"Las Vegas" news and stories

It was the height of lunchtime decadence for the New York lunch bunch: Daniel Boulud's $32 DB Burger, available at his Bistro Moderne in the heart of Midtown's Loosen Your Expense Account Belt. For that price, you got braised short ribs marbled into your beef patty. And fries, of course. Now, reports the Wall Street Journal, there's word from Vegas about a burger that makes Daniel's delicacy seem about as affordable as a Value Meal. Are you ready for Hubert Keller's $5,000 masterpiece-the FleurBurger 5000-at his brand-new restaurant, Fleur, in the Mandalay Bay resort? For that price, you get fries, of course, but also primo Kobe beef, foie gras, and black truffles. Still not sold? To be fair, Hubert (PBS' Secrets of a Chef and Bravo's Top Chef Masters) has sweetened the pot considerably by including a bottle of 1995 Petrus in the deal, plus a pair of crystal Ichendorf Brunello glasses, which are shipped home to you after the meal. We might still be expecting a little more bang for our buck, though. Maybe a date with the server of our choice with an option to marry, ring included.

At the very moment that shouts of terror -- "Get down! He has a gun!" -- ripped through the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas yesterday morning during a $1.5 million stick-up, chef José Andrés was standing at a roulette wheel watching the ball finally settle against the number he'd been betting all night.

"All of a sudden in the distance you see this person running and one person screams 'Get down!' And then you see everyone get down on the floor, the whole casino at once," Andrés told Slashfood.

He hit the deck along with his pal the artist Mikel Urmeneta.

"It was very weird to see an entire casino laying down, everyone on the floor," Andrés said.

Las Vegas has oversaturated its high-end restaurant scene, according to a prominent restaurateur.

Drew Nieporent, president of the Myriad Restaurant Group which owns Nobu, believes Las Vegas' new City Center development and its top restaurants may kill other eateries in this gaming town.

"Las Vegas is a fantastic place now for restaurants except it seems to me they've oversaturated," Nieporent tells Bloomberg. "This new City Center has approximately, I think it's close to two dozen new establishments, all pretty high end, and what that's going to is it's going to -- I think they'll do well because it's new -- but a lot of the other places in Las Vegas are going to feel the impact because they don't have the mass audience like we do in New York."

Nieporent says the current economic crisis hasn't affected New York's high-end dining scene too badly because "New York is 365 days of business."

Photo: Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

If you were betting on Vegas for the season finale of "Top Chef Las Vegas," you've lost.

The finale of the show will be filmed in Napa, Bravo officials said Monday.

Be sure to check out Slashfood's latest recap of the series here.

Top Chef judges Toby, Padma, Tom and Gail. Photo: Bravo TV.

Chef-testants for season six of Top Chef were announced today. The showdown will take place in Las Vegas, which Tom Colicchio assures us is a "very serious food town."

The primary thing a bunch of these newbies have in common? Tattoos, big time. Click through the gallery and let us know if we're wrong. That's not to say we don't spy some serious contenders in the mix. Talent ranges from Michael Voltaggio, chef de cuisine of the buzzed-about José Andrés Bazaar in Los Angeles, to the innocuous-looking (but perhaps culinarily ferocious) Jesse Sandlin, one of the tattooed toques, who sports a flower in her hair.

Don't skip the video of our four judges, in which Gail declares, "I'm eating very well," and Padma asserts, "A few of these contestants have even taught Tom a thing or two." Hmm. We'll see.

Are you stoked about Top Chef Vegas -- or are you over it by now?