It’s a Wynn-Win Situation in Las Vegas

This is going to be good.

My flight’s on time. The airport is fairly deserted. My bag gets to the carousel before I do. And the chauffeur from Steve Wynn’s new Encore Resort is waiting patiently, holding aloft his sign with my name on it. Spelled correctly.

Can it get any better than this? Yes. Just outside the terminal door, my ride awaits: a 2009 Rolls-Royce limo with Sinatra pouring out of the 12-speaker stereo.

But wait. Do I hear a bit of foreshadowing? Of all the 1,500-plus titles Frank Sinatra recorded during a 60-year career, the song on the stereo is the one called “Cycles”:

So I’m down, and so I’m out, but so are many others...

Las Vegas is going through one of its own cycles right now, but don’t get me wrong. Vegas is definitely not down and out. Okay, a little down. Out? Never. Any town that still draws thousands by boasting “Sex Bomb” Tom Jones at the MGM Grand (in his seventh decade; fifth in Vegas) has something going for it. Still, the recession is leaving its mark here. And it does not go unnoticed by the legions of travel writers who’ve just arrived for Encore media week. The day I land, the banner headline on the front page of the Las Vegas Review-Journal screams “Casino Profits Plunge’’—down 69 percent in the past year, the story says.

The news also tells us Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, former mouthpiece for mob_sters, has not given up on his grand plan for a Mob Museum. And according to Vegas’ must-read city columnist Norm Clarke, the figures support Goodman. A new study shows the museum would attract some 600,000 visitors a year, Norm tells me. Look at the $50 million cost as part of a Las Vegas stimulus package.

The Encore hotel itself is magnificent. It should be. A mirror image of the neighboring Wynn—conceived long before any inkling of recession—it penciled out at $2.3 billion. What can you get for $2.3 billion in pre-bailout dollars? Well, for starters, every one of the 2,034 rooms is some manner of suite. The smallest, an outsized 700 square feet, offers a separate bedroom and sitting room, with sofa; state-of-the-art office equipment; a 42- or 46-inch flat-screen TV that divides the main rooms; and a bathroom, featuring an_other flat-screen, plus separate shower and soaking tub.

This is the way you want to get soaked in Vegas.

Not that you can’t afford it. It’s early in the new year, and the economy is responsible for surprising Encore room rates—as low as $149 a night. Word is that owner Steve Wynn has been fighting with other hotel operators who want to hold the line on higher prices despite the economic downturn. Wynn, one blackjack dealer told me, “would rather lower his rates a little and keep us working.” But $149? The soaking tub alone is worth way more than that. Remember, though, Las Vegas was built on excess. And Steve Wynn is a master builder.

Every inch of Encore seems designed to overwhelm. Right. Las Vegas was not built on understatement, either. Wynn’s favorite designer, Roger Thomas, who’s made Encore his swan song, has done something unique in Las Vegas. His design brings the outdoors inside. Since the beginning, Las Vegas’ best minds were convinced the out-of-doors only distracted from business. If you came to Vegas to gamble, it didn’t matter whether it was day or night—inside the casino, it was night. At Encore, it’s all hours, all seasons.

A few of the Thomas touches:

• A “cathedral” entry landscaped to include real trees, with real birds in the _branches. It’s not easy to make real trees look like fakes, but this is Las Vegas. These real trees are way too close to perfect.
• A restaurant call ed Switch that’s as much a lounge show as a dining establishment. (Grandparents and small children might like this.) Over the course of a 25-minute show, the restaurant is transformed. Like a deconstructed opera set, stone walls move, the ceiling disappears, and the décor redesigns itself, so by the time you look up from your shrimp cocktail, you think you’re in another room——or another op_era. Waiters and waitresses change clothes ev_ery 25 minutes, too—through the magic of something akin to vaudeville breakaway suits. The food is said to be tasty; I don’t recall. I was too busy dealing with a touch of vertigo to notice.
• A nightclub called XS. As in “excess.” With more than 40,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, this sexy club gives its sexy clientele the opportunity to strut through and around a maze of sexy dance poles that look like lanterns, settle down at one of 95 indoor VIP tables (ev_erybody who makes it through the door is a VIP) or follow their senses to the outdoor pool and island bar with its 10-foot rotating chandelier (doesn’t every pool bar have one?).
• And yes, there is a spa at Encore. A spa-and-a-half, really—61,000 square feet of spa. By the numbers: 37 treatment rooms; 14 garden suites; 4 couple’s suites; 14 hairstyling stations; 10 stylists; 4 colorists; 16 manicurists; 8 pedicure thrones; 6 manicure tables; 3 makeup artists and 2 makeup stations; and 5 full-time instructors in the fitness center. Oh, the salon also takes reservations for groups, wedding parties and other private gatherings of up to 40. Just don’t try to get everybody in the Jacuzzi at once.

Steve Wynn and Frank Sinatra were buddies. Back in the ’80s, they even made TV commercials together to boost business in Sin City. And Wynn remembers his buddy. Encore’s signature restaurant, Sinatra, is a paean to the legend. To enter, you pass through a mini-museum featuring a Sinatra Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and gold record. The music you hear? Nonstop Sinatra, personally programmed by Steve Wynn. The art? Photo after photo of Ol’ Blue Eyes and his Rat Pack sidekicks. The menu? Whaddaya think? Strictly Eye-talian.

All of this is just part of the package at Encore. It’s more a destination city than destination resort. Even jaded Las Vegas veterans are awed by the scope of Encore. Ralph Knudsen, a guest waiting for an elevator after touring the lobby, is stunned by the total effect. “And I’ve been coming to Las Vegas since Wayne Newton’s baby fat was actually baby fat,” he says.

Will it work? No question. Good times are coming, my limo driver tells me on the return ride to the airport. And I’m recalling the closing phrase from Sinatra’s hit song “Cycles.”

...I’ve been many places, maybe not as far as you. So I think I’ll stay awhile, and see if some dreams come true.

If You Go
A good rule of thumb: If you’re over 25, don’t drive. You don’t need the aggravation. Southwest has scores of nonstop flights from San Diego to Las Vegas. For reservations: southwest.com or 800-435-9792. For Encore information and reservations: encorelasvegas.com or 877-321-9966.

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