dr. Baf

With all my Vegas vacations and now living here
going on four years in November, I have never
had dinner at Rorberta's (ElCo). I've eaten at
Careful Kitty's & the Chinese buffet a couple
dozen times, but never at Roberta's.

Roberta's runs 2 fer 1's early bird coupons several
times a week in the RJ and I have eight coupons
between the ACG & POV, but still I've never
eaten there. With all the comments on AVLV
about the place, I still have never eaten there.

Well today was the day! After going to 'The Envy"
last week, I decided to compare both places.

Mrs. Baf & I arrived about 3 pm, looked at the
menu and it seemed reasonable enough
so we decided to do some gambling before
Roberta's opened. First Mrs. Baf at the duces
wild won $8, then to the $3 bj table. We quickly
lost $18 and moved over to the $5 table and
lost $20 more in the same amount of time.

We next walked over to the Gold Spike
whose parking lot is roped off and closed,
it looked like the casino was closed, but it
was not. We walked over to the front door
and entered. Still no table games, but an
area left open for them. Mrs. Baf won $3.75
on the duces and cashed out. Guess what,
no ticket in/ticket out, no clunking of coins,
only hand pays, even though the machines
were new. After inquiring I was told The
Spike has no gaming license and the
machines were owned by Unitied Coin.
They hope to have a gaming license by
the first of the year.

Next a walk over to Fremont Street and
they are having a Culture Fest. Several
dozen clothing & food vendors. The food
smelled very good and we were tempted
at several stands because they were
cooking on site and it really smelled good.
There were several stands selling a large
variety of O'bama shirts, hats & buttons.
I remember my first campaign button when
I was a 10 years old kid, "I Like Ike" and
I still do.

Next over to Binions which has a new
modern but small sportsbook. They also
have a new sports bar called Benny's
Bull Pen, which was quite nice.

We played some multi deck bj, because
it was the only table with two side by side
open seats. We quickly won $40 and now
moved on to a single deck game that had
two side by side seats open up. We quickly
lost $60. Many times I noticed in the past,
if seats open up in a crowded casino,
the seats were from losers and are bad
luck seats.

Now we walked back to the ElCo and
Roberta's. We were among the first
diners arriving about 5 pm, by 5:30 pm
the place was almost filled. We ordered
a "Chicago Garbage Salad" $6.95
(Lettuce, tomato, artichokes, olives,
marinated mushrooms, salami,
big chunks of cheese and some misc.
garbage, it was good, a little salty and
big enough for two and served with two
salad plates.

For an appetizer, we ordered "Panko
Custed Fried Shrimp" $8.95. They
are four extremely large shrimp,
bigger than some cheap lobster tails,
you had to cut them with a knife & fork
as they were to big for finger food, they
came with two dipping sauces. The
shrimp alone could fill you up.

For entree's I ordered the Filet Migon $20.95
with garlic potatos, Mrs. Baf ordered New
York strip steak $19.95 with baked potato,
butter & sour cream. Our steaks were
far better than the almost $50 steaks at
"Envy".

The bread basket had warm bread &
raisen nut bread. The menu & pictures of
Roberta's can be seen at the ElCo web site.
The dining was pleasant as you could hear
the piano from the bar drifting throughout
the restaurant. Also on the menu was
Australian Lobster Tail only $29.95
and a double only $43.95 compared to
a single at "Envy" for $95. The service
and atmosphere were outstanding.
The dinners are a bargain without
coupons. They must get quite a few
coupons as the waite person told us
what the number was in the POV book,
while we were fumbling for the coupon.

Our total bill was $59.26 less the $25
coupon for a final total of $34.26 not
including a $15 tip.

On the way out we saw Jackie playing
poker. Also the Cortez room will be
closed Tuesday & Wednesday for
remodeling.

So I finish this report and a free Coors Lite
thanks to a promotion of a free six pack
last Monday at The Western & again
tomorrow.

dr. Baf