VegasBeat — Timothy McDarrah: It’s simple: Simon can really rock

Friday, Oct. 4, 2002 | 5:09 a.m.

Chef Kerry Simon already has a pretty high profile.

And that was before Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger reached out to have post-concert parties at his yet-to-be-opened Las Vegas restaurant, Simon at the Hard Rock.

"We're still negotiating things with a lot of different people," Simon told VegasBeat the other day. "But I can tell you that (the after concert bash for) Sammy Hagar is nailed down."

The former Van Halen frontman performs at The Joint on Oct. 19; his new album, "Not For Sale," drops Tuesday.

Simon and partners Michael McGraw and Elizabeth Blau are working day and night to make their Oct. 17 target opening date for the eatery.

McCartney performs at MGM Grand Garden Arena on Oct. 26; Mick and the boys roll into town Thanksgiving weekend with shows at MGM Grand and at The Joint.

The Rolling Stones are notorious for their parties at cutting-edge international locales. Hagar is also a partier of historic proportions. McCartney's fetes are traditionally somewhat more tame in execution, but he spares nothing when it comes to presentation and location.

Simon's new restaurant, across the corridor from Nobuyuki Matsuhisa's eponymous eatery Nobu, overlooking the Hard Rock Hotel pool, has a lot of hype to live up to.

Based on its partners' track records, though, the new venture is more than likely to deliver. Simon has lorded over the Prime at Bellagio and earlier toiled at the Edwardian Room at the Plaza Hotel in New York. McCartney and his old band, The Beatles, stayed at the Plaza and ate room service food from the Edwardian room in the early 1960s.

But Simon hadn't been born yet.

Blau has management experience at the Bellagio and MGM and now runs her own wildly successful restaurant consulting firm. McGraw is a veteran of Spago's and the Eiffel Tower Restaurant at Paris Las Vegas.

"This restaurant is going to make the Hard Rock even more of a destination than it already is," Hard Rock CEO Don Marrandino crowed.

Rumors were flying up and down the Strip this week that Frank Marino had gotten married.

Actually, Marino, the cross-dressing sensation and "La Cage Aux Folles" star, is going to be the subject of a "reality" (and we use that word with an entire shaker of salt) series on the Bravo cable network.

Cameras will follow him around starting in April, and the series will conclude with a July 4 commitment ceremony on the anniversary of his decade-long relationship with partner Shannon Schechter, a district manager with Hollywood Video.

Talk about Lost & Found.

The Riviera's internal employee newsletter, RiView, has a new feature: It delineates by name each and every employee who found a lost wallet or purse -- and turned it back in to its owner.

The October edition lists more than 30 do-gooders, including:

Hortensia Rosales, who found a wallet stuffed with more than $3,000 when she was cleaning a room -- and returned it.

Alvard Margaryan, who works with slots, found a wallet with more than $3,500 in it on the casino floor -- and returned it.

Rosario Murillo, a food and beverage worker, who found a purse containing only $5 -- but had tremendous sentimental value -- and returned it.

Ella Hunt, who found a bucket with $59.25 in quarters -- and ran after the person who had forgotten it.

"It is something management here thought would be a nice thing to recognize," Riviera spokesman John Neeland told VegasBeat.

Meanwhile, the property just had a farewell party for DeeAnn Starr, who left the Riviera after some 35 years of service.

Starting as a hotel operator, she was usually the first voice people would hear when they called the famous Strip property.

In the "any publicity is good" department: "Baretta" star Robert Blake languishes in a Los Angeles jail awaiting his trial on charges he murdered his wife Bonny Bakley.

So, since his name is back in the news, Universal is releasing a pair of new DVDs. One is "Baretta: Season One." The other is "The Best of Baretta."

They hit stores in Las Vegas and nationally Oct. 29.