A 24-foot-tall projection screen shaped like a human head rises above a reflection pond outside Wynn Las Vegas’ Daniel Boulud Brasserie. The screen is dark as Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake plays over the sound system, but when the soft melody cuts to a louder, flamenco-style dance track, diners at the formal French restaurant look up from their soupes à l’oignon gratinée. The face of a pale, dark-haired woman wearing bright lipstick fills the screen, and she chatters in Spanish as the waterfall behind the head gives way to a candy-apple red projection screen. An image of a black bull gallops across the second screen, while the woman’s legs—disjointed from her massive head in the foreground—dance to the techno beat. As abruptly as it began, the audio/video onslaught ceases after a few minutes. The screen sinks below the water’s surface, and conversations at the tables resume, although the topics of discussion have changed.
The Lake of Dreams display at Daniel Boulud is one of the glitzy, provocative, and unexpected elements that you grow to expect at Wynn Las Vegas, a $2.7 billion megaresort built by casino developer Steve Wynn. A winding escalator delivers guests from the restaurant to a 110,000-square-foot casino, a Ferrari and Maserati dealership, and a 31-boutique shopping mall. Outside, a Tom Fazio–designed golf course (see page 218) cuts a wooded, almost mountainous path through this otherwise flat terrain, the result of the builders’ moving 800,000 cubic yards of dirt and planting 7,500 new pines, elms, and other trees on the property.
The barbell-shaped pool at Wynn Las Vegas likewise affords a sanctuary at the heart of the Strip, the view of which is blocked by the bronze-colored hotel. But guest rooms inside the building, especially the suites on the 39th floor, offer a clear indication of your whereabouts when the automatic drapes retract to reveal the lights of Las Vegas.
Wynn Las Vegas
702.770.7000
($200–$3,000)
