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!

Start with a Cocktail
Imitate the Europeans and begin your meal with a bitter cocktail (such as champagne, Vermouth or Campari). This is called an aperitif (from the Latin word aperire, meaning “to open”), a light alcoholic drink meant to spark the appetite.

Let it Sparkle
Your water preference may seem unrelated to eating, but choosing sparkling over still will help with digestion. Due to the carbonation, sparkling water is almost impossible to drink too quickly and will keep you from feeling bloated and overly full.

Flee from Fillers
Sure that basket of bread may look delicious, but it’s not going to be more satisfying than your main course. No matter how elaborate the bread offerings may be, (and ours are pretty elaborate) enjoy a bite or two of the doughy delight and save room for what’s to come.

Ask for Guidance
M’s skilled restaurant Team Members are trained and ready to help you navigate our menus and make the perfect selection for your palate. Don’t hesitate to ask their opinions on certain dishes; chances are they’ve tasted nearly everything on the menu.

Keep it Balanced
Foods have various weights and consistencies. When ordering, it’s important to mix and match the richer items with lighter foods. If you’re dining on filet mignon with a side of foie gras, it’s best to order a light appetizer and dessert to avoid feeling weighed down with indigestion.

Don’t Starve Yourself
Planning on skipping breakfast and lunch in anticipation of dining at Studio B or another one of our restaurants? Have sensible meals earlier in the day. This will help expand your stomach and give you more room to enjoy that last scoop of gelato!

While their whole menu is packed with items you won't want to miss here are our top picks:

Imperial Burger

Our most regal of burgers on the menu, the Imperial Burger is topped with stout braised short ribs, mushrooms, gruyere cheese and caramelized onions. This burger pairs best with a Sierra Nevada Stout.

Lollipop Wings

Wings are good on their own, but when they're prepared with the "lollipop" technique they not only resemble our favorite candy but they're also much easier to eat (read: less messy). Our lollipop chicken wings are served three different ways with your choice of garlic, buffalo or ginger thai chili sauce (our personal recommendation).

Tsingtao Chicken Salad

Our Tsingtao Chicken Salad is chock-full of soy-caramel glazed chicken, cabbage, carrots, mandarin oranges and water chestnuts all topped with Tsingtao peanut vinaigrette. What makes this salad special is the dressing; Tsingtao is a Chinese beer known for its high-malty flavor and we infuse it into the peanut dressing making for one unique experience for your taste buds.

Sides

Anthony's Gourmet Burgers has not one or two, but five different selections of fries and onion rings on their menu. We love these salty snacks so we couldn't narrow it down to just one. You'll be able to choose from Just Simple Fries, Garlic Parmesan Fries, Truffle Fries, Sweet Potato Fries and Beer Battered Onion Rings. Order one, more or even try them all!

Gelato Tasting for Two

We're all about the sweets, so be sure to save room for dessert. The gelato tasting comes with gourmet gelato and cheesecake and brownie lollipops. It's the perfect ending to your burger experience.

Anthony's Gourmet Burgers & Brews is open nightly from 4-10pm.

Party

We think cover charges are overrated so we invite our guests to celebrate without waiting in line or paying an entry fee. We'll be offering complimentary party favors, and cake and champagne stations throughout our casino. Toast the New Year with us and enjoy live entertainment beginning at 9pm in Lobby Bar, Ravello Lounge, M Bar and Hostile Grape. See which venue is the right fit for your celebration style.

Ravello Lounge - The New Year's evening will kick off in our lounge with go-go dancers and a DJ spinning hits to get the party started, beginning at 9pm. At 10pm, 80's tribute band Loveshack will take the stage and sing the best of the 80's and 90's and some NYE-style party music. The entertainment in Ravello will be going all night long and is ideal for our high-energy party goers.

Lobby Bar - Relax at Lobby Bar and take in a performance by Lowkey Junction. The band is a unique blend of masterful music mixes, live percussion and saxophone. With the best people-watching views, Lobby Bar is the perfect fit for a relaxed New Year's celebration.

M Bar - For those who like to be at the center of all the action, M Bar is for you. Located in the middle of our casino floor, DJ Simon and go-go dancers will be kicking off this party at 9pm. Get there early for a seat on M Bar's cushy couches or get your groove on to the tunes DJ Simon will be spinning.

Hostile Grape - Take a sip of more than 160 wines by the glass in our underground wine hideaway. Veteran DJ Art will be mixing up the music for the night for the oenophiles.

Play

End the year with good luck here at M! We'll be giving away $24,000 in free pay randomly beginning at 8pm on New Year's Eve. Every 15 minutes we'll be drawing 10 winners. Two players will win $300, four players will win $150 and another four will win $100. All you have to do is play with your iMagine Rewards Card to be eligible.

Not to be outdone, our poker room will be giving away a grand share of money as well. Play with us and you could win the following: Heart Royal = $2,012; Club Royal = $2,012; Diamond Royal = $2,012 and Spade Royal = $2,012. All Four of a Kinds = $212 and the poker room will have $2,012 in cash giveaways. Complete details can be found in the M Poker Room.

Dine

Our restaurants will be ready for you to kick-off the New Year's festivities. Marinelli's, our authentic Italian restaurant will be offering a la carte specialty items in addition to its regular menu beginning at 4pm and our steakhouse, Anthony's will be serving up a limited menu for the holiday starting at 5 pm. And of course, Studio B Buffet will be serving specialty dishes all day.

No matter which way you decide to spend your holiday night, we hope to have you at M to celebrate 2012! We wish all of our guests a happy and safe New Year.

Oyster Bar's M Girl Sushi Roll.

Part of serving great food is the presentation. A feast for the eyes is just as important as a feast for the mouth in the restaurants at M. When our chefs present a dish, it's not only about the trendy tablescape underneath it but also how the food is displayed on top of it. Guests eat with their eyes first and they get a visual feast with what we're plating up in our kitchens.

When plating food our chefs know the importance of balancing colors and textures. Each dish at our restaurants has its own plating guide, a step-by-step instructional sheet teaching our culinary team members the exact specifications of how a menu item should be displayed. These guides ensure that each dishes' appearance is consistent and visually pleasing.

Combination Sashimi from Oyster Bar.

With the addition of a new menu at Anthony's Oyster Bar, our Food & Beverage Team recently had the opportunity to create new plating guides, unique to the venue. Our plating guides show a photo of the dish, what course type it is (appetizer, entr?e, etc.), which outlet it's served at, ingredients, how to prepare and lastly how to plate.

A little color goes a long way, with our Combination Sashimi plate. The different color fish slices contrast with the shredded daikon, shiso leaves and lemon garnish. The sashimi slices are fanned out on top of one another and separated by type of fish.

Shrimp Tempura from Oyster Bar.

A great base is always the start to plating. Here, our Shrimp Tempura dish is placed upon a Ti leaf. A bed of fried rice noodles is assembled on top of the Ti leaf with the Shrimp Tempura and other tempura vegetables leaned up against them.

A diner's experience is heavily tied to what they see on their plate and has the ability to alter their opinion of the tastes of the food. Presentation can be the difference between a dish being mundane or gourmet. The goal of every dish we send out is to create a balance between flavors and looks, creating the ultimate dining experience.

When you sit down at one of our restaurants, what's the first thing that catches your eye? Forget about the bread and butter, chances are your gaze focuses on part of our tablescape. Selecting china and flatware for a luxury resort is an important process. The tableware we use is similar to a first impression; it's our initial chance to make the ultimate statement about what you're going to experience. It starts with finding pieces that not only look good but also blend in with our property and restaurants.

The five month selection process for our executives began with determining the look and feel for each restaurant and then seeing what vendors had to showcase. Prior to opening our team looked at over 30 venders with well over 1,000 items. That may seem like a whole lot of tableware but considering we had six restaurants, five bars and lounges, and in-room dining to fill the more options the better! Each and every item, right down to the very last napkin we use has been hand-selected by our team. Every item chosen by our team then received final approval by our President, Anthony A. Marnell III. It was quite a process if you can imagine entire rooms full of napkins, glassware, forks, and plates!

The next time you dine with us, take a closer look at the different plates used throughout your meal. Our team chose refined and elegant tableware selections, with unique pieces mixed in. You'll notice many square and rectangle dishes as well as some with color. A few of our restaurants have texturized woven placemats, a variety of appetizer plates and unique bread baskets. Using an assortment allows us to create uniqueness through the details.

But, if you're reading this, chances are you've already been lucky enough to dine at Studio B. We've heard a few of you like our buffet. Ok, so we've heard a lot of you like our buffet. We think the multiple awards might have tipped us off. Maybe it's the selection of over 200 dishes you have to choose from, the gourmet desserts from our world-famous Parisian pastry chef Jean Claude Canestrier, the modern ambience which includes a 116-screen video wall or like we already mentioned, the unlimited beer and wine.

No matter what your food (or drink) vice may be there's a lot of work that goes in to preparing masses of (high-quality) food for our buffet diners. How many M Team Members does it take to keep buffet-goers with full plates? What are our most popular dishes? How many people do we feed on a daily basis? Find out the answer to these and many other buffet questions as our Vice President of Food & Beverage fills you in on the inside scoop at Studio B Buffet.

Our resort likes its Italian flare, whether it's the design of the property or the food we serve. You can get your dolce (Italian for dessert) fix from our very own Italian restaurant Marinelli's. They serve up classics from "the old country" like Tiramisu, Cannolis, Bombolinis, Panna Cotta and more. At our steakhouse Anthony's, you can find some of the newest dessert options at M. Try their signature Peanut Butter Pie, Chocolate Souffl? or maybe their spin on Coffee & Donuts will be the perfect ending to your meal.

For desserts with a twist, try Hash House A Go Go's Chocolate Snickers Bread Pudding. This take on a modern candy bar is homemade bread pudding baked with chunks of Snickers candy bars and Hershey’s chocolate syrup and topped with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, homemade caramel sauce and chocolate syrup.

If you find it hard to choose just one dessert (and we always do) Veloce offers a dessert tasting. You can select from one, two or even three delectable desserts to try at once! The restaurant offers choices like a Mini Strawberry Martini (not the kind you drink), Bananas Foster and Chocolate Torte.

At Studio B Buffet, not only can you sample cuisine from around the world, you can get a sampling of desserts from around our property! Try miniature samplings of cr?me br?l?e, cookies, cupcakes, meringue, gelato, macaroons and much more. And remember, they're all you can eat!

Sometimes you like something so much you want to take it home with you. At Baby Cakes, M's very own European-inspired patisserie you can find a whole case of sugary sweetness to please any craving. They also offer a full gelato station with 19 flavors by the scoop (they can even be bought by the pint).

With all this sweet talk we're getting hungry! So tell us, what's your favorite dessert at M?

Where have you previously worked?

I've worked all over the West Coast. Starting out in Beverly Hills at La Cachette Bistro, a contemporary French bistro, then working in Los Angeles at the Asian fusion restaurant Yi Cuisine. I made the move to Vegas several years ago and started working at Tableau at Wynn. I've since worked up and down Las Vegas Boulevard at restaurants such as FIX, Stack, Stripsteak and finally here at Veloce.

Have you always had an interest in cooking?

Absolutely! My parents always say I asked for my first baking set at age three.

What’s your favorite kitchen gadget?

I don't use a lot of kitchen gadgets, just my chef's knife and my Vita Mix Mixer.

What's your favorite dish to make and favorite ingredients to work with?

Hands down, seafood; I love working with anything from the water. My favorite dishes are the ones I'm able to come up with that day and feature as a special in the restaurant. I love being able to bring fresh ingredients to all the tables.

How do you come up with your dishes on the spot?

Based on past tastings and knowing what ingredients work well with each other, I'm able to pull together a dish with flavors that complement each other. By creating dishes with a limited amount of time it challenges me to really use my creativity.

What notable people have you cooked for?

Michael Mina, Mark LoRusso, Richard Sandoval and Jean Francois Meteigner.

Culinary trends that you like/dislike?

I like the sharing and communal dining trend; it's a big focus on our menu at Veloce. Also, farmer's markets which, allow the freshest ingredients for farm-to-table cooking. There aren't culinary trends that I dislike. While I personally don't like molecular gastronomy any trend is good for cooking. It's like art, not everyone is going to like it but we can at least appreciate it.

Three things in your fridge right now?

Pomegranates, almond milk and mushrooms.

Are there any foods you hate to admit you like?

Oreos, nachos anything dipped in sauce and fried food. If I could have a big bowl of fried food and sauce to dip it in I couldn't be happier.

What's the best meal you've ever ate?

It was from a restaurant called Kolkovna in the Czech Republic. I ordered a quarter of a roast pig and garlic cheese soup. It was definitely the best and most memorable meal.

Haven't dined at Veloce before? Take advantage of their great Happy Hour deals including a sushi platter for two for only $10 and make sure to say hello to Chef Frost while you're there!

If you've been reading the M Point of View lately, checking out our other social networks or visited the property lately, you'll know that on March 1 we decided to take the traditional concept of happy hour and turn it on its head with our Happy Hour Guarantee.* What's the guarantee? It's pretty simple really - happy hour in all our bars, every day, all the time. And we didn't jack up the happy hour price to cover ourselves, no these are REAL happy hour prices - $5 for premium drinks, $3 for bottled beer and 1/3 off bottles of wine.

To start our new happy hour off with a bang and to give a little something back to you our loyal M Point of View readers and followers/fans on our other social networks, we thought we'd have a little contest. Again, simple.

All you have to do is:

• Submit a photo of you or you and your friends enjoying the new Happy Hour Guarantee here at M.
• We'll pick our favorite among the submissions and post it here on this blog post.
• We'll start things, well right now and we'll continue until Monday, March 21.
• We'll announce two winners by posting their photos in a new post on Tuesday, March 22.
• Each winner will receive a $50 gift card which can be used here at the M Resort.

Just submit your photo to us at socialmedia@themresort.com with the subject line "Happy Hour Guarantee Blog." You must be age 21+ to enter. There's no limit to the number of times you can enter, but not all submissions will be added to the M Point of View. Please do not submit anything rude or offensive.

By submitting your photo, you agree to allow M Resort Spa Casino, its subsidiaries and affiliates, their advertising agencies, agents, nominees, and licensees, their successors and assigns, those acting with their authority and those for whom they are acting, to use your name, voice, signature, photograph, and/or likeness, with or without your name and/or information about you, in any way we may desire for any commercial use including but not limited to, advertising, publicity, or promotion of any kind and in connection with any entity, product, or service.

*Must be 21 years of age or older. Some restrictions apply. Management reserves all rights.