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CrystalsAtCityCenter.com • Located next to ARIA ® Resort & Casino • Clothing and accessories provided by Donna Karan • Jewelry provided by Bulgari
Painting Women
Works from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston February 14 – October 26, 2014
Tickets and information 702.693.7871 • bellagio.com/bgfa Lef image: Gretchen Woodman Rogers, Woman in a Fur Hat, Gif of Miss Anne Winslow, Photography ©2013 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Right image: Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, Portrait of a Young Woman, Robert Dawson Evans Collection, Photography ©2013 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
contributors JEFF GREEN Photographer A longtime Las Vegas resident, Green has been shooting professionally for 18 years. Specializing in architecture and food and beverage, his clients run the gamut from Gensler to Wynn Las Vegas, and he says photography is always full of excitement and new creative challenges. For this issue, Green points the lens at a new venue, Brooklyn Bowl (“Rock & Bowl,” Page 38). “I really like the funky retro design of Brooklyn Bowl. The designers created many unique spaces to hang out and have fun. They also play some very good music from back in the day.”
STACI LINKLATER Hairstylist
ELIZABETH BUEHRING Photographer Buehring has photographed Las Vegas and the world, and, if she isn’t shooting, she’s probably frolicking around Europe with a glass of wine in hand. In this issue she worked with French celebrity hairstylist Claude Baruk (“15 Minutes With ... ,” Page 86) at Encore Las Vegas where she made a funny impression. After he learned of her stays in France, they began speaking French. “Claude commented, ‘Yes, there are French people that speak the language in America, but I think you’re the only American who does!’ My years studying both French and photography are fnally paying off!”
PJ PEREZ Writer Writer, illustrator and entrepreneur Pj Perez has been contributing to the fabric of Las Vegas’ culture and media for most of his 20-plus years of residency, most recently through publications such as Vegas Seven and his boutique publishing label Pop! Goes the Icon. For this issue, he toured Sosa Metalworks (“Hecho a Mano,” Page 58). “I don’t know much about hot rods, but I know a talented artist when I see one. And Cristian Sosa is one of the best.”
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Linklater has practiced hairdressing since she was just a little Las Vegan—frst dolling up her dolls, later doing the same for friends and family. She puts her years of experience to work at award-winning Globe Salon, where as salon director she not only mentors some of the best hairstylists in the city but also is in high demand by the city’s elite professionals. For the shoot with photographer Matilda Temperley (“Out There,” Page 64), Linklater was awed by her native Mojave. “The desert truly is amazing. I’m thrilled to have worked with such a talented team of professionals in that setting.”
TODD PETERSON Writer Last year Peterson covered The Cosmopolitan’s two-weekend Spring Concert Series, which featured an incredible roster of groups including Vampire Weekend and Band of Horses. For this issue’s cover story, “A Different Kind of Buzz” (Page 46), he went back to preview this year’s series. “Last year I got a behind-the-scenes look at the whole event, from setup to teardown,” he says. “I didn’t know if The Cosmo would be able to top it. Turns out they’re right where they want to be.”
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stAcK spritzer At stACK RestAuRAnt And BAR
Grilled octopus posole
dine
the Pairings “Busy” doesn’t touch what Brian Massie is. As corporate executive chef for The Light Group in Las Vegas, he oversees not only the menu designs and executions of his dishes at FIX (Bellagio), STACK (The Mirage), Diablo’s Cantina and BRAND (Monte Carlo), and Red Square and Citizens Kitchen & Bar (Mandalay Bay), he also runs restaurant ops at all of the above as well as Bianca at Delano and The Light Group’s pools and lounges. Hiring. Training. The menus. The whole bit. For 11 years. And he recently made his debut at the distinguished James Beard House in New York. So entrenched in his craft, Massie spends precious free time cooking at events such as the South Beach Food & Wine Festival, where he wowed with creative bites like his chicken-and-waffes knockoff of crispy duck conft on a rye and cornmeal waffe, slathered
in a foie gras and bourbon maple syrup. “People were probably 100 deep at our booth,” says the charismatic chef with just enough daredevil in him that the second dish he offered that day required the prep and serving of 2,000 perfectly poached eggs. Poached eggs … at a food fest? “José Andrés said to me, ‘What’s wrong with you?’” Massie remembers, laughing. But with a self-professed “go big or go home” attitude, his choices aren’t culinary suicide. Just fun. It’s Massie’s daring lightheartedness that pushes his menus toward the creative while honoring springtime favorites such as beans and especially ramps, which he excitedly admits he loves. Now that the calendar’s turned one more page toward warm, these spring dishes at FIX and STACK will help celebrate the season. –JEN CHASE
try these: • Salad of grilled nectarines, Woolley prosciutto, torn burrata cheese, honey, almond pesto • Spring lamb merguez sausage, poached egg, piquillo pepper gravy, smoked paprika • Grilled octopus posole, with smoked potatoes, preserved lemon vinaigrette and burnt lime
sip these: • STACK spritzer, with Absolute Tune, Cocchi Americano, blood orange, fresh lemon • Starry Night, with Belvedere Orange, blue curacao, white cranberry, fresh lime Pineapple • Mojito, with Atlantico Rum, fresh pineapple, mint, fresh lime In Te Mirage, 702.693.8300; stacklasvegas.com
At FiX RestAuRAnt And BAR
try these: • Hearth-roasted heirloom beets, with whipped goat cheese, local honey and pistachios • Wood-roasted artichoke, with pickled ramp yogurt and Sicilian salsa verde • Braised oxtail toast, with spring fava beans and whipped ricotta
sip these: • Cucumber martini, with One Cucumber Vodka, white cranberry juice, fresh cucumber, cherry tomatoes • Pimms 3600, with Pimms, lemon juice, ginger beer, cucumber rimmed wine glass In Bellagio, 702.693.8300; fxlasvegas.com
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STRIP SEARCH
MODERN MusE
Katie O’Neill puts an artful spin on Las Vegas
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s the great-granddaughter of casino tycoon Benny Binion, Katie O’Neill could have rested on her family’s success. Instead, she’s making her own contributions to the community. Growing up, the Las Vegas native had planned to attend the University of Pennsylvania and study business at the prestigious Wharton School. The summer after high school, however, her grandparents Jack and Phyllis Binion invited the then-18-year-old art lover to an event at the Bellagio Gallery, where she received life-changing advice from Steve Wynn. “You can study business anytime,” she recalls him telling her. And with that “seed planted” in her head, she later decided to change her degree to art history. What she later realized, however, was that “you don’t learn anything about the current art world [in school].” So she moved to New York to immerse herself in the feld, working in galleries and volunteering with nonprofts. While there, she combined these two passions to co-found Apple Arts—an organization that provides arts education to underserved children. O’Neill continued her charitable efforts when she moved back to Las Vegas fve years ago. She’s serving her second year as president for the Binion Family Foundation, which awards grants to local community organizations, and previously served on the Neon Museum’s board of directors. Once, while leaving such a board meeting, O’Neill ran into philanthropist Julie Murray and gallery owner Brett Sperry. She recalls Sperry saying, “There’s an art museum happening. You should get involved.” That “art museum,” known as The Modern Contemporary Art Museum, a 35,000-square-foot facility, is proposed for Downtown’s Arts District. Murray and Sperry are two of the project’s investors. Beyond the museum, The Modern will encompass an outdoor garden called Luminous Park, and a 15,000-square-foot learning hub called The Center for Creativity. The educational element is what ultimately convinced O’Neill to join the board of directors. Day-to-day, O’Neill—also a wife and mother of two—is dedicated to increasing public awareness and attracting potential fundraisers to The Modern. When the project was announced in November, investors had raised $2.4 million of the necessary $29 million, and an online campaign launched in February has raised more than $10,000. But most of all, O’Neill wants to make information available to those curious about the work in progress. She wants them to know that “people can approach us,” especially now that The Modern recently opened an offce space in Art Square, near the planned development site. Eventually, that site will span three foors, showcasing rotating exhibits alongside a gift shop, a bistro and an event space. The Center for Creativity will offer workshops to emerging artists, and the green Luminous Park will brighten Downtown’s urban landscape. And when it fnally comes fully to fruition, O’Neill hopes that The Modern will become a destination. “Not just for [the community],” she says, “but for people to come to Las Vegas to see what we have to offer.” –CAMILLE CANNON
As an alum of collegepreparatory Te Meadows School, Katie O’Neill is co-chairing its 30th anniversary event May 15. Her eldest daughter attends the school, and giving back is a principle that O’Neill hopes to instill in her two kids.
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STRIP SEARCH two of a kind: de Souza Filho (left) performs in Mystère and de Souza takes the stage in Michael Jackson ONE at mandalay bay.
SIBLING REVELRY Brazilian brothers are living the dream at Cirque du Soleil
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he de Souza brothers share a heritage, a profession, a condo and even the same name. “Joao Paulo is hard for English speakers to say, so people just call me ‘Paulo.’ I came to Vegas frst and he came later on,” 23-year-old Joao Paulo Querino de Souza explains about how he and his brother, 28-year-old Paulo Afonso de Souza Filho—“Filho” meaning junior in Portuguese—ended up here. “Then you had two Paulos at Cirque parties.” “We became known as the Paulos: Little Paulo, Big Paulo,” de Souza Filho says. Born and raised in São Paulo, the brothers have been physically active and agile since childhood. They trained under their father—also named Paulo, who is a master of the Brazilian martial art capoeira—and had successful competitive gymnastics careers. De Souza Filho’s Cirque du Soleil journey began in 2007, when a friend in Mystère encouraged him to submit a skills video showing off his acrobatic talents. “He told me how much he loved his life here in Vegas with Cirque,” de Souza Filho says. By December of that year, he was trotting the globe with a role in Zed, a Cirque show in Japan. After three years in Zed, the older Paulo shifted gears to Las Vegas, where he performs as a bungee warrior in Mystère. The younger Paulo took a more direct route. In 2009, he followed de Souza Filho’s lead and submitted his skills video to Cirque, and by that August arrived here to open Viva Elvis at Aria. After three years in Viva Elvis, de Souza transferred to Michael Jackson ONE in Mandalay Bay. “I love performing every night and learning new things. It’s always a different experience. I am a ghoul in ‘Thriller’ and I also do a specialty act on a new apparatus called the slackline,” de Souza says. “It’s a bouncy, 2-inch line that allows me to adjust the pressure at both ends as I go. It involves balance, acrobatics and agility.” The brothers perform fve nights a week, two shows per night, in addition to rehearsals two to three times per week. But working their dream jobs is not all the Paulos do. De Souza Filho is an avid music fan with tastes ranging from bossa nova to reggae to hiphop, and he is also working on his master scuba diver certifcation. And when the younger de Souza isn’t attending business classes part-time at UNLV, he’s fexing his DJ muscles at parties. Asked what they’d like to be doing 10 years from now, the brothers agree that this is where they want to be. “I share a dressing room with a performer who’s 82,” de Souza Filho says. “He’s healthy and energetic. I think being onstage makes him more alive.” –MAUREEN HANK
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aWard Winning: Dig into comfort-food dishes such as French bread pizzas, fried chicken and Rock and Roll Fries (smothered in gravy and cheese) at Eric and Bruce Bromberg’s Blue Ribbon restaurant. Patrons can dine without buying tickets for the concert venue, but little separates the restaurant from the stage.
EscapE HatcH: Tere are many great vantages from which to see the stage at Brooklyn Bowl, but there are also several nooks—such as this one with the redleather chairs—and an outdoor balcony where guests can take fve and recline in style.
Brooklyn BrEW: Want a taste of America’s hottest borough? Grab a stool at one of Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas’ fve bars and order a pint of one of the three Brooklyn beers served here: Brooklyn Brown, Brooklyn Lager and Brooklyn Pilsner.
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THE CELLAR
no bones about it A tasteful exploration of the wine list at a locals favorite By Al Mancini Photography by Elizabeth Buehring
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orget the buffet—the steakhouse is the quintessential Las Vegas dining experience. And at Red Rock Resort, T-bones Chophouse has been a favorite since it opened in 2006. Diners come back often, not just for the quality cuts of beef, but for the wine program. T-bones’ second-foor “cellar,” which overlooks the bar and lounge, houses 7,500 bottles, and the menu offers 700 different wines. “Everything is value-driven on the wine list,” says Peter Donkonics III, corporate wine director for Station Casinos. “And we’re very aggressive on the pricing.” Even with high-end bottles, he insists T-bones’ cost is signifcantly lower than what you’ll fnd at steakhouses on the Strip. Donkonics began his culinary career in Philadelphia when he was 18, working in the kitchen at a restaurant called Jack’s Firehouse. He moved on to the Rittenhouse Hotel, starting as a stocker and working his way up to manager of Nick’s Fishmarket in the hotel. His love of wine grew out of a class he took with the restaurant’s wine director. But the excitement of selling his frst bottle of really good wine gave way to crushing disappointment when he was told he couldn’t open it without a sommelier certifcation. That was the inspiration for a new career as a sommelier. After spending fve years in Seattle at the Barking Frog Restaurant at Willows Lodge, Donkonics came to Las Vegas in 2005 to open Hank’s Fine Steaks and Martinis in Green Valley Ranch Resort. There, he was introduced to the company’s philosophy by its founder, Frank Fertitta. “The biggest thing [Frank] always stressed to me is we’re a localsdriven company,” the Level 2 sommelier recalls. “Listen to the locals. Listen to the guests. Listen to the team members who work here. Find out what they want, what they are looking for. Pick their brains.”
TasTing noTes Donkonics recently invited Rated into the cellar at T-bones to explore three of its best wines for the season.
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The frst wine we taste is a 2011 Hartford Court Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. It’s paired with an appetizer of prime beef carpaccio with fresh horseradish, crisp shiitake mushrooms and black truffe vinaigrette. Because the beef pairs best with red wines, Donkonics has chosen the Hartford Court, which he calls “one of my favorite pinots.” The wine has hints of red fruits, including cranberries and strawberries. And with its silky feel and light tannins, it accents the beef perfectly. ($16 glass/$65 bottle) The second wine Donkonics highlights is a 2012 Michel Redde les Tuilières from near Sancerre, in the eastern part of France’s Loire Valley. Made with Sauvignon Blanc grapes, it’s a very crisp wine with a wonderful minerality that’s perfect for drinking on T-bones’ patio on a warm spring day. Because of its favor and acidity, it pairs well with white fsh. At T-bones, he likes to put it alongside John Dory, served with grilled fennel and roasted fngerling potatoes in a blood-orange butter sauce. ($12 glass/$48 bottle) Finally, since T-bones is, after all, a steakhouse, there are plenty of wines in the cellar that go well with a good cut of beef. Donkonics has chosen a 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon from Freemark Abbey in Napa Valley, which he calls “one of the hidden gems of our wine list.” The wine is full-bodied, perhaps even over the top. And today we’re pairing it with a 22-ounce rib eye from Buedel Fine Meats and Provisions, just outside of Chicago. ($17 glass/$70 bottle) Of course there are plenty more bottles to explore at T-bones. Although Donkonics is not at Red Rock Resort every day—he rotates among all the Station Casinos properties in Las Vegas—he prides himself on imparting his love and knowledge of wine. And unlike the employers of his youth, if one of his servers sells an amazing bottle, Donkonics insists they be the one to open it for the guests. T-bones Chophouse in Red Rock Resort, 11011 W. Charleston Blvd., 702.797.7576; redrock.sclv.com
PHOTOGRAPH BY XX
Russian River Valley Pinot Noir complements prime beef carpaccio with horseradish and shiitake mushrooms.
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Valley to Vegas Spring Concert Series Wednesday, April 9 Empire of the Sun with special guest DJ Supra at The Chelsea Tickets from $35 Thursday, April 10 GROUPLOVE with special guest Warpaint at Boulevard Pool Tickets from $25
Te Cosmopolitan Boulevard Pool packs in the crowds with an impressive lineup of bands. April shows include Lorde, Foster the People, Ellie Goulding and HAIM (clockwise from far left).
Friday, April 11 Young the Giant with special guest St. Lucia at Boulevard Pool Tickets from $25 Friday, April 11 Lana Del Rey SOLD OU T at The Chelsea Tickets from $25 Saturday, April 12 Ellie Goulding at Boulevard Pool Tickets from $35 Tuesday, April 15 Lorde with special guest Lo-Fang at Boulevard Pool Tickets from $40 Wednesday, April 16 SOL D Lorde OU T with special guest Lo-Fang at Boulevard Pool Tickets from $31 Thursday, April 17 HAIM with special guest MS MR at Boulevard Pool Tickets from $20 Friday, April 18 Foster the People with special guest Young & Sick at Boulevard Pool Tickets from $40
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Go-go dancers are the muses of the nightclub. They embody the fckle ideal of up-to-the-hipminute sexy. More than just sparkly eye candy, they are talented performers with athletic stamina. They are Vegas showgirls for the modern age.
By Cindi Moon Reed Photography by TOMO
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“My favorite part about being a nightclub performer is when the music’s good, the adrenaline is fowing, the crowd’s pumped and the people dancing beside you are all hearing and feeling the same thing,” says Jessie Ohera-Aweau, who works at Hakkasan and wears elaborate costumes and dances in choreographed shows that change with the vision of the DJ. “Everyone can vibe of of each other’s energy and put on a great performance.” vrated.com 53
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“Te club seems diferent when experiencing it from a dancer’s stage,” says Doneshia Crowder, a dancer and instructor at Fawnia’s Pole Fitness Studio. “When we go-go dancers are onstage and a big-name DJ is rocking his set—creating that buildup, and the light show is matching his every level—we can see emotion taking over the crowd in waves. Ten when the beat drops—oh, my goodness, it’s a beautiful sight! Te crowd goes crazy, the energy explodes and then everybody loses themselves in the music. Woo, I got chills just thinking about it!”
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Hecho
a Mano With a measure of style and force, Cristian Sosa proves his metal and creates works of art
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Te muscle behind the metalwork, from left: Timmy Boyd, Roberto Sosa, Mark Fernandez Hector Sosa and Cristian Sosa.
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ou won’t fnd an extravagant showroom, a plush reception area or really any creature comforts at all in Sosa Metalworks. In a cluster of small, industrial, cinder-block buildings just west of the Las Vegas Strip, Cristian Sosa’s paean to all things hot rod is all about the work, densely packed with heavy machinery, workbenches and toolboxes—and, of course, the classic cars and hand-built motorcycles that he and his team are in the process of pimping out. “Everything is handmade,” Sosa says. “There’s nobody else in Vegas that does this type of stuff.” At only 31, Sosa—whose family moved to Las Vegas from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, when he was 6— is practically a veteran of the metal-shaping industry. Before launching Sosa Metalworks, he worked for almost 12 years at Count’s Kustoms—the local chopper shop made famous by History Channel’s Counting Cars (Sosa appeared a few times on the show)—where he honed his skills as lead fabricator. Sosa’s only quasiformal training includes high school metal-shop classes, but everything else he knows about restoring and customizing automobiles came from on-the-job experience—plus a healthy combination of curiosity and natural aptitude. “I just started grabbing a welder and messing with stuff,” Sosa says. From gleaming, curvaceous handlebars and fenders to entirely customized bikes, Sosa and his small crew (which includes his older brother, who co-owns the shop) can make just about anything out of metal. What sets them apart is that all their work is handmade and each piece is unique, hewn from the raw materials and intimidatinglooking tools in Sosa Metalworks. Sosa points out two machines near the front of his workshop. One is a vintage South Bend precision lathe that dates back to the 1930s used for machining of frames and major components. The other is a mill for drilling holes, like the mounts and risers for handlebars. “Between these two machines you can pretty much make anything you want,” Sosa says. Beyond those pieces of equipment and others he’s acquired, including a Pullmax—a surprisingly quiet beast of a device that bends and shapes metal that Sosa calls “probably the most important machine in here”—Sosa has created mechanized tools of his own, including a power hammer made from a sewing-machine motor and a leaf spring, which is used to rough out shapes. To the uninitiated, the work that Sosa and his crew does might appear to be purely mechanical, the means to a souped-up end. But from initial concept to fnished product, Sosa’s approach to metal shaping is much more akin to that of a sculptor than a mechanic. Even the way he works with the metal—creating a wireframe frst, then molding the metal around it like clay—is as much an artistic endeavor as it is a feat of engineering.
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“The hard part about this stuff is coming up with shapes and making them all work together so it looks like it wasn’t made,” Sosa says. “I don’t want you to notice. I want it to look nice from across the room, and then it pulls you in, makes you want to get closer.” However, there is that added layer of technical knowhow that can’t be ignored. Sosa can’t just be good at making attractive shapes from metal. He has to know how all the parts of his creations work together. A gas tank for a motorcycle has to perform its primary function. The frame of the bike can’t just be a shiny piece of chrome—it has to support the engine and allow the front fork to pivot. Function is as important as form. “There’s a lot that goes into it,” Sosa says. “You need to know how to weld, how to machine, how to design and engineer stuff. What I struggle with most is the design. The work is hard, but that’s the easiest part for me.” Sosa’s proudest work is also probably the best example of his high level of artisanal craftsmanship: a made-from-scratch motorcycle he built for pomade brand Suavecito, which discovered his work at the 2013 Lake Havasu Rockabilly Reunion. Suavecito was so impressed with Sosa’s custom bikes that they let him have free rein with the design. “They didn’t ask for anything,” Sosa says. “They completely trusted us with it.” The resulting custom 1940 Indian Board Track Racer—which debuted at the 2013 Mooneyes Hot Rod Custom Show in Yokohama, Japan—is a curvaceous, silverand-gold beauty, with its components artfully displayed. Sosa points out nuanced details as he shows off photos of the bike, gushing like a proud father over a newborn. You can tell Sosa obsesses over the smallest of details. He wants everything to be as functional as it is attractive. “There are so many things that are going on in the bike,” Sosa says. “I wanted you to be able to see how everything moves, how everything works. It was the most involved we’ve ever gotten in a project. Nothing existed but the motor. Everything is handmade.” Aside from occasional bike and car shows, Sosa doesn’t do much to solicit clients. He gets people coming to him from all over the United States—many who fnd him through Instagram, where he posts photos of in-progress work and snaps from his travels. Sosa said he doesn’t own a computer and never uses any social media, but his brother introduced him to Instagram. When he discovered how easy it was to use and how quickly he could get feedback, he was hooked. “You put stuff out that people like and they bring you work,” he says. “Nobody comes to us with a specifc request. To me, that’s how I’ve always wanted it.” For Sosa, that’s the dream: to do what he loves, how he wants to do it, and to make a living at it. Or, as he simply puts it, “Whatever it takes for me not to get a real job.” 2104 Highland Dr., 702.219.2770; sosametalworks.com
Cristian Sosa’s shop is a paean to his handmade ethos. Not only is the custom bodywork on these vintage hot rods (from left: a 1940 Mercury and 1954 Chevrolet) done from scratch, but even the shop’s fxtures and tools are handcrafted by Sosa.
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Top: Among Sosa’s custom-made motorcycles is a 1940 Indian Board Track Racer built from the ground up for pomade brand Suavecito. Bottom: A classic 1950 Mercury gets a new roof.
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out there The open sky. The arid land. A fashionable journey through the heart of no-man’s land.
photography by matilda temperley
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BOTTEGA VENETA dress and belt Bottega Veneta in Te Shops at Crystals.
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THE DETAILS The eastern edge of the Mojave Desert straddles the border between California and Nevada. Here, the land is flled with a patchwork of dirt and roughly paved roads, and a continuous ribbon of Union Pacifc Railroad track connecting Los Angeles ports and refneries with Las Vegas and points farther east. Freight trains rumble across the desert, modern-day prospectors extract riches from the ground and a handful of strong-willed souls raise cattle on the barren range. There’s a distinct beauty along these arteries. Under a brilliant blue morning sky lie an abundance of creosote, Joshua trees and abandoned structures that hint at man’s attempt to tame an unyielding landscape. I knew the vastness and stark contrasts in texture, light and natural beauty would excite our visiting English photographer. It was along these backroads in a sundrenched arid expanse that we staged this stunning fashion feature. –SA LIEN
BOTTEGA VENETA dress Bottega Veneta. vrated.com
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guide the
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