The Las Vegas Bottle Club's annual show is generally held to be one of the west coast's best and I've heard tales from many a collector about their finding rare treasures in this desert locale.
While I attend many local shows, Vegas is not even close to being considered Philly 'neighborhood' so I barely give it a second thought when glancing over the show listings at the back of Bottle and Extras.
This year, however, I was attending a work-related conference in Ventura, CA. Ventura sits on the Pacific coast about an hour north of Los Angeles.
At this time of year, the temperatures are on the cool side and tourists are few and far between. One can walk for miles along the wide coastline with only locals and their dogs to interrupt the tranquility of the pounding surf - it's a welcome break from the frequent Nor'easters that reliably pelt the eastern seaboard with hail, sleet and snow during February, March, and April (you call this work???? Ed).
Co-incidentally, the conference finished
the day before the Vegas Club show was due to open its doors to the early-bird
buyers. Since Vegas is only a hop, skip and a 330 mile drive through the
snow-capped mountains and barren desert from Ventura, this seemed like a golden
opportunity to see if the much-touted western event indeed lived up to its
glittering reputation.
The bottle show was to be held in the Plaza, one of Vegas' older casino hotels.
Most people will be familiar with famous names such as "The Golden Nugget" and
"The Horseshoe". These establishments made Vegas a Mecca for gamblers
and a favorite location for creating movies. All of the older casinos, including
The Plaza, can be found in the heart of Las Vegas alongside railroad tracks that
connect and rumble through the hearts of the western states. More recent
casinos have been built progressively further south down 'The Strip' (Las Vegas
Boulevard), leaving their older casinos sitting like tawdry old maids in the
seedy heart of the city.
In recent years, the downtown has been refurbished and Fremont Street has been covered with a
$70m canopy upon which is projected a dazzling light show to compete with the
glitter and pizzazz of the Mirage, Excalibur and Mandalay Bay several miles further south.
| A postcard showing the light display projected on the canopy over Fremont St. The Plaza -- the site of the Las Vegas Bottle Club event -- sits at the head of Fremont Street on S. Main. |  |
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