Simon Restaurant, Las Vegas

If you like your dinner with a dose of high end design and understated poolside glamour, Simon Restaurant and Lounge at Palms Place in Las Vegas might be just the ticket. We got excited a few months ago over the hotel’s new 47-story luxury tower, which opened in February complete with 50,000 sq ft Turkish Spa and sleek, relaxed modern interiors – a veritable escape amidst the riotous (and often tasteless) Strip.












No true five-star hotel would be complete, however, without a five-star flagship restaurant to match, and Simon at Palms Place, which opened in May by renowned Vegas chef Kerry Simon, doesn’t disappoint. The contemporary 8,400 sq ft space designed by the New York-based Rockwell Group embraces the notion of poolside dining in grand fashion, more Hollywood Hills glamour than Vegas Strip decadence, a seamless blend of light, water and stylish, relaxed aesthetics.

The food isn’t half bad either – simple, flavoursome dishes like grilled halibut wrapped in banana leaf, wood-roasted pizza, signature sushi rolls, raw, healthy salads (and a not-so-healthy, ominously titled Junk Food Platter for dessert) – along with what is claimed to be the country’s largest selection of small bottle sake and an extensive menu of organic wines and colourful cocktails. Nibble, sip, and unwind, and do your best not to gawk at half-naked bodies on the deckchairs.

DQ Vodka

We’ve always had a penchant for Sweden’s vodka, just like we’ve found ourselves inclined towards its design, seafood and inhabitants, on occasion. The latest tipple to tickle our fancy is Nordic Spirit, the first publicly owned vodka manufacturer to emerge here since the government's monopoly on the spirit’s production was disbanded.

Nordic Spirit professes to be one of the purest premium vodka on the international market. Under the moniker, DQ (meaning ‘distilled intelligence’), this luxury spirit has been in development for the last 10 years.

DQ is distilled in the government-protected Malmköping springs, a feature which formed almost two million years ago. The water here is naturally soft, filtered and fortified. In the Nordic Spirit bottling plant, a connecting pipeline to the natural springs allows them to blend their distilled DQ spirit with this purified water, close to the source.

Even the method of wheat production is steeped in tradition, with seeds planted in autumn and allowed to mature during the eight winter months, making the grains of superior quality.

The result is an ultra smooth, complex vodka that slips down as gently as a shot of pure spring water. The bottle is an appropriately sleek mix of Italian glass and brushed aluminium, topped off with a specially developed nozzle that maintains the quality and freshness within. A must for any discerning drinker.


INFORMATION

£33 for 1 litre bottle

Website
http://www.dqvodka.com

Souper Fin by Philippe Di Méo

Immaculate Crème Glacé by Raynaud, Vodka and Asparagus Iced Creme with Caviar by Claire Smith for Belvedere at L'Eclaireur.

Forbidden Fruit by Raynaud; Lady Killer Panna Cotta by Lionel Beccat for Michel Troisgros.


Philippe Di Méo’s collection of erotic tableware, Souper Fin, was designed not only in collaboration with a roll call of legendary luxury Gallic companies - from Baccarat to Goyard to Cristofle and Orfèvrerie d’Anjou - but for each item the designer solicited the help of some of the most highly regarded food creatives to devise a dish that complemented the utensil or receptacle in thought and deed.

Body Brushes by Christofle, Warm Chocolate sauce infused with aphrodisiac herbs by Sebastien Bauer for Angelina.

Ecstasy Bottle Stopper in collaboration with Baccarat and Frederic Panaiotis for Ruinart.

All will come together in an exhibition at the L’Eclaireur, Paris, in July. The pieces, the chefs and their creations and instructional short films by Sabine Pigalle will come together at the opening, but in the meantime, if the pictures in our feature ‘Love Bites’ (current issue, W*110) have whetted your appetite, here is the entire collection, and a preview of three of the recipes devised to complement pieces from the collection.

Lip Gloss in collaboration with Christofle and Christophe Adam of Fauchon.

Chalice of Delights in collaboration with Raynaud and Thierry Marx.

Occasional Table by Thierry Burlot in collaboration with Bruno Domeau and Philippe Peres.

Aphrodisiac Herb necklace in collaboration with The Orfevrerie d'Anjou and Jean-Claude Charlet of the Carre des Simples.

Shoe Horn Whip in collaboration with Christofle and Yann Brys for Dalloyau.

Hot Vanity Case in collaboration with Goyard and Sebastien Gaudard.




INFORMATION

Website
http://www.resospace.com/souperfin

Eben Freeman reinvents the Mojito

Last week Eben Freeman, currently New York’s most acclaimed mixologist, reinvented the Mojito for the delectation of a select crowd of dedicated drinkers in London. It was at the invitation of Bacardi Rum, who is celebrating its 146th anniversary, and used the occasion as an opportunity to alert us to its role in the conception of the Mojito cocktail – yes it was news to us that it was thanks to Bacardi that we regularly sip on rum mint and lime, but we are very grateful.

To see the master mixologist at work was eye-opening. A tad weary, dare we say it, of molecular meddling in our meals, it was curiosity that drove us to witness what molecular mixology at the hands of such an authority might entail, and, of course, the question of how you could possibly improve on a Mojito.

Eben Freeman has been mixing it up in a molecular sort of fashion since first working with the cutting edge chef, Sam Mason, who manned the sweet-side of the kitchen at Manahattan’s wd-50 before setting up his own place, Tailors, on Broome Street, Soho, last year.

A degree in drama and a passion for liquid invention makes Freeman a charismatic presence behind the bar and at Tailors he has not so much as a bar as a prominently placed booth. His repertoire includes the likes of Violet Fizz (a frothy mix of gin, citrus, cream, egg whites and violet liqueur), the Waylon (Jack and cherrywood-smoked Coke), and the Crumble, made with brown butter rum (achieved by using a ‘fat-washing’ technique he took from one of Mason’s dessert preparations – he takes the flavour from browned butter by infusing it with rum, leaving it to cool, and after a few days skimming off the coagulated fat element to leave flavoured rum).

Freeman's reinvention of the Mojito proved to be the full-on lab-experiment experience, with goggles and liquid nitrogen. The mint and lime elements were frozen into pea-sized balls, formed by dribbling gelatinised liquid versions of the flavours (the fresh mint was blanched and puréed) into a trough of steaming liquid nitrogen. These were then suspended in a Bacardi rum and soda mix that had been imperceptibly thickened with xanthan gum in order to hold the green and white balls aloft. This, we were advised, was a cocktail made to knock back – so the initial sensation is a hit of rum, and then as the mint and lime balls are crushed against the palate the traditional flavours blend in.

The main hit though was actually the visual impact of the drink, which is quite stunning. Whether you can beat the gentle diffusion of fresh mint and lime through rum and soda sipped through a straw is still debatable. But the theatre of Freeman’s craft is undeniably good. And the experiment he brings to the bar is invaluable in advancing and evolving the way we savour spirits.

Guerrilla restaurant, New York

Good things come in small packages and in this case that applies to time, not portion size. Taking advantage of the demise of a former Hard Rock Café in midtown New York, the American food magazine Bon Appetit has taken temporary residence and created in its own words a ‘pop-up supper club’.
Open for just over a week, the guerrilla restaurant plays host to a number of high profile guest chefs, Michael Mina, Giada Delaurentiis, Will Farb and Emeril Lagasse, each given the reins over the kitchen for just a night. By day, the space is open to the public for light meals and by night, the space is transformed into an invitation-only venue hosting after parties, premieres and of course fund raisers (it is New York after all).
Rockwell Group has designed the interior, taking liberties with the temporary nature of the location and inspiration from the time of year by transforming the space from daytime leafy glade to nocturnal enchanted forest. With a combination of candles, hanging mirrors, webs of bungee cords and pools of blue paint dripping from the stairs, the design is daring, dramatic and spectacular, closer to Gotham City perhaps than NYC.

Viktor & Rolf for Piper Heidsieck

Nobody could accuse impresarios of the fashion world Viktor & Rolf of being conservative when it comes to imaginative concepts. In the past when unlikely companies have enlisted the help of fashion designers to inject a product with a bit of creativity, the results have often been lacklustre: pretty prints have graced everything from laptop surfaces to washing machines but rarely have collaborations been anything more than surface.
But when the historic French champagne house Piper Heidsieck approached the Dutch duo to design a limited edition Rose Sauvage set, Viktor & Rolf approached the project with the same care, imagination and attention to detail as they would one of their collections.
‘How could we make something new out of something eternal? We only had one answer: invert the proportions by making an enormous cork and a narrower base,’ they explain.
Aware of the potential accusations that they were playing with the concept pointlessly, they said in their defence, ‘There’s always a danger in taking on this sort of project: a risk of creating a gimmick. The only way to avoid this pitfall is to be very thorough in the execution.’
And thorough in this case means mastering the technical difficulties of making sure each component of the collection follows the same principles: so an inverted champagne glass becomes more of a Martini glass and an inverted cooler appears more like an antique casket.
For Viktor & Rolf’s efforts to stamp a very traditional brand with their trademark wit, we applaud them.