Here Goes Hugo's Cellar

I broke the hundred, put some aside, and hit Hugo’s.

Single Lonely Diner Table-vision.

I started with a split of champagne...

Veuve Cliquot. Very nice and perfect with a third of a pound of butter.

...and these amazing escargots in a buttery garlic butter butter sauce. With garlic.

Victor warned that these were hot and he wasn't kidding - they were piping!

...a hand-made salad courtesy of my awesome server Victor. Okay, tong-made, not hand-made.

The Turbo Tableside Salad Cart 3000.

The main course was the Alaskan King Crab. It was a generous portion, served with drawn butter a la flame, but it seemed a bit overdone, and had a bit of that fishy taste that things can have. It was very good, but I have had better.

Dessert, on the other hand, was a disappointment, it was a teeny tiny ice cream cone, and served in the middle of the meal for some reason. It was pretty tasty but I think they need to up the portion and serve it at the end!

Cheaping out on dessert Hugo? One teaspoon of sherbet. Or is it sorbet?

It had the side effect of cleansing my palate in readiness for the gigantic Dr. Sinister’s Island style crab legs, so all was not lost.

Oh - and the Single Lonely Diner Table was excellent - at the end of a little alcove. Victor did a great job of chatting with me at the right junctures. He had tons of great stories about Vegas, both new and old, including some great Elvis ones. If you ever have Victor as a waiter, ask him about how long he’s been in Vegas and you’ll hear some amazing tales.

Second dessert, yumsters!

Royal Flusher Restaurant Rating - Hugo's Cellar at the Four Queens - three-and-a-half to a Royal.

I mentally tabulated the bill at $150 and I was within two bucks. I could have eaten more dollars worth I suppose, but I would have had to tip on the total amount, and believe me, I was stuffed.

After dinner, I toyed with the idea of going to the Cal and getting a marker, but in the end, I decided to just leave it for tomorrow. Things were depressing enough as it was.

I played the dollars left-over after tipping Victor generously. As mentioned, the comped meal was about $150 on the bill, so I left $50. Why not? The guy made me a hand-crafted salad. You just don’t see that kind of workmanship in a leafy green these days.

Dejected, I headed back to the Grand.

And then I remembered… I had $4 worth of freeplay on points at the DTG - that was enough for three hands of quarter Bonus Poker. I actually had a couple of chances but there was no super-lucky end of day pull it out of the fire redemption story to be had.

In fact, the last degenerate move of the day was to cash in my ticket for what was left after the $4 free play.

I picked up the single quarter from the little tray in the machine and put it in my pocket.

That lone quarter… was all I had.

Busted again.

Royal Flusher: Day $-500 Trip $-3710