Vegas trip continued: Hugo's Cellar

If you haven't read the first Vegas post, start here.

The first night we ate at Hugo’s Cellar at the 4 Queens hotel. The hotel was in the old part of town and it was really cool to be down there and see it. All the hotels were a bit trashy and there was an outside bar on every corner, it was really funny to see.
The whole thing is covered but the ends are open. It goes on for about 3 blocks I think.

The meal that night was amazing! Probably the best meal I’ve had in the states. I think we had 4 different people waiting on us and all of them had been there for over 20 years. We spoke with the sommelier (wine expert) who was British and hysterical. He spent a lot of time with us and was totally great. Then the salad guy came by. He make the salads there at the table and make them individually. It was yummy. One of the really great things was that they gave us time to digest between serving things. They were in no rush to get us out, it was all about enjoying the food and company.

Jonathan and I split a steak with vegetables and potatoes. There was plenty of food and neither of us could have eaten that much by ourselves. The steak was perfectly done. We added a tiny bit of blue cheese on top and the whole thing just melted in our mouths. It was divine.

Then standard with the meal came a tray of chocolate dipped things. There was a strawberry dipped in milk chocolate, a fig dipped in while chocolate, and a dried apricot dipped in dark chocolate for each of us. All served with homemade whipped cream.

And of course we couldn’t pass up desert in this place. Real desert, the fruit was just the warm up. We ordered bananas foster. The salad guy came with a different cart and made this at our table too.
They cut up bananas and fry them in some kind of alcohol. The flames were so high that they licked the ceiling at one point. Part of the enjoyment of ordering this is watching it being made. And then it’s served over ice cream. I had never had bananas foster before and it was really good. I would totally recommend it.

And we can’t forget the coffee. And at this place, even coffee is a big ordeal.
It’s really a percolator, but it looks like a coffee bong. They got six small cups out of it and it was very strong and very good.

It was an expensive meal, but it was totally worth it. If we ever go back to Vegas, there is no doubt that we are eating there again. It was amazing, the people were wonderful and the experience was memorable.

Getting to Vegas

I’m going to break this up into a few posts because otherwise it’s going to be too long. Getting there really sucked. I have no pictures from these 2 days because we didn't want tokens from them. It could have been worse, we could have not made it at all, but I wouldn’t wish what we went through on anyone. Our plane leaving Austin was delayed for mechanical reasons. When it was delayed the 2nd time we suspected that we wouldn’t make our connection so we went to speak with the woman at the counter. She said that if there were enough people on our flight catching the connection then they might hold it. She couldn’t call and check or tell us how many people it would take. After talking to her it looked like our best bet was to get to Dallas and go from there. There was nothing from Austin to Vegas the next day so if we were going to get there at all we needed to at least be in Dallas.

Our connecting flight was delayed as well so Jonathan sprinted down the airport to check it but they took off as we were getting off the plane. They were supposed to leave almost an hour before we got there, why they couldn’t wait another 15 minutes is beyond me. There was another flight that had been delayed even longer so we got on the stand by list but had no luck. All of the American Airlines people were very un-helpful. We were put up in a crappy motel and told that we were top of the stand by list for the 1st flight out the next day. To sum up that evening it took us over an hour to get to the hotel and we got about 4 hours of sleep. There was a little entertainment when Jonathan was wheeling himself around in a wheel chair while we waited for the shuttle that never came.

When we got to the airport the next day we were numbers 4 – 7 on the stand by list and didn’t make the flight. At this point I just wanted to get home, but there were no open seats on flights to Austin either. We finally asked to speak with a manager who at least explained why we were having so much trouble. We stood there and debated about what to do long enough that she managed to book us on 3 separate flights to Vegas all leaving by 12:50, granted we had been there since 6:30. We had 1 person booked on the 9:00 flight and the rest of us on stand by, and finally at the top of the list. We all managed to get on that flight. Marlene was in 1st class. They originally put Jonathan and I in 1st class too but kicked us out as soon as we got settled because the people showed up. Damn them. Will was super generous though and gave his exit row seat to me so that I had a little more space.

I generally don’t get claustrophobic. It takes a lot to get me there but not that day. I think it was a combination of the lack of sleep, the extreme swelling, all the stress, and the completely packed plane. I tried to sleep but I just couldn’t and that just made it worse. It was the most awful plane ride of my life. By the time we got to Vegas I hadn’t eaten in 5 hours and I was in such a panic that I was almost in tears. I couldn’t talk and tell everyone what was going on or I would have totally lost it. I just sat on the floor of the airport and snacked on some nuts while I calmed down. The urge to pee eventually got me up.

I don’t think the baby liked flying. He was very still that day, probably from all the stress but he squirmed on the way up, and on the way down.

But at the end of the day, thankfully we were in Vegas, still with ½ a day left. We checked into the Mirage and settled into our room. It was lovely. You can go here to see pictures of the rooms. Our room was quiet and very large. But the best part was the bed! It was a new serta mattress and so comfy. The room had been newly re-modeled and was so great. For only $98 / night it was a steal. We ordered room service, took showers, and then a nap. And the vacation was back on track…