Alex Restaurant at Wynn Closing

In another sign that Las Vegas visitors might be moving away from high end dining in favor of more casual fare, Alex restaurant at Wynn Las Vegas will be closing after dinner on January 15th.

Alex was a Michelin two-star restaurant and was generally regarded as one of the top high end restaurants in Las Vegas.

Chef Alex Stratta will continue to operate "Stratta" his other restaurant at Wynn. Stratta is a more casual, Italian restaurant.

The economy seems to be improving, but many restaurants are still struggling. Last year Hubert Keller's french restaurant Fleur de Lys closed and recently re-opened as a scaled down tapas restaurant. Could other top restaurants like Guy Savoy at Caesars and Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand be in jeopardy?

Gold ATM at Golden Nugget

Golden Nugget is a fitting name for the first hotel in Las Vegas to install an ATM machine that dispenses gold instead of cash.

The Gold to Go machine will dispense gold coins and bars ranging from 1-250 grams. Prices are adjusted on a minute by minute basis to reflect current market prices, and then marked up by about 5%. By my calculations one gram should currently run about $50. A gram isn't very big though (finger nail size) so you'll probably want to go with a full ounce, priced at about $1500.

I think this is a pretty sweet concept. Las Vegas has some great money blowing options for those lucky enough to leave the casino ahead, but this one might actually give you a return on your investment.



For more information check out Gold to Go.

Star Power at Marquee Grand Opening

Marquee, the new club at The Cosmopolitan opened with a huge New Year's Eve party this past weekend.

So many celebrities were at the club that it will be hard to list them all but here's a sampling of the bigger names at the party:

50 Cent
Alex Rodriguez
Aziz Ansari
Beyonce
Blake Lively
Cameron Diaz
Coldplay frontman Chris Martin
Diddy
Emmanuelle Chriqui
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Forest Whitaker
Gwyneth Paltrow
Jay-Z
Jennifer Lopez
John Mayer
Kanye West
Kirsten Dunst
Marc Anthony
Mark Wahlberg
Rihanna

Along with this list, there were many, many more lesser known celebrities at the grand opening.

It looks like Marquee will quickly become a very hot spot in Las Vegas. I don't know that much about the nightclub scene but I think the general consensus is that XS at Encore is the hottest club in town. I wonder if Marquee can challenge XS for that top spot?

Rumor - Jay-Z and Coldplay to make $1 million for Cosmo Party

It is being reported by a few sites that Jay-Z and Coldplay are being paid $1 million each for performing at The Cosmopolitan's new year's eve grand opening bash.

The total budget for the party is being rumored at $25 million.

I guess when you've spent $4 billion dollars on a hotel another $25 million isn't a big deal. Especially considering that Cosmo's "soft" opening was rather understated with no fireworks or any of that jazz.

José Andrés talks about Jaleo & China Poblano

Chef José Andrés talks about his new restaurants Jaleo and China Poblano in this new video from The Cosmopolitan.