While Las Vegas Sleeps…

Last night I was at Bucks #1 and the adjoining Kinkos, drinking my ritual coffee and taking care of some printing stuff I had to do. I saw a sign on the door of the Starbucks saying they would be closed tomorrow (today) from 5:30-9:30pm. I was a little dismayed because I’m always in that area and get one to two coffee drinks there daily (or nightly, as it were, because that’s when I’m out on the prowl.) Yes, the Starbucks on Paradise Road in Las Vegas near Flamingo is my regular caffeine dealer! My C hook-up, baby… You know you got one too!

Early tonight I got a text message from Nick the Las Vegas Cabbie. He was freaked out saying, “Starbucks is closed! I’m going to die!” I knew right away it was at the Paradise Road Starbucks. It had to be…

I had just finished up my dinner and was on the way to get a coffee, myself, on the South Strip - being savvy enough to have planned an alternate, post-dinner caffeine hook-up. Wrong. They had the same damned sign on their window! It’s not just the Bucks on Paradise - it’s all Starbucks in the Las Vegas Valley! How could they so coldly single us out like that?? Don’t they know we have things to do all night??? That’s just mean!

Liz was incensed. She insisted we dial the number on the back her Starbucks card to complain about the hateful treatment Las Vegas caffeine junkies were getting. I called the number for her but it was after business hours, alas.

Only moments later, while suffering from acute caffeine withdrawal, I navigated my web browser to msnbc.com where I ran across this link. Dear god what have they done????

I need to see about doing some after hours stock short-selling. I bet you can chart a national dip in productivity levels amongst those working a swing shift on February 26th, 2008, across the entire nation due to Starbucks evil, tyrannical, bad bad bad cutting off of the coffee tit. I’m so sad. And twitchy.

Tags: cabbie, cabby, caffeine, cappucino, coffee, Las Vegas, latte, legal drugs, Nevada, Starbucks, withdrawals

I knew it was dry but this is crazy! Brothas’ gotta drink out here, yo!

When I first moved to Las Vegas a number of years ago we were already at like year three or four of what is now like an eight or nine year-long “drought.” I remember thinking, “wow - drought in a desert? It’s supposed to be normally dry. It must be like crazy dry.”

Then some other interesting, counterintuitive things happened. Aside from hearing mention a few times of the local area being ahead on average rainful, a huge amount of snow fell up on Mount Charleston. So much so that at the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard resort there was an avalanche that killed a boy named Allen Brett Hutchison. Avalanches kill people in the United States but not at ski resorts. They are invariably backcountry skiers, snowboarders, or snowmobilers, that are hurt or killed in avalanches. So it was that much more shocking that an avalanche killed a boy in Las Vegas - during a “drought,” no less. (He was on a chairlift when the avalanche occurred - it took out the ski lift and him with it. Very sad.) Later in the spring, the snow melt from that year’s record-setting snowfall washed out roads and caused some flooding in a school forcing it to be closed for a time.

So what does it mean to be experiencing a “drought” in the desert Southwest when locally there are places with record snowfalls, ahead-of-average rainfalls, et cetera? “Why live in the desert - it’s environmentally irresponsible,” you say? Well the truth is, Las Vegas uses a relatively very small percentage of the drought-ridden water supply. A couple of hours to our southwest there are a few towns you might have heard of that are interspersed with other towns connecting them, in what seems like a sea of never-ending sprawl… Los Angeles, San Diego.. those ringing a bell? Well Southern California uses an unbelievably disproportionate amount of water from the Colorado River on which Lake Mead sits behind Hoover Dam. Drought in the Southwest, Las Vegas, specifically, is all about the Rocky Mountains. The headwaters of the Colorado River start in - you guessed it - Colorado, where they’ve been experiencing lower average snow packs for the basically the last decade. Lake Mead isn’t the only lake dammed up on the Colorado River, any more. The water has to make its way through Lake Powell in frickin’ Utah before it can get down here into Lake Mead, which then, by treaty with several states and Mexico, passes the lion’s share of it on to Southern California. It’s true that the lake is Las Vegas’ primary water source. There are things they call “straws” that pump out our water from Lake Mead. It’s equally true that we’re not not the cause of the drought and sucking the lifeblood out of the river water conservation system’s coffers. That would be California.

So how bad is it? Well that is the reason I wrote this article. According to a new study as reported by MSNBC.com, it’s worse than they’d originally thought. It’s so bad, in fact, that there is a 10% chance that Lake Mead will be dry by 2014. That’s six years from now! By 2017 there is a 50% chance that water levels in Lake Mead will be so low that hydroelectric power generation will have to be halted. The scariest statistic of all? By 2021 - thirteen years from today - there is a 50-50 chance that Lake Mead will be dry.

I know this is Las Vegas and if you’re a regular reader you know I got a little gamble in me… But I ain’t lovin’ these odds - not even a little bit.

Lake Mead is currently hovering about a nut hair above 50% capacity. It is the policy of the Powers That Be to not let a large amount of water out of Lake Powell to drastically increase Lake Mead’s levels until Lake Powell returns to a certain level that satisfies their requirements. Sounds like someone needs to start taking all the rumors of massive, multi-billion dollar desalination projects seriously. All that water and ya can’t drink a drop..

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.

Tags: cafes, dining, las vegas secrets, Summerlin, wine

Dudes in costumes playing Magic the Gathering. Jesus I’m stoked.

All kidding aside, starting this Friday and running through Sunday, the 2007 Las Vegas Renaissance Festival is going on at Sunset Park. It’s $10 per person per day or $25 if you’re bored and have the stamina and/or will to go for all three days.

Coincidentally, we’re in preparations to start our new Las Vegas video podcast and will be out at at the festival on Friday shooting some film, probably eating turkey legs, and most definitely drinking beer. To actually make the day fun, in the spirit of The Three Musketeers (the movie,) we’re going wenching!

Look for our camera crew in the park and come entertain our readers. Viewer participation is strongly encouraged!

Tags: alcohol, cheap Las Vegas, Entertainment, film, Las Vegas outdoors, parks, renaissance festival, Southern Nevada, Sunset Park