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5.17.2011

top of the strip.

So the Sahara closed. Yesterday. And yes, it is a bit sad. Few of us like to see a piece of Vegas history shut down. The part I don’t like to watch is when locals and visitors alike lament a classic casino going down even though they haven’t patronized the place in ages. You want something to live? Help keep it alive.

I don’t have a strong connection to the Sahara, mostly because there hasn’t been an interesting restaurant there in the last 10 years. (Although the Nascar Cafe did manage to score a visit from TV’s Man vs. Food.) Besides the casino's ownership, which has been at least a little misleading, we can attribute the closing to the fact that other planned North Strip properties -- Echelon, Fontainebleau, MGM’s barely planned project at Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard -- never materialized, and therefore it remained isolated from all the action. And now there is a different casino that sits alone on that island, the misunderstood spot on the boulevard between the Strip and Downtown.

But I don’t think the Stratosphere is in trouble. First of all, exactly how would you go about imploding that thing? But seriously, the Strat just dropped a bunch of money into remodeling the rooms, and the casino already was in much better shape than the dilapidated Sahara. Most importantly for us, and people like us, it does have an interesting restaurant. Actually, calling Top of the World interesting is kinda stupid. It's truly unique, 800 feet above the desert floor, and dinner or lunch up here will provide you with unparalleled views of Vegas while munching on exquisite eats. I went for the first time recently. I knew the cuisine was much improved under the kitchen command of chefs Rick Giffen and Claude Gaty, but I just imagined the experience to be ultra-cheesy and inconvenient. Actually, it was an easy stroll through a nice casino, a quick straight shot up in a tiny elevator, and some of the best service I've received in a fine dining destination in the city.

I love that you can go to lunch here. So many big ticket restaurants on the Strip skip the mid-day meal, and this stunning environment seems to scream dinner only. Nope. Even better, the lunchtime menu is fun, not just a defused version of dinner. There are beef tenderloin "carne asada" tacos, excellent crab cakes, and a Vietnamese banh mi-style grilled chicken sandwich (Gaty is a classic French chef with a love for southeast Asia, which is why this baby lands on this menu.). Dinner will get spendy, yes, but prices are comparable to other fantastic dining rooms down the street and frankly, those dining rooms are not as fantastic. Obviously. I recommend the Tower Trio Combination appetizer, one of the most big-time Vegas dishes ever: seared foie gras, one of those meaty crab cakes, and a huge seared scallop. It's pretty heavy, but this is a special occasion kinda joint, so go ahead and splurge. Save room for a kickass ribeye with horseradish crust, and a sublime rack of Colorado lamb with natural jus and a seasoning blend that boggles the mind. There are a lot of options up on the Top, all approachable French-American fusion.

When I sat for dinner, my view peered right down on top of the Sahara. It takes about 80 minutes to revolve all the way around and see all of Vegas, and so I made another turn past the now-closed icon during an amazing meal. I wish the Sahara was still open, but it isn't. That doesn't mean the North Strip is forever dead. This circular motion continues.

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