Vegas Uncork'd #3: After Hours, The Remix

Saturday had already been an amazing day with our fabulous lunch at Spago and meeting one of our dance idols so we could only imagine what the night would hold. Unfortunately with her bright and early flight the next morning Tori had opted out of joining us for the After Hours Dessert party at The Mix lounge in THEHotel @ Mandalay Bay. Little could we know that she would be missing out on the best night we had ever had in Vegas... Ever.

After waiting in the huge line the night before at the Grand Tasting we decided it was best to be safe and not sorry and arrived at Mandalay Bay about 45 minutes prior to the event start. This was the only "late night" event of the Festival starting at 10:30 pm. After initially entering the casino it took a little while to figure out what direction to head in. The Mix Lounge is in Mandalay Bay's high end Hotel adjacent to it's casino hotel so we had to make our way through the casino floor before we found the check in and bank of elevators that would lead us up to the 64th floor. Although a small crowd gathered while we waited for entrance it didn't even approach the massive throng of the night before - already a good sign.

The View from the patio

Custom Cake Pops

 Once it was time groups of 8 were brought up to the Lounge in the glass elevator giving us full view of the landscape around us. As we entered there were cocktail waitresses handing out champagne cocktails with cherries in the base (already a good sign- we didn't have to hunt down the drinks) and we were instantly over come by the view. The lounge is long and narrow in shape with a broad walk way between the bar and a long banquette lined with tables on each side. Small booths line the window and there is a large patio that you can walk out on to to see the incredible view of the entire strip. To the right of the entrance was a small dance floor with a light up floor and there were tables upon tables of desserts as far as the eye could see!

We couldn't help but be overwhelmed by all the options. Most things were bite size which made it somewhat easier to try as many things as possible but it didn't take long before we began to reach our sugar fill. Nothing cures sugar overload like a few open bar Grey Goose and soda's however. After maybe 45 minutes to an hour the room had filled however it was comfortably full. Everyone had a place to sit and there was plenty of space to walk from table to table sampling. There was a rustle of excitement over by the DJ booth and we saw that they were transitioning from the house DJ to none other than San Francisco's own Michelin Starred Chef of Fleur de Lis - Hubert Keller!

A friend who had been to Uncork'd before had mentioned that he would probably DJ for a portion of an event. Turns out he is really good! and not only that you can't help but love watching him enjoy something so much. We instantly hit the dance floor to get our groove on and work off some of the sugary delights we just consumed. I was over joyed at this point that I had decided to buy flats earlier in the day eschewing the very high heels I had originally planned to wear. We spent the next 2 hours straight dancing away while Chef Keller spun a mix of club hits and top 40. We were joined at times by groups of young and older but never was the dance floor crowded, it felt like we practically had the place to ourselves! So to recap- Dessert for dinner, open top shelf bar, awesome DJ, personal dance floor... does it get any better than that?!?! Oh wait and the view of the entire strip!

Chef Keller and his "Hype Girls"

By the end of the night we felt like we were walking on air. As we said goodbye to Hubert (I mean by this point we were basically best friends right?) he told us that we were "the best dancers" of the night. We made our way next door for something a little more savory to eat at the Luxor Cafe (a regular haunt of our many Vegas trips for late night food). As we rehashed the night we couldn't help but quote the laughing gas kid from YouTube "is this real life?!".

I think it's going to be a long time before I have a day and night that tops that one!