Ellis Island Casino and Brewery

Joe Pickett’s official title at Ellis Island is Executive Director of Brewery Operations. Joe actually set-up the Brewery at Ellis Island thirteen years ago, prior to that he traveled the world setting up Breweries, from Australia to China.

Joe Pickett Brewmaster at Ellis Island Brewery

A Chicago native Joe was educated at the Illinois Institute of Technology and then went to the  Siebel Institute of Technology for advance training in Brewing. Joe has been able to make use of his training from both institutions, in that he has recently received a patent on a device to clean the long delivery lines used in most pubs.

Herman Berghoff , owner of the famous Berhoff restaurant in Chicago, was the person that was instrumental in bringing Joe to Ellis Island.

Joe’s philosophy in designing the beers he brews is simple: “Brew beers that people want to drink”, which may seem rather obvious, but in the Microbrew world that is not necessarily the case. Many Microbreweries focus on making the most exotic and unusual beers, which turn out to be unpalatable to most patrons. Patrons at Ellis Island obviously like the beer Joe brews, as this one small location serves about one million glasses a year.

“When I’m in Vegas, I always make sure to stop in at the #1 Brewery for the best micro brewed beer in town.  Hand crafted by Master Brewmaster, Joe Pickett at Ellis Island Casino & Brewery!” – Doug Jones, Brewmaster, Anheuser Busch

Ellis Island Brewery Brews Six Styles of Beer Plus Rootbeer

1. Amber- with nice balanced Hops.
2. Light- brewed directly, not watered down.
3. Weiss Bavarian
4. Stout
5. India Pale Ale- British style
6. Octoberfest- think Carmel Malt
7. Root beer 12 secret herbs and spices, make that 11 secret ones plus pure vanilla extract.

Ellis Island Brewery Root Beer is a must try for Root Beer Lovers

If you like Root beer, then a visit to Ellis island is a must. The root beer you get at the supermarket is at best a vague reminder of what root beer should taste like. Joe models his root beer after the original A&W root beer, and has twelve secret herbs and spices, just like the Colonel’s I guess. Joe did reveal that  pure vanilla extract was one of the twelve secret ingredients. Brett Ottolenghi was planning on joining me for my meeting with Joe, perhaps we could have sold some of Manuata’s Tahitian Vanilla to Joe.

View of Ellis Island Brewery from Casino

While many a Microbrewery might turn up their noses at light beer, in keeping with Joe’s philosophy of  brewing what customers prefer to drink, Joe’s produces a distinguished light beer. Unlike many American breweries that brew a regular brew and then water it down, Joe brews the light beer directly, which makes for a much more flavorful light beer.

In case you were wondering where they store all the grain used in the brewery, you walked right past the storage area when you entered the building. The grain is stored in the sign for Ellis Island. Take a closer look at the first photo in this article, notice the tubing under the horizontal sign, that supplies  the grain to the Brewery from the grain bin.

Ellis Island Brewery and Casino serves some Great Beer Food

The restaurant serves their famous, off-menu, steak special $7.99 for a 10 oz center-cut sirloin steak, with a beer. Metro Pizza, which is adjacent to the Brewery, inside the casino serves some of the best thin crust pizza in Vegas, the locals have voted it best pizza. The toppings are generous, good and fresh, no canned mushrooms here.

Metro Pizza inside Ellis Island

Note the sign in the picture: two for one slices and pizzas on Thursdays

Ellis Island serves a BBQ daily from 4pm-10pm, in the Brewery area with outdoor seating. The BBQ is very popular with the locals, lines start forming about one half hour before opening, hour waits are not unusual. For a nice review of the food served at the restaurant inside Ellis Island check out this Food Channel post. The Ellis Island eggnog available only during the Christmas season, also generates a fair amount of favorable internet buzz.

Ellis Island BBQ Grill

Ellis Island BBQ Menu

Note the $3 discount for club member, just go to the club booth and sign-up for a card, no gambling required.

Ellis Island Brewery is located behind Ballys

Ping Pang Pong Sign

I hesitate to write this review, because there already are lines to get a seat at Ping Pang Pong, the Chinese restaurant at the Gold Coast Casino. Ping Pang Pong is a locals favorite, particularly among the local Chinese community, which seem to occupy the majority of the seats in the dining room on any given day.

While Ping Pang Pong has won  awards from local Las Vegas publications,  what caught my eye was the recognition from Gourmet Magazine.

Gourmet Magazine Text

Gourmet Magazine Restaurant Issue October 2003

Las Vegas Life: Best Chinese

Gourmet Magazine Chooses Ping Pang Pong

The following short excerpt  from Gourmet Magazine almost says it all.

Note Conde Nast the owners of Gourmet Magazine, which is probably the most venerated food magazine, and which had been in circulation since 1941,  stopped publication the end of 2009, thanks to some questionable analysis by  McKinsey.  A website at the above link is being gradually populated with old Gourmet articles, along with new articles.

The modest off-Strip Gold Coast isn’t where one expects to trip over the city’s most innovative Chinese restaurant…The nickel slot players never had it so good.

The dining room Ping Pang Pong is the Vegas version of dining al fresco, in that the room is open to the casino. The restaurant is split into two smallish rooms, one with counter service, and the kitchen partially open to the restaurant. The decor and ambiance fits squarely between a  highly stylized Strip Restaurant and a dingy old Chinatown restaurant.

Dim Sum Daily 10:00 am-3:00 pm

If you’re in Vegas and you have a taste for Dim Sum then Ping Pang Pong should be your destination of choice. Dim Sum is served daily from 10am-3pm, the line starts forming by 11am most days. For those unfamiliar with Dim Sum, it is a type of Chinese cuisine most most closely associated with the Canton provinces in China, for me Dim Sum is most closely associated with wheeled carts filled with wonderful steamed and fried dumplings filled with a variety meat and seafood.

Dim Sum Cart

Dim Sum at Ping Pang Pong

Eating Dim Sum is like being at a cocktail party with really great hors d’oeuvres, no matter how scintillating the conversation, your eyes wander with anticipation of the next tray being passed around. The anticipation is short lived at Ping Pang Pong, because the Dim Sum carts arrive at your table at a frequency that would sate the most ravenous patron.

As soon as the cart arrives at your table, the “Lid Ballet” begins, lids are removed from the pots to reveal everything from shrimp dumplings to pork filled buns and chicken feet. Like a  magician performing the Cups and Balls trick, the lids are removed for inspection, and then quickly replaced, so that the dumplings remain warm. If you’re expecting a detailed description of the ingredients in each of the pots, you’ve come to the wrong restaurant, English is at best a second language to most of the servers here, but this only adds to the authenticity of the experience.

There are several variations of shrimp filled dumplings, all of them are on my must-have list. I add a dash of soy sauce and chili oil, my preferred Dim Sum condiments, and I am one happy camper. The pork filled buns, both the flaky croissant-like version and the more dinner roll-like  variant are also high on my list, with a nod to the flaky version. Larger, more entree sized dishes are also included on the carts.

Beyond Dim Sum

In addition to dim sum a regular menu of Chinese dishes is also available during dim sum hours, as well as into the wee hours of the morning, the restaurant is open until 3am daily. Most Entrees are in the $10-$15 range. Pan Seared Chilean Seabass is $19.95 and some Lobster dishes are Market Priced. The Walnut Prawns ($13.95) and Night Market Fried Rice ($9.95) are two dishes well noted in the Internet Buzz.

The Internet Buzz is mostly Favorable for Ping Pang Pong.

A Sampling of the Internet Buzz

• Everything we ordered was what you would expect from a “legit” Chinese restaurant.  I would go into detail about each of them, but quite honestly, it was a flurry of amazing flavor that I cannot do justice to describe, but I can definitely say, you HAVE to go try it.

• Fried Shrimp + Crab Claw – Its shrimp stuffed into a crab leg and deep fried. Yum and definitely a good item to get.

• BBQ Pork Bun Baked (Char Sui Bao) – Perfect bun texture and flavor with a tasty glaze coating (your hands will get sticky).  Stuffing of bbq pork was tasty.

• Who would have thought this place is so good! This is seriously one of the hidden gems in vegas.  It’s tucked in Gold Coast and it has really good dim sum.  They have the dessert – mango + pomelo which is so hard to find.

• Pork Dumpling (gau style not pot sticker) – Must have! great crispy dough contrasts with lightly chewy stuffing.  Lightly sweet flavor is delicate and delicious.

• The highlight of the apps that we got, and for my money, the highlight of the entire meal were the Potstickers.  Pork Potstickers with the best Potsticker Dipping Sauce I’ve ever had, they were quite good and quite addictive. Tender and juicy pork balls encased in a wonderfully chewy with just the right sear to it dough

• Night Market Fried Rice, a mélange of beef brisket, tomato, onion, egg, hot chilies, cilantro and rice sautéed until it turns pale gold with crisp bits strewn throughout, is flat out the city’s best fried rice. ($9.95)

• Kung Pao chicken:  I thought this dish was great.  The chicken was juicy, all white meat, and perfectly sauced.($9.95)

• (I concur with the previous comment on the Kung Pao Chicken, my only disappointment with this dish was a lack of vegetables, the dish was all chicken, with some scallions. I added Chinese Broccoli which seemed to be the most popular vegetable add-on at PPP. The Chinese Broccoli is stir fried not steamed)

• The food was good, great even.  The prices were extremely reasonable for large, family style dishes.  We tried the usual offerings, including a spicy fried rice that had some serious kick.  Loved it.  The salt and pepper pork chops were delicious.

• The service and food was great.  Very authentic Cantonese food.  I didn’t expect a good dim sum restaurant inside a Las Vegas casino.  It is a gem despite its undignified name.  Apparently it is not a hidden gem either because there was a long line outside the restaurant before noon.

Just between you and me, if you’re staying at the Rio or the Palms it is well worth crossing the street and heading to the Gold Coast for some very good, and authentic, Cantonese Cuisine at Ping Pang Pong. So, let’s keep this on the QT, no need to tell your friends or do anything silly like post a favorable review on the internet, the lines are long enough already.

For more information and Internet Buzz  check-out: Ping Pang Pong on MavensVegas.com

The dining options at Excalibur have always been sparse, and with the closing of the Italian restaurant Regale, the options are even fewer these days. The Steakhouse at Camelot is the only remaining upscale option. Upscale, being a  relative term, as the dress code at  Camelot seems to be anything goes. T-shirts and baseball caps are acceptable attire here, although most diners are a bit more dressed-up.

As a side note, comps are given generously by the Marketing Department at Excalibur and the only areas you can use the food and beverage comps are: at the pool; room service; the buffet; the Sherwood Forest Cafe and The Steakhouse at Camelot. Hence if you have a large dollar amount food comps, you are going to be eating at The Steakhouse at Camelot. For more information on earning comps at casinos read this Essay on Theoretical Loss and Casino Comps

The Steakhouse at Camelot avoids the dominant Vegas Steakhouse decor options of either being overbearingly masculine or too chic and trendy to allow for a comfortable relaxed dining experience. The ambiance is comfortable casual with slight upscale embellishments, like the baby grand piano near the entrance way, which is occasionally put to use.

Piano "Steakhouse at Camelot"

The kitchen in the back of the restaurant is partially open to the restaurant, but not in a distracting or attention grabbing way.

Kitchen "Steakhouse at Camelot"

Country Baked Meatloaf is a Signature Menu Item

In keeping with the down market nature of the Excalibur, the menu has  some items that you are unlikely to find on the more high end Steakhouses in Vegas. The Signature menu items include: Country Baked Meatloaf; Deep Dish Chicken Pot Pie and a Flame Grilled 10 ounce  Angus Burger.

The menu is a la carte, with the exception of a three course Dinner Special for $29.99, which includes soup or salad choice of one of three entrees, one of which is their Signature Country Baked Meatloaf, and dessert.

Appetizers: No Winners Here

The appetizers are priced $10-$15 and include the usual suspects like Shrimp Cocktail and Crab Cakes. The Crab Cakes are of the shredded crab variety, no lump crab meat included. The Dungeness Crab Cocktail, is also made from shredded crab meat and is accompanied by two sauces on the side, a Brandy Aioli sauce in which I could not detect any garlic, or Brandy, and didn’t add anything positve to the crab meat. The other sauce, seemed to be Thousand Island Dressing, another miss.

Hot Soups and Cold Bread

Two soups are on the menu, a traditional French Onion and a Lobster Bisque, for $8 and $9 respectively, while neither one is a must order, both are solid performers. I wish the Lobster Bisque included lumps of lobster meat, rather than  ground lobster dumplings. The Caesar salad is the standard salad at Camelot, which comes awash in dressing, definitely not a diet salad. The bread served with the salad is cold, unfortunately.

Entrees include: Pork Chops; Rotisserie Chicken; Lobster Tails; Alaskan King Crab Legs; Jumbo Stuffed Shrimp; Ahi Tuna; Halibut; Salmon; Mushroom tortellini;  and of course the real reason to eat at The Steakhouse at Camelot, the steaks, Filet Mignon 8oz.; N.Y. Steak 14oz; Ribeye 16 oz and the Signature Bone-In N.Y. Steak 20 oz.

This is a Steakhouse, Order a Steak!

All steaks are cooked over a Mesquite Wood burning broiler at 1200 degrees, and more importantly the steaks are good and properly cooked.  I ordered the Bone-in N.Y. Steak, the Filet and the Ribeye, on separate visits, cooked medium, and I swear the chef  must have a direct pipeline to my brain, because the steaks were cooked perfectly all three times, with a nice sear on the outside. Toppings and sauces for the steaks are an extra $3, I tried the wine reduction sauce, and was pleased with the decision. More elaborate extras are more expensive, such as grilled shrimp for $10.

The other two entrees I have tried, The Country Baked Meatloaf and the Stuffed Shrimp, were a bit of a disappointment. The Country Baked Meatloaf is a Signature dish described on the menu as follows:

Fresh ground beef enhanced with herbs and spices, wrapped with smoked bacon. Served over a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, brown gravy &  fresh vegetables.

I have a fondness for meatloaf with gourmet flourishes, but as I said, this was a disappointment, the smoked bacon was soggy and the only redeeming part of the choice were the garlic mashed potatoes. The Stuffed Shrimp were stuffed with shredded crab meat, not lump, and considering the price, $30, three medium sized Shrimp seemed like a paltry serving.

The Entrees are basically a la carte, with some garnish vegetables are included on the side. The sides include: Roasted Eggplant & Tomato; Jumbo Grilled Asparagus; Sauteed or Creamed Spinach; Sauteed Onions & Mushrooms; Baked Potato; Mashed Potatoes; Stuffed potato; Blue Cheese Potato Gratin; Baked Sweet Potato; Sesame Sugar Snaps Peas. All sides are $7.

The Blue Cheese Potato Gratin sounded like an interesting twist on a Steakhouse classic, the potatoes were thinly sliced, as if they were cut on a microtome, and made for a nice texture, however I hardly detected  any blue cheese. The Sweet Potato  comes with butter infused with brown sugar and cinnamon and is simply delicious. The plain mashed potatoes had just the right amount of butter for flavor without disguising the potato flavor. The sauteed spinach had sour taste, lemon perhaps, that was not pleasing to my taste buds. The spinach was also heavy on stems.

No Need to Save Room for Dessert

No need to save room for dessert, unfortunately. The chocolate lava cake tasted like a cake you buy in the frozen section of a supermarket. The vanilla ice cream served with the cake, which adds a few dollars to the price, had absolutely no discernible vanilla flavor. A scoop of Haagen-Dazs Vanilla would have dramatically improved the whole experience. If you order the Three-Course $29.99 Dinner Special, you’ll be served a piece of chocolate mousse cake, roughly the size of the cakes served at the Bellagio Buffet, which are purposely small so that you can sample many desserts. The chocolate mousse cake is better than the Lava cake, but hardly anything to look forward to.

It Takes a Village to Service Each Table at Camelot

The service model here is: it takes a village to service one table. One person takes your order and delivers the check at the end of the meal. A second person  delivers the food. A third person removes used dishes. A fourth person will randomly stop by to ask if everything is okay. The net effect is surprisingly inefficient and adds a cold tone to the whole experience.

The Steakhouse at Camelot offers Excalibur patrons the opportunity for nice comfortable meal with a touch of upscale flare. Avoid the appetizers and desserts to keep the costs down, and keep in mind with everything a la cart, the price of the meal can add up quickly. The Three-Course Dinner Special for $29.99 is also an option, you can upgrade the entree to the 8 oz Filet Mignon for a $5 surcharge. For more information and Internet Buzz on The Steakhouse at Camelot check out MavensVegas.com

Click on the Restaurant Name for a Detailed Review

*Michelin 2009 Guide

American Chefs both Welcome and Dread The Michelin Guide

When you walk into any high end restaurant in Las Vegas, inevitably you’ll be confronted by the laundry list of awards  or letters of recognition for that restaurant. However, just like in Hollywood where there are a myriad of awards: The Golden Globes; Peoples Choice Awards; The Academy Awards, there is only one award that actors and directors, et al really covet. The same is true for restaurant chefs, and that award are the Stars from the Michelin Guide.

Eric Ripert the chef and co-owner of the three-star Michelin rated Le Bernardin in Manhattan discusses the buzz among top chefs in New York prior to the arrival of the Michelin Guide:

I remember sometimes chefs here, especially the French ones, and even the American ones, we were a bit frustrated that we will never be judged by Michelin. But at the same time we were a little bit, like, more relaxed because obviously the Michelin puts pressure on chefs and restaurateurs to be excellent.

The French are Deadly Serious about Michelin Stars

The French anticipate the arrival each year of the new Michelin guide the way Americans anticipate the Superbowl. Which chefs gained a star and which have lost a star. Some analysts reckon that the loss of  single star can cause a restaurant to lose 25% of its business, on the other hand restaurants can see large gains on the addition of a star, chef Bernard Loiseau saw a 60% gain in business when he first earned his third star. The gain for the chef is more than monetary, the chef’s status changes from mere cook to something akin to an American Rockstar.  Loiseau’s fame rose to such a level in France that a poll in L’Hotellerie showed that nearly nine out of ten Frenchmen recognized Loiseau by sight. So one can appreciate the devastating loss it is to a French chef to lose a star.Bernard Loiseau once told a fellow chef that if he ever lost a Michelin star, he would kill himself.

An article appeared in Le Figaro in early 2003 stating that Bernard Loiseau was on thin ice with Michelin, and was at risk of losing one or more of his stars. In February 2003 he was told he would keep his three stars in the next guidebook, although he was warned that he was in danger of losing a star in future editions. Another article appeared stating that Loiseau’s third star was living on borrowed time. Two weeks later Bernard Loiseau committed suicide. He had suffered from depression, and had some financial problems, but there were still lingering thoughts that fear of losing a Michelin star in the future may have contributed to his untimely demise. (A more detailed account of Bernard Loiseau’s story can be found in this 2003 article in The New Yorker ) There are other cases of chef suicides connected to Michelin, French chef Alain Zick committed suicide in 1966 after losing a Michelin star.

The Michelin Guide was started as a way to increase the use of Michelin Tires

The Michelin guide books, which date back to the beginning of the last century, originated as away to encourage people to take extended road trips, on Michelin tires. The star rating system first appeared in the 1933 edition of the guidebook. Michelin defines the stars as follows:

1. *     = A very good restaurant in its class
2. **   = Excellent cooking, worth a detour
3. *** = Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey

What really separates the Michelin guide from other guides, particularly the popular Zagat guide is the level of training the Michelin inspectors are given. Zagat, of course, doesn’t have professional reviewers, but relies on an army of amateur reviewers. Not only are Michelin reviewers professionally trained, they go to great lengths to remain anonymous to the restaurants they are reviewing. Most city paper restaurant critics fail the test of remaining anonymous.

Lunch with a Michelin Inspector

This past Autumn 2009, Michelin allowed a writer from the New Yorker to meet and have lunch with one of their inspectors at Jean Georges a Michelin three star restaurant, considered one of the best, if not the best, restaurant in New York City. (Jean Georges Vongerichten has Prime Steakhouse at Bellagio and Jean Georges Steakhouse at Aria)    Lunch With M : Undercover with a Michelin Inspector

The woman took a seat at one of the tables in the center of the room. She wore a light-blue dress with a high neckline, little makeup, and no jewelry. There was nothing remarkable about her appearance, and her demeanor was quiet and unassuming, as if designed to deflect attention, a trait indispensable for her profession as an inspector for the Michelin hotel and restaurant guide.

A degree in cooking or hotel management is mandatory for all Michelin inspectors. All American inspectors go through a rigorous first round of interviews and restaurant inspections with a European inspector overseeing their progress. If the prospective inspector passes this initial phase  they are flown to France for more intensive training. The third phase involves additional training in another European country. If the inspector passes this phase they return to the United States for a three to six month apprenticeship, during which, at any point they can be told, “It’s not working out, goodbye”

One funny side note in the article is when the inspector asked the waiter a question about a menu item and after the waiter answered, leaned into  John Colapinto the New Yorker writer and said:

Inspectors love it when they ask a question and can tell the waiter has made up an answer.

At  the end of the meal the inspector states that she thought the meal was excellent, to which Colapinto asks what she liked about the meal. Her response is telling:

It’s not really a “like’ and a ‘not like’ It’s an analysis. You’re eating it and you’re looking for the quality of the products. At this level, they have to be top quailty. You’re looking at  ‘Was every single element prepared exactly perfectly, technically correct?’ And then you’re looking at creativity. Did it work? Did the balance of ingredients work? Was there good texture? Did everything come together? Did something overpower something else? Did something not work with something else? Everything was perfect.”

You begin to see why a Michelin three star rating is so difficult to garner. The only Vegas restaurant to achieve a Michelin three star rating is Joel Robuchon’s restaurant at the MGM Grand.

Bobby Flay first Vegas Chef to Lose a Michelin Star

Joel Robuchon's Michelin Stars

In the short few years since Michelin has been rating restaurants in Las Vegas, Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill has both earned a Michelin star and lost his star. Mesa Grill currently does not have a Michelin star, and he will have to wait at least until 2011 to earn anther star, as Michelin is not updating their 2009 book for 2010.
Bellagio Dining/ Picasso AAA Five Diamond Award
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