-Four restaurants have been added to the Top 100 Acceptable restaurants: In Point Reyes, Osteria Stellina, and in Las Vegas, the Society Cafe at Encore, CarneVino, and Bouchon. But not the Bouchon in Las Vegas: "the one in Yountville would
never bring the bread and then take five minutes bringing the butter!"
-In Point Reyes we rented a one-room cabin with a big room that looked out at marsh reeds and sky and nothing else. I finished Michael Chabon's "Manhood for Amateurs" and some of McSweeney's Panorama. That's a big McSweeney's! I probably overdosed a bit on preciousness there. Amongst the highlights were the comics section, the big foldout on how to make ramen, and the local happenings section, which married Herb Caen and Dave Eggers at his tiny-print finest.
-Mario Batali's CarneVino (Italian for "MeatWine") was an Experience. Our waiter Brayden was voluble and eager to share his knowledge. He was also about six years old. We got to listen to him explain to the next table at great length about Slow Food, which is something you can buy at a Farmer's Market.
But Anyway! He was nice enough, and brought a couple great things that were neither meat nor wine, and some generous pours of good wine, and a huge piece of COW which was beautifully red and lightly seasoned and filled us with contentment. It is not a typical steak house - it is really all about the Meat and Wine parts. It's like if some impresario got Jaco Pastorius and Vinnie Colaiuta to make a drum and bass album.
-The Society Cafe on the other hand was mostly modest American food, just done well. But the burger with deep-fried shrimp and yuzu mayo rocked my world.
-The suite at the Wynn came with a scale, so I know that I gained about 4.5 pounds over the course of the stay. That would be about 15,000 excess calories.