My name is Paul Tashiro and I am a Las Vegas-holic!
I have written many blogs about my exploits in Las Vegas! I can’t help myself, nor do I want to. I have no plans on seeking counseling to rid myself of Paul’s Vegas addiction.
Often people ask me, “Paul! Why don’t you just move to Las Vegas”? And my common response, “If I live here it won’t be fun anymore”!
I come here to have fun! I’m a moth to the blinky Vegas lights! I don’t care about the city’s issues or the politics. I come here to escape my own town’s issues and politics! I come to Vegas to gamble, get drunk, and be stupid…generally under a pseudo name!
Vegas offers great food, shows, night clubs, cabanas at the pool, and endless amounts of alcohol!
And the best entertainment you’ll get here: watching people being stupid doing dumb things! And it’s cost free.
I refuse to ruin a good thing!
Sin City
Recently I had back-to-back trips to Las Vegas. My first trip was 5 days long! I was celebrating birthdays with a group of friends who are also former colleagues. We are all turning 56 this year.
From there I returned home for 3 days. Just enough time to do laundry, repack, and head back to Vegas for another 4 days, to hang with some former co-workers from Imura Japanese Restaurant.
And that’s where the real Vegas story comes into play! But before I dive into the sushi chefs taking on Vegas, I had some good food with my birthday group just days before the debauchery.
Golden Steer Steakhouse
The Golden Steer restaurant is a traditional steakhouse. It’s dark inside and everyone has to wear business-casual attire. You can’t wear flip flips, swim/sport shorts, or tank tops. You actually have to look presentable.
The steaks are absolutely phenomenal. Cooked to every individuals liking to perfection!
I had a 2 pound prime rib with the bone-in…medium rare! Words can not describe the taste, sensation, and the melt in your mouth experience I was having with this slab of beef!
Even the baked potato weighed about a pound after they packed bacon, butter, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and green onions into it.
And since we were all celebrating our 56th birthday this year, the restaurant gave us several birthday cheese cakes to finish off the amazing steak dinners we ate.
9 Fine Irishmen Restaurant
This burger with grilled mushrooms, bacon, and cheddar cheese, medium rare beef, and the waffle fries was a tasty, tasty dish! The beef patty was a real 1/2 pounder!
The lamb stew was savory, piping hot, and delish!! Lamb chunks, carrots, and potatoes soaking in a traditional Irish bath of broth.
This was a pepperoni and salami pizza slice of the pie. I vaguely remember ordering it in the wee hours of the night, but apparently it was good eats, because I was told I woofed it down in short order! I don’t even remember the name of the late night food stand I bought it from…but it was somewhere inside the Flamingo Hotel.
Hash House A Go-Go at The LINQ Hotel
After late night shenanigans, a hearty breakfast to soak up the nights drinking was very good! Fresh made biscuits, turkey sausage patties, and two sunny up eggs! Yum…
This one is located inside the The LINQ Hotel
Fast Forward 3 Days
Back in Vegas again…this time with the Imura Sushi Crew.
Yep! 3 days after coming home from Vegas…I returned to Vegas with the Imura Sushi Crew. Pictured here are two of the Sushi Chefs!
Our time started on Friday night, after these two got off work from Imura. We headed to the airport and caught the last flight out of San Jose, Ca. We landed about 1030pm.
Their drinking actually started at Imura’s probably around 4pm and ended about 2am in Vegas. That’s a long drinking period for those two.
About 3 hours into my sleepy slumber on night #1, I heard the shower turn on!? I opened one eye to look at the room clock. Was my eye messing with me? It says 6am!? WTF!!
The guy on the far right of the photo above, I’m going to name him Joe #1. He’s a long time sushi chef and late night boozer every night! In all the years I have known him, he has never, and I repeat, never, woke up at 6am. He might go to bed at 6am, but never wakes up at 6am.
I could hear the clanking sound of an aluminum can while he was in the shower. He is a big fan of Coors Light beer. WHY IS HE UP!!?? AGHHHH!
He walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed with beer can in hand and told me he was hitting the strip for a walk! Now that I am awake, I got up, grabbed a beer can, and joined him!
By 830am, we were done walking, bellied up to the bar at Beer Park, and ordered some Bloody Mary’s and Jameson.
Beer Park is located on the roof top of Paris Las Vegas Hotel. http://Caesars.com
Before we knew it, day turned to night, and we all ended up downtown at the Fremont Street Experience!
This is where we promptly lost Joe #2 (pictured between me and Joe #1 in the top photo). He was lucky he was not raped, killed, and left for dead in the Mojave Desert.
In his intoxicated state he apparently jumped into a scammer’s car, who he thought was his Uber/Lyft Driver, but was not, and bilked Joe #2 out of $250 dollars for a short ride back to the hotel.
Side note: when you drink a lot in Vegas, and that is known to happen around here in Sin City…beware of scammers looking for drunk people to be taken advantage of!
I don’t have to tell you, cause you already know this…but it is a bad thing! And bad things will happen to you when you are alone and drunk. Anything from kidnapping, human trafficking, robbery, rape, to murder, or all the above, could happen to you in this town when you are drunk and alone.
Velvet Elvis Band can be found on Facebook.
Fogo de Chao-Las Vegas
After 3 days of binge drinking we decided we should have an actual meal. It would be our first real meal since landing in Vegas. And I couldn’t think of a better place than Fogo de Chao! An all you can eat meat orgy…Brazilin style!
Best Western Plus Casino Royale Hotel
Honorable Mention shoutout goes to the Best Western Plus Casino Royale Hotel on the main strip. The establishment kept their alcoholic beverages at normal prices! Meaning, we only paid $7 per shot of liquor. 1.5 plus oz!! All the other main strip hotels were charging between $16.50 and $17 for a 1.5 oz. shot of liquor. Beer at Casino Royale was $3. Guess where we did a lot of drinking?
Shokku Ramen
One of the things I like about Vegas are all the ramen places to choose from…this place was in Las Vegas’ China Town district.
Before we headed home we stopped at Shokku Ramen!
I had the miso soup base Tonkotsu ramen with slices of pork belly and a soft boiled egg. It felt good to my soul after this long Vegas week.
We Lived to Tell The Story...
Amazingly, we all survived Vegas this round! For Joe #1 it had been over 20 years since his last visit to Las Vegas and his first flight in 20 years as well.
For the other two, who have both recently been to Vegas, it was their first time in this group setting! All-in-all, we had a great time, and plan to visit Vegas as a group again in the near future!
Until next time on Foodie Booze Explorer!
Las Vegas here I come December 3-6 Santana Saturday Raiders Sunday.I love the Golden Steer have been there many times
Awesome!! Have a great time Kevin!