the mirage.

"The Mirage was the first of its kind in Las Vegas and heralded the era of megaresorts along the Strip. Its November 1989 opening preceded the early nineties building boom and, with its $630 million price tag, it was the most expensive hotel/casino in the world."

This blurb comes from the Las Vegas Sun's history web site, which has a super awesome hotel-casino map that traces the changes across the valley through the years. The Mirage is particularly relevant today, for a number of reasons. It is celebrating 20 years on the Strip, and it is rumored to be the next MGM-Mirage property that could be sold, following TI's movement to Phil Ruffin.

But that stuff doesn't matter much for our purposes. Here at MenuVegas, the measure of a hotel-casino is a simple series of questions: Is it awesome? Where can we eat? Where can we drink? Can we get happily lost and sloshed in here? And, is it awesome? If you check out that cool Sun map, it's easy to measure the resorts of the Mirage generation: Rio, Excalibur, Luxor, New York-New York, Monte Carlo, MGM Grand, Treasure Island, Hard Rock, Stratosphere, to name most. (Bellagio and Mandalay Bay opened in '98 and '99, respectively.) Out of these, the only ones that come close to providing similar top-flight amenities today are MGM Grand and Hard Rock, which opened four and six years after Mirage, respectively.

If this is confusing, here's the point: the Mirage today is better than the resorts of its generation. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's enjoying a resurgence right now -- that's an unacceptably positive label in Vegas today -- but it deserves one. It remains a beautiful property with plenty to do, 20 years later. Gone are Siegfried, Roy and Danny Gans. In their place are this Terry Fator guy and the popular Beatles-Cirque mashup Love. The buffet, Cravings, is probably the best in town, pound-for-pound, because the food is great and the design is very anti-buffet. I actually don't mind eating here, and I hate buffets. Other restaurant highlights include BLT Burger, Chicago/NYC transplant Japonais, cute wine bar Onda, high profile Chinese at Fin and fun steak and snacks at Stack. In addition to reputedly delicious fare, Stack and Fin are among the most strikingly designed dining rooms on the Strip. The Light Group nightclub JET is still top 5, and the brand new Rhumbar boozehole is surprisingly cool and dedicated to classic cocktail creation. The casino layout is comfortable enough, with lingering touches of the tropical theme that made its first impressions so long ago. The western portion of the casino, which winds around the theater, spa, and quaint Revolution Lounge, is modern and relaxing. The Bare dayclub provides the only topless pool experience that doesn't charge admission, last time I checked.

When Ruffin took over the TI he said he wasn't going to change anything. As nice as the Mirage is today, I would think any potential buyer would maintain that philosophy. It wants for nothing.