Writing a bar column is seldom conducive to healthy, sustainable living. It typically involves drinking years off my life expectancy, only pausing to enjoy cuisine that’s so deep-fried it’s often difficult to tell what’s at the center of all that batter. Probably more batter. If the secondhand smoke doesn’t eventually kill me, the firsthand smoke will. On the plus side, the bar food I frequently enjoy is so loaded with preservatives, my young corpse likely won’t begin to smell for a good two or three years. That’s the plus side. So a stop at the Springs Preserve Café to check out its new happy hour and Thursday concert series feels like a breath of fresh air—literally, as it appears my Zippo has run out of lighter fluid.
The café is located in the one-year-old Springs Preserve—a 180-acre, $250 million dome-less bio-dome. It’s part historical site, part nature preserve and part ecological experiment in sustainable living. It’s Las Vegas’ most magnificent shot at going green. I’m no eco-nut, but it’s nice to have the term “going green” apply to something other than my friends’ faces at the end of the night, moments before they stick their heads out the cab window to expel an evening’s worth of libations.
The eco-friendly attitude of the Preserve is apparent as soon as I park my car under a shaded canopy, which turns out to be hundreds of solar panels, angling to catch the last few rays of the setting sun. The panels generate approximately 70 percent of the energy for the entire Preserve. Somewhere, Nevada Power is saying, “Curses! Foiled again!”
I ascend a nearby staircase to the top-floor café. Glass doors reveal a cafeteria-sized room with dozens of tables and a line of customers waiting to order from Wolfgang Puck’s menu, which advertises health-conscious culinary delights like “Sustainable” Baby Arugula, Penne & “Open-Pollinated” Heirloom Tomatoes, “Free-Range” Chicken Cobb Salad and “Wild-Caught” Barbecue Salmon. Puck’s philosophy of WELL (which stands for Wolfgang’s Eat, Love, Live) is explained on a wall on the far side of the room. The produce is all pesticide-free, the fish are caught in a way that doesn’t damage their ecosystem, and the livestock are treated so humanely, I almost expect to learn that the cow I’m about to eat happily sat her ass down on my bun to be painlessly euthanized.
Traversing the appropriately green-colored floor, I cross into the outdoor area of the café. The railing looks down onto an outdoor amphitheater, where about 30 vendors from the Thursday Farmer’s Market are set up on the Astroturf (another “sustainable” feature, since it doesn’t have to be watered). Most of the café’s patrons (well over 100) have already been down there, as indicated by the bags of fresh produce that sit on half the establishment’s tables. But looking beyond the amphitheater, I see the café’s most impressive feature: the view. Everything from Mandalay Bay to the Downtown casinos can be seen in a glance, and once the sun goes down and the buildings light up, people begin posing for photos in front of the spectacular backdrop. It’s a shame that the happy hour usually only runs from 4 p.m. to an early 6 o’clock closing. Fortunately, the Thursday-night concert series has extended things to 8.
“Mozart and Mojitos” is the theme this month, and the Las Vegas Youth Philharmonic promptly jumps into the “Serenade in G Major.” I’m no classical-music expert, but this quintet of scrawny, elegantly dressed adolescents sounds like a full-fledged orchestra.
With one Wolfgang delighting one of my senses, I decide to have a different Wolfgang delight another by getting in line to sample one of Puck’s signature cocktails for the evening. With the slight exception of a heart-cleansing glass of wine, there really isn’t any such thing as a healthy alcoholic beverage, but with its veritable salad of mint leaves in a glass, a mojito at least looks healthy.
“You can’t order a cocktail unless you order food,” the kid at the register informs me, vaguely explaining that this is somehow mandated by law, and they have no choice but to enforce the rule.
I knew there was a catch. The Springs Preserve Café might have smoke-free fresh air, a market full of healthy groceries, a spectacular view and music that’s soothing to the ear, but to enjoy it, I have to sacrifice the buzz that comes with unhealthily swilling booze on an empty stomach. Looks like I’m not willing to live in the bio-dome just yet, but it’s certainly a lovely place to visit on my way to the bar.
Springs Preserve Café
333 S. Valley View Blvd.
822-8716