Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Breakfast Bonanzas
Eggs and steam tables are a recipe for indigestion and paying $25 or more
for a nip of champagne with your breakfast (as you will at many buffet
brunches) is one of the greatest scams Vegas has devised...and that's saying
a lot. Skip the buffets and go to restaurants that specialize in morning meals.
Omelet House
55
(2160 W. Charleston Blvd.;
%
702/384-6868;
daily 7am-3pm; AE, DISC, MC, V;
$
)
has been slinging corned beef hash
since 1978, and cooks here have devised 37 ways to cook eggs. They range
from the standard cheese, onions, sausage, etc., to the wacky (a “cowboy”
omelet stuffed with chili; the roast beef filled “Bugsy Siegel,” appropri-
ately topped with a bloody-looking red sauce) to the sublime (artichoke,
sausage, mushrooms, and hollandaise sauce). Omelets average $7.25, but
request a petite, as this will shave 75¢ off the cost, and they're made with
what looks like four eggs rather than a whopping seven-or-so. Eggs come
sided with thickly cut, home-made potato chips (a worthy substitute for
hash browns) and a huge warm slab of either banana nut bread or pump-
kin bread. For those with smaller appetites, there are short pancake stacks
for $3.75, and plates with two eggs and sides from $4.
Being from New York, I know that sometimes the right breakfast is a
basic bagel, gussied up with a schmear of cream cheese. The closest to a
New York bagel you're going to find in the middle of the desert is at
Einstein
Bros. Bagels
(at the University Gardens Shopping Center, 4626 Maryland
Pkwy., between Harmon and Tropicana aves.;
%
702/795-7800; www.
einsteinbros.com; Mon-Fri 6am-6pm, Sat 6am-4pm, Sun 6:30am-4pm; MC,
V;
$
),
a national bagel chain with surprisingly decent offerings (and that's
high praise for bagels from a picky New Yorker). While I always go for the
classic poppy with plain cream cheese, the 18 varieties of bagels (with such
uncommon choices as chocolate chip, cranberry, and jalapeno) and 11 fla-
vored cream cheeses mean you can start your day with a burst of creative
shopping. There are also eggs available, but there's a reason the place is
named for its bagels, and I'd stick to them when coming here.
“Extreme breakfasts” are the lure at the California off-shoot
Hash House
a Go Go
555
9
(6800 W. Sahara Ave.;
%
702/804-4646; www.hash
houseagogo.com; daily 7:30am-10pm; AE, DISC, MC, V;
$
-
$$
).
It serves
breakfasts so large they'd make a trucker faint: pancakes the circumference
of large pizzas, hash and eggs served in foot-wide skillets and platters of
special Benedict eggs the length of my arm. This isn't just stunt cooking;
breakfasts here are the most complex, interesting, and rich that I've had
anywhere. Try the HH Original ($11) and you'll get a platter of scrumptious
griddled mashed potatoes layered with red pepper cream, sweet yellow
tomatoes, poached eggs, and bacon. (It looks like a small boat, served with
a massive sprig of rosemary perched atop as a sail and oars of toasted angel
hair pasta sticking out at either end.) The flapjacks ($6.95) are delightfully
