh-grazing togas and escorted to the main event, a dinner where guests consumed an estimated two tons of filet mignon and more than 50,000 glasses of Champagne.

“Eight Roman soldiers heralded the opening curtain, which was more than an hour late going up,” reported the Las Vegas Sun. “A stage full of swinging Cleopatras gyrated to modern rhythm. Some chorus girls wore see-through beaded costumes, but nudes were noticeably absent from the production.”

Instead, Andy Williams entertained the massive crowd, which included celebrities such as freshly minted Batman star Adam West, Ed Sullivan, Maureen O’Hara, and Frank Sinatra, as Caesars’ launch set a precedent for modern Vegas hotel openings and ushered in a new era of Strip-facing megaresorts. When in Rome! V

photography Courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau

The opening of jay sarno’s opulenT roman palace in The deserT included charioTs, goddesses, and some of The counTry’s highesT rollers. by tess eyrich

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contents

summer 2015

10 // front runner 28 // from the

editor-in-Chief

30 // from the

publisher

32 // ... Without Whom

this issue Would not have been possible

34 // the list 65 // invited

style 38 // Quirk it out Will a dazzling showgirl replace the kitty as the talisman for devoted Charlotte Olympia shoe collectors?

A glamorous new Vegas boutique is sure to convert the uninitiated.

40 // sizzle real Vegas’s hottest summer accessories steam with inspiration from a tropical paradise.

42 // style spotlight Dolce & Gabbana’s new earthenwareinspired Maiolica accessories; Jo Malone’s Incense & Cedrat; a Louis Vuitton capsule collection; Paul & Shark drops anchor at the Forum Shops; round sunnies.

92

Mist embroidered dress, Bottega Veneta ($6,800). Via Bellagio, 702-369-2944; bottegaveneta.com. Kona fringe bracelet, Holst + Lee ($165). Saks Fifth Avenue, Fashion Show, 702-733-8300; saks.com

14 vegasmagazine.com

As high-end fragrances return to the romance of rose, innovative skincare is following suit.

46 // luxury at play Vegas’s boys of summer are also boys of style in the latest top-drawer timepieces from the fnest Swiss watchmakers.

photography by randall slavin

44 // floWer poWer

ALTERNATE BLENDING. ALTERNATE ENDING. Introducing Dual-Intensity Blush, worn by Tilda Swinton.

Portrait by François Nars.

NARS Boutique—The Forum Shops at Caesars narscosmetics.com

56

Pete Wentz and Fall Out Boy will rock Vegas with a performance at Mandalay Bay.

111

The crudo at Lago is your ticket to a coastal café.

summer 2015

78

The Basil Paloma at the Franklin at Delano.

Culture 49 // Royal entRance The legendary Aretha Franklin comes to the Colosseum for a special one-night-only performance.

50 // Sound of SummeR Head Beach Boy Brian Wilson brings his No Pier Pressure tour to the Cosmopolitan’s Chelsea theater.

52 // Back in the Building The frst permanent, Presley-endorsed Graceland exhibit opens in the building where Elvis performed his record-breaking Las Vegas shows.

54 // PRinted matteRS An important new Picasso show, featuring works from the collection of the artist’s son, reveals both artistic vision and private passion.

56 // cultuRe SPotlight Fall Out Boy comes to Mandalay Bay, Bellagio goes Kabuki, and the Smith Center does a little Dirty Dancing.

16 vegasmagazine.com

photography by pamela littky (fall out boy); courtesy of mgm resorts international (lago, basil paloma)

contents

cellini time

THE CL ASSICAL WATCH BY ROLE X

— rolex

presents

the

new

cellini

collection,

a

contemporary

cele bration

of

cl assicism

and the eternal elegance of traditional timepieces. consisting of 12 classically inspired models, this new collection combines the best of rolex know-how and its high standards of perfection with an approach that heightens watchmaking heritage in its most timeless form.

rolex

and cellini are trademarks.

contents

summer 2015

86

people

TasTe

58 // high poinT oF

71 // Summer Social

The WeST

As one of the home furnishings industry’s most visible leaders, Robert Maricich has transformed Las Vegas’s World Market Center into a national design nexus.

60 // nighT moveS XS’s Kim Martin-Wood shifted her career from industrial engineering to engineering the perfect night in the nation’s spendiest nightclub.

62 // pure harmony Las Vegas Philharmonic president and CEO Jeri Crawford is bringing the Phil’s most ambitious season ever to underserved Las Vegans.

With the arrival of Brian Malarkey’s Searsucker, restaurant dining feels like enjoying snacks in your living room, a midnight brunch, and an ice cream social—all in one.

74 // TaSTe SpoTlighT New beers from chefs Rick Moonen and Michael Mina; new shabu-shabu from comedian Jo Koy; chocolate to obsess over at Hexx at Paris Las Vegas; and a surefre-hit new restaurant at El Cortez.

76 // american Fan Fare The newest darlings of the Vegas scene are all-American hits—with a twist, of course.

78 // reTro revival

58

Robert Maricich takes the throne of the home furnishings kingdom.

18 vegasmagazine.com

Some of the best drinks to sip this summer are refreshing takes on classic cocktails.

photography by brad swonetz (Maricich); courtesy of the cosMopolitan of las Vegas (chandelier bar)

The Cosmopolitan—home of the breathtaking Chandelier Bar—is reinventing the Vegas resort.

G R A N D C A N A L S H O P P E S AT T H E V E N E T I A N | T H E PA L A Z Z O

contents

summer 2015

80

A detail from the 2015 collage Monument by artist J.K. Russ.

features 80 // Composite sCore Within the city’s burgeoning arts scene, which we celebrate in this issue, collage artist J.K. Russ creates a suggestive—and otherworldly— Vegas landscape. Plus: Desert art and galleries galore.

By Mark Ellwood

86 // the Grandest soCial experiment

The most radically innovative hotel casino to open in recent memory, The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas has new owners and a new leader, but that may just mean the party is about to get better.

By Michael Kaplan

92 // a Glamorous Getaway

Summer’s hottest resortwear takes center stage at the Bahamas’ new Baha Mar resort.

Photography by Randall Slavin Styling by Cannon

98 // VeGas kniGhts This year’s Vegas Dozen class was chosen from the powerful and philanthropic men around the city.

By Tess Eyrich Photography by Jerry Metellus

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CALIBER RM 60-01 REGATTA LIMITED EDITION

RICHARD MILLE BOUTIQUE THE SHOPS AT CRYSTALS, LAS VEGAS 702-588-7272

contents 108

The New American Home of 2015, Sky Terrace merges indoors and outdoors.

summer 2015

haute property 103 // REal EsTaTE’s NEw agE

Once wary of homeownership, millennials are entering the market in record numbers.

106 // spORTs auTHORiTy A home for an active family (or a sports team) comes to market, the south end of the Strip prepares for an actionpacked summer, and the Palms debuts some scenery changes of its own.

108 // VEgas MOdERN The newest sustainable designs in Las Vegas depart dramatically from the city’s vernacular style.

the guide 111 // THE VEgas RiViERa Julian Serrano’s Lago transports diners to a sparkling seaside port by way of avant-garde early-20th-century Milan.

112 // iMbibE: Happy HOuRs

113 // iNdulgE: pOOls

parting shot Punishing summer heat in extreme drought conditions? No problem.

Please enjoy our choreographed fountains and a seat under the water mister.

106

The patio at Vice Versa at Vdara.

22 vegasmagazine.com

ON THE COVER:

Desert Bloom by J.K. Russ (private collection, Las Vegas)

photography by trent bell photography (top) ; courtesy of vdara (bottom)

120 // waTER wORld

Exclusive Handcrafted Shoes, Handbags and Accessories Buenos Aires Cannes Hollywood Las V Fashion Show Mall - 3200 Las Vegas Blvd S. | Las V

Carmen Steffens

JOIN US ONLINE at vegasmagazine.com

We have the inside scoop on Las Vegas’s best parties, pursuits, dining, and more. dine

WHERE TO SATISFY YOUR LATENIGHT CRAVINGS From decadent desserts to full meals, here are Vegas’s most delicious after-dark dining options.

photos

SEE THE LATEST FROM LAST NIGHT’S EVENTS

pursuits

WHAT TO DO ON SUMMER FRIDAYS Make the most of your office’s summer hours with our guide to the city’s Friday festivities.

COME FOLLOW US

PHOTOGRAPHY BY FUNKYFROGSTOCK (DINE); RAY ALAMO (PHOTOS); ELENA POMINOVA (PURSUITS)

Couldn’t attend? Browse the newest photos from Las Vegas’s most exclusive parties.

LALIQUE 609 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10022 (212) 355-6550

LALIQUE INTERIORS 133 Fifth Avenue, Floor 2 New York, NY 10003 (212) 355-6550

LALIQUE Bal Harbour Shops 9700 Collins Avenue Bal Harbour, FL 33154 (305) 537-5150

LALIQUE 238 N. Rodeo Drive At 2 Rodeo Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90210 (310) 271-7892

lalique.com

LALIQUE INTERIORS 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza Suite 6-129 Chicago, IL 60654 (312) 867-1787

LALIQUE The Shops at Crystals 3720 Las Vegas Boulevard Las Vegas, NV 89109 (702) 507-2375

ANDREA BENNETT Editor-in-Chief Senior Managing Editor KAREN ROSE Art Director ALLISON FLEMING Photo Editor SETH OLENICK Associate Editor TESS EYRICH Senior Fashion Editor FAYE POWER Copy Editor DAVID FAIRHURST Research Editor LESLIE ALEXANDER

JOSEF VANN Publisher and Vice President of Sales Account Director JESSICA ZIVKOVITCH Account Executives VINCE DUROCHER, IRENA HALL Director of Event Marketing HALEE HARCZYNSKI Distribution Relations Manager JENNIFER PALMER Sales Assistant RUE MCBRIDE

NICHE MEDIA HOLDINGS, LLC Senior Vice President and Editorial Director MANDI NORWOOD Vice President of Creative and Fashion ANN SONG Creative Director NICOLE A. WOLFSON NADBOY Executive Fashion Director SAMANTHA YANKS ART AND PHOTO

Senior Art Director FRYDA LIDOR Associate Art Directors ANASTASIA TSIOUTAS CASALIGGI, JUAN PARRA, JESSICA SARRO Senior Designer NATALI SUASNAVAS Designers AARON BELANDRES, SARAH LITZ Photo Director LISA ROSENTHAL BADER Photo Editors MARIE BARBIER , JODIE LOVE, JENNIFER PAGAN, REBECCA SAHN Senior Staff Photographer JEFFREY CRAWFORD Senior Digital Imaging Specialist JEFFREY SPITERY Digital Imaging Specialist JEREMY DEVERATURDA Digital Imaging Assistant HTET SAN FASHION

Associate Fashion Editor CASEY TRUDEAU Assistant Fashion Editors CONNOR CHILDERS, LISA FERRANDINO Entertainment and Bookings Editor JULIET IZON COPY AND RESEARCH

Copy and Research Manager WENDIE PECHARSKY Copy Editors JOHANNA MATTSSON, JULIA STEINER Research Editors JAMES BUSS, JUDY DEYOUNG, KAREN MCCREE, AVA WILLIAMS EDITORIAL OPERATIONS

Director of Editorial Operations DEBORAH L. MARTIN Director of Editorial Relations MATTHEW STEWART Executive Editorial Assistant CHRISTINA CLEMENTE Online Executive Editor CAITLIN ROHAN Online Editors ANNA BEN YEHUDA, TRICIA CARR Online Editorial Assistant CATHERINE PARK Senior Managing Editors DANINE ALATI, JILL SIERACKI Managing Editors JENNIFER DEMERITT, MURAT OZTASKIN, OUSSAMA ZAHR Shelter and Design Editor SUE HOSTETLER Timepiece Editor ROBERTA NAAS ADVERTISING SALES

Account Directors SUSAN ABRAMS, MICHELE ADDISON, CLAIRE CARLIN, MICHELLE CHALA, KATHLEEN FLEMING, VICTORIA HENRY, KAREN LEVINE, MEREDITH MERRILL, NORMA MONTALVO, DEVON MOORE, JEFFREY NICHOLSON, SHANNON PASTUSZAK, MIA PIERRE-JACQUES, VALERIE ROBLES, JIM SMITH Account Executives SUSANA ARAGON, LAUREN BROGNA, MORGAN CLIFFORD, JANELLE DRISCOLL, JAMIE FOX, SAMANTHA HARRIS, SARAH HECKLER, CATHERINE KUCHAR, JULIA MAZUR, FENDY MESY, RILEY O’NEILL, MARY RUEGG, ERIN SALINS, JACKIE VAN METER Sales Support and Development EMMA BEHRINGER, ANA BLAGOJEVIC, ERIN GLEASON, KRISTINE GUEVARRA, DARA HIRSH, EMERY HOLTON, KARA KEARNS, MICHELLE MASS, NICHOLE MAURER, ELIZABETH MITCHELL, STEPHEN OSTROWSKI, MICHELLE PETRILLO, ALEXANDRA WINTER MARKETING, PROMOTIONS, AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations LANA BERNSTEIN Senior Director of Brand Development ROBIN KEARSE Director of Brand Development JOANNA TUCKER Brand Development Managers KRISTIN BARNES, JIMMY KONTOMANOLIS Promotions Art Designers KAITLYN RICHERT, CARLY RUSSELL Event Marketing Directors AMY FISCHER, LAURA MULLEN, KIMMY WILSON Event Marketing Managers KELSEY MARRUJO, CRISTINA PARRA, ASHLEY VEHSLAGE Event Marketing Coordinators BROOKE BIDDLE, BLAIR GOTTFRIED Event Marketing Assistant SHANA KAUFMAN ADVERTISING PRODUCTION

Director of Positioning and Planning SALLY LYON Positioning and Planning Manager TARA MCCRILLIS Director of Production PAUL HUNTSBERRY Production Manager BLUE UYEDA Production Artists MARISSA MAHERAS, DARA RICCI, ALISHA SMITH Director of Distribution Operations MATT HEMMERLING Fulfillment Manager DORIS HOLLIFIELD Traffic Supervisor ESTEE WRIGHT Traffic Coordinators JEANNE GLEESON, MALLORIE SOMMERS Manufacturing Coordinator KIMBERLY CHANG Circulation Research Specialist CHAD HARWOOD FINANCE

Controller DANIELLE BIXLER Senior Finance Directors AUDREY CADY, LISA VASSEUR-MODICA Director of Credit and Collections CHRISTOPHER BEST Senior Credit and Collections Analyst MYRNA ROSADO Financial Analyst NEIL SHAH Senior Billing Coordinator CHARLES CAGLE Senior Accountant LILY WU Junior Accountants KATHY SABAROV, NATASHA WARREN Accounts Payable Coordinator NADINE DEODATT ADMINISTRATION, DIGITAL, AND OPERATIONS

Director of Operations MICHAEL CAPACE Director of Human Resources and Administration STEPHANIE MITCHELL Digital Producer ANTHONY PEARSON Facilities Coordinator ASHLEY GUILLAUME Chief Technology Officer JESSE TAYLOR Desktop Administrators ZACHARY CUMMO, EDGAR ROCHE EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

J.P. ANDERSON (Michigan Avenue), SPENCER BECK ( Los Angeles Confidential), KATHY BLACKWELL (Austin Way), KRISTIN DETTERLINE (Philadelphia Style), LISA PIERPONT (Boston Common), CATHERINE SABINO (Gotham), JARED SHAPIRO (Ocean Drive), ELIZABETH E. THORP (Capitol File), DAMIEN WILLIAMSON (Executive Editor, Aspen Peak), SAMANTHA YANKS (Hamptons) PUBLISHERS

JOHN M. COLABELLI (Philadelphia Style), LOUIS F. DELONE (Austin Way), DAWN DUBOIS (Gotham), ALEXANDRA HALPERIN (Aspen Peak), DEBRA HALPERT (Hamptons), SUZY JACOBS (Capitol File), GLEN KELLEY (Boston Common), COURTLAND LANTAFF (Ocean Drive), ALISON MILLER (Los Angeles Confidential), DAN USLAN (Michigan Avenue)

Managing Partner JANE GALE Chairman and Director of Photography JEFF GALE Chief Operating Officer MARIA BLONDEAUX Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer JOHN P. KUSHNIR Chief Executive Officer KATHERINE NICHOLLS Copyright 2015 by Niche Media Holdings, LLC. All rights reserved. Vegas magazine is published eight times per year. Reproduction without permission of the publisher is prohibited.

The publisher and editors are not responsible for unsolicited material, and it will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication subject to Vegas magazine’s right to edit.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, photographs, and drawings. To order a subscription, please call 866-891-3144. For customer service, please inquire at vegas@pubservice.com.

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Vegas magazine is published by Niche Media Holdings, LLC., a division of Greengale Publishing, LLC. vegas: 608 South 7th Street, Las Vegas, NV 89101 T: 702-990-2500 F: 702-990-2530 niche media holdings: 711 Third Avenue, Suite 501, New York, NY 10017 T: 646-835-5200 F: 212-780-0003

26 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM

NOW OPEN! TORY BURCH BOSTON PROPER TED BAKER SPANX

AT THE EDGE OF FASHION IN THE HEART OF VEGAS Featuring Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Macy’s Men’s Store, Dillard’s, Forever 21, Topshop Topman and over 200 stores and eateries, including our newest arrivals Apple, Henri Bendel, Michael Kors, U.S. Polo Assn., Charming Charlie and The Disney Store.

On The Strip across from The Venetian, Wynn and TI | 702.369.8382 | thefashionshow.com

LAS VEGAS’S UNLIKELY AND SOMETIMES UNEASY RELATIONSHIP

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT:

A candid moment in our photo shoot with the men of the Vegas Dozen at Saks Fifth Avenue, captured by Jerry Metellus; my friend Alex Acuna and I toasted chef Kerry Simon’s 60th birthday before Simon Restaurant and Lounge’s last day in the Palms; NARS’s director of global artistry, James Boehmer, showed me the brand’s fabulous new Christopher Kane line at the new store in The Forum Shops at Caesars at an event we cohosted. My daughter, Emily, gave final approval on the cupcakes for the evening.

with the vast desert that surrounds us is a recurring theme for those of us who return home from a glamorous event at Harry Winston to find a scorpion luxuriating in our bathtub.

For instance. And the tension of our situation— not a new idea—always seems to find new ways of being fascinating. A preoccupation of many right now is protecting the isolated desert acres that hold some of the most important land art in the world, much of it quite close to Las Vegas.

This spring, I attended a conversation between Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and renowned art critic (and former UNLV professor) Dave Hickey, known for his love/hate relationship with Vegas. (He opened with a crack about frittering away his MacArthur Fellowship money in our casinos.) Their talk concerned City, a monumental earthwork roughly the scale of the National Mall that artist Michael Heizer

has been constructing for 43 years in Lincoln County. The land around Heizer’s magnum opus is under threat from fracking and proposed rail lines; a bill introduced in January

by Senator Harry Reid and a petition drive are among the measures being taken to protect 800,000 acres of federal land around it. “What could be more American, more interstellar?”

Hickey asked about City. Like our own allAmerican skyline, Heizer’s city depends on the land around it for its drama. Some of our most relevant artists, such as cover artist J.K. Russ, successfully articulate this.

This summer, Vegas holds an event to benefit some of these important earthworks, generously supported by Russ, who created Spring Romance for us to auction. Please enjoy our issue celebrating both the art of the desert and the art of the city.

ANDREA BENNETT Follow me on Twitter at @andreabennett1 and on vegasmagazine.com.

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VEGASMAGAZINE.COM

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JERRY METELLUS (DOZEN); JOE DURKIN (ACUNA); SAEED RAHBARAN (BOEHMER)

LETTER from the Editor-in-Chief

TO BREAK THE RULES, YOU MUST FIRST MASTER THEM. THE VALLﾃ右 DE JOUX. FOR MILLENNIA A HARSH, UNYIELDING ENVIRONMENT; AND SINCE 1875 THE HOME OF AUDEMARS PIGUET, IN THE VILLAGE OF LE BRASSUS. THE EARLY WATCHMAKERS WERE SHAPED HERE, IN AWE OF THE FORCE OF NATURE YET DRIVEN TO MASTER ITS MYSTERIES THROUGH THE COMPLEX MECHANICS OF THEIR CRAFT. STILL TODAY THIS PIONEERING SPIRIT INSPIRES US TO CONSTANTLY CHALLENGE THE CONVENTIONS OF FINE WATCHMAKING.

ROYAL OAK CHRONOGRAPH IN PINK GOLD.

AUDEMARS PIGUET LAS VEGAS THE SHOPS AT CRYSTALS 3720 SOUTH LAS VEGAS BLVD., SUITE 105 LAS VEGAS, NV 89109. 702-889-8828

letter from the Publisher 1 left:

With chef extraordinaire Alex Stratta at his extraordinary new restaurant, Tapas

by Alex Stratta. inset: With acclaimed French chef Pierre Gagnaire at his Mandarin Oriental restaurant, Twist.

2

3

I’d use is “sizzling.” Yes, of course our weather is toasty, but I’m referring more to our economic climate.

Visitor volume for 2014 surpassed the previous benchmark, set in 2007, with more than 41 million visitors. The misconception is that Vegas tourism dips during our sizzling summer months, but in fact the exact opposite is true. In 2014, the only months that saw more visitors than July and August were March, May, and October. This July and August, coinciding with the release of our Summer issue, we expect even more people to come to Las Vegas.

Our increasing tourist population will also have more hotel choices soon, as once again construction, by the Malaysian developer Genting Group, has begun on the 84-acre parcel across Las Vegas Boulevard from Wynn. Also, next door to what will be Resorts World, a new development by Crown Resorts is on the horizon on the site of the former New Frontier Hotel. Australian billionaire James Packer and Wynn’s former president Andrew Pascal are behind this exciting venture, preliminarily called Alon. Lastly, during these summer months, Bellagio, Venetian, and Mandalay Bay are all remodeling rooms, and Mandalay is opening a 350,000-square-foot exhibit space.

Vegas is sizzling!

josef vann

Follow me on Twitter at @josefvann and on vegasmagazine.com.

30 vegasmagazine.com

// this issue //

on my radar During these gorgeous summer months, I plan to play a lot of golf with my son, Jaden. You’ve got to give these great courses a try: 1. Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort: Choose one of three challenging yet fair Pete Dye–designed courses.

2. Southern Highlands Golf Club: If you’re lucky enough to be invited to play this ultraexclusive course, consider yourself very lucky indeed. The course is a masterpiece codesigned by the legendary golf architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. and his son Robert Trent Jones Jr. 3. Las Vegas Golf Club: Established in 1938, this oft-forgotten gem is a great value and provides golfers with an old-school tree-lined look.

photography by robyn andrzejczak (stratta); brian oar with fairway photography (paiute); courtesy of southern highlands golf course (southern highlands)

Las Vegas is hot during the summertime. Actually, the word

AVAILABLE AT

J.K. Russ artist Las Vegas artist J.K. Russ did us the honor of contributing not only our cover, but an original piece of art, Spring Romance, for us to auction at our Summer issue party to benefit the Nevada Museum of Art, which is supporting some major local art projects currently in development.

What are your thoughts on the Las Vegas arts scene?

“Las Vegas is truly a city of hidden treasures. I make regular visits to the Strip to revel in its glittering spectacle, but I also like to frequent the more obscure Downtown performance venues where you might find burlesque, or live body painting, or an Elvis look-alike contest. I gain much inspiration from the strong performance scene here, and I can see the potential for more interaction with the art scene—connections with New York’s Art Production Fund, Artra Curatorial in LA, the alternative London Biennale project, and the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno, which are all supporting innovative installation and performance art in this city. It’s great to see Downtown’s Life Is Beautiful festival incorporating a strong art component again this year, and I hope we will also see the development of more permanent venues that encourage the cross-pollination of creative genres.”

32 vegasmagazine.com

// summer 2015

JeRRy MeTellus

Michael Kaplan

T.R. WiTcheR

photographer

writer

writer

Jerry Metellus was the photographer behind this year’s Vegas Dozen feature.

Well-known in the world of entertainment, he has photographed everyone from Jerry Seinfeld to Mike Tyson and has been a guest photographer on America’s Next Top Model.

What do you love about Las Vegas? “I love both living and shooting in Vegas because of the energy this town carries 24 hours a day.

There’s always a location, day or night, that I can access to create great images, from desert to urban.”

How did you enjoy the Vegas Dozen shoot? “I had a blast shooting the Vegas Dozen. The good news is that I knew a few of the honorees, having worked with them in the past. My approach to a photo shoot bridged the gap with the ones I’d yet to meet.

When I first meet someone, personally or professionally, I address them as if I’ve known them for five years or more. It creates an instant, closer connection by bypassing the get-to-know-you trial period. Consequently, there was quite a bit of banter going on, some of which cannot be printed in your respectable pages. All in good fun.”

Our feature on the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas was written by Michael Kaplan. A journalist based in Brooklyn, Kaplan is the gambling columnist for Cigar Aficionado and has written for publications that include Wired, Playboy, and The New York Times Magazine. He is a frequent visitor to Las Vegas and knows the city well.

This month he contributes a story on the hotel casino’s recent changes.

What do you find so fascinating about the Cosmopolitan? “I had an opportunity to find out how the place developed and where it’s going.

Cosmopolitan is the most unique overnight spot in Vegas right now, and it makes for a compelling story. I’ve stayed all over town and it’s my go-to.

The property has a great vibe, cool restaurants, happening nightlife, and fantastic rooms. Plus there are balconies that are perfect for chill-out sessions on summer nights.”

A native of Chicagoland, T.R. Witcher has written about architecture and urbanism for a variety of publications, including Time, Civil Engineering, and Las Vegas Weekly. His essays on popular culture have also appeared on TheAtlantic.com and Salon. For this issue, Witcher penned our Haute Property story on how some green builders are shifting the local design aesthetic away from the Spanish tile roofs and stucco for which Southern Nevada is known and toward a slick, modern style that is as natural as it is progressive.

Why is it important to build green? “In a desert city like Las Vegas, thinking about the environment is not just a question of being chic.

It’s necessary for our survival. We are reminded of the drought sweeping the Southwest every time we see shrinking Lake Mead in our backyard.” How do you handle the steamy Vegas summers? “The best way to enjoy the summer in Las Vegas is to be active very early in the morning and then enjoy all the city has to offer in the evening. At noon, best to bury your head somewhere cool.”

photography by Jim Laurie (meteLLus); theodore Witcher (Witcher)

...WiThouT WhoM this issue would not have been possible

SHOPULATION OPULA

TM

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the list summer 2015

Jon Trainer

Howard J. Russell

Tasha Walker

Dan Crowell

Brett Harris

Billy Corgan

Chen Young

Justin Randall

Spencer Antle

Ed Huckfeldt

Kevin Holder

Joey Maalouf

Mo Younis

Candace Spann

Cara Santana

Scott Wellman

Todd Lunger

Martina McBride

Justin Cohen

Brooke Coxen

Gloria Estefan

Michael Silvaggio

Krista Chmielewski

Willie Nelson

Patrick Bryant

Arlene Wszalek

Julianne Hough

Judy Ku

Nikki Olayo

Mitchell Binder

Suzan Vannasing

Ellen Trexler

Amanda Krivchuk

Kimberlie Shea

Kelly Estrella

Temple St. Clair

Amanda Parrette

Lee Ann Groff-Daudet

Caitlin Barretto

Jeremy Yoza

Natasha Young

Jodi Hale Fonfa

Rebecca Friedman

Julian Serrano

Amy Rosi

Megan Fazio

Renata Follmann

Sofia Helen Eleftheriou

D. Lee Roberts, Jr.

Bradley Manchester

Joseph Facchinei

34  vegasmagazine.com

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Tune in and shop Saturday, July 25, 2pm ET Special thanks to Kelly Ripa for her support.

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Style tastemaker

PhotograPhy courtesy of charlotte olymPia

Charlotte Olympia may be known for its Kitty flats, but when founder Charlotte Dellal visits her Vegas boutique, she wears her highest heels.

38  vegasmagazine.com

Quirk it Out

Will a dazzling shoWgirl replace the kitty as the talisman For devoted Charlotte olympia shoe collectors? a glamorous neW vegas boutique is sure to convert the uninitiated. by adrienne gaffney For Charlotte Dellal, the designer behind the cultfavorite shoe brand Charlotte Olympia, preparing to visit her new Las Vegas shop has led to thoughts on the city’s distinctive style. “I always say it’s easier to design something a bit more flamboyant and tone it down than the other way around,” says Dellal, “and I definitely think that Vegas has a ‘more is more’ approach. When I go there, I will be wearing my highest heels.” An outpost in Las Vegas is the latest coup for the quirky line that was born in 2008 and earned global fame several seasons later when its kitty-cat flats became a favorite of Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Lena Dunham.

After opening boutiques in seven cities—New York, Los Angeles, and London among them—the English-born Dellal was keen to break ground in Vegas. “It’s a super-bustling city full of people from around the world,” she says. “Even from an international perspective, it was a great location to be at because there are so many visitors there as well.”

Inspired by her love of Hollywood glamour of the 1940s and ’50s, the Forum Shops store exudes feminine luxury and is filled with sumptuous midcentury furnishings. “One of the reasons that I love having my own stores is that you can put [my designs] in the world that they were meant to be in,” Dellal says.

“The boutique showcases them, and I think elevates

“i definitely think vegas has a ‘more is more’ approach.”

—charlotte dellal

them, better than in any other environment.”

It also demonstrates just how widely Charlotte Olympia has expanded in its relatively short lifespan. In the center of the store is a room devoted to the brand’s new line of leather goods, while another room houses its bridal range and its collection for little girls, Incy. These will soon be joined by collections for men and boys. Unique to this shop is a line of Las Vegas– inspired pieces, including a pair of hot-pink T-bar heels featuring a glitzily dressed showgirl in a feathered headdress and Dellal’s distinctive Kitty flats customized with a “poker face.”

But as wildly glamorous as her pieces may be, Dellal insists that her design aesthetic, shaped by her education at the London College of Fashion, is grounded in an appreciation for the traditional. “I love classic designs,” she says. “At the end of the day, I guess I have a whimsical approach to certain designs within my ranges. Ultimately they’re feminine and elegant at the same time, with a touch of a sense of humor as well.”

The opening of her Vegas store and her brand’s monumental success have left Dellal very pleased, but she doesn’t plan on getting ahead of herself. “It feels fantastic, but at the same time we’ve always taken an organic approach to it, so it’s always felt like doing things at the right time that worked for the brand at that moment,” she says. “I have wish lists that I would love to do, but we execute them when it feels right. It always has to feel right.”

And with Dellal continuing to find inspiration in sneakers, heels, and smoking slippers, don’t expect Charlotte Olympia to leave shoes behind anytime soon. “Even within the footwear range,” she says, “there’s so much to be done!” The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-895-7510; charlotteolympia.com V

above, from top:

Roulette bag ($1,395), Snake Eyes Pandora bag ($1,195), and Poker Face Kitty flats ($565), Charlotte Olympia.

The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-895-7510; charlotteolympia.com

vegasmagazine.com 39

STYLE Accessories

Sizzle Real

Vegas’s HOTTesT summer aCCessOrIes sTeam WITH INsPIraTION FrOm a TrOPICaL ParaDIse. photography by jeff crawford styling by faye power

40 vegasmagazine.com

IN THE JUNGLE Tribal prints and raw materials feel just right for hot summer nights.

Embroidered gown, Emilio Pucci ($19,300).

The Shops at Crystals, 702-262-9671; emiliopucci.com.

Large raffia bangles, Alexis Bittar ($225 each).

The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-836-0896; alexisbittar.com.

Woven clutch, Salvatore Ferragamo ($5,800).

The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-933-9333; ferragamo.com

1

2

ON THE FRINGE

WOVEN WARRIOR

Tassels and untamed threads add an evocative edge.

Dense weaves create timeless texture.

ProP styling by sharon ryan at halley resources hair and makeuP by mahfud ibrahim for exclusive artists management using oribe hair care and armani cosmetics model: clara settje (trumP models)

3

4

SHAPE UP

CAGE FREE

Tribal takes on print bring summer’s strongest staples into the sun.

A statement strappy sandal and graphic clutch pack the perfect amount of safari heat.

1. Cheyenne bootie, Tamara Mellon ($995). Saks Fifth Avenue, Fashion Show, 702-733-8300; saks.com. Hollywood small fringe handbag, Max Mara ($840). Saks Fifth Avenue, see above. Resin bangles, Missoni ($300 each).

Barneys New York, Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian and Palazzo, 702-629-4200; barneys.com. 2. Oasis sandal, Aquazzura ($1,100). Saks Fifth Avenue, see above; aquazzura.com. Kelly graphic shoulder bag, Bottega Veneta ($2,500). The Shops at Crystals, 702-220-4751; bottegaveneta.com. Resin bangles, Missoni ($300 each). see above. 3. Kempner mule, Tory Burch ($395). The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-369-3459; toryburch.com. Intarsio Mini Lock bag, Valentino Garavani ($2,275). The Shops at Crystals, 702-737-7603; valentino.com. Column C Slider cuff, Lele Sadoughi ($240). Neiman Marcus, Fashion Show, 702-731-3636; neimanmarcus.com. 4. Kattie sandal, Jimmy Choo ($1,575). The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-691-2097; jimmychoo.com. Jack convertible clutch, Elizabeth and James ($345). Neiman Marcus, see above. Necklace ($1,150) and bracelet ($1,150), Salvatore Ferragamo. The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-933-9333; ferragamo.com

vegasmagazine.com  41

STYLE Spotlight

spritzy business

HOT DATE

Majolica Magic DOLCE & GABBANA’S PLAYFUL NEW ACCESSORIES COLLECTION SUMMONS SUN-DRENCHED DAYS. BY LISA FERRANDINO

Famous for its Mediterranean influences, Dolce & Gabbana this season draws inspiration from Sicily. Its new Maiolica accessories collection includes espadrilles, bejeweled sandals, and other footwear featuring the summery blues and whites found in the vivid, beautifully decorated earthenware pottery that lends the collection its name. Structured bags, such as the iconic Dolce and Sicily, whimsically reflect majolica tilework— and are bound to be the summer’s must-have accessory. The line’s print is also seen throughout D&G’s ready-to-wear collection, in pieces such as chiffon maxi dresses and body-conscious dresses. The Shops at Crystals, 702-431-6614; dolcegabbana.it V

// on trend //

FULL CIRCLE

Etnia Barcelona ($345).

Fred Segal, SLS Las Vegas, 702-761-7000; etniabarcelona.com

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VEGASMAGAZINE.COM

PAUL & SHARK SETS SAIL

The Milan-based casual and yachting brand Paul & Shark has anchored its high-performance comfort pieces on the Strip with a 1,500-square-foot boutique in the Forum Shops. The space is furnished with modern elements, like steel and eucalyptus shelving for the label’s accessories and ready-towear, and also boasts a VIP area. The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-396-7772; paulshark.it

Jo Malone’s Incense & Cedrat, launched in June, is the latest addition to the brand’s Cologne Intense collection, which is defined by its exceptional ingredients. At the heart of the unisex Incense & Cedrat is the precious—and threatened—Omani incense.

Opting against draining dwindling resources, master perfumer Marie Salamagne has replicated the scent with natural components through NaturePrint technology. Lemon and pepper (from the resin elemi) and cedrat imbue the scent with lightness, while labdanum’s notes of amber add to its sensuality and warmth.

LOUIS VUITTON CAPS IT OFF

Combining the brand’s signature “V”—in a play on the famous black and white ad of the 1960s— and its Ramage print (inspired by Cruise 2015 ready-to-wear looks), Louis Vuitton’s colorful new capsule collection includes versatile pieces such as an oversize weekender bag with a functional design and the Zippy wallet in colors like grenade and turquoise. The Shops at Crystals, 702-2626262; louisvuitton.com

Jo Malone Incense & Cedrat ($155). Saks Fifth Avenue, Fashion Show, 702-7338300; saks.com

Make a throwback statement with round, ’70s-inspired sunglasses.

Oxydo ($98).

Solstice Sunglasses, Planet Hollywood, 702-369-3103; solsticesunglasses.com

Gucci ($395).

The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-369-7333; gucci.com

MiuMiu ($390).

Solstice Sunglasses, Planet Hollywood, 702-369-3103; solsticesunglasses.com

Fendi ($425).

Solstice Sunglasses, Planet Hollywood, 702-369-3103; solsticesunglasses.com

style, taste and Venice on a grand scale

160 signature stores.

36 world class restaurants.

1 uniquely Venetian experience. armani collezioni diane Von tory urch christian l kate spade new york Jimmy choo michael kors auman rare ooks tao asian istro & n s canali cut wolFgang puck emeril lagasse’s delmonico steakhouse

24-hour shopping line: 702.414.4500 • thegrandcanalshoppes.com

STYLE You, Even Better The Aquavana thermal room at Canyon Ranch SpaClub at Venetian. below from left: Carmen Tal, a cofounder of Moroccanoil; the brand’s Fleur de Rose hand cream and body butter.

Flower Power

“consumers are looking for integrity and high performance.”

—carmen tal

44 vegasmagazine.com

Summer and all the goodness it entails—steamy weather, rooftop cocktail hours as the sun sets on the Strip, the latest strappy summer dresses—put a sharp focus on bare legs, arms, and shoulders. Bodyconscious Vegas dwellers and visitors embrace the arrival of the season with gusto—and a trip to the day spa. But it isn’t just to try the latest antiaging facial. Buffing skin to new levels of smoothness to enhance that freshly exposed, Core Fusion– toned body is a high priority, too.

This hyperinterest in total-body skincare is a trend that experts have seen grow rapidly over the past several years. “The products we recommend not only contain the best ingredients,” says Shawn Granito, the associate director of Canyon Ranch SpaClub, “but provide the basic components—enriching cleansers, gentle exfoliants, and nourishing moisturizers—to produce long-term results, particularly in Las Vegas’s sunny and dry climate, which is so tough on the skin.”

This growing focus on body care is borne out by statistics, with the number of body-care products increasing faster than the number of facial items, the usual mainstay of the skincare market. One company addressing new consumer demand for head-to-toe maintenance is Moroccanoil. A relative newcomer to the cosmetics industry, it burst onto the beauty scene in 2006 with a hair treatment and quickly built a loyal following worldwide. Its recently released Fleur de Rose collection, the company’s second foray into luxury skincare, targets the new interest in body care with six products: a rich

body soufflé, hydrating body butter, a body buff that exfoliates and moisturizes with argan oil, an “on the go” hand lotion, and a creamy cleansing bar, all available now. (A shower milk will be released next year.)

Fleur de Rose is also one of Moroccanoil’s most personal offerings, the result of cofounder Carmen Tal’s love of roses. “I worked with a talented aromatherapist who was extremely knowledgeable about essential oils and fragrances,” she says. “It was the damask rose scent that really captured me. When I told her what I was looking for, she knew exactly where to go with it. Then our product development and researchand-development teams worked for several years to develop and perfect the collection.” The time in the pipeline was well justified, Tal says, because customers are more demanding and more knowledgeable about ingredients than ever before. “They’re looking for integrity and high performance,” she explains. “With Fleur de Rose, we offer a complete regimen, with formulas made from the finest ingredients to help exfoliate, cleanse, and hydrate—three steps so important in creating beautiful skin.”

“I’ve been waiting for the Fleur de Rose collection to come out,” says Granito. “It’s a fantastic addition to their line. Moroccanoil takes great care in the ingredients they use in their products, and I love this scent.

It’s subtle and has a woody undertone that’s definitely not the rose your grandmother wore.” Moroccanoil Fleur de Rose is available at Canyon Ranch SpaClub at Venetian. 702-4143600; moroccanoil.com V

photography by ron Starr (Spa); CourteSy of MoroCCanoil (tal, produCtS)

as HigH-end fragrances return to tHe romance of rose, innovative skincare is following suit, and it’s proving to be a Hit witH tHe women of las vegas. by matt stewart

STYLE Time Honored

Luxury at Play

Vegas’s boys of summer are also boys of style in the latest top-drawer timepieces from the finest swiss watchmakers. by roberta naas PhotograPhy by Jeff Crawford

Introduced at this spring’s watch fairs in Switzerland, the newest sporty luxe timepieces are arriving in Las Vegas just in time for the city’s men to overindulge in summer sports and look supremely stylish while doing it. Savvy enough to know that most men adore state-of-the-art gadgetry, the foremost brands have combined a host of functions and features in these sophisticated sports watches. They’re sturdy and water-resistant enough for sailing or diving, with the fawless precision required to time a lap around the racetrack. Beauty and practicality in one exquisite package, these objects of desire are destined to turn heads at the summer’s hottest events. For more watch features and expanded coverage, go to vegasmagazine.com/watches. V

Audemars Piguet, this Royal Oak Offshore Diver watch ($19,000) is powered by a self-winding movement and offers dive-time measurement and a date indicator. Water resistant to 300 meters, it is crafted in stainless steel and has a glare-proof sapphire crystal. The Shops at Crystals, 702-889-8828; audemarspiguet.com From Corum, the 45mm Corum Admiral’s Cup ACOne 45 chronograph ($7,700) is made from painted brass and features the colorful nautical pennants of the Admiral’s Cup on the fange, while the wooden dial emulates a ship’s deck. Bellusso Jewelers, Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian and Palazzo, 702-650-2988; corum.ch Prime automotive engineering inspired this Bovet

by Pininfarina “Sergio”

46 vegasmagazine.com

Split-Second Chronograph ($34,500). Crafted in shotblasted stainless steel in the brand’s much-loved 45mm Amadeo convertible case (allowing it to transform from wristwatch to pocket watch or table clock), it is powered by a self-winding mechanical movement and offers the hours, minutes, and small seconds, as well as a splitsecond chronograph with a 30-minute counter. Just 250 pieces will be made.

Wynn & Company Watches, 702-770-3520; bovet.com As the home of Shelby American, Las Vegas will be commemorating Shelby’s victory in the 1965 FIA International Championship as Baume & Mercier unveils the stainless steel Capeland Cobra chronograph ($4,450) in the automaker’s honor.

The dial of this automatic watch is Shelby Guardsman blue with racing stripes, while the subdials recall the dash of the Shelby Cobra

427. Only 1,965 pieces will be created. Ca’ d’Oro, Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian and Palazzo, 702-696-0080; baume-et-mercier.com The Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph watch ($21,000) is constructed from stainless steel and powered by an automatic movement.

Featuring a column-wheel chronograph and screweddown push-pieces, this 42mm watch is water resistant to 150 meters and antimagnetic. Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian and Palazzo, 702-650-2617; vacheron-constantin.com Cafron tray, Ralph Lauren Home ($195). Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian and Palazzo, 702-650-5656; ralphlaurenhome.com.

Gloves ($390) and notebook ($330), Bottega Veneta.

The Shops at Crystals, 702-220-4751; bottega veneta.com

Styling by terry lewiS

clockwise from top: From

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(866)584-5845 www.elysianatthedistrict.com 2 1 5 1 V i l l a g e Wa l k D r i v e | H e n d e r s o n , N e va d a 8 9 0 1 2

CULTURE Hottest Ticket Few performers get more R.E.S.P.E.C.T. in the music biz than Aretha Franklin, and Las Vegas will get to pay homage on August 14.

Royal Entrance

photography by roberta parkin/getty images

The legendary ArethA FrAn lin comes To The colosseum for a special one-nighT-only performance. by juliet izon It takes a rare combination of monumental talent and potent originality for a performer to achieve single-name status, but among the first and most deserving to earn that honor is Aretha—aka the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. Since beginning her career six decades ago as a teenage gospel singer, the 73-year-old has charted 100 singles, won 18 Grammy Awards, and been ranked number one on Rolling Stone’s list of the Greatest Singers of All Time. And if that weren’t impressive enough, Franklin is also the recipient of America’s highest civilian award: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

So it’s not surprising that her one-night-only show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace is among summer’s most anticipated events. In addition to timeless hits like “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and “Chain of Fools,” Franklin will perform tracks from her latest album, Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics. Produced by industry giants Clive Davis, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, and Andre “Andre 3000” Benjamin, among others, the songs range from Adele’s fiery “Rolling in the Deep” to the Gloria Gaynor disco anthem “I Will Survive.” “I’m very happy with everything on this project,” Franklin says. “Working with Mr. Davis again—well, there’s nothing like it. He’s not just another chieftain; he cares.”

Franklin is also looking forward to introducing some of these seminal tunes to a new audience. “[Clive and I] both agreed that there was a whole new generation who may never have heard the original recordings,” she says. “I’m truly having a lot of fun.” August 14 at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. For tickets, call 866-320-9763 or visit thecolosseum.com. V

vegasmagazine.com 49

CULTURE See, Hear!

HELP ME, SEBU

Vegas may not be known for its surfing, but that can’t stop the good vibrations of a Brian Wilson concert.

For his new album, Brian Wilson calls on a medley of collaborators.

seBu simonian

Sound of Summer

Head beacH boy Brian Wilson brings His no pier pressure tour to tHe cosmopolitan’s cHelsea tHeater. by tess eyrich Perhaps no other artist has left a larger imprint on popular music than The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson. From the feel-good kitsch of Surfin’ Safari to the now-legendary sonic experimentation of Pet Sounds, Wilson demonstrated a natural knack for songwriting, and his creative perfectionism helped revolutionize studio recording. In December he released his 11th solo album, No Pier Pressure, and this July he’ll arrive at the Cosmopolitan theater The Chelsea to debut the new songs alongside folk musician Sixto Rodriguez.

One of Wilson’s more collaborative efforts, the album features contributions from artists including Zooey Deschanel, Kacey Musgraves, and Nate Ruess, the lead singer of Fun. Wilson’s favorite track, “Sail Away,” reunites him with founding Beach Boy Al Jardine and South African vocalist Blondie Chaplin, who famously took the lead

50 vegasmagazine.com

on the band’s 1973 hit “Sail On, Sailor.”

The album’s release comes during a moment of renewed interest in Wilson’s life. This past June, the early years of his relationship with his wife, Melinda Ledbetter Wilson, were the subject of the critically acclaimed biopic Love & Mercy, starring Paul Dano and John Cusack as Wilson at different stages of his life and Elizabeth Banks as Melinda.

Although Wilson wasn’t involved in the film’s production—and admits to feeling some trepidation upon first hearing about it—he agreed to spend a week with Dano and Cusack, chatting about his childhood in Southern California and the thrill of recording music in the ’60s and ’70s. “They got familiar with my mannerisms and my personality,” Wilson says, “and then when they made the movie, they had a lot more confidence in themselves.”

He endorses the film as an accurate portrait of a life dedicated to exploring the nature of creativity, a preoccupation that’s been at once intensely rewarding and intensely frustrating. In fact, Wilson confesses to being in the midst of a creative drought that has lasted half a year, but he remains hopeful that he’ll find his inspiration again soon.

And if it’s any consolation, the fruits of his labor aren’t going unnoticed by the generations of fans who continue to discover and propagate his music, like Sebu Simonian of the Billboardtopping pop duo Capital Cities, one of Wilson’s collaborators on No Pier Pressure. “What surprises me most about Brian,” says Simonian, “is how at the age of 73, he’s still able to write skillfully crafted pop songs that sound relevant and innovative.” July 10. $50–$125. The Chelsea at Cosmopolitan; cosmopolitanlasvegas.com V

zooey deschanel The actress and part-time musician described working with Wilson as “the absolute best” after contributing vocals to “On the Island” with her longtime She & Him collaborator M. Ward.

nate ruess Wilson invited Ruess to perform on “Saturday Night” and likened the singer’s voice to that of his youngest brother, Beach Boys cofounder and lead guitarist Carl Wilson.

photography by Larry Marano/getty IMages (WILson); Mat hayWard/WIreIMage (sIMonIan); C FLanIgan/WIreIMage (desChaneL); FrederICk M. broWn/nbC/ nbC vIa getty IMages (ruess)

One half of the pop duo Capital Cities—you may remember their ubiquitous 2013 single “Safe and Sound”—Simonian rearranged the instrumentation of the album’s second track and retitled it “Runaway Dancer.”

CULTURE Now Showing

Back in the Building For visitors to Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, its new tribute to Elvis Presley is both a museum exhibit and thrilling entertainment.

But to the King’s family, it’s much more: a legacy reclamation project.

“My daughter and I want to preserve who Elvis was as a man, as an entertainer, as a performer, as an actor, as a human being,” says Priscilla Presley, “and not have this caricature that we see out there, especially in Las Vegas.”

Endorsed by the Presley family, “Graceland Presents Elvis: The Exhibition, The Show, The Experience” combines a 28,000square-foot permanent exhibit, a retail center, a wedding chapel, and the newly renamed Elvis Presley Theater at the International Showroom—the renowned venue where Elvis performed 636 consecutive sold-out shows from 1969 to 1976 and where the production show Elvis Experience, starring actor Martin Fontaine, is currently staged.

The exhibit is filled with authentic Elvis memorabilia from the archives of his home and museum, Graceland, including his high school yearbook, his first gold album, outfits he wore onstage and on film (like the mechanic’s jumpsuit from Viva Las Vegas), several of his personal automobiles, and contracts signed by him and Colonel Tom Parker. Video clips and vintage photos are displayed throughout the space, and a 30-minute documentary on his career plays in a small theater built into the attraction.

Priscilla Presley has made a concerted effort to keep this tribute faithful to her late husband. So there will be no Elvis impersonator officiating or performing at weddings in the

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VEGASMAGAZINE.COM

chapel, and Fontaine’s show is a song-by-song reproduction of an Elvis concert in Vegas in the early ’70s, with full costumes and a band of the same size that Elvis used. “We’re cleaning it up,” Priscilla says. “If someone wants [the Elvis caricature], well, they’ll have to go searching somewhere else. We’re keeping Elvis authentic.”

The hotel now called Westgate opened in 1969 as the International and was purchased by Conrad Hilton two years later and renamed the Las Vegas Hilton. But Elvis’s daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, was surprised to find it standing. “I didn’t even know the building was still in existence, to be honest with you,” she said on April 23, the day the attraction opened. “But it feels right. It feels like we’re resurrecting everything.”

Lisa Marie—who had not been on the property since her father’s final shows there in December 1976, when she was 8—admits to some nostalgia on returning. “I spent so much time here just running around. That’s what I remember, always being able to run upstairs in the suite when he did his shows,” she says, chuckling.

“I would be upstairs trying to do stuff like walking outside on the balcony by myself, which I probably shouldn’t have been doing. There was a slot machine in the suite, and I remember playing that a lot. This was like a second home, really.”

According to Priscilla, the exhibit is as close as today’s Vegas audiences can get to the real Elvis. “No one can ever, ever replace him,” she says, “but you get the feel of what it was like to be near him.” Open daily from 10 AM to 10 PM. Westgate North Tower, 800-222-5361; westgatevegas.com V

FROM TOP:

A wall in the exhibition dedicated to the Elvis Presley/ Ann-Margret movie Viva Las Vegas; Elvis’s gold belt; the gold record he received for his debut LP, Elvis Presley.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF ELVIS PRESLEY’S GRACELAND (GOLD RECORD, BELT); COURTESY OF TOM DONOGHUE (VIVA LAS VEGAS)

THE FIRST PERMANENT, PRESLEY-ENDORSED GRACELAND EXHIBIT OPENS IN THE BUILDING WHERE ELVIS PERFORMED HIS RECORD-BREAKING VEGAS SHOWS. BY JOHN KATSILOMETES

More than a president.

An icon in the community.

Congratulations to Summerlin President, Kevin Orrock, for being named to the 2015 Vegas Dozen. Your personal and professional commitment to the Las Vegas community inspires all of us at The Howard Hughes Corporation.

summerlin.com

Culture Art Full

Printed Matters

An importAnt new Picasso show, feAturing works from the collection of the Artist’s son, reveAls both Artistic vision And privAte pAssion. by kristen peterson Pablo Picasso is inarguably one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, his paintings having captivated viewers and inspired fellow artists for decades. And the popular appetite for his work only continues to grow, with his painting Women of Algiers recently selling for a record-breaking $179 million.

But far less is known about Picasso’s printmaking.

In “Picasso—Creatures & Creativity,” the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art offers a rare look into the artist’s exploration of other media—in this case, lithographs and linocuts—which resulted in works that would shape his paintings yet that stand on their own as accomplished modern pieces. Produced from 1938 to 1971, they reveal the stages that Picasso went through, laboriously and methodically, in creating a work of art, providing a glimpse of his thought process.

“It allows us to show the evolving artistic vision and how these techniques of the linocuts and lithographs are influential in the new direction of his works,” says Tarissa Tiberti, the gallery’s executive director. “The lithographs are great

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because you can see these progressive states in compositions….

He was curious and wanted to know about everything. Here you see the line works in prints that would influence his painting.”

The exhibit is unique because its 43 works (eight of them paintings) are from the collection of the artist’s son Claude Ruiz Picasso. They include Deux Femme Nues (Two Female Nudes), which depicts two of the artist’s muses: Françoise Gilot, seated in the foreground, and Dora Maar, sleeping behind her—a reflection of the roles the women played at that time in his life and his work.

The Bellagio Gallery’s last solo Picasso exhibit was a ceramics show mounted by his grandson Bernard Ruiz Picasso and PaperBall, a subsidiary of the former PaceWildenstein Gallery. It offered a riveting film clip of the artist working in real time, catnip for Picasso devotees who wanted to witness his creative process in action. For many, “Picasso—Creatures & Creativity” will likely have the same impact. July 3–January 10, 2016. Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art, 702-693-7871; bellagio.com V

image Courtesy of the estate of Pablo PiCasso/artists rights soCiety (ars), New york (femme); PhotograPhy by george stroud/getty images (PiCasso)

Femme étendue lisant

by Pablo Picasso, 1952.

CULTURE Spotlight on stage

SUMMER LOVIN’

on tour

A FEW QUESTIONS FOR PETE WENTZ ABOUT THE LATEST TOUR FROM THE ALL-GROWN-UP FALL OUT BOY, COMING TO MANDALAY BAY IN AUGUST. It’s been 10 years since Fall Out Boy struck gold with their major-label debut, and now they’re celebrating the release of their sixth album, American Beauty/American Psycho, by hitting the road with rapper Wiz Khalifa. We checked in with Pete Wentz, the band’s bassist and lyricist, just days before the Boys of Zummer Tour’s official kickoff.

You’ve described this album as different from your previous ones. How so? We made the overnight version of a Fall Out Boy record, the one that happens right away.

We wrote and recorded this album when we were on the road, so it’s more of a travel record than anything else.

Based on the album’s title alone, film must be a strong influence on Fall Out Boy’s music. Movies are what we agree on, and Fall Out Boy songs are really visual, almost

as though the music is supposed to accompany something visual. You were only 25 when From Under the Cork Tree was released. How does it feel to have those formative years cataloged? It’s like when people look at old photographs and they’re like, Oh man, I can’t believe I wore that outfit. I get to hear the musical equivalent of that, but I don’t listen to a lot of music from our past. It’s hard to hear things you wish you’d done differently. Wiz Khalifa isn’t the first musician we’d expect you to tour with. I think Wiz has more of a punk-rock ethos than people know, and there’s so much to Fall Out Boy’s history that I attribute to hip-hop. The two of us coming together makes more sense than most people might think. August 7. Mandalay Bay Events Center, 877-632-7400; mandalaybay.com V

// street theater //

Smith Center for the Performing Arts, 702-749-2000; thesmithcenter.com

Samuel Pergande and Jenny Winton in Dirty Dancing.

CULTURAL EXCHANGE

Come August, Vegas’s international focus will land squarely on Japan when Shochiku, a Tokyo-based entertainment company that produces live Kabuki performances and films, arrives in the city to drum up some buzz for MGM Resorts International’s 2016 Kabuki festival. In five shows, the company’s performers, including famed Kabuki actor Ichikawa Somegoro, will stage a technologically revamped version of the classic Kabuki tale Fight with a Carp against the backdrop of Bellagio’s fountains. The Vegas shows are part of Shochiku’s efforts to reintroduce Kabuki theater to a global audience.

August 14–16. Bellagio, bellagio.com

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAMELA LITTKY (WENTZ); MATTHEW MURPHY (DIRTY DANCING); COURTESY OF MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL (KABUKI)

BOYS WONDER

Nobody puts Baby in a corner, but this July, the Smith Center is putting her and the rest of the cast of Dirty Dancing on the Reynolds Hall stage. Director Sarah Tipple’s musical production, which premiered in Australia, tells the coming-of-age love story of Frances “Baby” Houseman and her dance instructor, Johnny Castle, and features many of the songs from the beloved 1987 film. You won’t want to miss the live version of the famous lift sequence set to “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.” Ticket prices range from $29 to $139. July 14–19. The

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PEOPLE Power Strip

High Point of the West

As one of the home furnishings industry’s most visible leAders, RobeRt MaRicich hAs turned vegAs’s World mArket Center into A nAtionAl design nexus. by sarah feldberg PhotograPhy by brad swonetz

From his perch at Las Vegas’s World Market Center, Robert Maricich combines visionary leadership with a deep appreciation for great design.

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The home furnishings industry in North America largely revolves around two places that couldn’t be more different: High Point, North Carolina, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

Both cities host annual markets—multiday industry summits where manufacturers display their products for retailers and designers, who come to see what’s now and next. Until 2010, the two markets were in direct competition, but where some saw a rivalry, Robert Maricich recognized an opportunity.

Maricich was then president and CEO of World Market Center, the home furnishings behemoth just north of the Strip, where stunning armchairs and designer sofas fill hundreds of thousands of square feet of showroom space. While High Point was the entrenched home and design hub—a manufacturing town where furniture has been big business since the early 20th century—Las Vegas was the fresh challenger. Maricich imagined them united under common ownership. “In 2010, I realized there was this incredible opportunity to buy not only World Market Center,” he says, “but also the majority of our largest competitor.”

With the effects of the recession still reverberating throughout the home furnishings industry, the Vegas-based CEO rallied an investment group, and in 2011 the new International Market Centers spent $1 billion to acquire World Market Center in Las Vegas and 59 percent of the showrooms in downtown High Point, consolidating them within a single organization, with Maricich at the helm.

Today, he says, the two markets attract almost completely discrete buyer bases. “If you want to be a seller of furnishings in North America, you need to be in both High Point and Las Vegas.”

Maricich wasn’t born into the upper echelons of the home and design sector. Raised in Great Falls, Montana, he attended Montana State University on a basketball scholarship, graduating in 1972

“my wife gets embarrassed because i can’t go into a room without lifting the cushions to see who made the sofa.”

—robert maricich

photography courtesy of robert Maricich (Wolf)

Maricich in one of the showrooms of World Market Center. right: Maricich with Vicente Wolf, a past recipient of the center’s Design Icon Award.

with a degree in civil engineering. He briefly worked for Texaco, where, he says, “I discovered I hated being an engineer.”

Suddenly without a career, Maricich found a job managing a factory that produced high-end veneers used by architects and furniture manufacturers. “I’ve always been interested in general management,” he says, adding that he liked the creative aspect of home furnishings, “the element of being involved in creating a product and the satisfaction of seeing something come to life—a sofa, dining room, bedroom, or something like that.”

Over the past 30-plus years, Maricich has gone from product manager at Flexsteel Industries to CEO of the high-end furniture giant Century Furniture to joining the Flexsteel board of directors some 21 years after he left the company. He has emerged as an industry leader—a guy who’s been tapped for government committees, who has a deep understanding of the home furnishings

business while also appreciating the beauty of a well-made chair.

“My wife gets embarrassed because I can’t go into a room without lifting the cushions and seeing who made the sofa,” he says, laughing.

Maricich and his wife live primarily in Vegas, just a block off the Strip, in a Park Towers condo featuring a custom Vladimir Kagan sectional that Maricich describes as “literally a work of art” and pieces created by Oscar de la Renta in collaboration with Century when Maricich was its CEO. These days, the International Market Centers president is excited about the future of World Market Center, where 29 acres are still waiting to be developed. Already, Building C has made Vegas the Western hub of the home décor and gift industries. “You won’t find anywhere on the planet a better permanent showroom complex than what we have in Las Vegas,” Maricich says. “People use the term ‘world-class’ loosely, but it really applies.” V

View from the top Home furnishings authority Robert Maricich talks about his life in Las Vegas.

Foodie Favorite:

the hood:

“We absolutely eat out: Wynn and Encore, Cosmo, Joël Robuchon, Sen of Japan, Lotus of Siam, Raku. Any great restaurant is a friend of ours.”

“We live in Park Towers.

We’re denizens of the Strip, but we’re also supporters of Downtown. It’s almost like we live in two cities.”

GivinG Back:

“We have a little place in the Florida Keys and a little place in Montana.

Fly-fshing has been a passion since I was a little boy, so that’s the ultimate getaway—just a few days in the ocean or in the river in Montana.”

“I just got on the board of Opportunity Village, and I’m really excited. The work they’re doing is just sensational.”

Great escape:

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PEOPLE Desert Patrol INSIGHT nickname:

“Friends have been calling me ‘Kimchi’ for so long that some people actually think it’s my real name.” people i most admire:

“My mom and big sisters— they’re the strongest women I know.” mantra:

“Actively pursuing happiness.”

for myself and loved ones.

Financial investment would be when I opened my frst Roth IRA as soon as I turned 18, which taught me to build a diverse portfolio over the years.” best advice:

“It’s an oldie but goodie….

The Golden Rule is to treat others how you would like to be treated.”

best investment:

favorite indulgence:

“Life’s investment would be time, love, compassion

“Movie theater popcorn and Junior Mints.”

Night Moves

XS nightclub’S im martin-Wood went from induStrial engineering to engineering the perfect night in the nation’S SpendieSt nightclub. by cl gaber Kim Martin-Wood used to hang out with some very different party animals.

“I was born in a small Iowa town and grew up on the family farm. It was country life with hogs and cattle—about as removed from Vegas as possible,” she says with a laugh.

So what’s this girl from a one-post-office town doing now? Hint: Bottle service doesn’t involve feeding an orphan calf. Martin-Wood is the assistant general manager of XS, the nation’s top-grossing nightclub for five of its six

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years, and its sister club Tryst. A former industrial engineer (“I love math and science—I’m a nerd!”), she earned a degree from Iowa State University’s College of Engineering and went to work for a Fortune 500 firm specializing in avionics. “My two older sisters relocated to Vegas, and they would tell me stories of ‘big life, big city,’” she says. “So I started to get a little antsy. I wanted to go out and explore.”

By 2004, Martin-Wood had moved to Las Vegas, where she landed a job as a cocktail server at Club Ra in Luxor.

But when she heard about a new nightclub called Tryst in Wynn, she couldn’t wait to audition. She helped open that club, then did the same for XS at Encore as its nightclub manager, moving up the rungs to operations manager and then her current position.

“I oversee the grand scheme of things,” she explains. “I like to call myself a firefighter figuratively because I do put out fires.” Her only-in-Vegas challenges have included strange requests from VIP guests, such as renting a live panda for the club experience (“Unfortunately, I couldn’t accommodate that”). She’s also been the ring bearer for marriage proposals and the referee for Olympic athletes during swimming challenges in the club’s pool. “There are celebs and royalty and VIPs,” she says. “The winners of the Stanley Cup brought the cup to the club and drank from it. There are the high rollers who stay until sunrise.

They don’t want the DJ to stop the music, so they’ll buy Champagne and tequila for everyone in the club.

“A lot of people think a nightclub job is only at night,” Martin-Wood adds, “but we operate 24 hours a day.”

Because XS shares its outdoor space with Encore’s European pool area, “we have people in the club as early as 8 am.” Not that she’s complaining. “I get to throw my own party every night.” wynnlasvegas.com V

photography by Melissa Valladares

A job with a Fortune 500 firm couldn’t keep this self-described nerd from answering the siren call of Vegas, and her decision has paid off in spades.

JULY 3, 2015 – JANUARY 10, 2016

Tickets and information 702.693.7871

|

bellagio.com/bgfa

Pablo Picasso, Woman with Yellow Hat (Jacqueline), Oil on Canvas, June 1962, 36 x 28 ¾”, © Estate of Pablo Picasso, Paris/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

PEOPLE Spirit of Generosity

From the stage of Reynolds Hall, Jeri Crawford is determined to ensure that classical music isn’t only for the well-heeled.

Pure Harmony

When Jeri Crawford moved to Las Vegas in 2003, her longtime love of the arts drew her to the city’s fledgling symphony, then just five years old. An early faithful supporter, she and husband Rick later joined the Smith Center’s founding board and helped build a permanent facility for the hometown orchestra. In 2008, Crawford became interim president of what locals affectionately call “the Phil,” and seven years later she’s still there (fittingly, the “interim” tag has been dropped). With an enthusiastic new conductor in Donato Cabrera, the orchestra will embark on its biggest season ever in September. And while engagement with music lovers in Vegas and beyond is growing by leaps and bounds, Crawford is focused on bringing classical music to a less expected audience: local kids who may have never been exposed to it before.

Tell us about your initial contact with the Phil.

When I came here, I was just looking for a season ticket. [Laughs] My

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husband and I grew up together in San Diego, and he moved here in 1971.

We had gone different directions. Thirty-some years later we connected. I said okay [to moving to Las Vegas], but I’d like season tickets to the symphony. He asked, “Do we even have one?”

I guess you found one.

We sponsored a couple concerts, then I was invited to join the board in 2004.

I ended up as interim president—it kind of evolved to where it is today. We were doing five concerts at [UNLV’s] Ham Hall, then we added a pops series, and all of a sudden the Smith Center idea came up, and my husband and I decided we wanted to be founders. We really wanted to make this happen for the community.

How did you find Donato Cabrera?

It was a two-year search and we saw 17 candidates. It exposed us to some of the top conductors in the nation. Then all of a sudden Donato shows up.

He wasn’t part of the initial group, but the board really liked him. He had

photography by brad swonetz

Las Vegas PhiLharmonic President and ceo Jeri Crawford is bringing the PhiL’s most ambitious season eVer to underserVed Las Vegans. by brian sodoma

history here and he understood the culture. It’s strange how things happen. We were always told by the consultant, “Don’t discount that somebody might just come along and you’ll just know it.” He’s been with us for a year and it’s been amazing.

Tell us about your outreach to local schoolkids.

This year we focused on fourth grade. We have five days split up—two in the fall and three in the winter—for our Youth Concert Series, where Clark County School District students [many of them economically disadvantaged] enjoy a concert at the Smith Center. This year we’ll see 16,000 students. Over the next three years, we’ll keep adding to get a full 10 days. Then we’ll be able to add fifth graders and expand. Within three years we should see 32,000.

How has Donato Cabrera fit into the youth outreach?

Donato has been to Las Vegas Academy to conduct and to UNLV and the Nevada School of the Arts to work with people and give master classes. But the first big goal is to stabilize these 10 days for the Youth Concert Series. The costs for those are $20,000 to $25,000 a day. We just received a major grant to help stabilize those five days, and we’re looking to build the next five.

Once we get there, the other part is going out to

the schools and doing master classes and working with the Las Vegas Youth Orchestras [a program of the Clark County School District]. I think whether it’s a collaborative concert with them or to have our musicians playing together with them, that kind of big vision thing, we can do it. Donato is taking us on that path, and he knows how to make that happen.

That’s not your only outreach program.

I just have this passion for people who are stuck at home and can’t get out. So we’re taking an entire musical spotlight series, a small ensemble program, to two senior communities in town—Las Ventanas and Siena. We’re going to have three or four of those a year. It’ll be a 45-minute concert and Q&A at no charge to the community.

In some sense, you’re helping to redefine the culture of Las Vegas.

I think it’s a big part of our role as a community organization. Culture is not the Smith Center; it’s what goes on inside it. It’s that big message, and I don’t think everybody knows that yet. But it’s a great time to let people know. V For tickets and information on how to support the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s youth and education programs, visit lvphil.com.

“This year our youTh concerT series will see 16,000 sTudenTs. wiThin Three years we should see 32,000.”

—jeri crawford

Erika Dalton, one of last season’s winners of the Philharmonic’s Young Artists Concerto Competition, performs with the orchestra.

Charity register Opportunities to give.

Fourth With the Phil at the Vill Celebrate the Fourth of July while supporting one of Las Vegas’s longest-standing homegrown causes, Opportunity Village, at an exclusive party on the grounds of its Ralph & Betty Engelstad Campus.

Cocktails and dinner precede an open-air concert by the Las Vegas Philharmonic and a freworks show set to the orchestra’s music. All of the funds raised will beneft Opportunity Village’s efforts to provide vocational training, job placement, and other social services to adults with intellectual disabilities.

When: Saturday, July 4, at 6 pm Where: Opportunity Village’s Engelstad Campus Contact: 702-262-1550; opportunityvillage.org

marriott las Vegas charities golF tournament Summerlin plays host to the 11th annual Marriott Las Vegas Charities Golf Tournament, whose proceeds this year will go to the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Nevada and the Children’s Miracle Network of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals. Players will meet at the JW Marriott Las Vegas for lunch and a silent auction, tee off at the nearby TPC Las Vegas golf course, and cap off the day with an awards ceremony.

When: Monday, July 27, at 11 am Where: JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa Contact: marriottjustforthekids.com

Walk a mile in my shoes Looking to give back in a small way that has a big impact? The Las Vegas Rescue Mission’s immersive Walk a Mile in My Shoes event invites participants to take the same steps as the city’s homeless population by walking a mile—beginning outside the offces of the Las Vegas Review Journal, through the nonproft organization’s campus, and back to the starting point. Each $20 registration fee supports the Las Vegas Rescue Mission’s homelessness initiatives.

When: Saturday, August 1, at 9 am Where: 1111 W. Bonanza Road Contact: 702-382-1766; vegasrescue.org

strikes For scholarshiPs Get ready for a little friendly competition. Epicurean Charitable Foundation’s Strikes for Scholarships tournament welcomes bowlers of all skill levels to face off against one another while enjoying raffes, contests, and snacks. The fundraiser is overseen by the students it serves, who are pursuing careers in hospitality and the culinary arts and who beneft from the foundation’s fnancial assistance, professional mentorships, and job placement.

When: Saturday, August 15, at 9 am Where: South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa Contact: 702-932-5098; ecfv.org

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W E R D WE BEST E H T D IN R .

A K C DEC E H T

Congrats to Tom Jingoli, Chief Compliance OďŹƒcer at Konami Gaming, Inc., for being one of twelve men honored with the Vegas Dozen Award. Our city is lucky to have you and we certainly are, too.

konamigaming.com

InvIted

VIVA LAS VEGAS

photography Courtesy of steve spatafore/Las vegas News Bureau

Priscilla and lisa Marie Presley introduce the Westgate’s neWest exhibition With a reception fit for the King.

Priscilla Presley

Elvis Presley performed in Las Vegas for the last time in 1976, the conclusion of his run of comeback shows at what was then known as the Las Vegas Hilton. His legacy, however, endures in a new Graceland-organized exhibition at the hotel, now called the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, that puts a trove of Elvis memorabilia on display in Vegas for the first time, along with a live tribute show and even a wedding chapel. And who better than Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley to introduce it all? The two women kicked off their day in Vegas with a bluesuede ribbon-cutting ceremony, giving guests access to hundreds of artifacts, from Elvis’s high school yearbooks and graduation tassel to his 1962 Lincoln Continental.

The celebration continued as Priscilla served as the matron of honor in the wedding of Kaycee Satava and Cameron Baker, the first to be held in the chapel, and later posed for photos on the red carpet during an exclusive gala reception. As the evening drew to a close, Priscilla and Lisa Marie, along with Lisa Marie’s husband, Michael Lockwood, and son, Benjamin Keough, took their seats for the first performance of Elvis Experience, a limited-run production starring actor Martin Fontaine as the rock ’n’ roll god in the early ’70s.

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INVITED // style insider //

CRÈME DE LA CRÈME WITH SPRING IN MIND, SOME OF THE EVENING’S BEST-DRESSED GUESTS PLAYED IT COOL IN TONED-DOWN SHADES OF APRICOT, BLUSH, AND CREAM. Randy Char and Randy Gury

Mari Landers

Gary Schofield, Steve Seroka, and Bob Glaser

VEGAS DOZEN PAYING TRIBUTE TO 12 local men who make giving

Heather Caravella with George and Melina Gluck

back to the community a priority, Saks Fifth Avenue and Vegas magazine presented the Vegas Dozen 2015: The Men We Love and Why We Love Them in the Saks store at Fashion Show. Now in its 12th year, the annual event benefits Keep Memory Alive, the fundraising arm of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, and includes an awards ceremony on Fashion Show’s runway and an afterparty inside Saks.

Hosted by Mercedes Martinez of Mix 94.1, the festivities also featured live entertainment by DJ Axis, the cast of Cirque du Soleil’s O, and Bob Anderson, star of Palazzo’s Frank: The Man. The Music, as well as cocktails courtesy of Southern Wine & Spirits and gourmet appetizers provided by The Capital Grille and Wild Truffles. Read more about this year’s Vegas Dozen beginning on page 98.

Craig Dickson, Jason Demuth, and Collyn Morgan Sweet treats courtesy of Wild Truffles

Christine Moorhead and Greg Vander Kamp

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Eduardo Cordova and Cory Lloyd

Ria Reodica and Maria Matta

Sparkle Mccuiston and Floreece Bolden

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF RAY ALAMO OPPOSITE PAGE: COURTESY OF AL POWERS

Dr. Traci Grossman

Drummers at sunset

James Atkinson and Hilliary Heard

Joe and Solveig Raftery

Julie Downs and Eduardo Garcia

FASHION FOR THREE SQUARE HELD AT THE PRIVATE RESIDENCE of Diana

Bennett, this year’s Fashion for Three Square event raised awareness for the nonprofit organization’s Bag Childhood Hunger initiative, a campaign sponsored by the Bennett Family Foundation and the Elaine P. Wynn and Family Foundation, among other donors, and designed to alleviate food insecurity in Southern Nevada.

The evening featured a runway show of Hervé Léger’s Spring/Summer 2015 collection, live entertainment, and food and drink courtesy of SW Steakhouse, Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill, Buddy V’s Ristorante, Artisanal Foods, Gimme Some Sugar, HEXX Chocolate & Confexxions, and other vendors.

Catering

by Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill

Mariena Mercer

Cameron Conn and Meagan Prokopanko

Scott Menke, Diana Bennett, Nancy Nichols, and Brian Burton

Brian and Angel Nettles with Karen and Michael Crovetti

Models in Hervé Léger

Susie Lee with Shannon and Bill McBeath and Punam Mathur

VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 67

INVITED Willie Bawarski and Olivia Arellano

Brian and Robyn Lessinger

// style insider //

PUT IT IN PRINT FROM IN-YOUR-FACE FLORALS TO COLORFUL GEOMETRIC PATTERNS, POOLGOERS AT MANDARIN ORIENTAL’S Adrienne Augustus and Richard Shaw

SEASON OPENER LIT UP THE NIGHT IN A VARIETY OF EYECATCHING PRINTS.

Chris Bennett and Ryan Hamilton Sara Geary, Gina Joy, and Isabelle Ramirez Cliff Atkinson and Josef Wagner

Tegest Gobena, Malena Moorman, and Liza Ceja Harinder Atwal and Gianluca Farinazzo

MANDARIN ORIENTAL POOL KICKOFF summer with a glamorous pool-season kickoff party, held on Mandarin Oriental’s lush eighthfloor deck. Surrounded by the twinkling lights of the Vegas skyline, guests enjoyed music by Side Project: DJ and Drummer, cocktails made with Absolut Elyx, flutes of Perrier-Jouët’s luxe Belle Epoque Champagne, and light appetizers on the sprawling outdoor patio, and they commemorated the evening in a photo booth.

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Valerie Betancourt

Lisa Song Sutton and Ricardo Laguna

Lindsay Rees and Chad Mumford

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF RAY ALAMO

VEGAS MAGAZINE USHERED IN

Mandarin Oriental’s pool deck

“I am living proof Desert Springs Hospital saves lives … the hospital and everyone there will always be close to my heart.”

I’m Living Proof

~ Carrie Unck

Advanced cardiac care at Desert Springs Hospital saves lives.

Carrie Unck loves life. She loves to golf, hike and spend time with her family. She didn’t know that she had heart disease.

“I never thought that it would happen to me.”

The unthinkable happened in 2013. “My doctor told me I was in afb – atrial fbrillation and had an irregular and rapid heartbeat. The angiogram showed I had severe blockages in my heart. I needed quadruple bypass surgery.”

“I went to Desert Springs Hospital and the heart team there saved my life. Thanks to them I am alive and in the best health I have ever been.”

Learn more about Desert Springs Hospital and advanced cardiac care at www.desertspringshospital.com

2075 E. Flamingo Rd. | Las Vegas, NV 89119 | 702-733-8800

Physicians are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center. The hospital shall not be liable for actions or treatments provided by physicians.

TasTe Searsucker’s albacore tuna and prosciutto with sherry aioli and balsamic.

Summer Social

photography by peter harasty

With the arrival of Brian Malarkey’s SearSuc er, restaurant dining feels like enjoying snacks in your living rooM, a Midnight Brunch, and an ice creaM social—all in one. by al mancini Come early, stay late! That’s the motto of the new Caesars Palace hot spot Searsucker, and it couldn’t be more fitting. Nobody is worried about turning tables here. Think of Searsucker as your living room, and use it as you wish.

The brainchild of chef Brian Malarkey, who gained fame on season three of Bravo’s top chef, the original Searsucker is in San Diego’s trendy Gaslamp Quarter, where it’s a favorite of the cool kids who

converge on that neighborhood. Some come for the food. But others come to hang out on a couch in the large lounge area. It’s as much a gathering spot as a restaurant, and Malarkey wants Las Vegans to feel the same way about his new place.

“The idea is, it’s not necessarily just dinner. It’s about going out and getting together with your friends,” the chef says. “We have a lot of people [who] dine in large groups, and what we’re asking is they embrace continued on page 72

vegasmagazine.com 71

taSte So SeuSS Me eat them, eat them, here they are!

Searsucker is at its best when serving big sloppy comfort foods packed with bold favors. During late-night hours, you can get that experience from the whimsically titled Green Eggs & Ham—a clockwise from far left: Searsucker

chef-owner Brian Malarkey; shrimp and grits with bacon; a Jalaberry Strawpeno cocktail.

dish I would gladly eat in a box, with a fox, in a house, or with a mouse.

A nod to fellow San Diego resident Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel, the colorfully over-the-top take on eggs Benedict starts with pork belly brined for 24 hours in apple cider vinegar, water, salt, and black peppercorn.

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ogled by their fans, the private dining area has a secret entrance to the megaclub Omnia next door.

The atmosphere changes over the course of the evening—especially when the club is open. “As the night goes on,” Malarkey says, “the music gets louder and the lights get lower.”

The menu is equally inviting to all. If you’re hanging out at the bar for happy hour and just want to nibble, check out the peanut “cracker jacks” or a decadently rich order of fries, tossed with duck fat, Parmesan cheese, prosciutto dust, and parsley.

If you’d like a traditional sit-down meal with an indulgent twist, dig into a tomahawk rib eye finished with Cognac and horseradish, or a cut of mahi mahi drenched in a thick, sweet demi-glace of red cherries,

“it’s not necessarily just dinner. it’s about getting together with your friends.”

—brian malarkey

It’s then roasted three to four hours, pressed to compress the fat, rested, and cut. Just before it’s served, the meat is seared, placed on toasted brioche, and topped with a poached

wine, and smoked almonds.

Or if you prefer a light meal before hitting the dance floor, try the shrimp ceviche, a dish created specifically for Las Vegas, with the shrimp blanched rather than citrus-cured and treated with a bit of citrus juice, chili peppers, and tomatillos.

As summer proceeds, Searsucker may find its biggest fans in the late-night revelers stumbling out of Omnia (or any other party).

Dinner slides right into brunch with items like cheese waffles with country ham and bourbon maple syrup or a cowboy campfire

breakfast with pork-belly hash, hanger steak, and a sunny-side-up egg.

Perhaps you’d rather indulge your sweet tooth with a peanut butter gelato sundae (say it fast: the “ermahgerd” sundae) or—depending on how the night went—take comfort in warm chocolate chip cookies. They’re served with a G-rated glass of milk, but why not wash them down with one of the bar’s custom spins on a classic cocktail?

No one’s judging; they have a motto to uphold, after all.

Caesars Palace, 702-8661800; searsucker.com V

egg, chimichurri hollandaise sauce, shaved chives, and micro basil.

The result is a breakfaststyle treat particularly good for disorienting premorning hours in Vegas.

photography by Mike pawlenty (Malarkey); peter harasty (shriMp, drink, green eggs)

the idea of just sharing the entire menu. It’s not like ‘I’m gonna have an appetizer and an entrée.’ It’s ‘Let’s just get four of these for the table and just share them all.’ It’s really a communal kind of experience.”

At Caesars Palace, Malarkey has successfully adapted the original’s hip, urban vibe to a casino environment. The décor blends barnyard-style wood tables and bare antique light fixtures with lush topiary.

Since vacationers like to get their drink on a bit earlier than most, the restaurant opens for happy hour at 4:30 pm. Acknowledging that people-watching in a Vegas resort can be at least as much fun as on a city street, the bar area features an outwardfacing counter that opens directly onto the casino floor. And realizing that certain VIPs don’t like being

TasTe spotlight BEER FANS, REJOICE!

SWISH TALES

Crime Scene

toast!

vegas’s unsavory origins make for a supremely savory meal at Siegel’S 1941.

If you’ve hit up the Mob Museum and you’re hankering for another taste of Vegas’s organized-crime origins, head to the El Cortez Hotel & Casino restaurant Siegel’s 1941, which salutes the hotel’s former owner, Bugsy Siegel, with swank décor and a menu of American classics, including burgers named after Siegel pals like Lucky Luciano (marinara, caramelized onions, Romano cheese, and fresh mozzarella) and Russian-born Meyer Lansky (pastrami, Swiss cheese, house-made coleslaw, pickles, and Russian dressing). What’ll you have to drink? A Bootlegger, of course, made with Templeton Prohibition rye, Giffard Madagascar vanilla liqueur, sherry, and one slightly ironic cherry on top. 702-385-5200; elcortezhotelcasino.com V

Shabu-shabu fans—and maybe some comedy fans—have been lining up at comedian Jo Koy’s 32-seat Yojie Japanese Fondue at Village Square.

Diners at Yojie (pronounced yo-gee-ay) sit at the barlike counter and mix their broth—faintly sweet sukiyaki, spicy miso, or rich, buttery tonkatsu—in bowls heated in front of their seats. Next they swish their meats (including Kobe and Wagyu beef and heritage pork varieties) and/or veggies (think Napa cabbage, spinach, broccoli, carrots, onions, tofu, and enoki and shiitake mushrooms) in the broth, and finally dip them in goma, ponzu, or the signature Swisher sauce. Make a swish!

Village Square, 702-4457008; yojie.com

// debut //

Hors d’âge is brewed in France exclusively for Bardot Brasserie at Aria.

THE XX FACTOR

Not just Las Vegas’s frst bean-to-bar craft chocolate maker, Hexx Kitchen + Bar at Paris Las Vegas is also a 30,000-square-foot restaurant and retail store. Guests can watch chocolate being created from just two ingredients, cacao beans and organic palm sugar, at the chocolate counter, Twenty XX Degrees (the name refers to the beans’ source, farms located 20 degrees north or south of the equator). Hexx serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner 24 hours a day, but you’ll want to save room for—or start with—dessert. 702-331-5100; hexxlasvegas.com

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VEGASMAGAziNE.CoM

photography by anthony mair (hexx, Siegel’S 1941); michael Schwartz/wireimage (Koy)

hot spot

Esteemed area restaurateurs Michael Mina and Rick Moonen are tapping equally esteemed brewers to produce custom beers. At Aria, chef Mina unveils Hors d’âge, a collaboration between Aria mixologist Craig Schoettler and the craft breweries Stillwater Artisanal in Boston and Brasserie Thiriez in France. Brewed exclusively for Mina’s Bardot Brasserie (877-230-2742; aria.com/dining), the Flemish country blond ale—with a crisp and spicy foral hop aroma, notes of marzipan, and an effervescence reminiscent of Champagne—is available by the bottle and on draft and joins the more than 80 international brews on the restaurant’s beer menu. Chef Moonen, meanwhile, sources fowers, herbs, and botanicals from the nearby Desert Bloom Eco Farm to create, with the help of Henderson’s own CraftHaus Brewery, his wheat beer Gone With the Wit for Rx Boiler Room at Mandalay Place (702-6329900; rxboilerroom.com).

taste Cuiscene

American Fan Fare

The newesT darlings of The Vegas food scene offer up classic, all-american hiTs—wiTh a TwisT, of course. by brock radke Ask 100 restaurant industry observers what the next great ethnic dining trend will be and you may get 100 different answers. But take a look around Vegas—one of the country’s best foodie test markets—and the truth will be obvious: Summer is the season of all-American eating, and if it’s familiar dishes from across the United States you’re craving, you’ll find them in spades at the Las Vegas Valley’s newest eateries.

Todd Harrington is a classically trained chef and a master of French cooking methods, a veteran of Strip

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fine-dining destinations and a former executive chef for culinary legend Michel Richard. But he found his dream gig at Yardbird Southern Table & Bar (Venetian, 702-297-6541; runchickenrun.com), the Southern-food emporium that’s been selling thousands of pounds of fried chicken every week since opening in January. “People who dine here know this is craveable food,” Harrington says, “but I think what’s important is that this is one of those cuisines you don’t have to be in the mood for.” That’s because we’re always in the

mood for Yardbird’s food, whether tender beef short ribs with grits or fried catfish with charred okra or that perfect chicken drizzled with honey hot sauce atop a cheddar cheese waffle with bourbon maple syrup. “I eat this every day to make sure

the quality is there, and I’m not tired of it at all,” he says.

“You think chefs would want any food other than what they serve, but I’m loving it.”

The main reason that Harrington loves Yardbird so much is that it’s a real scratch kitchen, where everything is made in-house.

“We don’t buy bacon; we buy pork belly and make bacon,” the chef explains. “We’re smoking meats 20 hours a day. Unlike a lot of other [places in Las Vegas], this restaurant is built around the kitchen.” That commitment to freshness and quality is easy for diners to recognize

and one of the hallmarks of great American cooking.

A trip to Summerlin transports your taste buds to the East Coast and another fast-rising restaurant, Andiron Steak & Sea (Downtown Summerlin, 702-685-8002; andiron steak.com), where local culinary power couple Elizabeth Blau and Kim Canteenwalla combine a convincingly summer-in-theHamptons vibe with their relaxed yet refined take on surf and turf. “We challenged ourselves to create more contemporary vegetarian and seafood

photography by Christian thomas/www.Christianthomashynes.Com (food truCk); Courtesy of ribs & burgers (burger). opposite: Courtesy of yardbird southern table & bar (yardbird, ChiCken and waffles); brandon bourdages (wings); by edison graff (steak); Vox solid CommuniCations (poutine)

The owners of the Cousins Maine Lobster truck fed the sharks on Shark Tank and now they’re feeding hungry Las Vegans. below: A Wagyu burger at Downtown Summerlin’s Ribs & Burgers.

options for the menu,” says Blau, “as well as reimagine our favorite steakhouse staples.” The result is a selection of America’s greatest hits, from Alaska king crab and hearts of palm salad to a bone-in, dry-aged New York strip.

Andiron is a truly unique, transporting experience.

American dining tends to be casual, and you can’t get more casual than a food truck. Bringing a taste of New England to the desert, Cousins Maine Lobster (cousinsmainelobster.com) is an innovative mobile eatery created by California-byway-of-Maine cousins Jim Tselikis and Sabin Lomac.

In 2012 they partnered with Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran, whose $55,000 investment helped Cousins generate $3.5 million in sales. Although not the most familiar bite for full-time desert dwellers, the Maine lobster roll is an iconic American sandwich and undeniably delicious.

Hunt down this truck to savor its other treasures, too, including shrimp tacos, ice cream whoopie pies, and lobster tater tots.

In edgier Downtown Las Vegas, experienced casino chef Bradley Manchester is fashioning his own creative, addictive version of American fare at Glutton (616 E. Carson Ave., 702366-0623; gluttonlv.com), which emphasizes locally sourced ingredients and somewhat rustic, supersavory dishes. “I equate the enjoyment of good food with living life to the fullest,” says Manchester, invoking the credo of hearty American eaters everywhere. “Glutton is about satisfying culinary

desires with really great food and enjoying life’s indulgences.” Those include wood-roasted meats and vegetables, playful snacks like cheddar and cayenne pork rinds and pickled mushroom poutine, a barbecued half-chicken with Alabama white sauce, and a juicy burger that can compete with the city’s best.

Speaking of burgers, sometimes it takes an outsider to see us most clearly, which might explain how an Australian company could create the summery, quintessentially American restaurant Ribs & Burgers (Downtown Summerlin, 702-848-1588; ribsand burgers.com). If you decided to monetize your backyard Fourth of July cookout, this would be the result: a pubby environment where slabs of beef, pork, and lamb ribs are slow-cooked forever and discs of Midwestern grain-fed beef are expertly grilled and ready to be topped however you see fit.

One of the newest arrivals in Vegas is a restaurant that not only specializes in classic American dishes but actually invented one. The upstate New York institution Anchor Bar (Grand Canal Shoppes; anchorbar.com) is credited with creating our country’s unofficially official favorite bar food, the Buffalo chicken wing. Add another equally delicious classic New York meal, the beef on weck sandwich, and a variety of icy draft beers and you have one more local must-eat destination to add to your Las Vegas itinerary.

So spend the summer eating your way around town and discover why Vegas is arguably the nation’s most American city. V

yardbird It doesn’t get more Southern than bourbon syrup–topped chicken and waffles made with cheddar cheese and chowchow (green tomato relish).

The 36-ounce Allen Brothers Tomahawk steak is for two people, which helps save room for the crème brûlée doughnuts.

anchor bar Buffalo, New York’s famous Anchor Bar has wings and it had to fly—all the way to Las Vegas.

glutton Call the mushroom poutine at Glutton classic North Americana.

vegasmagazine.com 77

taste Cheers! the delano daiquiri: 1 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice (about 1 lime) 1 oz. simple syrup 2 oz. Bacardi 1909 Heritage rum Garnish: 1 lime wheel, 1 cherry

Retro Revival

Some of the beSt drinkS to Sip thiS Summer are refreShing takeS on claSSic cocktailS. by chris stave As food and beverage trends continue to embrace the past, mixologists in Vegas bars and restaurants are perfecting the classics, concocting some of the tastiest retro-style (but still summery) cocktails on local menus this season.

Created in 1905 by American mining engineer Jennings Stockton Cox, who wanted a cold, refreshing drink while he was working at the Daiquiri iron mine near Santiago, Cuba, the daiquiri reached its heyday in the 1940s. Most modern iterations of the drink stray from the original formula by using simple syrup instead of sugar cubes, as in the version at Delano Las Vegas’s Franklin D. Roosevelt–inspired lounge, Franklin (877-632-5400; delano lasvegas.com), which

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honors the drink’s history by employing 89-proof Bacardi 1909 Superior Heritage Limited Edition rum. As Mandalay Bay beverage manager Andrew Blumberg explains, “Bacardi Heritage 1909 is one of the few rums that are certified as meeting the flavor profile of the first blending of rum from 1862, so it’s very classic in note.”

While the modern daiquiri continues to evolve—think blenders, strawberries, and syrupy sweetness—the original needs very little to push it into the realm of all-time-best drinks. If you’re only familiar with the slushy version, you may be pleasantly surprised at how the sweetness of the sugar and the tartness of the lime juice create a classic well-rounded cocktail. The Franklin polishes it up beautifully with a lime wheel– wrapped cherry, adding a bit of color and flavor while maintaining the breezy refreshment. Says Blumberg, “It’s definitely very refreshing, smooth, easy to drink, and perfect for the summer.”

Prefer bourbon to rum? Try the French Julep at db Brasserie at Venetian (702-430-1235; dbbrasserie.com), which adds basil, rose water, and elderflower liqueur to the familiar mint and bourbon (Bulleit, in this case). And every gin lover should experience the upgraded gin and tonics at Jaleo at Cosmopolitan (702-698-7000; jaleo.com), where the Tierra adds kaffir lime and cardamom to house-made tonic, Fords gin, orange, and lemon. The Marmalade Whiskey Sour at Pizza Rock (201 N. Third St.; 702-3850838; pizzarocklasvegas.com) is made with Four Roses Small Batch bourbon and, surprisingly, orange marmalade (surprising unless you see the name on the menu, that is).

For vodka fans, Andiron Steak & Sea (Downtown Summerlin, 702-685-8002; andironsteak.com) offers the Stubborn as a Mule, using Deep Eddy lemon vodka and adding a kick of pineapple vinegar to the Moscow mule’s traditional ginger beer. The Mediterranean Margarita at Cleo at SLS (702-761-7612; slslasvegas.com) uses Don Julio Blanco tequila and fresh lime juice as you’d expect, but adds a house-made fig-almond syrup for Mediterranean flair. Franklin also adds basil to that other great Mexican refresher, the Paloma, featuring fresh lime juice, Jarritos grapefruit soda, and blanco tequila from 7 Leguas, which invented the Patrón tequila label.

Whatever your poison, and whether you prefer your cocktail traditional or tradition-flouting, Vegas bartenders have you covered. V

photography courtesy of mgm resorts international

Start by chilling a cocktail glass. Cut the lime in half, then cut a thin wheel out of the middle for the garnish. Juice the lime, and combine the lime juice, simple syrup, and rum in a mixing glass with the lime. Fill with ice and shake vigorously for eight seconds, then strain into the chilled glass and garnish by wrapping the cherry in the lime wheel and skewering it on a cocktail pick.

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Composite Score Within the city’s burgeoning arts scene, which we celebrate in this issue, collage artist J.K. Russ creates a suggestive—and otherworldly—Vegas landscape.

By Mark Ellwood

80 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM

Photography by Jeff Gale

HAIR AND MAKEUP BY ANDI MILLER

J.K. Russ in her studio with components of her Life Is Beautiful festival installation. OPPOSITE PAGE: A detail of a collaborative window collage, part of Russ’s “House of Paper Birds” project at the Cosmopolitan’s P3 Studio.

L

ate last year at the Cosmopolitan’s P3 Studio—an open space where passersby can observe acclaimed artists at work and even participate in the creation of their projects—a boy and his sister worked quietly for two hours while artist-in-residence J.K. Russ chatted with their mother. When it was time for the family to leave, as a gesture of thanks, the woman pressed into the artist’s hands a sketch her daughter had produced. “She didn’t speak a lot of English,” says Russ, “but she asked me, in the role of a practicing artist, what advice would I give her daughter: How could she develop the drawing? And I told her, ‘Think a little bigger.’ Because people have suggested that to me before.”

It’s advice that Russ has taken to heart. For her residency—sponsored by the Cosmopolitan in partnership with the New York – based Art Production Fund—the artist produced collaborative versions of her signature collages, each one exuding her trademark trippy sensuality, under the umbrella title “House of Paper Birds.” Visitors could contribute their own cutouts to the expansive walls, adding flourishes to surreal landscapes. Like a fusion of Salvador Dalí and Georgia O’Keeffe, feminine figures overlap with images of birds and desert plants—beast-women roosting in a wild, arid landscape. Visitors to the show were then invited to add elements of rock or sky using images that Russ had ripped from old National Geographic magazines.

Such unsettling yet beautiful work has earned Russ attention well beyond Las Vegas: In the next year, she will have shows at galleries in Houston and her native New Zealand, as well as an exhibit at Sin City Gallery on East Charleston Boulevard.

Russ’s residency concluded in early January and she returned to her regular studio: a spare bedroom in her apartment, located in a low-slung Downtown complex. Piles of magazines are stacked against the wall, while a jaunty blue boa (reflecting the artist’s passion for burlesque) is draped over a portrait of a long-tongued woman. Russ lives and works here with

her husband, artist Matthew Couper, whose workspace is an apartment he commandeered across the stairwell, where he produces large-scale paintings. Dressed in paint-spattered cargo shorts, Couper explains that theirs is a typical setup for artists in Las Vegas: “Artists’ loft spaces are so expensive to air-condition in the summer.”

Despite the bawdiness of her work—imagine a Playboy spread shot by Hieronymus Bosch—Russ has a distinctly Kiwi modesty. She wears a shiny black PVC cap that would look fitting on one of Austin Powers’s bombshells, yet she peers out from under its brim with endearing shyness. She credits her father, an executive in the tobacco industry, with sparking her interest in art.

“He was always drawing and painting,” she says, “and he always took us kids out on Sunday drives to sit and sketch.”

Russ (whose given name is Joanne) worked for a time in London designing book jackets, back when it was still done on paper, and says that experience with layouts piqued her interest in collage. After returning to New Zealand, she decided to enroll in art school, although by now she was somewhat older than her classmates. “I remember the first day there, the others thought I was one of the tutors,” she says with a laugh.

She graduated in 2001 and was soon combining her fondness for poring over the bric-a-brac in thrift stores— “I love finding things other people have discarded, like old prints from the 1960s that people used to have above the mantelpiece”—with her creative process, producing the color-saturated collages for which she has earned such renown.

After meeting and marrying, Russ and Couper spent several years working in their home country, but Couper had a yen to experience life in the United States. He applied for a green card through the federal lottery system and unexpectedly won. Within six months, the pair had decamped to America, settling down in Las Vegas in 2010—a jolting

“I just love the depictions of female sensuality. What is seductive—and how?”

—J.K. Russ

vegasmagazine.com 81

J.K. Russ’s 2015 mixed-media work Spring Romance, created as a commission for Vegas magazine. opposite page: Desert Bloom, a 2013 mixed-media piece in a private Vegas collection.

contrast to their somewhat quiet life on New Zealand’s rural South Island.

Five years later, Russ admits that the city isn’t a typical destination for creative types, nor did she feel instantly at home. “We made a concerted effort to check out what’s happening here,” she says, “but it takes a while to get a feel for the place, as it’s quite transient. People come for a short time and leave, so the locals sit back a bit and wait to see if you’re one of them. But after a year, that felt like a marker.”

Las Vegas has proved to be a fertile source of inspiration for the artist. With her rockabilly-inflected style sense, Russ was drawn to the local alternativemusic scene, but nothing captured her attention more than the burlesque underground. She remains transfixed by it, hunting down the shows every week, often driving to nondescript strip malls in quiet parts of the city for unadvertised performances. Russ sees burlesque as staunchly feminist, offering a safe environment that encourages women’s creative expression and fosters female empowerment. “I love the showgirls [on the Strip],” she says, “but there are a lot more limitations on who can be a showgirl—you’ve got to be six foot tall. But in burlesque you can be all sizes and shapes, and it’s a lot freer than the constrained shows.”

(Despite her enthusiasm, the gamine, soft-spoken Russ says she’s never been tempted to give burlesque a try herself.)

Also among Russ’s favorite haunts around the city and in nearby towns like Barstow are secondhand bookstores, which she trawls for anything visually arresting. She’s especially keen on 1960s and ’70s pornography, whose Hipstamatic-style color balance and acres of flesh are well-suited to her aesthetic. “I just love the depictions of female sensuality,” she says.

“What is seductive—and how?” In preparation for a new piece, Russ will often rip through a pile of recent purchases, blade in hand. “I have envelopes with legs, arms, lips, flowers. Once they’re cut out, they get put in a little categorizing system.” At the moment she’s bubbling with excitement, ready to tear into a particularly noteworthy find from a couple of days earlier: a copy of Vogue Italia from 1984, full of models who are big-haired, firmfleshed, and oozing greed-is-good glamour. Russ shrugs off concerns over shredding these period periodicals: “If it’s in a thrift store, it’s fair game.”

Only once has she ever unearthed a magazine she considered too precious to repurpose in her work. She found it years ago in a bookstore in Wellington, New Zealand’s artsiest city. “It’s a little pornography magazine—very early, probably 1960s, and it’s tiny but in color,” Russ says, nearly swooning. “The models are multiracial, and you can tell for the time it was quite out there. It actually feels really quite unique, because you hardly ever see these around.” She pauses. “I don’t think I could ever cut that one up.” V

“I love finding things other people have discarded, like old prints from the 1960s that people used to have above the mantelpiece.”

—J.K. Russ

VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 83

vegas, art city

Michael Heizer’s Double Negative has resided in the Nevada desert for more than four decades.

the city is awash with impressive, homegrown art institutions.

Squirreled away in one of the oldest buildings on UNLV’s campus, the 6,000-square-foot Barrick Museum presents an ever-changing roster of exhibitions, focusing on modern and contemporary works, as well as its own collection of pre-Columbian objects. This summer’s show—“Recent Acquisitions,” featuring pieces by artists with ties to Vegas, like Brian Porray, Sush Machida, and Wendy Kveck, whose Sister is shown above—will be followed by an exhibit of work from the collection of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, the New York postal clerk and librarian who spent every spare penny on early art by the likes of superstar Richard Tuttle. 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy.,702-895-3381; unlv.edu/barrickmuseum

CityCenter Arts Complex Dotting the 67-acre CityCenter lot is a passel of large-scale, site-specific works commissioned from blue-chip artists. Standouts include Silver River, by Vietnam Veterans Memorial artist Maya Lin, a swirling evocation of the Colorado River constructed from reclaimed silver and perched high above the reception desk at Aria, and Big Edge (shown opposite), featuring aluminum replicas of rowboats and canoes unearthed by artist Nancy Rubins, piled in a cat’s cradle–like structure over Vdara’s main drive. citycenter.com

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dry wall The stark nevada Desert draws some of the world’s most renowned land artists.

Much like Vegas itself, monumental land art is rising from the Nevada desert—and art-world insiders predict that the city will increasingly attract lovers of earthwork.

Picture the dusty red desert just south of Las Vegas along Interstate 15. Now imagine seven massive stone columns, 32 feet high, each consisting of car-size chunks of locally quarried rock piled atop one another and painted in almost garish colors—acid yellow or lime green, pulsing queasily against the desert’s neutral hues.

This monolithic work, the brainchild of Swiss-born artist and museum darling Ugo Rondinone, will likely materialize later this year and remain in its desert setting for two years, overseen by the Nevada Museum of Art and the Art Production Fund, a nonprofit group that also manages the art programs at Cosmopolitan.

Called Seven Magic Mountains, Rondinone’s pillars will be hard to miss east of Bakersfield, their neon-bright colors making them visible even at night. “For the first time, this is a public artwork that the entire community can get behind and excited about—it’s not a political piece,” says David Walker, executive director and CEO of the Nevada Museum of Art, who helped raise the estimated $3.5 million cost of the piece (visiting it, of course, will be free). “It’s about being reminded of the power of contemporary art.”

The choice of location, near Jean Dry Lake Bed, was deliberate, a nod to past works there by Jean Tinguely and Michael Heizer, renowned land artists who create art from the earth around us. “This is a full-scale desert experience that brings the desert right into the piece,” says local art consultant Michele Quinn, who has long been involved with the project. “It’s intended not to interfere with the vastness of the landscape.”

Unlike Heizer’s and Tinguely’s works, though,

photography by checko salgado (kveck); Sam morris/las vegas sun (double negative) opposite page: Artist Rendering courtesy of Ugo Rondinone (Seven Magic Mountains); photography Courtesy of Triple Aught Foundation (Heizer)

Barrick Museum

Rondinone’s land art isn’t intended to endure for generations. After two years, it will be carted away.

“It won’t live for 30 to 40 years in the landscape,” says Walker. “It’s a moment in time, which makes it so special. He’s just interested in making this large poetic gesture in the desert.” (He’ll likely make a healthy profit, too, when Rondinone’s reps, New York’s Barbara Gladstone Gallery and Zurich’s Galerie Eva Presenhuber, offer the work for sale after the installation concludes.)

Heizer has also been in the news recently. Best known for Levitated Mass—a 340-ton boulder perched precariously above a walkway at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art—the reclusive 70-year-old artist has spent more than four decades working on his secret masterpiece, City, 100 miles north of Las Vegas in Lincoln County, at a cost of more than $25 million (mostly from donations). The one-and-a-half-mile-long structure, large enough to be seen on Google Earth, is inspired by mining and Mayan architecture, and after shrouding it in mystery for so long, Heizer is finally ready to unveil it to visitors (just as efforts are accelerating to have it designated a national monument under the Antiquities Act). Another Heizer work, Double Negative (1969), is so named because it consists of two giant rectangular cuts and the space between them in the cliff edges of a tall desert mesa near Overton, about 70 miles from Vegas.

Such large-scale artworks, embedded in the earth or made from it, are becoming a signature of Las Vegas and its environs. (Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in Utah and James Turrell’s Roden Crater in Flagstaff, Arizona, are other nearby examples.) According to local collector Patrick Duffy, they reflect an acceptance of the city’s geographic, more than merely its psychographic, identity. “The traditional perception of Southwest art is cowboys, [Frederic] Remington, and [Albert] Bierstadt,” he says. “But these land art projects are minimalist Southwest art. You can’t get any more minimal than taking the raw earth and tweaking it a little, then calling it art.”

Quinn agrees: “We’re not a place that a museum, where you just go and look at art on walls, works. But our identity as an art community can center on largescale outdoor works. We have space and land, and Las Vegas from the beginning rose up out of the desert.”

Adds Walker, “It’s challenging to establish a visual arts institution in Las Vegas. Look at the competition with the spectacle that exists, which makes it a little harder to see through the trees, so to speak.” Celebrating the city’s raw surroundings acts as a cultural palate-cleanser.

As the passion for such monumental artworks grows, Melissa Petersen, president of the Contemporary Arts Center, thinks that within a decade, Las Vegas could become known globally as the place to go to experience some of the world’s best land art. “People have a natural hunger for art, at least if you present it to them in a way

A rendering of one of the massive stone columns of Ugo Rondinone’s Seven Magic Mountains.

Contemporary Arts Center After a rocky period when budgetary problems threatened to shut it down, the edgy, upstart Contemporary Arts Center has re-emerged under the leadership of local scion Melissa Petersen. Elected president last spring, the longtime supporter of the center—who had anonymously funded many of its programs for some time—has ambitious plans to turn it into a pop-up operation, allowing it to stage guerrilla happenings across the city rather than be ring-fenced by a physical space. She is already spearheading a series of book groups and film screenings, as well as talks by local art leaders, such as wellknown critic Dave Hickey. 1217 S. Main St., 702-496-0569; lasvegascac.org

MCQ Fine Art Advisory

Michael Heizer’s City will soon be unveiled to curious art lovers.

Gallerist and private art consultant Michele C. Quinn has served as curatorial advisor for some of the largest public and corporate contemporary art collections in the United States, including the fine art program at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. In addition to her curatorial and advisory roles, Quinn also actively exhibits in her own space in Downtown Las Vegas. 620 S. Seventh St., 702-366-9339; mcqfineart.com

Sin City Gallery

Complex I of Heizer’s City.

Dr. Laura Henkel is former assistant curator of the Erotic Heritage Museum, and her Sin City Gallery explores provocative themes. Its “12 Inches of Sin” is an international juried exhibition that examines eroticism through contemporary art, and she fully funded the printing of a four-volume book series of the same name through Kickstarter. Featuring 126 daring artists from 16 countries, as well as art critics from the world of contemporary art, the books are in many ways an extension of the suggestive and often challenging works her gallery exhibits.

107 E. Charleston Blvd. #100, 702-6082461; sincitygallery.com

they can process,” she says. The open nature of these works also suits the egalitarian character of Vegas—and the ubiquity of GPS makes tracking down an elusive piece like City significantly easier.

More than anything, though, the imminent unveiling of City and Seven Magic Mountains signifies a new mood in the city, according to Quinn. “People are recognizing the landscape, not denying it.”

vegasmagazine.com 85

the

GRANDEST

SOCIAL EXPERIMENT

THE MOST RADICALLY INNOVATIVE HOTEL CASINO TO OPEN IN RECENT MEMORY, THE COSMOPOLITAN OF LAS VEGAS HAS NEW OWNERS AND A NEW LEADER, BUT THAT MAY JUST MEAN THE PARTY IS ABOUT TO GET BETTER.

IF YOU WERE THERE ON New Year’s Eve weekend of 2010, you remember it well. If not, you may have fibbed about your attendance for bragging rights. After all, revelers spent 72 hours partying in close proximity to John Mayer, A-Rod, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Wahlberg, and Beyoncé. When the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas debuted, with Sin City deep in the trough of a debilitating real estate crash, people said it would be the last casino opening for a while. That proved untrue. But it was the last casino opening of a certain type—the type where Blake Lively dances on a banquette, Aziz Ansari takes a turn as DJ, Kaskade logs an eight-hour set, and the booze flows as freely as water in the Bellagio fountains.

Comped guests occupied the Cosmopolitan’s rooms and suites; Jay Z and Coldplay provided live entertainment; food for the weekend was an unbridled, gut-busting dine around. On New Year’s Eve, the beluga caviar was served from hubcap-size tins.

After the final tray of toast points was emptied, chef José Andrés (whose Jaleo and China Poblano saw their openings) loaded the meaty part of his fist with a fat dollop of caviar and held it up to the crowd as if calling for a toast—and ignited a fish egg free-forall. “Remember that party?” asks the resort’s chief marketing officer, Lisa Marchese. “It dripped with celebrities—none of whom were paid to attend—and everyone wanted to be there. We knew we would not succeed by taking the middle of the road. Right from the start, we had a swing-for-the-fences mentality.”

Later that night, when Kanye West joined Jay Z onstage and implored the crowd to shake their dia-

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monds, you got the feeling that half the room was actually complying. Clearly in the swing of things, Sean “P. Diddy” Combs stepped up after the show and bought a bottle of Cîroc for every table in Marquee.

This place felt different, and acted different, from the hotel casinos that Las Vegas was used to—from the columns spewing video art near the front desk to a television ad campaign kinky enough to make Don Draper squirm. The vibe was loose and inviting. “We intentionally kept our service in line with the hardware of the building,” says Simon Pettigrew, senior vice president of hotel operations, who was shocked shortly after taking his post in 2013 to see one of his desk clerks baritoning a chandelierrattling rendition of “Happy Birthday” to a customer.

“It’s about people bringing their personalities. We encourage coloring outside the lines.”

BusinessWeek may have called the star-crossed condo building – turned – hotel casino the “most expensive debacle in [Las Vegas] for a single lender,” but the place turned out to be the most interesting, innovative, youth-quaking enterprise on the Vegas Strip. It may have seemed as if Deutsche Bank—which financed it as a condominium tower (and got buried to the tune of an impossible-to-recoup $4.3 billion) and later as a casino—got stuck owning a gaming business it never wanted. But perhaps that allowed the kind of unprecedented experimentation that made the brand what it is today. In came high-risk retailers, cigarette machines that dispensed art, and a 3,200-seat performance space modeled after an abandoned glass factory, to name just a few innova-

PHOTOGRAPHY BY THOMAS HART SHELBY

BY MICHAEL KAPLAN

“BusinessWeek called the star-crossed hotel casino the ‘most expensive debacle in [Las Vegas] for a single lender,’ but the place turned out to be the most innovative, youth-quaking enterprise on the Strip.”

tions. “We came out of the gate strong and, with Deutsche Bank’s support, made decisions that were provocative for Las Vegas,” says Marchese. “We took the counterpoint on most decisions, realizing that if we tried to emulate the six other casino brands in Las Vegas, we would have been seventh.”

It was no lie when founding CEO John Unwin touted the Cosmopolitan as a property for the curious class, complete with on-the-cusp bands playing gratis gigs in a casino facing a sports bar and lounge, Book & Stage. An early performance

by Best Coast resembled a scene from a Quentin Tarantino movie in the stunning incongruence of a rock group powering through songs before tables of serious-looking gamblers (whether that encouraged them to continue risking their money is debatable; the casino’s new wager-friendly management seems likely to tamp down on this sort of potential distraction). Other innovations included an ice-skating rink with boozy ice cream for sale, a pool table–equipped hangout space welcoming the nongaming public, and a glasswalled room devoted to visiting artists. And then there’s the inventive (if financially calamitous) cabaret/restaurant/ nightspot Rose.Rabbit.Lie., where a seemingly depressed magician in dinosaur garb wandered around doing card tricks, Jazz Age tap dancers materialized on the bar, and crooners seemed to drop in from nowhere.

Rose.Rabbit.Lie., where you can easily have a blast, remains open, but its operators have been dismissed and Cosmo has taken over management to keep costs in line. The club’s spicy vaudeville-style show, which may have been a shade too blue for the Strip, has been mothballed. No one expected it to be a low-budget, low-risk operation, but it did seem to wear extravagance on its gilded sleeve. David Bernahl, whose Coastal Luxury Management launched the venue, bragged about his decadent Champagne jaunt through France—Rose.Rabbit.

Lie.’s mammoth list of interesting bubbly is certainly evidence of four-star research—complete with photos of empty bottles.

Upon seeing iPhone images from an afternoon’s indulgence, chef David Myers (of the Cosmopolitan’s recently shuttered

Comme Ça) wanted to know, “How can you guys possibly drink that much Champagne in a single day?”

From the outside, the Cosmopolitan looked like the hippest spot in Vegas. On the inside, though, no matter how often the rooms were filled (occupancy ranked among the highest in town) or how much they cost (again among the highest in town), the place was so leveraged that it could never turn a profit. For four years, Deutsche Bank accepted losses without tears and, to the bank’s credit, continued to fund innovations and expansions. While Marchese says she can’t imagine that the bank wanted to be a long-term casino owner, “they understood the brand. The way to make something memorable and achieve the highest room rates was to create an asset-based property that people cared about. We grew faster than the market in almost every line of the business. It didn’t feel like we were unprofitable”—never mind that the Cosmopolitan had at least one $25 million quarterly loss and never finished a quarter in the black. “It felt like we were getting better every year.”

Now, with its sale to the Blackstone Group, a multinational private-equity investment fund, for the relative bargain price of $1.73 billion, the Cosmopolitan has a chance to be profitable and to compete on a financially level playing field.

Newly hired President and CEO Bill McBeath, previously president and COO of CityCenter, believes in this second act to a degree that goes beyond rhetoric. He’s done the thing that few newly recruited executives would dare, especially at the helm of a historic money loser. Upon his hiring, he explains, “they told me that I could invest in the operation.

I asked what sum would be meaningful.” Word has it that McBeath and Blackstone agreed on something in the neighborhood of $1 million. “I think Blackstone bought this asset on the lower point of its trajectory. I’ve been betting on myself my whole life and didn’t think twice about this one.

In fact, I think it’s the surest bet I have ever made.”

McBeath is a sharp guy and a bit of a gambler at heart. He’s a straight shooter who plays high-stakes poker and bets the big games. He’s a rodeo fanatic who, after leaving CityCenter,

from top:

Signs for Laurie Simmons’s show “Pause” at P3 Studio; Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett at The Chelsea on New Year’s Eve 2014; a wraparound terrace with a view; Jay Z at Cosmo on New Year’s Eve 2010.

February 2008 Eichner defaults on his October 2005

$768 million loan from Deutsche Bank. The

Spring 2004

Ground is broken on

bank initiates foreclosure

Developer Bruce Eichner purchases

Eichner’s project,

proceedings but continues

an 8.7-acre plot of land for

which he calls

to build at the site.

$60 million, fnanced by Deutsche

The Cosmopolitan.

Deutsche Bank will

Bank, where he plans to build a

Completion is expected

wind up spending $4.2

residential structure featuring giant

in mid-2008 at a cost

billion to complete the

guitar-playing robots in the lobby.

of $1.8 billion.

Cosmopolitan.

88 vegasmagazine.com

April 2008 The casino is redesigned and moved Strip-side.

Near the entrance, 15-foot-tall columns display high-definition video art. A favorite of the moment is Monarch, a series of images of women that refract to create a butterfly effect across the columns.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIK KABIK (SIMMONS); ETHAN MILLER/WIREIMAGE (GAGA AND BENNETT); THOMAS HART SHELBY (TERRACE); KEVIN MAZUR/ WIREIMAGE (JAY Z). COURTESY OF THE COSMOPOLITAN OF LAS VEGAS (MONARCH, ESTIATORIO MILOS); BY MELANIE DUNEA (MCBEATH)

Bill McBeath, president and CEO of the Cosmopolitan.

The outdoor terrace and Mediterranean garden of Estiatorio Milos.

March 2010 The culinary lineup is revealed and foodies June 2008

rejoice: Blue Ribbon

The Hearst Corporation, owner

April 2009

October 2009 John Unwin is recruited

Poblano, and Estiatorio

of Cosmopolitan magazine,

Hilton Worldwide is rumored

from Caesars Palace

Milos, among others.

files a $500,000 trademark

to acquire the Cosmopolitan

to be CEO of the

September 2010

infringement lawsuit over use

as the first entry in its

Cosmopolitan, creating

The Cosmopolitan

Sushi, Jaleo, China

of the name. In December

Denizen Hotel line. Hilton

friction for Deutsche

announces its retail

2009, the suit is settled. The

is sued by Starwood for

Bank, which does

lineup, bringing in brands

hotel becomes known as The

trademark infringement and

business with Caesars

new to the city, including

Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

the deal is scuttled.

Entertainment.

Beckley and Droog.

Hundreds of guests can be seated beneath the 2 million crystals of the trilevel Chandelier.

November 2012 Boulevard Pool turns into the Cosmopolitan

The pop-up wedding chapel.

ice rink for the better part of the winter.

Skaters can warm up

December 2013

with chocolate vodkaspiked cocktails and watch movies on the

December 31 2010

65-foot marquee.

The Cosmopolitan’s

The Chelsea opens—sporting

January 2014

a crystal chandelier, a

Billed as a “grand social

3,000-seat theater

Las Vegas hosts its

December 2011

grand staircase, exposed

experiment,” Rose.Rabbit.

grand opening event at

The Cosmopolitan

brick walls, VIP boxes, and

Lie. opens as part restaurant,

a reported cost of $12

devises a pop-up wedding

a vintage lobby bar—in a

part theater, part drinking

million. Despite being

chapel in which the love

reinvention of the bare-bones

spot. Within six months, the

open for just 17 days in

obsessed can marry dogs

Chelsea Ballroom concert

performance component

2010, the property racks

or favorite toys and buy

space. Bruno Mars breaks

is shut down. The original

up a $139.5 million loss

wedding bands from a

it in with an exuberant New

managing partners are let go

for that year.

gumball machine.

Year’s concert.

within the year.

The Cosmopolitan of

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VEGASMAGAZINE.COM

photography courtesy of the cosmopolitan of las vegas (chandelier, the BumBys); By erik kaBik (ice rink); denise truscello (chapel)

served as an operating partner in the venture capital firm Z Capital Partners. He also seems to be the right man for this job. “Because of density and stacking amenities, the building has a kinetic energy,” he says.

“It is the most exciting place to be on a Friday night.

The coolness and personality of the Cosmopolitan resonate throughout the building. I know that if we can refine this asset, we can have a great business.”

Especially, he adds, after they “make the gaming floor as cool and hip and inviting as the rest.”

For all its swagger, the Cosmopolitan has long faltered in an area where no Vegas hotel casino can ever afford to: Gambling revenue has always underperformed. For McBeath, who cut his teeth working with gaming maestro Steve Wynn (in 2010, Wynn gave Cosmo his seal of approval, save for issues with valet parking and check-in), bringing gaming up to speed is job one. “Cosmopolitan was never designed for big action, and Deutsche Bank did not have the risk tolerance for it,” says McBeath, explaining that he is working on finishing four uncompleted floors, loading them with Sky Villa – quality high-roller suites, and pursuing big players who might have once viewed Cosmo as a bit bush league. “We are going to increase our footprint in a very competitive area.”

Ken Hoff, the Cosmopolitan’s senior vice president of casino marketing (i.e., the guy working with McBeath to reel in those whales), could not be happier with the new direction. “Our previous CEO was a hotelier,” Hoff says. “Bill has the gaming background, and he’s not averse to volatility. He understands the math of this business, knows that our numbers will come in, and doesn’t worry about it.” In the past, executives in the pit “sweated games,” he adds (industry jargon for watching customers closely out of concern that they’ll win big). “Now we don’t bother our players.

You don’t want to be known as a sweaty place.”

In a further bid to attract big action, the luxe highlimit Talon Club—where the action is as intoxicating as the Scotch selection, which features a rare bottle of 50-year-old Balvenie—will be expanded, a space will be devoted to high-limit slots, and there is talk of moving the sports book downstairs, making it more accessible and turning it into a game-viewing destination. In an attempt to enhance the high-roller experience, a master butler from England has been brought in to tweak the way butlering is done, and a system is in place to welcome arriving players by name as they cross the threshold. “We’re devoting a lot more for the [high-limit player] who wakes up at 4 am and decides that he needs something,” says Pettigrew. “Those guys are impulsive because they can be. They’re used to having teams taking care of everything.”

For McBeath, the payoff goes beyond running one of the hotter casinos in Vegas. In fact, simply presiding over another densely layered casino on the Strip was not necessarily an appealing prospect to him, he says. “I didn’t want to be in a corporate environment. Here there are just me and three other board members. There are no layers, and if you’re going to work for a private-equity company, Blackstone is one of the largest and one of the best.” In his quest to increase profits, McBeath vows that he won’t lose sight of what makes the Cosmopolitan appealing in the first place: “Cosmopolitan’s brand experience is luxury with an unpredictable twist. Staying true to that is important. Vegas, to quote my old boss Steve Wynn, is the world’s longest-running party. It’s central to the iconic Vegas experience, and being at the center of the Strip, with such a cool, hip, festive brand, is something that we need to celebrate.” V

May 2014 The Blackstone Group enters into an agreement to purchase the Cosmopolitan for $1.73 billion—a steep

December 2014 Taking a cue from feline

discount from what the place cost to

totems found on Asian

build. At the time, Unwin maintains

restaurant counters, the

December 2014

that he looks forward to working with

Cosmopolitan’s chrome Lucky

Bill McBeath is tapped

his new bosses. Jonathan Gray, an

Cat stands nine feet tall.

to replace Unwin as

executive with Blackstone, estimates

Created by Digital Kitchen,

president and CEO of

that “it could take a couple hundred

the Koons-like sculpture spits

the Cosmopolitan. He

million to get this place where it should

out tickets offering wishes

says his early days with

be.” Blackstone takes ownership on

for good fortune, plus room

the property are like

December 19, 2014.

nights, gratis cocktails, and

“drinking a glass of water

comped concerts.

out of a fre hydrant.”

Art of the MAtter Right from the start, one of the ways the Cosmopolitan differentiated itself was with compelling works of contemporary art.

At the north end of the casino, leading out to the Strip, you can’t miss artist Roark Gourley’s giant shoe sculpture. It’s such a selfe magnet that visitors climb right inside, and the Cosmopolitan has indulgently reinforced the shoe. nobody expects to see arrestingly graphic images covering a wall of a parking garage, but that was the objective when Chief Marketing Offcer Lisa Marchese commissioned Shepard Fairey to create a work of high-minded street art on Level B2. Says Marchese, “Shepard took dead space and turned it into an art experience.”

InsIde the lIbrAry of Rose.

Rabbit.Lie., you’ll fnd a Hieronymus Bosch triptych dominating one wall. Digital Kitchen has projected the painting on massive digital panels. If you look closely, you’ll notice that the water is actually moving and the work has a threedimensional aspect. lIke All cAsInos, the Cosmopolitan has video signs out front that market aspects of the property. But a point of differentiation arrives for three minutes every hour, when an art video replaces the pitches. The current work is Geisha Song by Laurie Simmons. p3 studIo’s ArtIsts-inresidence shows (including The Bumbys, shown above) are curated by the Art Production Fund. The fshbowl-like third-foor space will have had 14 artists-in-residence by the end of 2015, producing work for and with the public through interactive workshops.

Printed silk dress, Roberto Cavalli (price on request).

The Shops at Crystals, 702-736-7300; robertocavalli.com.

Quadruple V bracelet, K/ller Collection ($529). kllercollection.com. Moray sandals, Jimmy Choo ($950).

The Shops at Crystals, 702-366-0503; jimmychoo.com Location courtesy of Baha Mar, the new Bahamian Riviera, set on 3,000 feet of pristine beachfront in Nassau. The highly anticipated 2,200-room, $3.5 billion luxury lifestyle resort reflects the vision of its CEO and chairman, Sarkis Izmirlian. Architect Mike Hong master-planned and designed the 1,000-acre destination, while interior designer Dianna Wong translated the ocean, people, art, and glamorous history of the Bahamas’ 700 islands into a resort that celebrates them all. Baha Mar features four hotels; a luxury villa designed by Grammy Award–winning musician Lenny Kravitz; private residences; a world-class, Jack Nicklaus–designed 18-hole golf course and clubhouse; multiple restaurants and retailers; a nightclub; a lavish 30,000-square-foot spa; three 14-foot-deep blue-hole pools; and the Baha Mar Casino—the crown jewel of the resort, featuring 100,000 square feet of gaming and rivaling the best casinos in the world. For reservations or information, call 844-800-BAHA or visit bahamar.com.

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a glamorous getaway

Summer’S hotteSt reSortwear takeS center Stage at the BahamaS’ new Baha mar reSort. photographY bY randall slavin stYling bY cannon

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opposite page: Dress, Salvatore Ferragamo ($4,450). The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-933-9333; ferragamo.com. Chain-link cuff, Jennifer Fisher ($930).

Barneys New York, Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian and Palazzo, 702-629-4200; barneys.com. Moray sandal, Jimmy Choo ($950). The Shops at Crystals, 702-3660503; jimmychoo.com this page: Swimsuit, Eres

($490). Barneys New York, Grand Canal Shoppes at Venetian and Palazzo, 702-629-4200; barneys.com.

Coconut necklace, Holst + Lee ($255). Saks Fifth Avenue, Fashion Show, 702-733-8300; saks.com

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opposite page: Mist embroidered dress, Bottega Veneta ($6,800).

Via Bellagio, 702-369-2944; bottegaveneta.com. Kona fringe bracelet, Holst + Lee ($165).

Saks Fifth Avenue, Fashion Show, 702-733-8300; saks.com this page: Bodysuit ($895), tulle skirt ($5,995), and Blasia sandal ($550), Ralph Lauren Collection. ralphlauren.com.

Viti tube cuff, Pluma ($402).

Neiman Marcus, Fashion Show, 702-731-3636; neimanmarcus.com beautĂŠ: Giorgio Armani Luminous

Silk Foundation in #4 ($62). Saks Fifth Avenue, Fashion Show, 702-733-8300; saks.com. Bobbi Brown Long-Wear Cream Shadow in Heather ($26). Saks Fifth Avenue, see above. NARS Eyeliner Pencil in Mambo ($23). Saks Fifth Avenue, see above. Tom Ford Lip Color in Sable Smoke ($50). Tom Ford, The Shops at Crystals, 702-740-2940. Oribe Après Beach Wave and Shine Spray ($39) and Thick Dry Finishing Spray ($39).

Neiman Marcus, Fashion Show, 702-731-3636; neimanmarcus.com

Photography assistance and video by Noah Schutz Styling assistance by Izzy Ruiz Hair and makeup by Craig Honeycutt/Utopia Model: Pernilla/Q Models Special thanks to Valentino Lloyd, Eureka Smith, and Karlyle Harris

BRanDon MaRshall

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tiM Wong

Vegas Knights This year’s Vegas Dozen class was chosen from The powerful and philanThropic men around The ciTy. by tess eyrich photography by Jerry Metellus Wardrobe provided by saks FiFth avenue

This year, Vegas magazine and saks FiFTh avenue’s “Vegas dozen: The men We Love and Why We Love Them” charity event celebrated a dozen years in existence with a gala that raised more than $30,000 for keep memory alive, the nonprofit organization that supports the Cleveland Clinic Lou ruvo Center for Brain health. each year, the event recognizes an impressive group of successful and philanthropically minded men from a wide variety of industries. This year’s honorees were norm Clarke, Tony hsieh, Tom Jingoli, hae Un Lee, ron Lurie,

Brandon marshall, Jerry nadal, kevin Orrock, ian staller, alex stratta, dr. ryan Walsh, and Tim Wong. mix 94.1’s mercedes martinez and saks Fifth avenue’s local vice president and general manager presented each of the men with the prestigious Vegas dozen award. Palazzo headliner Bob anderson of Frank: The Man. The Music crooned to the crowd, and artists from Cirque du soleil performed an aerial hoop act high above the Fashion show runway. But no performance could trump the heartfelt messages of this year’s dozen.

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Norm Clarke Columnist, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Hae UN lee Founder, Lee’s Discount Liquor Which professional or charitable accomplishment are you most proud of? Many people strive for the American dream, but very few actually achieve it. Most immigrants have been trying to realize their American dream almost their entire lives. I feel so lucky to say that my American dream has been fulfilled. I am most proud of my success as an immigrant and for me to be able to come out of my comfort zone and flourish.

What inspired you to start Lee’s Helping Hand Foundation? I feel it is my duty to give back to the community and help people in need, considering that Las Vegas has given me so many opportunities to be recognized as a successful businessman.

What are the most meaningful ways that you give back to the community? Helping kids and animals means everything to me. All proceeds from my show “Conversations with Norm” at Cabaret Jazz go to the Smith Center’s education and outreach programming. Because of our silky terriers, Rumor and Scandal, I’m an honorary board member of the Nevada SPCA. Las Vegas has become the most incredible chapter in my life.

What is it about Vegas that makes this a great city to work in as a journalist? We’re at the center of the universe for entertainment news. Everyone comes here to have fun—and many make international news. Thank you, Prince Harry.

roN lUrie Executive Vice President and General Manager, Arizona Charlie’s

Tom JiNgoli Chief Compliance Officer and Senior Vice President, Konami Gaming

You’re very active in both preservation and children’s services. Really, preservation and children’s services go hand in hand. I am a firm believer that the future of our city, as well as our country, will be in dire straits if we do not get back to the basics in raising our youth. I mean, teaching them the importance of strong work ethics, community service, and preserving the natural resources that we have, including the water so necessary to our community.

In what other ways do you enjoy giving back to the community? Being a former board member for Opportunity Village and more recently a volunteer for Miracle League has taught me to be grateful, to be humble, to work hard, and to smile.

You’re involved in quite a few philanthropic endeavors. Which one is the most important to you? I received my master’s degree from the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration [at UNLV] in 1996, so all the work that Konami and I do for the university is special to me. We have close to 40 employees at Konami who hold a degree from UNLV, and we actively recruit graduates.

How can the gaming industry maintain its foothold in the future? It comes down to developing games that the younger generation can relate to. I serve as the president of AGEM, our trade association, and we have a bill, SB 9, currently making its way through the legislative process in Carson City that would allow for elements of skill in gaming devices.

ToNy HsieH CEO, Zappos What do you think Vegas does right and what can be improved? Vegas has been, and always will be, the city of possibilities. In the past, much of the focus was on tourists. It’s great to see more focus being put on locals.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone younger than you? Be unapologetically true to yourself and broadcast that to the world, and eventually your people will find you. If you’re a different person on the inside compared to what you portray on the outside, it’ll be really hard for the right people to find you.

What has been the most fulfilling aspect of your career? It’s been inspiring and rewarding to watch employees grow both personally and professionally over the years, with many of them doing things they didn’t previously imagine or think they were capable of.

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“To be a parT of The growTh of This communiTy over The years has been an accomplishmenT ThaT cannoT be replicaTed.” —kevin orrock

BraNdoN marsHall Linebacker, Denver Broncos In what ways do you enjoy giving back to the Vegas community? It’s my hometown; it’s a city I hold near and dear to my heart. I especially enjoy taking some time out to read to little kids and talking to high schools, because these are the kids who will be changing the world in a few years.

Why is it important for athletes to give back? I feel it’s our duty as public figures; we have such a big platform and we need to use it. Kids look up to us and want to be athletes themselves, and it’s our responsibility to give back because of the influence we have.

How do you plan to use your own experience with domestic violence to impact others? I’d like to continue to work with different organizations to spread my story and my mom’s story to give hope to people who may be going through that. I hope that it creates a change in the way we talk about it.

Jerry Nadal Senior Vice President, Cirque du Soleil

alex Stratta Chef, Alex Stratta Tapas

What aspects of your job excite you the most? I get to manage an incredibly diverse group of 2,000 people from over 40 countries in disciplines that run the gamut on all things technical and creative. Every day of the year we get to make people happy.

What is the best part of your work on One Night for One Drop? Getting to showcase the incredible array of talent we have at Cirque. We get to use the social arts to talk about the drought in the western US. With the dollars that we raise here, we are sustainably changing the lives of people in developing countries, lifting them out of poverty and giving women and girls opportunities to work and go to school.

What inspires your work with the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health? I have a personal desire to participate in the giving of my skills and abilities in joining a mission that strives to make a lasting impact against the manageable components of Alzheimer’s. My goal is to sustain a heightened awareness regarding the direct effects of specific healthy dietary choices, which can have a significant role in slowing the debilitating effects of brain disease.

In what other meaningful ways do you enjoy giving back to the community? Being a cancer survivor, I have a personal commitment to offer whatever resources I have and participate in charitable donations for cancer research, both for our community and nationally.

Why is giving back important to you? The Howard Hughes Corporation has contributed millions of dollars over for leading nonprofit organizations, such as Outside Las Vegas Foundation, Clark County School District, Nevada Ballet Theatre, and many others. Las Vegas has been my home for more than 40 years, and I am so proud to be a part of such a vibrant and giving community.

What has been your most significant accomplishment? During the boom period, I was careful not to overstaff like so many other developers, and as a result, when the recession hit, 90 percent of our staff kept their jobs. Downtown Summerlin ultimately became an important symbol of the resurgence of the Southern Nevada economy.

^

KeviN OrrOcK President of Summerlin and Vice President of Master Planned Communities for The Howard Hughes Corporation

“i’m excited to be a part of the new generation of restaurants that has begun to develop for our local guests in las vegas.”

—alex stratta

ryaN WalSh, Md Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health What motivates your commitment to furthering Parkinson’s disease research? PD is unfortunately already the 14th leading cause of death in the US and is growing as the population ages. This is a significant public health concern, in addition to the impact it has on individual patients and their caregivers.

Which of your professional accomplishments are you most proud of and why? In just over three years, we have been able to develop a true home for patients with Parkinson’s disease, multiple system atrophy, and related disorders, where they can receive world-class comprehensive care, connect with cuttingedge research, and help forward new ways to diagnose and treat their diseases. I can’t wait to see what more we can do to help Las Vegas and beyond.

iaN Staller Executive Vice President and General Manager, Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada

tiM WONg President and CEO, Arcata

Which of your professional accomplishments are you most proud of? I moved to Las Vegas in 2003, during a time when the economy was still accelerating to record levels. We all know what happened in 2008 when the financial party ended and the Nevada headlines were dominated by the worst unemployment and foreclosure rankings in the US. As the CFO of Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada during these uncertain economic times, I helped in adding a personal touch when coaching my teams through challenging times, as well as sharing with our employees how they each bring value to the overall success of our organization. Fortunately, all this hard work had a very positive impact on shaping the culture of the company, and it continues to this day.

Which professional accomplishments are you most proud of? I am proud to lead a family-owned company that has a reputation for excellence in the aerospace/defense industry, is recognized by its employees as a great place to work, and is known for giving back.

What’s behind your support for literacy, education, and the arts? My grandparents spent a month crossing the Pacific Ocean in the bottom of a cargo ship to come to America from China. They came to this country without formal education or wealth. They brought a strong work ethic, a commitment and desire to create a better life for themselves and their families, and an understanding that literacy, education, and the arts are important to ensure the success of future generations. V

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haute property

Real Estate’s New Age

photography by Dennis owen

Once wary Of hOmeOwnership, millennials are entering the market in recOrd numbers. by andy wang

Cameron Siskowic’s penthouse features the latest in home automation and party technology, like LED mood lighting.

There’s a youth movement in real estate, and it’s hitting all sectors of the Vegas market, from penthouse palaces to starter homes.

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies recently reported that “the number of households in their 30s should increase by 2.7 million over the coming decade, which should boost the demand for new housing.” So a big priority for brokers and developers is catering to these millennials, especially when you consider that buyers at this age may very well become repeat customers.

“I call them Generation Less,” says Award Realty broker Shari Sanderson (lasvegascondomania.com). “Less is more. They want less clutter in their homes, so everything is high-tech.” continued on page 104

vegasmagazine.com 103

“it’s not like their parents’ generation. the car is not the most important thing anymore.”

—uri vaknin Sanderson and partner Michelle Manley have sold more than $50 million worth of condos at CityCenter’s Veer Towers to buyers like 31-year-old Cameron Siskowic. The former professional football player, now a nightlife consultant, purchased a 2,177-square-foot penthouse for less than $1 million and is now looking to sell it for $1.85 million, after adding features like LED mood lighting that can change from blue to red to green and a bathtub that vibrates in sync with music.

In addition to the latest in home automation and party technology, millennials want access to worldclass dining and shopping. Neil Patel, a 30-year-

The pool area at Spanish Palms. above: The living room of Cameron Siskowic’s penthouse.

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old tech entrepreneur and Sanderson client who flipped a Mandarin Oriental condo and now lives in another unit he purchased in the luxury highrise, likes the convenience of Mandarin’s MOzen restaurant and the Tom Ford and Dolce & Gabbana boutiques at the nearby Crystals shopping center.

“I have a bad shopping habit because of living at the Mandarin,” Patel says. “I spent, like, $100,000 on clothes last year.”

But his investments at Mandarin Oriental include a residence he sold for a profit of more than $175,000, and living at CityCenter means he doesn’t need a car, so overall he’s well in the black. Both Patel and Siskowic refer to Sanderson as their “Vegas mom,” a property Sherpa who helps them manage their holdings well.

Millennials without a baller budget also have needs that developers are responding to. At Spanish Palms (spanishpalmslv.com), on South Rainbow Boulevard, condos start at around $120,000, an affordable price for many first-time buyers. “What’s great about the property is that it’s a garden-style condominium,” says Uri Vaknin, a partner at KRE Capital, which co-owns the development. “And every condo has a true garage, like a family house.”

But although the building was designed for a car-driving crowd, on-site amenities mean residents don’t have to leave the premises for a fitness center, two pools, communal barbecue grills, a dog park, a putting green, and a new playground. “It’s attractive to young families,” Vaknin says.

The portfolio of KRE Capital also includes Downtown’s Ogden (ogdenlv.com), where all the communal areas, including the pool and sky deck, have been equipped with Wi-Fi. “Millennials are all about connectivity,” says Vaknin, adding that Downtown’s bike lanes, restaurants, and bars all contribute to a youthful lifestyle. “It’s not like their parents’ generation, which lived in the suburbs and drove places. They want walkability, ease of access. The car is not the most important thing anymore.”

Millennials are also more eco-conscious, so the Ogden, which has sold one-, two-, and threebedroom condos from the mid-$200,000s to the mid-$600,000s, placed energy-saving Nest Learning Thermostats in every unit. But being environmentally friendly and reducing energy bills is also a priority at the market’s high end.

“It’s funny—you think people with this kind of net worth don’t care about [electricity bills], but they do,” says broker Bob Barnhart of Luxurious Real Estate (luxurious-estates.com). “They’re very aware of every expense. Being socially responsible is now the cool thing to do.”

Barnhart is marketing the new 6,780-square-foot, $3.499 million mansion at 618 St. Croix Street, built

by Philippe Ziade of Growth Luxury Homes, a residence so green that the US Department of Energy categorizes it as a Zero Energy Ready Home.

Of course, marketing to millennials involves selling a lifestyle, so Barnhart commissioned photos that include both a gorgeous brunette in front of a Lamborghini and a young family making cupcakes in the kitchen. The idea is that this generation, which values customization and gets design inspiration from Houzz and Pinterest, wants more than a property. They want the ability to create the precise life they desire. Real estate is aspirational, after all.

So it’s no surprise that broker Ivan Sher of Shapiro & Sher (lasvegasfinehomes.com) partnered with Tesla Motors to offer test drives of electric cars during a marketing event for the custom home-site development Ascaya (ascaya.com) in Henderson.

“The buyer of a Tesla vehicle is someone who gets the shift in technology and society and also has the ability to purchase real estate,” Sher says.

Twenty-nine-year-old broker Kamran Zand of Luxury Estates International (luxuryestates.com) says he’s had success courting millennials—like a Mandarin Oriental buyer who valet-parks his street-legal Mercedes-Benz golf cart—because he understands how they want to live. He resides and shops at CityCenter himself, for starters.

“A lot of [buyers] turn out to be my friends,” he says. “Some of the parties they’ve invited me to are just off the hook. They know I get it. I’m not posing.

I’m living the lifestyle they want to live in Vegas.”

A lifestyle in which the next party you get invited to may just involve a vibrating bathtub. V

photography by Dennis owen (penthouse); bryan hainer (spanish palms)

haute property

Where words leave of, music begins

THE 2015-16 SEASON SINGLE TICKETS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS NOW ON SALE Tickets available at The Smith Center Box Ofce, at 702.749.2000 or at lvphil.org

haute property tall Stories

Sports Authority Sports Footage “Unique” is one of the most overused, and misused, words in real estate.

But in the case of the newly listed $25 million southwest Las Vegas mansion known as Casa Paradiso (casaparadiso lasvegas.com), it applies.

“There are no other homes I know of that have an indoor roller hockey rink or a baseball diamond,” says broker Frank Napoli of The Napoli Group (thenapoligroup.com).

There’s also a water slide, by the way, not to mention around 18,000 square feet of living space, more than 4,500 square feet of airconditioned garage space, and 6,500 square feet of covered patio and porte cochere on five-plus acres of land. In addition to the hockey setup, the property’s 14,000-plussquare-foot recreational building has a glass-enclosed racquetball court, two batting cages, a golf simulator, and a locker area, as well as its own tricked-out kitchen and bathrooms.

Completed in 2006, Casa Paradiso is on the market for the first time. It was created by a builder for his own family, but now that his children have grown up, it’s time to find a new owner. “Even though it’s a large square footage and lots of land, everything is proportioned

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properly,” says Napoli of the seven-bedroom home and sports compound. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” The doors and windows were imported from Austria. The stone was reclaimed from European streets and refinished.

There’s Venetian plaster, exposed beams, solid-wood cabinetry, and the “highest level of Crestron” smarthome technology, Napoli adds. And, of course, there’s the luxury of enjoying it all while your children play in a separate building.

South Central The southern end of the Strip—home to a new Shake Shack and future home of a major arena—is where the action is.

And now Penn National Gaming, known for its slot machine and racing facilities across the United States, has purchased the Tropicana casino resort for $360 million. The deal comes after the property completed $200 million of upgrades, including a South Beach– themed renovation of its nearly 1,500 guest rooms. Located on 35 acres at the busy intersection of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, the Tropicana (troplv.com) also boasts a 50,000-square-foot casino, a 1,200-seat performance venue, and more than

100,000 square feet of exhibition and meeting space.

You can expect the highly trafficked area to get even more popular when MGM Resorts International and the entertainment behemoth AEG open their 650,000square-foot, 20,000-seat arena next year.

About Those Wings While the Hooters Casino Hotel’s future is unclear now that the property has changed ownership, fans of wings and scantily clad waitresses have a new party palace at the Palms Casino Resort (palmslv.com). The Hooters at the Palms pool is the world’s largest, with over 15,200 square feet of space, enough for more than 500 guests. This Hooters includes a poolside bar, a two-story dining room, and nearly 50 TVs. As for the Hooters Casino Hotel, Canyon Capital Advisors sold it for about $70 million to New York–based Trinity Hotel Investors, which has invested in hospitality properties around the country and in Europe. V

from top:

The pool area of Casa Paradiso, a one-of-a-kind mansion perfect for a large, sports-loving family; the historic Tropicana casino resort, now with a new owner; a rendering of the new Hooters at the Palms.

photography courtesy of yihong Liu + associates, Ltd (hooters); by richard i’anson/getty images (tropicana)

A home for An Active fAmily (or A sports teAm) comes to mArket, the south end of the strip prepAres for An Action-pAcked summer, And the pAlms debuts some scenery chAnges of its own. by andy wang

JOIN US for the 2015 Women’s Leadership Conference

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With the push of a button, floor-to-ceiling drapes swing around to darken the space and a movie screen silently descends from the ceiling. right: The home’s design dissolves the barrier between being inside and outside.

Vegas Modern

the newest sustainable designs in las vegas depart dramatically from the city’s vernacular style. by t.r. witcher As Tyler Jones, a cofounder and owner of Blue Heron Design Build, leads a tour through the stunning 5,800square-foot model home at his company’s Sky Terrace development, perched atop a hill in Henderson, it’s not so much the views of the city that captivate. It’s the way the interior and exterior spaces meld—the way you can stand inside a casita, look outside to a courtyard,

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past the courtyard into the kitchen, past the kitchen to an outdoor patio, and beyond that to the city and mountains on the horizon.

Blue Heron prides itself on just these sorts of layered designs, in which generous courtyards and patios and acres of glass doors and windows help dissolve the barrier between being inside the home and outside it. Add the company’s modernist

touch, its emphasis on clean vertical and horizontal lines and serene earth tones, and its commitment to sustainability and you have the core of what Jones calls “Vegas modern.” It’s a style and sensibility that speak both to the city’s playful, loungeable glamour and to the intense heat and dryness of the Mojave Desert. “It’s what we believe is the vernacular style for Las Vegas,” Jones says,

and it’s light years beyond the ersatz Mediterranean– meets–Southern California look associated with construction in the valley.

The Sky Terrace model is the National Association of Home Builders’ New American Home for 2015.

From its huge open-floor living room/dining room/ kitchen to its airy secondstory loft, the interior is a wealth of flexible spaces flooded with natural light. A TV room comes complete with a translucent onyx bar, a slick battery of high-end audiovisual gear, and a glass door to the courtyard—and at the touch of a button it transforms into a home theater.

Despite all the bells and whistles, Blue Heron’s new flagship home consumes zero net energy, thanks in part to a passive solar approach to design that’s surprisingly low-tech. Trellises and overhangs keep sunlight off the glass on the home’s southern side, minimizing heat gain.

There are no windows facing west—yet the interplay between indoor and outdoor keeps you from noticing. A small pool in the courtyard, sandwiched between three

indoor spaces, helps generate cooling cross-ventilation.

The home also has a sophisticated building envelope: The entire structure, including the attic and the roof, is insulated. A UV system on the roof reflects sunlight, and the doors and windows—and there are a lot of them—all use dual-pane low-E highperformance glass. A 15-kilowatt solar-panel array on the roof provides enough electricity to run the whole house, a tankless water heater supplies hot water only on demand, and the home’s drywall removes dangerous volatile organic compounds from the air. You can even monitor the building’s energy performance (or oversee the security, or turn on the lights, or play a movie on one of 27 flat screens) on your iPad. Jones promises that Blue Heron is planning smaller homes at more affordable prices (the base cost of the smaller Sky Terrace home is $629,990). But for a firm committed to high-end design, don’t expect any compromises. As Jones puts it, “There’s no shortcut to really great design.” blueheronhomes.com V

photography by trent bell photography

Haute ProPerty Green Scene

AUGUST 22, 2015-JANUARY 10, 2016

Experience one of America’s most beloved landscapes through the eyes of 175 painters, photographers, architects, weavers and sculptors.

Premier S PonSor: Wayne L. Prim and Miriam Prim and the Wayne L. Prim Foundation Lead SPonSorS: Nancy Siebens Binz; EMPLOYERS®; Deborah Day in memory of Teodore J. Day; I. Heidi Loeb Hegerich; IGT; Nancy and Brian Kennedy; Te Satre Family Fund at the Community Foundation of Western Nevada; Te Ranson and Norma Webster Fund at the Community Foundation Albert Bierstadt, Twilight, Lake Tahoe, circa 1870s. Oil on canvas, 37 x 52 inches. Private Collection

of Western Nevada; and Wells Fargo § major SPonSorS: Te Bretzlaf Foundation; Carol Franc Buck Foundation; Irene and George Drews; Te Telma B. and Tomas P. Hart Foundation; and the National Endowment for the Arts § SuPPorting SPonSorS: Carole Kilgore Anderson and Family in memory of J. Robert Anderson; Kathie Bartlett and Family in memory of Matthew, Phil, and Syd Bartlett; Denise and Tim Cashman; Chase International Real Estate; Judy and David Collins; Andrea and John Deane; Dolby Family; Susan and Stuart Engs; Leonard and Sara Lafrance; Anne Brockinton Lee and Robert M. Lee; Maureen Mullarkey and Steve Miller; Enid A. Oliver, ChFC, Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.; and Sandy Rafealli, Bill Pearce Motors

The Guide

photography courtesy of mgm resorts international

The octopus at Lago, with squid ink “couscous” and bottarga.

The Vegas Riviera

Julian Serrano’S Lago tranSportS dinerS to a Sparkling SeaSide port by way of avant-garde early20th-century Milan. by andrea bennett

It’s basically a requirement of any new Vegas restaurant that it transport diners to an exotic locale, and Lago in Bellagio does this better than virtually any restaurant today. Julian Serrano, acclaimed for his two-Michelin-starred Picasso in Bellagio and Julian Serrano in Aria, turns his attention from Spanish tapas and molecular gastronomy to Italian small plates, with captivating results. Consider the pristine crudo of ahi tuna and scallop with blood orange segments, the tangy branzino Livornese, and the beautifully tender slow-cooked short ribs. The cocktail program includes tiny edible touches, such as a sphere of Prosecco, limoncello, lemon sorbet, and

cocoa butter to pop in your mouth with the reinvented Sgroppino. And while dishes like a rich red-wine risotto atop creamy Burrata will have you questioning every previous risotto to enter your life, it’s the sparkling modern room that completes this picture. The sleek, light-filled design is a tribute to 20th-century Italian futurism. A glass mosaic—an aerial map of Milan—greets guests as they enter; an Emilio Pucci–inspired back bar is the focal point of the dining room; and the patio is a thoroughly modern al fresco hideaway. You’ll forget that the faint seaside humidity comes from dancing fountains in the desert. Bellagio, 877-259-7111; bellagio.com V

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the guiDe imbibe

Look at your watch and you’ll know the beer, cocktail, and wine prices during happy hour at Andre’s: $5, $6, and $7.

C’mon, Get Happy ditch work early thiS SUMMer for a drink—and a diSh— at SoMe of vegaS’S beSt happy hoUrS. Andre’s Restaurant & Lounge Happy hour at Andre’s Restaurant & Lounge includes $5 beers, $6 cocktails, and $7 wines, but it’s the small plates—think goat cheese–stuffed dates and beef sliders—that really shine. The menu is available in the bar and cigar lounge, giving diners plenty of space to unwind with a Manhattan in hand.

Tuesday through Sunday, 5–7 pm. Monte Carlo, 702798-7151; andrelv.com

Bardot Brasserie Offered daily in the restaurant’s bar and lounge, the happy hour at Bardot Brasserie may be the best time to sample some of chef Michael Mina’s riffs on classic French cooking.

Everything from oysters and escargots to duck wings and macaroni au gratin makes an appearance on the menu, along with a quartet of beers,

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three sommelier-selected wines, and a craft cocktail chosen by the bartender.

Daily, 5–7 pm. Aria, 877230-2742; aria.com

Border Grill The happy hour selection at Border Grill may be small, but it packs quite a punch.

Green corn tamales with fresh crema are up for grabs for just $1, while street tacos, oysters, and drinks—beer, margaritas, and house-made sangria—round out the offerings served on weekday afternoons in the restaurant’s cantina.

Monday through Friday, 3–6 pm. The Forum Shops at Caesars, 702-854-6700; bordergrill.com

Ferraro’s Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar Wine, beer, and cocktails (martinis, anyone?) are just the start of Ora Sociale, or

happy hour, at the off-Strip favorite Ferraro’s, where the daily selection blooms with authentic Italian dishes like stuffed peppers, fried calamari, and house-made meatballs. Best of all, everything falls under $10.

Daily, 4–7 pm. 4480 Paradise Road, 702-3645300; ferraroslasvegas.com

In addition to the awardwinning Cal Italia pizza (with four cheeses, fig, and prosciutto), this Downtown institution’s two happy hours are another reason to visit.

During both the early-evening and late-night Craft happy hours, draft cocktails, domestic beers, and $3 cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon pair well with the menu, which runs the gamut from truffle fries to a trio of personal pizzas (and yes, the Cal Italia is one of them).

Monday through Friday, 3–6 pm, and daily, 10 pm–closing.

201 N. Third St., 702-3850838; pizzarocklasvegas.com

Wine & Dine We’re spending happy hour with Gino Ferraro, owner of the family-operated Ferraro’s Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar.

Rose.Rabbit.Lie.

How did you compile the

If culinary experimentation is more your thing, Rose.

Rabbit.Lie.’s weekly Social Hour features the kind of menu you’ll want to explore over and over again. Three of the restaurant’s cocktails, including the traditional New York sour, are part of the collection, as are gourmet dishes like potato poutine with short rib gravy and campfire s’mores.

Wednesday and Thursday, 5:30 –7 pm. Cosmopolitan Las Vegas, 877-893-2003; roserabbitlie.com

happy hour menu? we chose some of our family’s favorites and some of our locals’ favorites—housemade meatballs, nonna’s stuffed peppers, and, always the crowd-pleaser, our beef carpaccio. [it’s] all the same fresh, homemade goodness, just on a smaller plate.

What do we absolutely have to try next time we come in? that’s the beauty of the menu: we know it’s hard to choose just one, so our small plates allow you to

Mercadito

Vice Versa Patio & Lounge

Need proof that the happy hour at Red Rock’s Mercadito is worth the trek to Summerlin? If the drinks on offer—including fresh sangria, margaritas, and tequila cocktails that are set on fire before being served— don’t catch your eye, consider starting with a tableful of shareable dishes, like the mango guacamole and pork belly tacos.

Daily, 3–6 pm. Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa, 702-979-3609; mercadito restaurants.com

Vice Versa Patio & Lounge’s Happy Afternoons introduce newcomers to the recently renovated bar’s untraditional setup, which contrasts healthier drinks and dishes with more indulgent ones. The menu spotlights small plates, including pretzel bites, garlic edamame, and fatbreads, as well as wines, craft beers, and a rotating seasonal cocktail— each for just $7.

Monday through Thursday, 11 am–3:30 pm. Vdara Hotel & Spa, 702-590-2300; vdara.com V

calamari is, well, life-chang-

choose two or three. our

ing. i’m talking tender, crisp, and eyes-roll-to-the-backof-your-head good. try our carpaccio once and you’ll crave it and want it at least once a week.

Can you recommend a wine pairing off the happy hour menu? try the carpaccio with venica & venica Sauvignon blanc or the sausage pizza with a glass of San lorenzo Montepulciano.

photography Courtesy of ferraro’s ItalIan restaurant & WIne Bar (ferraro); andre’s restaurant & lounge (Bar)

Pizza Rock

the guide indulge

Islands in the Sun

sofas and butler-style service.

The Linq, 702-835-5713; caesars.com

Forget the Lounge chairs and cramped quarters. Vegas’s most oVer-the-top cabanas are eLeVating the resort-pooL experience.

Mandalay Bay Beach

Azure Luxury Pool Renting one of the 11 airy cabanas at Azure starts with fresh fruit and Champagne service, and the experience can be augmented with snacks from Wolfgang Puck’s bikini-friendly pool menu or treatments from Canyon Ranch SpaClub. If it’s strictly relaxation you’re looking for, you may want to avoid Azure on the weekends, when DJs turn it into a no-holds-barred party zone.

Palazzo, 702-767-3724; palazzo.com

Bamboo Pool The Bamboo Pool is the quietest and most secluded of Cosmopolitan’s three pools, and its 10 dark-wood cabanas invite guests to indulge, with flat-screen TVs and even video gaming systems available upon request. Cabana guests are treated to cocktails and treatments from the hotel’s

photography by barbara kraft

Lounge by the pool without sacrificing your privacy by renting a cabana, like this colorful number at Wynn.

Sahra Spa & Hammam, including 50-minute massages with Pure Fiji nut extracts and coconut milk.

Cosmopolitan, 702-698-6797; cosmopolitanlasvegas.com

Delano Beach Club The whited-out look of the new Delano Beach Club recalls the hotel’s sister pool in Miami, but the vibe here is decidedly more Vegas than South Beach. The cabanas boast plush Janus et Cie furnishings and thoughtful amenities like Evian facial sprays, chilled towels, and magazines. The lower deck’s Cabana One offers waterfall views and space for up to eight guests, while the rest of the club’s cabanas comfortably fit four.

Delano Las Vegas, 702-6326106; delanolasvegas.com

Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis The seven pools that make

up Caesars Palace’s outdoor oasis complement their surroundings, with crisp linen draperies and Mykonos-blue cabana furnishings mimicking the style of a lush Greek resort. Starting at $16,000 per day, the new Rule the Pool package lets you (and up to 120 of your closest friends) reign over the Bacchus or Jupiter pool, as well as its cabanas and sound system.

Caesars Palace, 702-7317280; caesars.com

The Linq Pool Designed for guests aged 21 and over, the brand-new pool at The Linq includes 10 colorful cabanas outfitted with plasma TVs, built-in speakers, and overhead misting systems. Visitors who are staying at The Linq, however, may want to consider booking one of the hotel’s 25 cabana rooms, which feature pool-adjacent patios offering sectional

Mandalay Bay’s outdoor playground—a summertime nirvana equipped with three pools, a sandy beach, and a 1.6 million-gallon wave pool—is considered the granddaddy of them all, and its exclusive lounge spaces more than measure up. The selection includes 48 teakwood cabanas holding 11 guests each and expansive third-floor villas with private pools, wet bars, and decks.

Mandalay Bay, 702-6324760; mandalaybay.com

Mandarin Oriental Pool

Luxe Lounging Sheree Robillard of Delano Las Vegas takes us inside the new beach club.

How does the design of the cabanas at Delano Beach Club add to the overall experience? delano beach club’s cabanas were built to accommodate every guest’s needs. cabana amenities include bottle service, 46-inch high-defnition tVs, and ports that make it easy for guests to play music and charge their devices.

What tips can you offer for

Mandarin Oriental’s eighth-floor pool deck may be one of Vegas’s most difficult-to-penetrate hideaways, but guests who aren’t staying at the hotel can bypass the restrictions by renting a cabana. The music is never too loud, the lounge chairs are never too close, and all the cabanas include 48-inch flat-screen TVs and access to the Pool Café’s menu of small bites, like ceviche and boozy Popsicles.

Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas, 702-590-8888; mandarinoriental.com

booking a cabana?

Wynn Pools

typically have the high-

Misting systems, plasma TVs, and complimentary snack trays enhance the 45 candy-colored cabanas at Wynn, which can be outfitted with sofas, dining tables, and chaise longues for as many as 15 people. Guests of Wynn’s Tower Suites, meanwhile, enjoy a private deck with two pools and second-story cabanas complete with their own balconies.

Wynn Las Vegas, 702-7707070; wynnlasvegas.com V

We recommend that guests book at least two weeks prior to their visit and arrive as early as 8 am so they’re able to take full advantage of the sunshine and cabana experience. if possible, we also suggest that guests tour our facilities prior to booking so they can determine which cabana best suits their needs. For example, guests looking for a full day in the sun should request cabanas 12 through 16, because they

est levels of direct sunlight throughout the day.

Are there any other services we can add? all of our delano beach club guests have the option of ordering exclusive cocktails and menu items from the beach bar grill. additional services for cabana guests include poolside massages, bottle service, and specialoccasion cakes.

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SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

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HAPPY HOUR AT SAMMY’S RESTAURANT & BAR Stop by and unwind for happy hour daily from 3 to 6PM at Sammy’s in Green Valley.

Take advantage of drink specials, two dollars off all beers, wines by the glass and specialty cocktails. Plus enjoy half off tapas such as Sweet Chili Glazed Chicken Wings and the savory Mediterranean Dip sampler.

BELLAGIO GALLERY OF FINE ART PRESENTS PICASSO: CREATURES AND CREATIVITY Explore Picasso’s creative process through the mediums of painting and printmaking with 43 works on view together for the first time in the United States. Showcasing his modern work from 1938 to 1971, this exhibition focuses on his favorite theme, the human figure.

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SPRINKLES CUPCAKES

Immerse yourself in the old world aura of Tapas

by Alex Stratta where authentic ingredients and classic recipes meet the creative flair of a modern master. Chef Alex Stratta, winner of two Michelin stars and a James Beard award, puts his culinary genius to the casual, convivial small plates of Spain, paired with sangrias, sherries and signature cocktails to accent one of the most inviting outdoor dining spaces in Las Vegas.

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By remaining small, Serenity is able to look after every detail of your excursion to the Grand Canyon, offering a once in a lifetime experience that is unrivaled.

New summer flavors are now at celebrity-loved Sprinkles Cupcakes. Beat the heat with a Sprinkles Sundae, a scoop of decadent ice cream layered between a cupcake. Order online for curbside pickup or convenient delivery. The world-famous Cupcake ATM dispenses fresh cupcakes 24/7, covering your sugar fix any time of day.

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For reservations, please call 702.483.3555 Visit tapasalexstratta.com

Pablo Picasso, Woman with a Yellow Necklace, 1946, Oil on canvas, 32 x 25 ½”, © 2015 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Go ahead, be fabulous. Just protect yourself.

When you’re out in the sun be sure to protect your skin. Shade, sunscreen, and a cover-up can go a long way to helping your natural beauty shine through.

Go with your own glow™ SkinCancer.org

©2008-2015 The Skin Cancer Foundation Campaign created in cooperation with Laughlin Constable, laughlin.com

INVITED

Nikki Pishotti and Audrey Bade Tanya Popovich and Dayna Roselli

Sheila Davis and Nicole Kulik

NARS X CHRISTOPHER KANE LAUNCH VEGAS MAGAZINE AND NARS at The Forum Shops at Caesars joined forces to celebrate the launch of the luxury beauty brand’s Summer 2015 collection, a collaboration with fashion designer Christopher Kane. NARS’s direc-

Amy Ma and Meg Schmidt

tor of global artistry, James Boehmer, touched down in Vegas to introduce the line of bold brights and neons, as well as offer guests complimentary makeup services, glasses of Veuve Clicquot, and Sprinkles cupcakes.

Mae Loftus, Natricia Tricano, Diana Valencia, and Michelle Zeiter

METAMORPHOSIS: AN ECO-FASHION EVENT

Ashley Myers, Jahaan Muhammad, and Claire Sporck

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VEGASMAGAZINE.COM

Heather Fife and Meg Smith

SPRINGS PRESERVE SERVED as a stunning backdrop for the Las Vegas Fashion Council’s Metamorphosis: An Eco-Fashion Event, an evening dedicated to showcasing the work of up-and-coming designers tasked with creating ensembles using only sustainably sourced fabrics and repurposed materials. Stylish attendees enjoyed cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and a silent auction outside the property’s Desert Living Center, before taking their seats for a runway show whose proceeds benefited the preserve’s educational programming.

Michael McGraw and Sean McClenahan

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SAEED RAHBARAN (NARS); RAY ALAMO (METAMORPHOSIS) OPPOSITE PAGE: PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF AL POWERS

Isabel Reyes and Lauren Tongco

Nicole Easley and Celena Haas-Stacey

// inside look //

ON THE MENU IN ADDITION TO ENTERTAINING THE CROWD, CHEF BRIAN MALARKEY USED RC Wonderly and Alexandra Nikolich

J.B. and Brenda Bernstein

SEARSUCKER’S GRAND OPENING AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO INTRODUCE DINERS TO SOME OF HIS CROWD-PLEASING SMALL PLATES AND DESSERTS.

Brian Malarkey, Michael LaPorte, and Bryan Bass

SEARSUCKER GRAND OPENING

Katie Briggs and Stephanie Capellas

VEGAS MAGAZINE FÊTED Top Chef alumnus Brian Malarkey at the grand opening of Searsucker, his brand-new restaurant at Caesars Palace. In true Malarkey form, the always-ebullient chef welcomed attendees to his contemporary spin on the social lounge, developed in partnership with Hakkasan Group, only after parading through Caesars accompanied by a cadre of costumed ancient Romans. The festivities continued throughout the evening with tastings of Malarkey’s farm-fresh cuisine, fine wines, and a variety of cocktails made with Basil Hayden’s bourbon whiskey.

S’mores bar with salted caramel ganache, honey-chocolate mousse, and toasted marshmallow Pork belly “bacon” topped with poached egg

Ian Clement, Alie Batteria, and Craig Nyman

Colin and Michelle Campbell

Isabelle Rosa and Jared Levin

Jacob Bundick and Shan Bates

Spicy shrimp and bacon grits

VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 117

INVITED

Vanessa Houssels, Cari Marshall, and Donna Stratton

Diana Bennett, Tami Conn, and Marlee Palermo

GIRLS NIGHT OUT

Chancey White, attendees enjoyed a night of shopping and socializing in support of The Shade Tree, Vegas’s largest domestic-violence shelter for women, children, and their pets.

Brittany McGowan

Kerry Simon and Dr. Jennifer Nash

Dr. Ryan Walsh, Elizabeth Blau, and Robin Leach Birthday cake by Gimme Some Sugar

Abbie Friedman and Dee Gust

118 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM

Alex Acuna and Tyler Langdon

Kristie Jelinsky and Amanda Kouretas

Ole Bark, Todd Greenberg, Evie Bark, and Christopher Joy

KERRY SIMON’S 60TH BIRTHDAY ROCK ’N’ ROLL chef Kerry Simon closed out the sevenyear run of Simon Restaurant & Lounge with an intimate 60th birthday party at the Palms Place eatery. Alongside Todd Greenberg, president and CEO of Palms Casino Resort, and restaurateur Elizabeth Blau, Simon welcomed friends and colleagues to indulge in one final bash—complete with cocktails and a cake emblazoned with the chef’s likeness, courtesy of the bakery Gimme Some Sugar—before the beloved restaurant officially shut its doors on May 22.

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF JEFF RAGAZZO (GIRLS NIGHT OUT); JOE DURKIN (KERRY SIMON) OPPOSITE PAGE: PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF WAYNE POSNER

BRINGING TOGETHER SOME of the city’s most philanthropic women, Friends of The Shade Tree held its 13th annual Girls Night Out benefit at Hyde Bellagio. Led by the event’s cochairs, Dana Manacher and

Jamie Stephenson and Marcella Melnichuk

Steve McGeary, Kristen Schaefer, and Adam Vesely

Giovanni Carestia and Aria Mondillo

Jamie Faitelson and Randi Udell

Larry and Angela Chiu with Rick Moore

BELLUSSO JEWELERS PRE-JCK/ COUTURE PARTY BELLUSSO JEWELERS AT PALAZZO CELEBRATED the

start of the jewelry industry’s leading trade show events, JCK and Couture, with a lavish in-store reception. Now an annual tradition, the party brings together industry insiders and jewelry buffs alike for a night of cocktails provided by Absolut Elyx, Perrier-Jouët Champagne, and passed hors d’oeuvres.

Hedy Woodrow and Reed Radosevich Dianna Moran, Cat Thordarson, Melissa Henson, and Meredith Kennedy

Sharon Buntain and Ana Martins

Sawnawai Reed, Bianca Vanrell, and Hacik Girjikian

Todd Tieche, Heidi Douglas, Bryan Holbey, and Elyse Clarke

Victor Andrade and Courtney Grafeld

VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 119

Parting shot

Water World

Punishing summer heat in extreme drought conditions? no Problem. Please enjoy our choreograPhed fountains and a seat under the water mister. by scott dickensheets For a Las Vegan, it can be hard to decide whether the opening scene of Paolo Bacigalupi’s new dystopian drought novel, The Water Knife, works better as grim farce or simple prophecy: A militarized Las Vegas water agency sends its mercenaries and attack choppers across a desiccated Southwest to blow up a water facility in rival Arizona.

Sure, it’s science fiction—for now. But today’s outlandish scenario has a way of becoming tomorrow’s Google news alert. As you’ve surely noticed, it’s getting awfully dry out there IRL, and you needn’t be an ecoalarmist or Mad Max screenwriter to see the apocalyptic potential in every new photo of Lake Mead’s receding waterline, every headline about California’s aqua-crisis. Or, as one local wag puts it: H2OMG! “Water is the driving force of all nature,” Leonardo da Vinci once said, and he hadn’t even seen Lake Bellagio. Water is certainly crucial to the feng shui of Las Vegas, which exists in a desert where no metropolis of 2 million should. Only some improbable feats

of engineering (Hoover Dam, sophisticated lake-draining infrastructure) have made the city’s wild growth, prosperity, and Mariah Carey residencies possible.

Of course, we acknowledge our critical relationship with this precious resource in the only way Vegas knows how: by making a giant, glugging spectacle of it. If Mother Nature doesn’t think there should be a lake on the Strip, by God, we’ll not only create one, we’ll make it dance. And we’ll fill huge tanks with sharks and dolphins, we’ll build canals, and, just in case nature still doesn’t get the message, we’ll have Cirque produce a vision of liquid beauty in its water-filled O. Indeed, so decadent are these entertainments in the arid context of the Mojave Desert that if Mad Max staggered in from the outback to behold Lake Bellagio at showtime, he could be forgiven for thinking he’d found another over-the-top villain’s lair.

But look beneath the surface. For all this lavish splashertainment, the city’s resorts account for just 7 percent of the valley’s water use (at 60 percent, residents are the real

wasters). Most hotels have tightened their laundry procedures so they use less water.

MGM properties have conserved some 1.2 billion gallons since 2008, and CityCenter, designed with eco-concerns in mind, saves 50 million gallons a year by itself, according to the company. And what about Bellagio, home of the gaudiest water spectacle of all?

As it happens, both the lake and O are refreshed with well water that’s not suitable for use in cocktails anyway. Overall, some 80 percent of resort-used water is returned to Lake Mead, helping shore up the dwindling supply. Not bad for an industry better noted for redefining conspicuous consumption.

Does all this mean you can splash guilt-free in a Strip day pool or enjoy O without wondering if you’ve become the super-drought’s BFF? We’re going to offer a cautious yes. Go ahead, cannonball off the Palms pool diving board with a clean conscience—although a little water awareness and enlightened restraint is always welcome, of course. Maybe it’ll help delay the launch of those attack choppers just a bit longer. V

illustration by daniel o’leary

“for all this lavish splashertainment, the city’s resorts account for just 7 percent of the valley’s water use. residents are the real wasters.”

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