The Las Vegas Club

Hanging around the Down Town area this week, I had to take notice of an aging tower. The Las Vegas Club. It had some sort of mystery to it, lately I have become fascinated by old buildings, or monuments of old. The sad thing is as time passes us by a lot of people generally don't care about history. I mean how many millions of visitors pass by this tall aging structure and never take notice because they are ultimately concentrating on gambling or seeing other sites that's marketed via the internet, or social media. The Grand Canyon tours, drives to Hoover Dam, golfing, and the forms of entertainment to suit one's palette. 

For the last few days, walking across the street from the California Hotel & Casino to the Fremont St. Experience, I couldn't help but notice the Las Vegas Club as it is barricaded off. Signs surrounding the structure suggest a major overhaul of the exterior and interior, or possibly be imploded? I had no clue, I could have asked someone but I wasn't into asking. Just imagining what went on in this place.

I Googled, and Wikipedia'd this place, and this is what I came up with.

The Las Vegas Club opened in 1930. That's an 87 year old building. Man they better keep this structure, it's got history for sure. They had the first neon sign on a hotel and gaming establishment in 1931.

The Las Vegas Club was previously on the south side of Fremont Street, midway between Main and 1st Street. It was right next to the Northern Club casino, which is now La Bayou casino. In 1949 the Las Vegas Club moved across the street to the site of the Overland Hotel, eventually expanding to its present location at the corner of Fremont and Main.

On December 6, 2002, owner Jackie Gaughan agreed to sell the Las Vegas Club and three other casinos, including the Plaza casino and Gold Spike casino, to Barrick Gaming. Barrick was in partnership with the Tamares Group.

January 2007 saw the opening of a new poker room in the casino. The room has since closed.

In March 2007, Tamares announced that it was considering converting the property into a high-rise condo-hotel. This failed to happen, and in April 2013, the Las Vegas Club closed its hotel tower, leaving the casino open. The possibility of a future renovation of the hotel was hinted at, but never occurred.^[7]

In May 2015, the Las Vegas Club announced its intent to open a 13,810-square-foot pharmacy on the eastern side of its casino. This is now unlikely, in light of the August 14, 2015, announcement of the casino's sale to Derek and Greg Stevens, owners of the nearby D and Golden Gate casinos, who plan to close and renovate it.

After the sale, The Las Vegas Club closed at midnight on August 19, 2015.

Here are some photos I took, just imagine what went on in this hotel/casino over the years when it was one of the main attractions in Sin City.

From the corner of Main St. & Ogden

Close up corner of Main St. & Ogden

Same as above from a wider angle

I looked up and imagine what sins took place in here?

Fenced off for construction

Again imagining what took place here during it's heyday

A rather different perspective, who walked these streets?

Who hung out on these verandas?

Who's limousines drove up here?

First Street side, notice the Plaza Hotel in the distance

I am not a historian so I couldn't give you all kinds of information, however this makes it something I want to look into as years go by, I'll read up what I can when I can about this unique building and this part of town. Vegas started in this district, the railroads still cross from here, the Main Street Station Hotel and Casino is right around the corner, yes lots of history here. I hope that the powers that be will truly preserve this part of Las Vegas, we need to keep historic sights, why? History is the biggest teacher we have, we can learn something new by tapping into the past. Do I love Las Vegas? Yes I do.

© 2017

ISLAND BRAISED SHORT RIBS, MARKET STREET CAFE

Lunch time in Down Town Las Vegas, the temperature out was 101 degrees F. Not too bad considering last week it was over 115, I'll take this any day. And I want to thank the engineering crew of the hotel (California Hotel & Casino) for maintaining the air conditioning throughout the building. Got to be cold when I enter.

So I'm thinking of what to eat at the Market Street Cafe located on the casino floor at the THE CALIFORNIA HOTEL & CASINO , because the day I arrived and went to the Market Street to eat, I sat next to this old man, and I say old man out of respect. He was a skinny guy, in his late 80's for sure. Or he was 25 on meth. So I'm looking at the menu because if the item on the menu has a little picture of a palm tree, it's all part of a free meal that comes with your meal coupon book. Well not free, all the money you spend gambling pays for it somehow. Well long story short the man ordered the Island Braised Short Ribs, and it was huge! As I turned not so obviously to watch him eat, I did notice the man did not use his steak knife. He cut the meat with his fork. I'm thinking, "I'll get that... but not today, I'll go for the Prime Rib because it's part of the Specialty ticket, yay!"

So for lunch guess what, I stroll into the Market Street Cafe, locked and loaded! Got my tip money at the ready, got my coupon book at the ready, got Santana's Stormy playing on my iPhone 6s, I am styling baby! Styling! I head for the counter, and take a seat. But shit, it's somebody's seat, I had to find another one. I did. 

"Hello can I get you water or coffee?" asked the lovely lady at the counter.
"Coffee, cream and sugar please."
"OK, do you need a menu?"

LOL, menu? Are you kidding me? I'm Ron the foodie. I been in here the other day, I saw the old gent eating that soft Island Braised Short Ribs, me need a menu? I think not!

"Yeah, I'll take a menu." I had to make sure that that dish had the little picture of the palm tree. I'm a cheap son of a bitch, I don't have a lot of cash. The menu came, and I glanced at the palm tree attached to the words Island Braised Short Ribs. "I know now I'll have the Island Braised Short Ribs mam."

"OK, Island Braised Short Ribs."

I sauce up my coffee, one Splenda, and one cream. I stir. My game face on. Now I'm listening to Black Magic Woman from Santana, I'm ready to rock baby! Ready to devour my Island Braised Short Ribs!

Finally it came. Steamy hot rice, a ramekin of mac salad, and- well frozen veggies no problem all yay yay. And then the flanken cut beef short ribs, thick and then braised Island style. Sweet soy sauce, almost like teriyaki, in fact I think it was watered down Teri sauce but what the hell it was soft, tender, melted in the mouth good! I mopped that sucker up in no time! No time! Bring on more food man! I'll knock em out of the park Yee Ha!

Look at this, a gambler's dream lunch, and it's served all day!

Before my first bite, I gotta show you a slice,

can you smell it? Imagine.

Ahh, yes my friend life is good isn't it?

After the meal, I was stuffed, as a matter of fact I didn't finish the rice or the Mac salad, too full baby! Too full! Ah life is good man, life is good. In a few I'll head down to the new noodle shop and try their noodles. Yay!

So this dish called the Island Braised Short Ribs, on the Yay :) or Nay :( scale, it favored the :) Yay side. Try it out if you're at the THE CALIFORNIA HOTEL & CASINO

© 2017

PRIME RIB SCRAMBLE, MARKET STREET CAFE

It's past midnight in Las Vegas, the temperature is 105 degrees F, getting a little hungry. The day before I did the Heart Attack Grill thing. So do I need to eat this time of morning? Yes I do! After all, strolling down Fremont Street and watching those cover rock bands can work up an appetite. So I headed to the Market Street Cafe located on the casino level at the CALIFORNIA HOTEL AND CASINO  to eat a Prime Rib Scramble. it is made with 3 whole soft scrambled eggs, with a few ounces of cube prime rib, and some sliced green onions. It came with a huge piece of hash browns, and two pieces of white toast smothered in real butter. But was it good?

Here's my take on this dish, the eggs were good, you could tell that it wasn't sitting around the kitchen, and the cooks just nuked it when an order came in, I mean you can just tell. However, the cubed prime rib had an aged taste, like it was prime rib that sat uncovered in the fridge. To kill that after taste, I had to douse the dish with soy sauce and it remedied the taste problem. The hash brown was good, and instead of coffee I got a Pepsi. I don't have much gripes at restaurants, especially here at the Market Street Cafe, I mean I used my meal coupon for this dish, I spent two bucks for a tip for the counter person, it was okay, no big deal that the cubed prime rib tasted a little older. You know, it's like you had a party and you took your leftover prime rib and put it in your fridge, but somehow the plastic wrapping came off and the meat began to absorb aromas from the other items. You won't chuck it out to trash, you can always use it, maybe put it in a bowl of hot ramen or saimin soup.

So on the yay or nay scale, this had to favor more towards the yay :) side. The only nay was sitting at the counter with two loud mouth fools sitting towards the right of me. I got the feeling those guys wanted to start a convo with me but shit, I was not in the mood for conversation. 

Street Drummer on Fremont St.

The brother in the photo above was drumming on empty 5 gallon plastic buckets, creating some awesome rhythms that had two of his buddies break dancing on either side of him. He did draw a crowd, I had to toss a few dollars in his tip bucket. I mean I can see talent when I see it, this guy and his buddies were hungry, they really worked hard, I got a lot of respect for that stuff. They aren't beggars, they got something and they're saying, "Hey look at us, we got talent. We are here to make you feel happy."

Waking out of the First St. Stage

The Cal in sight

Walking back to the Cal in 105 degree weather at night, you got to be hydrated even when it's dark out.

Main Street Station around the corner

Now that I have blogged this piece of work, now I will get ready to go to sleep! Yeah!

© 2017

THE HEART ATTACK GRILL

The HEART ATTACK GRILL located on Fremont Street in Down Town Las Vegas is really a fun place to eat a burger. Most foodies know about this place. I won't get into the history of this dive because all you gotta do is Google it, and you'll have all the info. Nor am I going to tell you who the owner is just Google it.

So I head down Fremont Street hungry for a burger. I enter and the lovely Ashley greets me. She says hello and then informs me that I must wear a hospital gown, and if I take it off they will kick me out! Wow, I want to finish my burger I ain't gonna take that off. So Ashley tells me to sit at the counter, and oh yeah before I forget if I don't finish my burger, I'll get a spanking from one of the cute nurses or make that waitresses dressed in nurses outfits. OK cool. I sit at the counter, and Ryan is the doctor on call, or make that the counter dude dressed as a doctor.

"Hi how's it going?"
"Good sir, what would like like to eat today, the girls at the door did tell you how all this works right?"
"Yes she did."
"OK, so here's all the burgers, choose which one you want, would you like something cold to drink to start off?"
"Yeah dude, I'll take a Coke."
"OK."
So I look at the menu and I see the Double Bypass, two huge burgers, chili, onions, tomatoes, looks great.
"Here's your Coke. Did you decide?"
"Yeah I'll take the Double Bypass."
"You know you'll get a pound of burger right?"
At this point, I'm thinking maybe not. I'm used to the doubles at Teddy's Bigger Burger on Maui, the 2x 5 oz. which is my double standard, but not a whole pound.
"Maybe I'll get the Single By Pass."

So I wait for my burger, which was going to be topped with chili more beef, that single was huge enough and I can eat a burger or two. Flatline Fries came with that too, so that was a lot of food. Come to find out, Ryan was from Maui as well, interestingly enough I think I played golf with one of his uncles. For personal security, I won't say his last name. But yeah- Ryan is from Maui, lived in Vegas since he was 13.

So the Burger came, my Single Bypass Burger showed up brought to me by a cute nurse, or waitress, and I went to town! The chili was tasty, the burger was juicy, onions were sweet, tomatoes were fresh, and oh yes, bacon too I forgot to tell you there was crispy bacon on this thing and it was huge enough. I heard football players, or heavy training athletes can eat the Quadruple, that's 2 pounds! Yikes!

The Single Bypass, you can't see all the good stuff but it's there!

Look at that, a little blurry but you can see it's huge!

That's it right there at close-up

Ashley ready to fit me with a hospital gown

Ashley said I could take a selfie with her cool

Dr. Ryan from Maui, "The prognosis is not good sir."

Just finished the Single Bypass, maybe the Double Bypass

will be next on the agenda. Thanks Ryan, make that

Dr. Ryan and Nurse Ashley!

The interior is totally branded

Giant pill bottle hanging from the rafters

All blurry again as I exit the Heart Attack Grill

Check out the HEART ATTACK GRILL

© 2017

STEAK & EGGS, WITH COFFEE At The Market St. Cafe

Steak & Eggs at the Market Street Cafe located at the California Hotel and Casino for breakfast was perfect. As you can see, I got some ketchup on the hash browns, and I poked one of the eggs so that the yolk starts running on to one section of the plate, just so that the first slice of beef steak will be dipped into the fresh yolk. Of course I sprinkled some salt on the items on the plate too. Also two pieces of whole wheat toast with real butter, oh so good! This is comfort foodie stuff baby! The coffee was fresh, with one sugar one cream.

The nice thing about staying at the Cal, is that everybody has a meal coupon book, enough for every day that one stays there. One breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, and one specialty meal. They are open 24/7, great place for the all night gambler, or the vampires lurking around town.

I got there around 6 am, and at that time, some vamps are out ready to call it a day, this lady sat next to me, looks like she was stoned or something, she was high for sure. She was mumbling something to me. I just said, "Hi," and devoured my breakfast. Boom! Ready to sleep.

Check out THE CALIFORNIA HOTEL AND CASINO

A close up shot of the yolk running under the breakfast steak

© 2017

MARKET STREET CAFE'S CHERRY JUBILEE

Just arrived in Las Vegas, the temperature 100 degrees. It is 630pm, I checked in at the California Hotel and Casino. I head to the Market Street Cafe, and order some coffee, and a Cherry Jubilee. Hit the spot. Something sweet, with some caffeine. Love it, a dish with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, with some sweet cherry sauce on the bottom, the ice cream topped with whipped cream. My coffee, cream and sugar, boom! Ready to hit the Fremont Street Experience rock shows. Ok, ok, they're all local Vegas cover bands but they're really good players.

The first band I hear, is this four man band called Jeff Leppard. Cool. They played a lot of old school rock, the whole band was exceptionally polished rock musicians. All the songs sounded like the records, great sound system and lighting. And since I used to play drums I was of course fixated on the drummer. Who ever he was, he was locked in. Hell the whole band was locked in, from Huey Lewis, The Eagles, Lover Boy... even... that's right Neal Diamond's Sweet Caroline. Man these guys were a great party band. When you got a band that makes people go dance, jump and sing along, now that's rock and roll.

The drummer's kit sounded KICK ASS!

Jeff Leppard, like I said, they're a cover band 

but they sounded good, hey man that's rock and roll!

And of course Fremont Street is filled with

scantly clad women trying to make a buck.

Fremont Street had three stages with different rock bands, and all of them in their own way kicked ass! Coming from Maui, we are deprived of good bands. All we got to market is what, Willie K? Yeah he's talented, but after a while it becomes an overdose of Willie K! Blah! Enough is enough, Maui get more talent! Please!

More Vegas blogging coming up soon!

© 2017

THELMA'S RESTAURANT Waipahu, Hawaii

Monday, June 26, 2017. My flight from Maui to Honolulu, landed at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, a.k.a. Honolulu International Airport, fricken really? I mean he served the US in the 2nd World War, he lost his arm, was a true servant of our state, very admirable. But why couldn't we just name something new under his name. Like a new swimming pool, or a new arts venue, or sports complex. Oh well, enough of my rants, God Bless Danny, seriously, he was one of a kind.

Now I'm at OGG a.k.a. Kahului Airport, my buddy dropped me off early in the morning. As I wait to board the Bombardier Q-400 like this baby below.

The Q-400 rides smoothly

I'll cut to the chase, I land in Honolulu, my buddy Peter Pao picks me up, Peter by the way owns Prime Sandwiches in Honolulu's China Town, the most unique sandwiches, go check them out. So Peter wants to eat Filipino food, so we head to Waipahu, and we ate at Thelma's Restaurant. As soon as we opened the door, the place was packed with foodies, and the aroma in the air? Ginger, garlic, onions, bitter melons, egg plant, tomatoes, and patis (fermented fish sauce).

Peter ordered five dishes, and all of them tasted perfect, not too overbearing on the patis, just right on the garlic and ginger. There was a young couple behind us, when I took a peak at what they were eating, I found out it was the Adobo Fried Rice Omelet. (I think that was it). Anyway, that's what it was. Peter cut that sucker in half, and we both had a half.

Then the Pancit Bihon, long rice noodles, with bits of pork and veggies, with some patis. That was good, despite I like the Panict Canton style better, the difference is the noodles are made with wheat and eggs, like chow mein. But the other dish for the first three was Dinuguan, hog's blood stew, bits of cubed pork, intestine, spices, and that was great over white rice. Check out this pic below.

Top left Adobo Fried Rice Omelet, Top Right Pancit Bihon

Bottom Dinuguan

Then next and last two dishes came over, and it was a braised dish called Pinacbet, with pork, herbs and spices, beans, tomatoes, awesome. And then the Mungo Beans, also with bits of pork, with fish sauce too. Okay, most of the dishes had fish sauce, that's Filipino cooking for you. Once you get past the aroma in a Filipino kitchen, you'll be fine, you'll be eating the foods like it was nothing new. The picture below is the Pinacbet (left), and Mungo Beans (right). 

If you can't decide what to get for your first Filipino foodie

experience, you won't go wrong with these two.

Thelma's Restaurant

94-366 Pupupani St. #116

Waipahu, HI 96797

808-677-0443

© 2017