do you still wear those crazy socks?
So one of the (few) downsides of staying at Mandalay Bay is that there aren't as many light breakfast options down at that end of the Strip. Up towards the middle there are lots of options if you want a croissant or pastry: Bouchon Bakery and Pinot Brasserie at Venetian, Palio Cafe at Bellagio, le Notre at Paris, Payard at Caesars (more on that later), and a place in Miracle Mile that brews Illy. We walked over to THE Hotel one morning, having seen on the MBay hype channel that THE Cafe was some kind of modern re-imagining of the classic coffee shop. Sadly, they were THE closed. Actually, it looked like maybe they had changed their hours and stopped serving THE breakfast. That left us with few options. Red White and Blue had decent coffee, iced tea and pastries. Altho the pastries seemed to run out pretty early. And the counter help (at least one of them) was probably the surliest waiter I've ever seen in Vegas. There was a Starbucks in the Mandalay Place mall but we try to avoid those (Sarah hates their iced tea and I find their coffee generic). We tried the Chocolate Swan in MP mall one morning. Lame scone and dubious tea but they were brewing Peet's coffee.
Another option, if you're mid-Strip, is the new Illy Espressamente, in the Palazzo at Venetian. I had one of the best cappucinos I've had outside of Italy. Sarah had a lemon sorbetto which was top-notch as well. They were massively disorganized -- no clear way to figure out where you're supposed to stand, lots of people cleaning and polishing machines with their backs to the counter, no one seemed to know how to work the register -- but since they've only been open for a few weeks, I'm sure that will improve with time.
If we'd wanted a heartier breakfast, we could have trammed or walked up to MGM and gone to 'wichcraft. They're supposed to have great breakfast sandwiches. I did walk over on Tuesday and get one of their meatloaf sandwiches, which we split for lunch. Meatloaf, bacon, cheddar and tomato relish. It's an awesome thing indeed. After it warms up, I'll have to check out Sandwhich in Chapel Hill. They seem to be working the same basic territory. We tried to go there last fall but it was mobbed -- no seats inside and too cold to sit outside.
(next time: chocolates, cake, rare books, and (finally) photos)