Nightlife

The Italian job

On Azure’s shores, it’s nothing but champagne wishes and caviar pizza

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We have to wonder if the pool is filled with Evian.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

"So, ooo wants annuzzher bottle of champagne? I know I do.” Sebastien answers the silly question before I can get to it. “As you wish, maestro,” I sigh, nudging my acrylic champagne flute toward our host, bearing the chilled bottle of Perrier Jouët. In its Franco-Italian creator, the French Riviera-style Azure pool club meets the Italianate Palazzo Resort.

Yes, I’ve washed up on foreign shores like Shakespeare’s Viola to Illyria, only unlike her, I find myself in a well-appointed, well-air-conditioned, preppy little cabana at the back of Azure pool, which is itself just a nook at the back of the larger Palazzo pool complex. Not a bad way to pass the hottest hours of a lazy Saturday afternoon. As we toast, I let the bubbles go to my head, where I imagine they are scrubbing away the worries of the week. A little menu on the side table says that I can order up a champagne massage for my body as well.

To hear Sebastien Silvestri tell it, Azure pool club was an afterthought, a lark he hatched just this spring to incorporate the two furthest pools—puddles, really—into a venue of their own. “I wanted to create a place where I would want to hang out,” says the executive director of food and beverage, his soft, bohemian cotton shirt fluttering slightly in the breeze; Vegas’ rooftop pools catch a jet stream of air not often felt on the Strip below. Tao Beach, Palms Place and now Azure all enjoy this little gift of the gods—er, architects.

“Um, but where’s the bar?” I asked upon arrival, twitching a little for the lack of a landmark. It’s a charming and unique eccentricity, I decide after learning that as this area was originally serviced by the Palazzo pool cocktail staff, there is no bar, a wrong soon to be righted, Sebastien assures us. For now, cocktail servers—and, God, I hope they are legion—handle the guests, even if those are physically waist–deep in one of the pools.

Naptime!

Naptime!

Azure’s reps claim not to aspire to a party-pool atmosphere, per se. Rather, it’s more of a vibe like Caesars’ mellow Venus pool they want, accessible to the public for a $20 “membership fee,” featuring a DJ only on Absolut Vodka Saturdays and maybe additional days, to be determined once everyone’s on the same page. I hope that’s soon.

“It’s very secluded,” Sebastien tells me, reiterating that this is not a party pool. I’m trying to listen, but I’m too busy watching the pool party going on just over his shoulder. Our neighbors hump in a dog-pile on their daybed. Seems Azure might just become a party pool from time to time whether the Palazzo was looking for it or not. The people have spoken.

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But, for all that hot cabana action, “it’s nap time in the rotunda,” reports Shalom, returning from her stroll. I peek around the corner to where, under a Romanesque dome, three masseurs ply their trade on the rock-hard rotator cuffs of text-aholics, who, post-massage, pass out on shaded beds.

Every 30 minutes or so, something happens, be it gratis sunscreen application, a fashion show, the arrival of cold towels, Evian misting or a molecular gastronomic amuse bouche. But the chef must still be learning how to work with gelatin, so while the Bloody Mary globule gets high marks, a few items go down hard. Believe it or not, the cold, salted and spiked crab soup and cubed cream kabobs sound better than they taste.

“This is [Palazzo’s] luxury pool,” says Sebastien, regarding his Voss water, a particular favorite. “I want the best of the best.” His hospitality background in the hotels of Paris, London, Dallas, Bora Bora and Telluride well informs his every decision. Soon Azure will have its own custom glassware and towels to go with the custom food coming out of Wolfgang Puck’s Solaro kitchen. Especially wondrous is the smoked-salmon pizza with dilled crème fraiche and caviar.

As the shadows grow longer, the music and the vibe finally reach that chill place that I suspect Sebastien would like to become Azure’s default setting. The crowd thins down to merely ample, the pool surfaces grow still, and the staff tidies up a bit after the departed. Azure gratefully catches its breath for a moment, and so do I.

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