Welcome to Yo 11 Minutes. Yo 11 Minutes mostly Vegas, no BS, casino Experience and more. Michael Trager is a casino and travel loyalty expert who also helps people turn their travel dreams into reality. And now Michael Trager, how's it going? Michael?
Speaker 2:
It's going great today. I'm a little tired, but I think that's still like the recovery from Vegas tired lag, that's happening.
Speaker 1:
That happens, yeah, that happens. The whole post Vegas slow down sort of yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
And you know what Today I'm feeling? You know, yesterday was our like Bro Lux Day and today I'm feeling my Bougie Italian Day.
Speaker 1:
Bougie Italian. We're going to be talking about that a bit later. Right, that's going to be our tea segment. So before we do that, let's get to the news and views.
Speaker 1:
The opening of Durango Resort has been pushed back more than two weeks. Operator Station Casino's announced yesterday Station's latest entry into the local casino market happened set to open November 20th. The new grand opening is scheduled for December 5th. Employees will be compensated for salaries and tips from November 20th to December 5th. The company said Station broke ground on the $750 million resort in March of 2022. It is the company's first new casino since Red Rock Resort opened in Summerlin in 2006. Other station properties include Green Valley Ranch Resort, palace Station, sunset Station, Boulder Station and Santa Fe Station, no relation to Main Street Station, which is owned by Boyd Gaming. Durango Resort will have some 200 rooms and suites, restaurants, a food court, resort style pool and 20,000 square feet of convention space. The opening will come about a week before another new resort, the long-awaited Fountain Blue on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip, is set to open on December 13th. That's it for the news and now for the views. Michael, what are your thoughts on Durango Resort?
Speaker 2:
Well, I always get rather giddy whenever there are new casinos and I especially think local casinos are super interesting, especially in the Las Vegas market. I think it looks like a really great property. It actually looks like a relatively bougie property, but I guess some of the local casinos are more bougie than others. I also took special note of the fact that there's only about 200 rooms and suites, which probably makes sense for a new local's property. Because I'm always a little bit I don't know if it's not confused, but I'm always wondering who would stay at this property. I totally get who would play at it. People who live close to a local's casino. They want a casino that's convenient to go to, to play at and have dinner and use their comps. I'm always a little bit curious about who might stay at those properties. Do you have any thoughts about that with regard to the local's market?
Speaker 1:
Yes, okay, locals. Locals would stay at those properties. They are local casinos. So I say, a local wants to do a staycation. You know there's options. You can pay high prices on the strip or whatever, or you could just do a local stay. Also, it's a, it's a way like it's away from the strip, so like if, like, family is coming over but they're not really into the whole strip scene or whatever. The case is, you know, you just set them up at a local's place. It's still a casino, you know, and they can, you know, walk around, play games and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:
It's really hard to figure who I mean. As a local would I stay there? No, like, even though I live here now, I'm still a visitor at heart, you know I. So I I don't think I would stay at a local's casino. If I want to do a staycation, I would probably stay at, you know, a property on the strip or a property downtown. So I don't know it's only 200 rooms, you know. So I mean it's not. You know they're not, they're not shooting for mass, massive influx of guests. I mean it's not as small as what is that one? That used to be Bill's gambling hall, I don't know why I'm forgetting the name the boutique hotel that used to be Bill's gambling hall Cromwell, cromwell, yes, was it. Was it like crime? I was like what?
Speaker 2:
30 something that was, that was originally barberry coast yes, barberry coast, then bills, then crumb. Well, you know what's interesting also about some of these like you do have some casinos that I I definitely call locals casino, like the M, but it's sort of like so Conveniently located to the strip, it's just far from the strip, you know, it's like just a straight line, you know, to get from M to the strip. So that's sort of interesting that people I mean I do know a lot of people who are really into like couponing and slot stuff and Video poker and rent cars do enjoy staying at some of those places. And actually that's another really good point.
Speaker 2:
Say you were retired, or maybe if you're not retired but you have like a two week vacation and you're renting a car, it might be really a good idea to stay at some of those properties, because you're just gonna save a lot of money it's and you're gonna get good games. Like if you're a video poker player, you're gonna get like much better video poker and you're probably gonna get comp rooms or highly reduced price Rooms. So maybe you spend a little bit of time on the strip but then you extend your vacation by going to these properties where usually the gambling is much better. So actually, now that I think about it, they're probably there, probably are a lot of interesting use cases.
Speaker 1:
That's a very good point, and with that, it is now time for the tease. Take it away, michael.
Speaker 2:
So today's tease is about bougie Italian, but most, but the whole concept comes from the fact that I recently did a master class At when Las Vegas, and a master class is basically just a in depth class that has to do, in most cases, with something that has to do with food, food and beverage. In this case, it was a master class on the food that Sinatra liked and the food in general at Sinatra restaurant, and what's really cool about these master classes is that it's an amazing benefit for RINWIN rewards. So as long as you're platinum or black and it's not real hard to get platinum you can go to multiple of these master classes per year and they actually sell them for $150 to $200 per person and they're really, really well done and super high quality. Basically, they're a great experience. They usually involve a master chef, head of cocktails. That person does a food general. In this case it was a food demonstration, a full on food demonstration, great talk about that, q&a, and then after when the demonstration is done, you actually get to sit down and there's pictures of the food demonstration that's going on. You actually get to sit down and have a full lunch and that's really awesome and what I decided to do. Since I enjoyed myself so much and since I was there and I could ask the head chef if there's a way we could get a dinner reservation, because I hadn't planned in advance. I took my friend to Sinatra that evening my friend who was with me at the travel conference and we had a wonderful dinner at Sinatra and that's what we did afterwards after the master class.
Speaker 2:
But the thing about the Sinatra food and I was talked about this a little bit in the other video that we made that was an interview with Chef Theo is that Sinatra really was pretty simple, like meatballs, linguinean clams. He loved the pounded veal cutlet. He was not really a truffles and scallops kind of person. So you do see some of the things that they talk about and eat and I was actually the person in the master class who raised my hand and said you're making scallops? Did Sinatra eat scallops? And he's like no, but the scallops looked really good today. So we wanted to make the scallops in the master class. But that's pretty interesting. And what was also interesting is the story about Sinatra.
Speaker 2:
When you think about Sinatra as a restaurant in Vegas, it is high-end bougie Italian, which is really cool but is different than a lot of Italian restaurants you might go to, and that's the way it is with a lot of fine dining in Las Vegas. So they've tried to elevate the Italian dining experience, which is good but doesn't mean that other types of Italian are bad. That's why I call this bougie Italian. But Boston, you know, basically North End Boston Italian is much different than what you would experience at Sinatra, and actually what's interesting is they opened a Sinatra at Win Las Vegas. They opened a Sinatra similar to Win Las Vegas at Angkor Boston Harbor and it didn't do well in the Boston market because Boston is such a different Italian food kind of town and they actually have Fratellis, which is like an institution in Boston at Angkor Boston Harbor and that's done very well.
Speaker 2:
So I always like to remind people that there, you know food, there's a lot of great food. That's high-end food, not as high-end food. There's nothing wrong with bougie Chinese. I love Wing Leigh, but there's also such a thing as more simplistic food. For Chinese food, I love the dives. For Italian, I love a great slice of New York pizza and I also like more like simplistic home cooked meals. And even though things like truffles are absolutely magical, they're not an ingredient that is absolutely necessary for you to have amazing Italian food. So that's my little talk there. What do you think? I know you, movestra, you like Italian food, right, and you like probably all types and don't feel that you need to have truffles and handmade racotte for it necessarily to be the most amazing dining experience.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean I've eaten at a lot of Italian restaurants in New York so you know I've had a good, a good experience of an all around different takes on Italian cuisine, especially in various little Italy's all throughout New York and stuff like that. So I feel like I've had good experiences. I haven't had the Boston variation of Italian. I don't even want to know what that is. I'm being honest with you. I just I really don't care. You know it's kind of like Chicago's take on pizza. It's just a freaking bread bowl of cheese.
Speaker 2:
I just I'm sorry, it's just can we be positive here about food? There is beauty in all of it. There is beauty yes. Actually, I love one of the things that I love that you're saying is how emotional people get about that, especially pizza. People get so emotional about pizza, like things like Chicago style pizza in comparison to like a New York slice right and greasy, and I absolutely in comparison to like the pizzas that aren't really pizzas, that are more like flatbread crackers.
Speaker 1:
That ain't pizza, so that's that's just love it, because it's also a lot of love that goes into the food, you know. And so when, when, when you're used to some things a certain way, or with your upbringing or part of your culture in a different whatever states version of it, you will fiercely defend that it's your death, and you know what that's. That's great. That's just how it is. It's just how it is. I understand there's a couple of videos you wanted to share.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so we're just going to. We're just going to kick off with a quick video of the bougie plating and delivery of food at Sinatra and Win, las Vegas.
Speaker 1:
Thank you, thank you, cut this in half, the York will run out and it will marry. So he's saying, cut this in half, the Yoko run out.
Speaker 2:
And you're like, oh, so you realize the the brilliance of this is that there is, there is an egg inside of this pasta which needs to be cooked, you know, boiled, without breaking and keeping the egg in the pasta, and then delivered to the table and then you get to break into it. So you get to break into it and then you see the egg and then you mix the egg and the racotte and a whole bunch of fresh white truffles that were shaved onto it and you mix that all up. And that's me. My friend videoed it. That's actually me doing that. But what's amazing to me is just keeping that. You know, keep keeping that egg in there. You know, you've ever have, you've made raviolis before when you drop them in the water and they like, blow apart. Oh, yeah, yeah. So so think you have an egg in there and you don't want to overcook it, right, and you don't, but you don't want it to blow apart when it's in the boiling water.
Speaker 1:
So I don't know how they do that, that. No, I don't know how they. I can't. I don't know how they do that Like it would take. It would take a master chef, like he obviously is, to know how to pull something like that off.
Speaker 2:
That's right, and it's Vegas baby.
Speaker 1:
All right, we are at the 13 minute markets. Are there any closing thoughts or anything that you'd like?
Speaker 2:
to share. No, I just think that there is beauty in all kinds of food. I love sharing the bougie stuff because I find it fun. It's a little bit of a hobby, but I will share the non bougie stuff one day. That'll be another set of another set of videos. And just remembering people, reminding people when you're gambling, just remember the difference between superstitions and actual math and we're going to touch on that again in another episode but just believe in the math and especially the fact that slot machines are random. So it's OK to be superstitious, but just know that the math is the math and the random numbers are the random numbers. And that's all I got for you today.
Speaker 1:
Totally agree with the slot machines and random number generators. Man, I can't tell you how many times a day I have to explain that to people. All right, and that's going to do it for this episode of Yo. 11 minutes luxury travel booking, travels or travel of this also travels or travel. Dot com to plan your next amazing vacation. And please join the conversation on social media. You can find us easily. All social platforms are at Travels org. We'll see you next time.
