Saturday, March 12, 2:36 a.m. What is it they say? The best laid plans go really wrong? You spend two hours on hair, makeup and wardrobe. Leaving the house, half your closet is piled on your bed, the bathroom is a glittering, perfumed disaster. Texts fly back and forth: "R U coming out?"; "Jeans or dressy?"; "Meet at 11pm." The crew assembles, hopes are high. Hope, however, is sometimes not enough.
Our circuit for the night is Mandalay all the way: Foundation Room for the Red Hookah Lounge, Mix for the sheer scenic value, and Forty Deuce for AM After Hours.
The Foundation Room atop the Mandalay Bay is an extension of the House of Blues. Most of the week, only card-carrying members are allowed onto the clover-like floor plan consisting of a dining room, banquet room and lounge, not to mention a wrap-around balcony and numerous private rooms. Dark and mysterious, it's a maze of Hindu accents, wood cuttings, large statuary and stained glass.
The Foundation opens its doors to the public for Godspeed Mondays and last year introduced The List, a rare Wednesday night opportunity to experience one of the town's best views.
The Red Hookah Lounge is the five-week-old Saturday night event, a floating party looking for a permanent home but for now housed in the Shangri-la Room. The setup includes VIP tables, tons of hookahs with flavored tobaccos, TVs inset into the DJ booth, and all the latest and best hip-hop and reggae for an upscale crowd.
Arriving at 11:30 p.m., we were four people in a room that can fit more than 100. Previous weeks saw this party opening earlier and earlier to accommodate the crowds, but tonight the turnout just hasn't turned out.
We make a quick trip to Mix to give Hookah time to build. The lounge is busy but table service is not really the order of the night, leaving the staff to their own devices. Two young female servers, their VIP section vacant, are engaged in a provocative interpretive dance. Onlookers, their Coors Lights forgotten, are pooling funds, willing to do anything to gain entrance.
Similarly, back in the Shangri-la Room, two tall, thin, blonde vixens are dancing just enough to get everyone to watch. Even the hookah smokers pause to watch. One of the fair pair has taken the art of accessorizing (or is that excessorizing?) to new heights, having had her jeans pimped out by a corporate sponsor, sporting their logo on a scrolling LED screen across her ass. Despite it being dark, both are wearing massive, post-Lasik sunglasses. Business has picked up—the lounge is packed, the balcony overflowing—but the vibe is simply not there.
The young, attractive crowd seems limp. They've opted for the view and the lounge's '80s music instead of the dark, sweetly smoky hookah cave and hip-hop. I go out on the balcony to see why but am attacked by killer moths sent off-track by the Luxor's beam. My guess is the allure of the first relatively warm night we've had in a while is too strong to fight. A new bride angrily announces, "This bus is leaving!" We duck and follow her out.
Downstairs at Forty Deuce, I watch a herd of cowgirls grind on top of the bar in their lone-star tank tops, 10-gallon hats and Don't Mess With Texas smirks.
It finally dawns on me that this is NASCAR weekend, and despite the 90,000-odd visitors and their $85 million-plus nongaming dollars donated to our happy city (Thank you!), I am pooped from trying to party. I down a water and raise up a new battle cry, "Omelets!"
In Raffles Café, we take stock of our short night. Perhaps we overthought it. Some of my best nights were spontaneous gatherings with no purpose, itinerary or agenda. I've never penciled in, "Have kick-ass time." I'm just looking for some laughs, people!
Right then, a bridesmaid in her "Danielle's Bachelorette Party" T-shirt limps by our table crying, helped out by her fellow maids. I made a vow that if there is a Hindu party deity, a Norse god of the sublime groove, or if Bacchus has a cousin who likes a good martini, I will make her an offering from now on before I leave the house.
Xania Woodman thinks globally and parties locally. And frequently. E-mail her at
[email protected].
Thursday, March 17
The Main Event at Vivid, The Venetian
Friday, March 18
Pure Fridays, Caesars
Saturday, March 19
DJ Darude, Club Rubber
Monday, March 20
Godspeed, the Foundation Room, Mandalay Bay
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