Las Vegas

Lagasse's Stadium

Emeril Lagasse means many things to many people (supremely talented chef, savvy showman, BAM!), but he's never been a guy about whom people thought "I'd like to hole up with that dude for eight straight hours in a sports bar". Well now he is, thanks to Lagasse's Stadium in the Palazzo.

Accessible through a ticket booth-style entrance, the Stadium's a 24,000sqft Super Dome of sports watching and gourmet face-stuffing, armed with 109 flatscreens, plus a monster 9'x16' projection screen positioned in front of six rows of stadium-style seating, which are in turn backed by semi-enclosed "luxury boxes" -- certain to be filled with wealthy, powerful men, elegantly attractive women, and spoiled, nose-picking little brats who aren't even watching the game. Predictably N'awlins-inflected game-day grub includes fried Italian sausage w/ mozzarella risotto balls, an open-faced, swiss-cheese'd Ahi Tuna Melt w/ Creole tomato glaze, a slab of baby backs with jalapeno cornbread, a French Dip with truffle mushroom aioli, and a "Creole Reuben", whose last name is presumably Jew-dreaux. Because you play as hard as other people work, cocktails come by the pitcher, with options ranging from the Bloody Mary-ish "Monday Morning Quarterback", to the loaded-up "Hat Trick" (Absolut, Sauza Hornitos Plata, Bacardi, Plymouth Gin, Cointreau, fresh lemon sour & Coke), to the "Mulligan", with Cruzan black cherry rum, Pama pomegranate liqueur, fresh lemon sour, and, if you're dissatisfied, the option to keep taking shots.

Like all sports bars run by Food Network stars, the Stadium serves up desserts, like fried peach Melba pie, double-chocolate cupcakes, and funnel cakes. If all of the 9,000,000 televised games end up sucking, you can also hit in-restaurant tables for billiards, blackjack, and craps -- where your cries of BAM! will quickly fade to whimpers of "damn".

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