Hi-tech dining and drinking during CES in Las Vegas
Las Vegas loves its gadgets nearly as much as the electronics industry veterans who flock to CES every year. In fact, some of our coolest electronic toys are located in spots where visitors consume their meals and down their drinks. Here are a few places to enjoy some high-tech novelties when you’re in town for the convention.
Electra Cocktail Club
The CES floor may have plenty of high-res digital displays, but can they match the 40-foot, 70-million-pixel wall at Electra at Palazzo? With more than a billion colors in its digital palette, the visual canvas is used to display a curated selection of art that unfolds throughout the evening. The fact that you can take it all in while enjoying a great cocktail just a few yards from the casino floor is an added bonus.
Palazzo, 702-607-1950, venetian.com
Tipsy Robot
They won’t listen to your problems, offer advice or go heavy on the booze to thank you for a good tip. But you can count on the robotic bartenders at this Miracle Mile Shops to give you a precisely mixed cocktail that’s exactly what you ordered. And while they’re little more than a pair of robotic arms poised amid a suspended assortment of bottles, they can provide some Instagram-worthy video you won’t get anywhere else in town. Be warned, however: while “tipping” may seem superfluous, a 10 percent “service charge” is added to every order.
Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort, 702-659-7711, thetipsyrobot.com
Partage
CES attendees will see other people’s video displays on countless surfaces over the course of the show. Chinatown’s acclaimed French restaurant Partage allows you to show your dinner guests some of your own making on their table as they eat, thanks to state-of-the-art video-mapping technology. Up to 14 guests in the private dining room can enjoy a meal that’s surrounded by anything from dancing Smurfs to still group photos to funky abstract images projected onto the dinner table, with everything from logos to the names of each guest emblazoned on separate plates.
3839 Spring Mountain Road, 702-582-5852, partage.vegas
Waldorf Astoria
In most hotels, a refreshment run to the vending machine in the lobby can be a move of last resort. But the Waldorf Astoria isn’t most hotels. Its lobby is located 23 floors in the sky, and its vending machine dispenses 187 ml bottles of Moët & Chandon Champagne. You will still, however, have to get “change” from the desk — in the form of a gold coin that they’ll exchange for 25 U.S. dollars.
Waldorf Astoria, 702-590-8888, waldorfastorialasvegas.com
The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson. Las Vegas Sands operates Palazzo.
Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlManciniVegas on Twitter.