Lost Wages - Gained Calories

Despite zero success on the poker tables on a recent visit to Las Vegas, some great beer was found most of which I consumed at the best ale house/restaurant I have ever been to.

As soon as I got to Vegas after checking into my room, I went and got my usual $3.50 pint of Guinness at the street bar of tiny O'Shea's Casino on The Strip. This place is dated and pretty much a dump, but they give a good pour (despite being in a plastic cup) which is absolutely vital to me while walking around Vegas. A block or so away is the Flamingo Hotel and Casino and overlooking their garden area inside is the new Sin City Brewing Bar. With only four craft brews on tap, it's obvious this microbrewery is just getting started. And to me, they have a long, long way to go. I was not impressed. From their limited selection, I chose their Octoberfest Amber Ale. Fairly boring and served in a plastic cup for the ridiculous price of $6. Laughable. I am not one who worries about the price of good beer, but this swill was mediocre in taste and you can't even give it to me in a glass? What a joke. I've got a real feeling that like the fake Eiffel Tower in front of the Paris Casino, the fake volcano in front of The Mirage and the fake Manhattan skyline in front of the New York, New York Casino, Sin City Brewing is basically a fake of a real craft brewery and should be considered just another Vegas tourist trap.

With the disappointment of Sin City Brewing (even their T-shirts were overpriced and cheap) and finishing two places off the money in two different poker tournaments on my first day, my trip to Vegas was not going that well on day one. But, as Scarlett O'Hara said so long ago, "Tomorrow is another day." And it certainly was. The poker didn't improve, in fact, it got worse with early exits as my pocket aces and pockets jacks got cracked in two successive tournaments respectively by awful players with awful hands - yup, that's poker. Before that first bust-out at the Planet Hollywood Casino I was wandering around waiting on the tournament to start and happened across the original location for Sin City Brewing - a small walk-up bar with just a few stools in PH's Miracle Mile shopping area. I gave them another chance for some reason (boredom more than anything probably) and tried their Irish Stout. Not bad, but nothing original. At least it was a buck cheaper than the Flamingo location but it was still served in a plastic cup. I asked the barkeep about IPAs and he said they actually had one coming out next month (I perked up a bit since I will be returning to Vegas at the end of next month), but he said it would a British-style IPA - hmmmph, never mind. I ran into that recently bottled (Greene King IPA) and did not care for it at all. Not hoppy enough for me to waste any more time or money on these guys ever again. I won't be trying it unless they are handing it out free on The Strip (don't see that happening).

After that first bad beat/bust-out, of my AA vs an unsuited J5 (uggh!) I was done with poker for a while and I had to find some real beer.

I had read rave reviews online of an ale house/restaurant with a location in Vegas called Yard House, so I decided to seek it out. Unfortunately, it's at the far, far end of Las Vegas Blvd., so I had to take a cab to get to it. Even the bellman when I told him where I was going to need a cab to said, "All right, excellent place!." I remained hopeful. It's a chain restaurant that mostly has locations out west (but a couple in Florida - note to self for future reference) and claim to have more beers on tap than anyone else (over 100). I concur. Wow! I know there are some bars with this many beers on tap, but they are not actual restaurants as well.

This place is amazing! If I were to design an ale house this is what it would look like: lots of great beer on tap in a beautifully-appointed building with food as good as the beer. I was as blown away by my lunch ( a hot pastrami sandwich infused with jalapenos - yummy) as I was the beer and the restaurant itself. Nirvana had been reached! As for the beer, I chose to stick with pints even though they had plenty of 3-foot-long "yards" of beer glasses to serve you with (see photo below hanging above the taps), hence the name of the place. I started with the Double Daddy IPA first. This product from Speakeasy Brewing in San Francisco was excellent. Double IPAs are my favorite style of beer. As the name implies, the brewer doubles the standard amount of hops and malt creating a ferociously heavy, alcohol-laden beer. The Double Daddy checks in at 9.5%...oh yeah. Double IPAs are also sort of hard to find since they absolutely reek of hops in aroma and taste, they're just not for everyone (wimps). My second choice was a bit of a miss (but then most everything would be to me after enjoying a good double IPA). It was Kona Fire Rock Ale from Kona Brewing in Hawaii. It was your basic Irish-style amber ale. Nothing memorable, but a decent product nonetheless and I get to mark Hawaii of my state list.

The poker woes continued that evening with JJ going down in flames to A2 (great hand, buddy) and as bad as I was running, I was going to have a hard time justifying another tournament the next day before I returned home in the evening. That fact was confirmed as I hung out in my hotel room the next morning and proceeded to win $75 in a small online tournament (take it any way you can get it I guess). I went ahead and checked out of my room around lunch time and decided to just spend the afternoon before flying home with the two things that would cost me the least amount of money and heartache in Vegas: sightseeing and beer. I wondered thru a couple of the big strip casinos that I had not been into before. The MGM was nice with its free lion exhibit. I thought it was cool that the lions basically work "shifts" in the casino and also get time in an outdoor facility away from the Vegas madness. The Luxor was nice as well (that's the pyramid-shaped one) and it is connected to the lovely Mandalay Bay Casino by an enclosed breeze-way full of shops and restaurants including the one I was looking for called simply Burger Bar.

This upscale burger joint was also recommended online as having a good selection of beer on tap. And they certainly did! 24 to be exact. My first choice (out of a nice collection of IPAs) was Hop Henge Experimental IPA from Deschutes Brewing out of Bend, Oregon. Super-hoppy and delicious (experiment a success, boys!). I was lucky to get this great beer looks like because according to their website it will only be available thru May. I am very interested in trying more of their many selections because it looks (from the website) and tastes (from this IPA) that these guys are the real deal when it comes to craft-brewing (hear that, Sin City Brewing - get with the program or get out). I opted not to eat at Burger Bar because I was still full from breakfast, but their food looked pretty good. Maybe next visit. I stayed on the IPA train and ordered a Ruination IPA from Stone Brewing in California. Stone is one of my favorite craft brewers and I dearly love their standard IPA on draught and in bottles (see next blog post for more on that) and I had heard of Ruination but never had a chance to try it. Very smooth and not as strong as the name might indicate (at least to me). An excellent pint start to finish and quite a different experience from their standard IPA. Well done, again, Stone-meisters.

With a bit of a stumble to my bumble, I decided to walk off some of these calories by heading south thru the Mandalay Bay Casino and back out on to Las Vegas Boulevard toward the Town Square Mall area where the Yard House is located. I made sure to drink some water while at Burger Bar in preparation for the mile or so hike in the already mid-90s heat of Las Vegas. Of course, it's a dry heat there in Las Vegas and as I heard one comedian say "That's what they tell as they are loading you in to the ambulance."

I made the walk with no problem. Poked around in a few of the stores there and awaited the clock to strike 3 PM when Happy Hour starts at the Yard House...hoo-ray!!! My second visit to the YH started with Lost Coast Brewing's Indica IPA. I was able to try some Lost Coast brews in the past (8 Ball Stout, Alley Cat Amber and Downtown Brown Ale ) and liked what they were doing, and that goes definitely for their IPA concoction as well. Wonderfully smooth with a refereshing finish. And it goes good with Asian flavors, since I ordered the lettuce wraps off the half-off appetizer menu to go with it. Same as yesterday...great, great food. Before heading out to catch a cab back to the airport, I finished off my visit with the Alaskan IPA. It was actually a bit dull compared to some of the other wonderful IPAs I had tried in Vegas the past few days, but not awful. It still made anything Sin City Brewing was doing look like bilge water.

Thank goodness for good beer or my Vegas trip would have been pretty much a bust, but the weather was perfect and Vegas is always worth a gander. Now, I have more good reasons to come back than just poker. As I mentioned, I do have a trip planned late next month over Memorial Day weekend back to Vegas with the in-laws, and I hope to add a couple more beer-related stops on that visit including Boulder City Brewing over near the Hoover Dam and another great ale house in the old part of Vegas.