Sometimes the planning of a Vegas trip so absorbs me that I do foolish things. So in spite of having $25 dollars a night in comped food, when I heard of a board member's coupon deal, I was tempted, and gave in to a $6 restaurant.com coupon that bought me $25 in food at the Flame.
Certainly, I thought, I'd have some relative or some poker buddy or some board friend, and I could use the coupon and comps to have a fine night out and not dine alone at Flame.
Where is my VP playing pal Catherine when I need her and could treat her to her "happy place"?
My second plan was to petition the management to let me spend for appetizer and perhaps the high priced lamb entree and so get around the rule that the coupon must be used for TWO entrees.
Well, that plan proved impossible. It was out of their hands, they said. They had to send in all the paperwork and there would have to be two entrees regardless of how much I spent.
Okay.
I am not easily defeated.
I went to plan C.
I decided to dine on two entrees. After all the Flame is set up so that each vegetable or potato cost extra. I just would have two entrees. I ordered the signature porterhouse steak and the walleye pike.
I also used my room coupon for a free bottle of Robert Mondavi's Woodbridge cabernet sauvignon. I expected one of those small two glass bottles.
No, this was a full bottle.
Now I just needed some dinner conversation.
And I got that as well.
At the next table were two couples in their thirties. The woman who faced me was dressed in a delightfully designed black dress which featured one shoulder of revealed flesh and one of the black dress sleeve decorated with a series of delicate shaped slanted slices down the arm, each one with just a hint of lace. Picking up the black color of her dress was a bit of black mixed in her otherwise blond hair. And she had finished her outfit with a silver chain that held a huge turquoise pendant and some wonderfully large but tasteful silver rings.
Turquoise is my favorite jewelry.
These were delightful dinner companions even if they did not suspect I was one of them.
I did no intrusive staring.
Completing the ambiance was some very gentle and relaxing music as well as a screen that spanned various beautiful places around the world, many of them delightful peppered with small fishing boats in blue water. I could watch the changing views of famous cities around the world, but still overhear their stories.
My night was made when their conversation turned to catching, cleaning and preparing crabs; the details were fascinating to the ears of this old fisherman. And I loved the juxtaposition of the classy look of this delightful woman and her description of how she cleaned crab. It is not an easy task.
Her husband described going scuba diving for crab and then making a large grill of the tasty morsels.
The red wine mellowed me in a way that just let all of this sensual pleasure into my psyche, and the visions of water, the conversation around catching seafood, the sophisticated and gracious look of the woman describing how she cleaned and prepared crab made what could have been an isolated and rather downscale final night celebration into something quite wonderful.
The staff was delightfully attentive as well. There was no rebuff because I was the "coupon guy." In fact, they felt a bit badly that I could not spend just as much money (or more) on the lamb and appetizers and such.
Along with my protein came two garnishes, one of green onion and one of something called bean seeds, small green tasty bits that I want to use for my own fish dishes cooked here at home.
Both foods were just wonderful.
They also left a basket of bread which had two nice slices of a sweet bread like raisin bread as well as two fine onion rolls.
I certainly had enough to eat. For dessert I was left with a half dozen chocolate mints.
Nice.
Of course, the tip was more than I usually pay for a meal and tip. They added 18% to the bill and I added another $5.
Because the remaining charges were simply billed to my room, I was also able to use up the remaining food comp. Over two days it is hard to eat $50 worth of free food when traveling solo at the El Cortez unless I spend one night at the Flame.
In past years I had not cared so much for this spot or thought of it as special, but I'd go again, even solo. I loved it.
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