The Micro Burger

This burger is the most popular burger at the restaurant and it’s easy to see why. Seasoned with lemon pepper and topped with sliced avocado, New Belgium Fat Tire braised tomatoes, micro greens, and fresh goat cheese, this burger is all about the meat and the greens. It’s the perfect choice to get your taste buds to open up and savor a good gourmet burger.

The Imperial Burger

This royally-named burger is certainly the king of burgers. First it’s seasoned with salt & pepper and next topped with short ribs braised in Sam Smith’s Oatmeal Stout. This is the ultimate meat lover’s burger. Add the sliced mushrooms with carmelized yellow onions and gruyere cheese and this burger is a feast for the eyes and the stomach.

Indian Pale Ale Burger (I.P.A.)

When we asked Kyle what his favorite burger was, he was quick to respond.  “My favorite is the I.P.A Burger. Just like an Indian Pale Ale, this burger has a lot of flavors that work perfectly together.” If you like your burger hot and kicking, this is definitely the burger for you. This burger is first seasoned with BBQ Spice. Next it’s topped with roasted hatch chilies; Firestone Union Jack IPA battered fried jalapeno pepper slices and pepper jack cheese. All of these flavors married together deliver the perfect spicy burger.

What is your favorite burger on Burger and Brews’ menu? If you haven’t seen it, you can take a peek here: http://bit.ly/10GDYQB.

A Lavish Treat

At $235 Spa Mio’s New Signature Massage is the crème de la crème of spa treatments. Offering relaxation and rejuvenation from head to toe, this new service is a customized pressure massage with Reflexology and Cranial techniques. It features a signature blend of Balance and Citrus Bliss doTERRA Essential Oils. And since we’re all about luxury, add-on a Warm Oil Scalp Massage to bring this treatment to the next level.

The Suite Life

At 2,400 square feet and with 270º views of the Las Vegas Valley, the Loft Suite is simply breathtaking. The architectural details are exquisite and the drop-down flat screen in the master bedroom is a welcomed added touch. Other cool features include the separate steam shower, freestanding spa tub, etched glass, a modern marble staircase, and the same mirror finished metal featured throughout the resort. It also has two living room areas, a wet bar, and a pop-up big screen and it’ll only cost you $1,500 per night.

Sips Worth Savoring

At $11,000 a bottle and rated at a perfect 100 points, Saint-Émilion, Château Ausone, Grand Cru Classé ‘A’ 2005 is a bottle worth savoring and saving! It is said this wine will no doubt be drinking well a century from now since Château Ausone continues to age after the first 50 years it is bottled. If you’re looking for a wine to truly wow, try  the 1982 Château Pétrus, Pomerol at a distinguished $14,900 per bottle. It is a bold and spicy wine, 95 percent  Merlot and 5 percent Cabernet Franc. An interesting side note, both the Saint-Émilion and Château Pétrus are from Bordeaux, France and the estates nearly border each other. At these prices, we’d be savoring every sip.

If you could live in pure luxury for one day, which of these would you choose? Let us know if there was something we missed!

Pinot Grigio

Our best and most affordable Pinot Grigio is by BENVOLIO™ from the Friuli region in Italy. It is one hundred percent Pinot Grigio and is vibrant on the palate with crisp notes of lemon and citrus fruit, balanced with a clean and refreshing finish. It is an outstanding drink before dinner or a terrific choice to pair with grilled chicken or risotto dishes and fish, including sushi. It is available by the glass in both Marinelli’s and the Hostile Grape, our award-winning wine bar. It’s also available by the bottle in both Marinelli’s and Anthony’s Prime Steak at just $38, which is almost unheard of in a fine dining restaurant.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Educated Guess Cabernet Sauvignon by Roots Run Deep Winery is rich, ripe, and focused with juicy blackberry and cherry fruit, cocoa and hints of mint tied together with a cream French vanilla middle and lingering finish. It is a full bodied wine with more concentrated fruit. It’s perfectly paired with lamb and at $44 a bottle at Anthony’s, Marinelli’s, the Hostile Grape, M Bar, and 32º Bar, it makes our Best Bang for your Buck Wines list. In addition, we have it available by the glass for just $12.

Chardonnay

A by Acacia Chardonnay from Carneros, California gets help from the Pacific Ocean winds for its flavorful notes. With your first taste, a bright acidity will mingle on the palate before turning rich and creamy on the finish. Crisp and clean citrus and tropical fruit notes are nicely balanced with buttery notes. Available at both of our fine dining restaurants, it pairs nicely with the King Salmon from Anthony’s or the Chicken Francese from Marinelli’s. At $35 a bottle and $9 a glass, it’s the perfect ending to our Best Bang for your Buck Wines list.

Have you tried any of these wines? Let us know your thoughts and if another affordable favorite should have made our list. And, just a reminder, when you purchase a bottle of wine from Anthony’s, Marinelli’s, or Hostile Grape, you’ll receive 1/3 off!

Pampering

Spa Mio, our award-winning four-star spa and salon, offers the perfect opportunity to provide mom with the spa day she’s always wanted but may have never asked for. With services like manicures, pedicures, massages and facials and packages for moms who are short-on-time, like The Mommy Express package, or for moms who would enjoy an entire spa day, like our Mio Relaxation Day package, Spa Mio has options to suit any budget and any mom. Plus, anytime you book a service at our spa, you also receive full access to our spa amenities for the day including the steam room and sauna. If you’re just not sure what she’d like, purchase a Spa Mio gift card and leave the choice up to her.

Dining

If you’ll be taking Mom out this Mother’s Day, relax to the soothing sounds of live piano while enjoying a delicious Italian brunch at Marinelli’s, our Italian restaurant. Presenting a three course brunch with choice of appetizer, entrée and White Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry Gelee for dessert, Marinelli’s will provide Mom with a taste of Italy at its finest. Ghalib Ghallab will add to this special day playing the piano all afternoon. For a special touch, request a song for Mom!

A Custom Gift

Now if your mom loves our resort (which we hope she does), we recommend creating a custom gift basket full of some of the best items our resort has to offer…after all, you could say “M” is for Mom…Fill it with a gift card to our resort, a wine card or better yet, a bottle of her favorite wine from the Hostile Grape, a sweet treat from Baby Cakes (they offer take home pints of gelato), Spa Mio candles (they are pure soy in scents like Love Spell and Green Tea) and maybe even bed sheets from Spa Mio (trust us, they are amazing!).

Do you have other ideas for pampering Mom at our resort? Or are you planning the perfect four-star Mother’s Day for your mom? We’d love to hear how you’re planning to pamper Mom – comment below!

Name:

Age: 56

Position: Beverage Manager

Morning, noon, and night Ziggy is bound to be somewhere at the M Resort, whether on the casino floor or even back of house. After all, he handles an entire division of 90 cocktail waitresses, bar backs, and bartenders whose job it is to assist guests and provide four-star service on a daily basis.

Not new to our city or new to the food and beverage industry, Ziggy is a staple at our resort and likely someone you may already be familiar with as he was once our assistant manager at Anthony’s Prime Steak & Seafood. We wanted to know more about this fun and likable beverage manager. Here’s what we learned:

Vegas native… No, but I’ve been in Las Vegas for 22 years. I live in Boulder City and I am very happy there.

When I’m not working I’m… There are so many things! Right now my house is in a constant remodel. We most recently worked on our kitchen and our living room. I also love to drive, which is probably why I don’t mind the commute from Boulder City to the M. And, since I love music, you might find me at Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary Roman Catholic Church. For 12 years I was the Choir Director for the 2 o’clock mass. I spend a lot of time with my dog, and my partner, too.

Nevada Tartan Emblem

Something interesting about me is… I designed the Nevada State Tartan. Each color in the plaid represents Nevada and what makes it unique and beautiful. I’m also a licensed minister. I love marrying people! It’s always an honor to be a part of something so special. And, I design lights to music. It’s a lot of fun and it’s truly enjoyable.

How did you get your start in food and beverage? I started in high school as a porter. I cleaned the commissary dining room, and you tend to gravitate to what you’re familiar with. I enjoy working with guests, so it’s always been a good fit for me.

Which do you enjoy more… food or beverage? I like both. They are very challenging in different ways. When I was in food, I worked more directly with guests, and now that I’m in beverage, I work directly with our team members.

You’re a workaholic aren’t you? Let’s just say I’m not happy until the work is done, even if it takes forever and a day!

Favorite drink is… a vanilla milkshake.

What do you like best about working at M? I appreciate having a team that supports what I do and gives me the opportunity to grow.

We kick off the weekend with the Tres & Quatro de Mayo party in Ravello Lounge Friday night with resident DJ, DJ Truelove. If you’ve never been to Ravello, this weekend is the time to come. DJ Truelove will be spinning starting at 9 pm and we’ll have Corona beer and tequila whistle shot specials to keep you going until the morning. With intimate booths, a dance floor, an outdoor terrace and a large bar, it’s the perfect venue to relax with friends or, since it is Cinco de Mayo….dance the night away!

After a long siesta, our grand opening pool party begins at 10 am on Saturday on our main pool deck. We’ll have Jose Cuervo and Dos XX drink specials to keep the fiesta going well into the afternoon and live music featuring Beatclan DJs. Now, a bit about our main pool deck…it’s gorgeous and we have plenty of areas to kick back and relax. In fact, we have more than 500 lounge chairs plus daybeds and cabanas, not to mention multiple bars.

But if you’re after a more adult pool party this weekend, we invite you to check out DayDream, the best local’s pool club in Vegas (21 and older). DayDream opens at 11 am on Saturday and with a little help from DJ Hi-Tone and DJ Koko you can shake your maracas to their beats long into the early evening.

If that’s not enough to wear you out, Toto Zara will be playing with DJ Arty in Ravello on Saturday night to finish this fabulous weekend of fun. This dynamic group came from a large musical family from Spain and we’re excited to have them back with us again this weekend.

We hope your Cinco plans involve us, but if not, what are your plans for this weekend?

Though the interaction may be brief, the guest experience begins in Valet with our Guest Services team. They make it their job to know your name, especially if you frequent our resort. They will assist you with your luggage and perhaps offer you a bottle of water should it be another hot day in Las Vegas. They will even escort you inside to the Front Desk or at minimum, will direct you there.

A special touch from our Front Desk to one of our guests celebrating their wedding.

Once you arrive at the Front Desk, you’ll be greeted with a smile by one of our fantastic front desk agents. What you may not know, is the night before our front desk team scanned reservations arriving the next day to find out if anyone was celebrating anything special. If availability permits, we’ll pre-assign your room. It isn’t unheard of to receive a card with cupcakes for your birthday or chocolate covered strawberries for your anniversary from the front desk agent who checked you in.

Those little touches might even extend to your dinner. Maybe you are here celebrating your anniversary and our Concierge recommended Anthony’s Prime Steak & Seafood, our award-winning fine dining restaurant. Because our Concierge noted on your reservation that you are here celebrating your wedding anniversary, the hostess might seat you near the window so you can indulge in a view of our main pool deck, Villaggio Del Sole and the Las Vegas Strip. Once you reach the end of your meal, the waiter may bring out a special dessert tasting with “Happy Anniversary” written out in chocolate ganache for you to enjoy.

These are a few of the little things we like to do at our resort to create the ultimate four-star guest experience. From beginning to end we take care to make you feel special because as one of our guests, you are special! Let us know if you’ve experienced the little things while here at our resort.

At Marinelli’s, our Italian restaurant, we make a variety of pasta daily for our guests to enjoy. So, how exactly do we make fresh pasta? The ingredients list is quite short. Only three ingredients are needed – flour, eggs, and a bit of salt if you prefer. The debate among culinary professionals rests on the number of eggs, egg whites, or just egg yolks. “The recipe that we use at Marinelli’s is egg yolk only, which I feel gives the pasta a nice color and great texture,” says Chef Mark, Assistant Room Chef in Marinelli’s.

In the traditional manner, after the flour is sifted, a mound is made with the flour and the inside flattened into a bowl shape. Eggs would then be broken into the “bowl.” The eggs are carefully beaten, gradually adding more and more flour from the rim of the “bowl” until it’s completely combined and the dough is a smooth texture. Next the dough is kneaded for as much as 15 minutes before being rolled and cut.

According to Chef Mark, the technique used by our culinary team to cut the pasta depends upon the pasta shape itself. Both the gnocchi and cavatelli are rolled out by hand; however, only the gnocchi is hand cut. Our cavatelli is run through a special machine to give it its special shape. (For inquiring minds, cavatelli is small, shell-like shaped pasta which is curved inwards and gnocchi is an Italian potato base dumpling.)

At Marinelli’s, we make our Ricotta Gnocchi, Cavatelli Amatriciana, Wild Mushroom Tortelloni, and Four Cheese Ravioli in house daily or every other day, depending upon demand. For our stuffed pastas, we make the fillings in-house and then proceed to stuff the pasta that we also make fresh daily in-house. In addition, our Lasagna utilizes the same pasta that we use for our stuffed pastas. With the many different shapes pasta takes on, it is no wonder that making it has become an art form.

If you don’t have the time to make your own pasta, we encourage you to come down and try some of ours. Marinelli’s serves homemade pasta from rigatoni to ravioli, not to mention the tasty entrees above, daily starting at 5 pm.

Drinks That’ll Make You Say “Can I have another?”

Between new drinks like the Daydreamer and the Kinky Sangria and favorites like the adult Ultimate Root Beer Float, we guarantee our drinks will quench your thirst under the hot desert sun daily. The new menu has a mix of options from bottle service to mojitos, cocktails and shots, but best of all, everything is affordably priced…and of course, great-tasting!

The Best Looking Pool Cocktail Servers This Side of the Strip

We’ve received the title of Best Cocktail Waitresses in the city before so we certainly plan to bring you easy on the eyes servers this season. With new uniforms and training already underway, these lovely ladies will deliver unrivaled service every day of the week.

A Good Time…Again and Again

Let’s face it, there a number of pool venues where you can have a good time, but at many of those places, your good time lasts one time and it costs you a small fortune between the cabana, bottle service, and extras like the candy party pack afternoon snack. At our pools, particularly at our age 21+ dayclub, DayDream, you won’t find astronomical prices. Instead, you’ll find affordable prices for the cabana, bottle service and even food. Our goal isn’t to get you to visit us one time it’s to make DayDream your pool throughout the season.

Parties

What’s pool season without a few parties and with our spectacular venue we’d be remiss if we didn’t host a few parties throughout the season. You can expect night swims, industry days and sponsored parties at DayDream throughout the season with top DJs like DJ Hollywood, Koko and Truelove delivering all the music you love. In fact, our first party kicks off May 4 & 5 as we celebrate Cinco de Mayo.

Best View of the Las Vegas Strip

At 400 feet above the strip, our view of the valley is more than incredible – it’s spectacular. There is nothing like Fourth of July in one of our Strip side rooms. Not only can you see the fireworks spewing off the top of the Stratosphere, but also in almost every neighborhood and city park in the valley, too. The view is nothing short of amazing. When Vegas experiences one of its many summer lightning storms, it gets even better. You can enjoy Mother Nature from inside your comfy hotel room as the lightning stretches from the clouds above to the ground below.

Best Suite

If you’ve taken a look through our website, we have three different suite layouts available for our guests to enjoy. Though the Loft Suite is award-winning and the largest at 2,400 square feet, we think our smallest suite, the Classic, may just be the best. First, it’s functional. At 1,100 square feet, its rectangular shape allows for rollaway beds should you need them for additional guests and it offers a most comfortable couch with a chaise lounge not available in our other suites. Second, the bar area is located over marble instead of carpet. So if anyone has too much fun, the spillage ends up on the marble instead of the carpet (which means no room damage fee). You add that up with a 15^th floor view of the Las Vegas Strip, and you have not only the Best Suite, but the Best View, too.

Best Drink

We asked our Beverage Manager, Ziggy Pawlowski, and he says that even after four years, the M Fantasy is still the best selling drink off of our specialty menu – hands down. So, what makes it the best? If Stoli Blueberi Vodka, Silk Road Plum Sake and muddled blueberries don’t get you excited, it’s also topped with an edible orchid. It’s sweet, smooth, and it’s gorgeous!

Best Dessert

Although our vanilla crème brulee is our best-selling dessert, we think our absolute best dessert is our Peanut Butter Pie. It’s rich. It’s decadent. It’s sinful. Your taste buds will be screaming with delight after just one bite. It’s available at both Anthony’s Prime Steak & Seafood and in a mini version which we love at Anthony’s Burgers & Brews. We dare you to try it the next time you come by.

Best Souvenir

Our Vice Shop and Essentials shop have plenty of fun things to offer from f-shirts and handbags to onesies, hats, and even Nike® brand M golf balls. But if we were going home, we thought we might take something a little unconventional. Our luxury spa, Spa Mio has something we can’t do without – candles made in signature scents! You can take home scents like Love Spell and Green Tea. These candles are hand poured and made from soy oil. The burning candles emit no toxins into the air and have a 30-hour burn time. Even better, the melted candle is warm to the touch, not hot, and can be used on the skin!

Did we miss something that you think is a best of pick at our property? Let us know!