People & Jobs: A Wynn Resort Adventure with KNPR!

by Diane Taylor

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Last Sunday, my husband Paul and I had lunch with Miles Smith and Steve Friess. That event was probably just a blip on the Smith/Friess schedule, but it was a big deal to us.

Spring flowers at Encore Las Vegas
Photo by Diane Taylor

First, we paid for the privilege by winning an auction and donating money to our favorite radio station, Nevada Public Radio (KNPR). Secondly, we are fans of the podcasts (internet audio broadcasts) Smith and Friess present every week. We wanted to know more about the hosts. Finally, the lunch itself was to be held at the Society Café at Encore Las Vegas. We had never been to the Society Café, though The Wynn Las Vegas and, by extension, Encore Las Vegas, are our favorite Strip destinations.

Smith is an Executive Producer at KVBC (Channel 3), the local NBC television station, and Friess is a free-lance writer for his own website, VegasHappensHere.com, as well as for Las Vegas Weekly, AOL, Portfolio.com, the New York Times, and more.

Society Cafe
Photo by Diane Taylor

Between them, Smith and Friess know what’s happening and who’s who in Las Vegas. Their weekly podcasts begin with a discussion of the week’s news related to Las Vegas, then we hear Friess interviewing a person of interest (Steve Wynn, Elaine Wynn, Jim Murren, Wayne Newton, etc.) Freiss has a rather disarming interview style and before the interview subject knows it, tough questions have been asked and answered and listeners have been in on the whole thing.

We arrived at the restaurant before Smith and Friess, but the restaurant host was familiar with the reservation eagerly offering, “Your table is ready.” Nice.

We sat, and soon Friess arrived – informal, friendly, energetic and ready to chat. Smith, quieter, handsome, with a neatly pulled back ponytail, arrived a bit later.

Steve Friess
Photo by Diane Taylor

Smith and my husband let me and Friess do most of the talking. (Neither of us have trouble in that department.) We talked mostly about Friess’s career. He’s a Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism graduate and worked for three daily newspapers (the Las Vegas Review-Journal was one) before accepting a one-year contract to edit and report for an English-language newspaper in China. Returning to Las Vegas, Friess knew he liked free-lance work because “I see stories everywhere and I can’t be tied down to just one subject.” He became interested in podcasts while listening to NPR stories on the Internet, then reporting about podcasts for WIRED magazine. He also found that Internet radio station LV Rocks would rent time for podcasts. Today, the chatty part of “The Strip Podcast” takes place at LV Rocks; the interviews are recorded on Friess’s small portable tape recorder or his telephone interview setup at home.

Smith came into the conversation slowly, first mentioning that he’s a graduate of American University in Washington, D.C. and then offering that prior to coming to Las Vegas, for three years he was a producer at QVC, the shopping channel. I almost jumped across the table at that news. QVC is “my” shopping channel – and I’ve always wanted to know more about it. (We didn’t get to talk nearly long enough on that subject or on what a producer’s job entails on local TV.)

Like chocolate cake?
Photo by Diane Taylor

As conversations proceeded, we were being served by the meticulous folks from Society Cafe. Encore Las Vegas had donated the lunch and we were treated royally. Drinks and plates of appetizers arrived without us saying more than “hello” to our waiter. We had a choice of “a luncheon selection of items” or individual orders from the menu, which we chose. My husband ordered a kobe beef hamburger and loved it; my choice was one of the best chopped salads I’ve ever had. Afterwards, without so much as a finger wave from us, a lavish selection of desserts were delivered to the table. The desserts included what I believe is the largest piece of chocolate cake I’ve ever seen.

So we ate too much and loved it. Smith had to leave early to go to work; my husband opted out of our post-lunch activity — so Friess and I went on a journey.

The Encore Las Vegas taxi tunnel.
Photo by Diane Taylor

Several months ago, Friess had taken a tour of Encore Las Vegas with Steve Wynn and had recorded the tour as a podcast. One of the small items mentioned on the tour was that Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Las Vegas both had taxi tunnels (taxi waiting areas) that were complete with washrooms and a lively décor. Weeks ago, I had contacted the Wynn Las Vegas PR folks about seeing the tunnels, and was greeted with silence. In an early email about the lunch, I mentioned my frustration to Friess, and he said he’d see what he could do. Good news, a tour (for both of us) was on. One phone call from Friess after lunch and Nathan Scott from customer service met us, escorted us to a van driven by Trung Lam, and we were driven to the taxi tunnels. ( I know you’re gay, Steve Friess, and I’m married, but will you marry me? I’d really love to know everyone you know!) But I digress.

We were told Steve Wynn did not like seeing long lines of taxis in front of his hotels, so starting with the Bellagio, the taxi waiting line went underground. Our van also went underground with no question that we could stop and take pictures. Two days later, Friess’s report and pictures were up on his website; I’m following five days later.

One of the murals in the Encore Las Vegas taxi tunnel.
Photo by Diane Taylor

BUT, thanks to Jackie Oribello of Wynn Las Vegas PR, I did get a couple pieces of information not reported by Friess. The wall murals in the Encore Las Vegas taxi tunnel featuring pretty girls and interesting facts about the resort were prepared in house by Wynn Design and Development. The murals were based on actual photographs, which were then “drawn over”. Incidentally, the Encore Las Vegas tunnel also features several televisions. They were tuned to sports channels when we were there.

The Wynn Las Vegas taxi tunnel murals feature a racecar theme.
Photo by Diane Taylor

Each taxi tunnel includes a unisex washroom and from the one I saw at Wynn Las Vegas (because the door was open), the washroom was “almost” spotless. Keeping the taxi areas clean is a Wynn organization priority with four maintenance visits to the tunnels and washrooms each shift and two power washings a week.

Taxi drivers are important to the Wynn organization “especially during large conventions,” said Lam, so in addition to providing taxi drivers with occasional free rooms, show and meal tickets and attractive and clean underground waiting areas, the Wynn folks also sponsor weekly football contests just for taxi drivers. Some 350 drivers a week participate in the contests.

Yep, Sunday was interesting, exciting and a great memory,….thanks to Miles Smith, Steve Friess, KNPR, Encore Las Vegas and a whole bunch of taxi drivers waiting to get to the front of the line.

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