Potables take center stage at Epicurean Affair

Friday, June 13, 2003 | 9:50 a.m.

When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Where: Garden of the Gods at Caesars Palace.

Tickets: $100 advance, $120 at the door, $850 for a table of 10.

Information: 878-2313.

Las Vegas has raised the bar on bar standards.

While the Entertainment Capital of the World was proudly flaunting its emergence as a premier dining destination, with some of the finest restaurants and best chefs leading the way, this gaming center suddenly became one of the world's great places to barhop.

There is an awesome lineup of gin mills in Las Vegas that includes (among dozens of others) Venus (at The Venetian), Risque (Paris Las Vegas), Rain in the Desert (Palms), Caramel and Light (Bellagio), Red Square and rumjungle (Mandalay Bay) and Studio 54 and Tabu (MGM Grand).

"In the last seven or eight years Las Vegas has evolved," said George Markantonis, senior vice president of hotel operations at Caesars Palace. "Arguably, we probably have become the dining capital of the world, and suddenly, now bars, lounges and nightclubs have come into their own."

A sampling of some of these internationally acclaimed watering holes will be available Tuesday night at the 13th annual Epicurean Affair, to be held poolside at Caesars Palace's Garden of the Gods.

Until last year the event, a joint venture with the Nevada Restaurant Association and Nevada Hotel and Lodging Association, was strictly focused on dining.

Almost 100 of the city's finest restaurants set up booths and allow diners a taste of what they have to offer.

As part of the 2002 festivities, Markantonis set aside a small area in the Garden for Bar Alley -- where a handful of bars provided drinks for diners.

Among the clubs on hand for the first event were Shadow Bar (Caesars), ghostbar (Palms) and Coyote Ugly (New York-New York).

This year the alley has become a boulevard, with dozens of pubs, saloons, gin joints, ultra lounges, dance halls and nightclubs showing why Las Vegas has become internationally acclaimed as party central.

"We've already seen our fine dining wave," said Stephanie Wilson, marketing director for Coyote Ugly and Bikinis (at The Rio). "Vegas is a great place to eat -- but very recently all the major hotels have embraced nightclubs. The buzz is that this is a great night-life destination."

Markantonis came up with the Bar Alley concept.

"We wanted to do something to Las Vegas-ize the Epicurean Affair even more, to make it more exotic and more fully representative of the food and beverage industry here," he said.

Markantonis, in addition to his position with Caesars, is chairman of the board of the Nevada Hotel and Lodging Association.

Epicurean Affair kicks off the Las Vegas International Hotel & Restaurant Show, which begins Wednesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Last year the affair, dubbed "Bacchanalia I," won a national award for "Best Hospitality Function in the United States" from the International Society of Hospitality.

Markantonis hopes to repeat the success with "Bacchanalia II," which takes place in the lush five-acre pool area of Caesars.

Highlighting beverages and the exotic night life of Vegas may have played an important role in the award.

It was an experiment that paid off.

"Later on in the evening, last year, Bar Alley was a very popular location, with all the various bars and lounges bringing their staff dressed in exotic outfits and creating exotic signature drinks," Markantonis said.

The demand to bring back the alley was tremendous.

"It was such a smash hit," Markantonis said. "The demand was so huge, we've had to move Bar Alley to a bigger spot."

He said the combination of fine dining and fine drinking may put Las Vegas so far over the top that other cities will not be able to compete with similar events. Those who attend the Epicurean Affair will get to see what sets Las Vegas' bar scene apart from the norm.

Coyote Ugly's female bartenders will be dancing on the bars; Bikinis' beach cocktail servers will pour shots into the open mouths of kneeling drinkers.

Venus Bar cocktail servers will provide personalized bartending services.

Shanda Sumpter, general manager of the hugely popular venue, said one of the features of Venus is "European bottle services."

"Instead of waiting in line at the bar, customers can reserve tables where hostesses and cocktail waitresses will mix and serve the drinks at the table," Sumpter said.

In Bar Alley, Sumpter said there will be flare bartenders from Venus juggling bottles, blowing fire and mixing tiki drinks, scorpions and an as-yet-unnamed aphrodisiac drink made with Absolut vodka.

"We are taking nightclubs to a new level," said Sumpter.

Salud.