While Las Vegas Sleeps…

I like to think I know a little bit about this town we call home - Las Vegas. The truth is, Las Vegas is big enough and has spread out enough that it’s really hard to keep up with all the new spots. There are hot spots and there are sweet spots. There are even best-kept-secret types of spots. There’s usually some overlap with those different types of places.

Last Friday my friend Dorothy, upon my suggesting that we drink fine wine until standing becomes challenging, said she has just the place. I thought I had just the place because I was in the mood for my favorite zin, and that can only be obtained at one of Emeril’s restaurants due to a contract with the winemaker, but she insisted. She had to make me feel a little guilty for always suggesting the place and not listening to others’ suggestions, which I don’t think is the case at all, but whatever her angle was, it worked. I’m glad it did!

I love wine. No, I mean I seriously love good wine. I like smelling it, I like tasting it, I just really love the whole wine experience. You might say I’m something of a wine snob in training… I know just enough to be dangerous, but it’s fun. Like some people say about sex, even when it’s bad it’s still good: wine always leaves you with a smile within a few minutes of it going down the proverbial hatch.

The problem with the process of trying new wines - figuring out what you like and don’t like about them, et cetera - is that you go to a wine shop, make a selection, take it home, maybe cook a meal, then you enjoy your bottle. By that point you might not feel like going back to the store to get another bottle or two. In a nutshell, the process takes time. In a restaurant the selection is, of course, bigger, but they also charge a 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 markup (or more) on what the bottle would actually cost either them or you in a retail shop. That comes with the territory, naturally, but sometimes you just want to have a decent meal and really try a number of wines without all the overhead.

For people who love wine and a good meal, thanks to Dorothy, I have found a place that might represent the perfect model for wine and food lovers: Marche’ Bacchus. As I understand it, Marche’ Bacchus started as a wine shop. There are rows of bins and racks on the walls with a a great selection of wines. They have a little bar where you can take your wine selection and for a $10 corkage fee they’ll open your bottle, decant it if necessary, and serve you at their bar inside the wine shop. They added a small cafe to their wine market a couple of years ago and it appears they have expanded it to its current size and menu, with outdoor dining on one of the three fingers lakes in Summerlin (it’s temporarily enclosed and heated during Winter.) The whole place still has the market in front and is still small and quaint. The great thing is, you don’t get the multiple price that is charged in a restaurant for your wine, and yet, from the smell of it, you can enjoy your wine over a tasty meal, all in a great environment outside, if you like. When that bottle runs out, you have an entire market to choose something different in the adjacent room. It’s sort of an interactive take on wine and dinner. I love it!

Thanks Dorothy!

I’ll be visiting Marche’ Bacchus again soon for more wine and will actually eat a meal, at which time I’ll be writing a review over at the new site we’re working on, Las Vegas Critics.

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