This week's roundup includes a champagne-theme cake in Las Vegas, a chef who cooks with marijuana in Los Angeles, a bar lit up with marquee lights, and a live Pop Art painter in Chicago.
The Boathouse restaurant, a new steak house in Downtown Disney, offers diners an unusual waterfront excursion. Guests are invited to take 20-minute boat tours of the waterfront section of the Walt Disney World Resort, and they ride in an amphibious vehicle known as the amphicar.Â
Wine and food festival UNLVino took place at various venues in Las Vegas April 16 to 18. Events included "Bubble-Licious" at the Venetian Las Vegas, which honored chef Daniel Boulud. Buddy V Las Vegas created a custom champagne-theme birthday cake for the chef.
Global nutrition company Herbalife hosted its annual President’s Summit March 4 to 7. At a Wizard of Oz-theme reception, an all-red assortment of desserts recalled the ruby slippers from the classic story.
Flowers from Shawna Yamamoto decorated tabletop centerpieces that marked the conference's 35th anniversary.
Marquee letters spelled out "cheers" at the welcome reception.
Dubbed the “Julia Child of Weed” by The Daily Beast, Los Angeles-based Jeff the 420 Chef incorporates marijuana in his unconventional menus. “People are really getting excited about it. Edibles are all the rage,” he says. Choco-Java CannaCupcakes are a sweet treat on his catering menu.
On April 11, lifelong Chicago Bulls fan Virgina Labellarte and her granddaughter Danielle Divito became the first people to spend the night at the United Center, home of the beloved basketball team. The unusual stay was part of a promotion hosted by community-driven hospitality company Airbnb, which transformed the executive suite at the arena into a space fit for an overnight stay.
Along with other pieces of Bulls merchandise, the winners received branded bathrobes.
About Face Theatre hosted its annual Wonka Ball at Chicago's Moonlight Studios on April 10, and it had an Andy Warhol theme. As part of the silent auction, local artist Matthew Lew created a Pop Art-inspired piece on site. The highest bidder took the piece home at the end of the night.
Here's another Pop Art-inspired idea: Inspired by Jeff Koons's "Puppy" sculpture at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, event producer Van Wyck & Van Wyck built a four-foot-tall topiary shaped in the form of a griffin at the 2012 event in New York. The mythical animal is sponsor JW Marriott's logo, and the floral version, which was created as a surprise for the brand executives, had eyes made of mums.
