HOT-AIR BALLOON RIDES UP & DOWN THE STRIP?
With its previously unattainable luxury, it might well be the ultimate airborne adventure of drinking French champagne while floating down the Strip. Another “only in Vegas” out-of-this world experience.
The kingly KRUG champagne company plans to give eight guests at a time rides with a flight commander and waiter in an arctic-white basket suspended from a giant white orb balloon. I’m told the balloonists will not only be served a three-course lunch in the customized five-compartment bespoke basket (upholstered in plush leather), but also glasses of the exclusive gold Krug Grande Cuvee.
Contemporary food artist Marc Bretillot, who has worked with the three-star Michelin chefs of France, has created a pre-flight ground menu and, once airborne, serves a vegetable appetizer followed by a duck dish—packed in such a way that its feathers fly away when opened—plus an airy dessert of milk mousse with a meringue halo!
Each “flyer” will be given two hand-stitched soft leather totes. One pouch holds the three-tier luncheon canteen modeled after a classic Indian Tiffin box, and the other contains Krug flutes and the silver cutlery. The waiter serves Krug to all from his white leather iced-satchels! The balloon in Vegas is to create a similar experience to the secret underground entrance private Krug Rooms at London’s Dorchester Hotel, Hong Kong’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel and the Palace in Lausanne, Switzerland. If the champagne company puts a Krug Room somewhere secretly in New York, plans for one here in Vegas have already been discussed!
The world’s first balloon was launched at the Palace of Versailles in Paris in 1783 and it has been a French tradition ever since. In 1843, when Joseph Krug founded the champagne house, and now six generations onward, Oliver Krug continues the luxurious tradition. The newest balloon left Paris in October and is sailing the skies of Japan and Hong Kong before arriving here in Vegas early New Year. The balloon will return to Europe next summer. Krug was the champagne of choice for famed designer Chanel and my all-time hero, Sir Winston Churchill. I sense somebody’s “champagne wishes” will soon be coming true!