Saturday, July 23, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: Burgers, baloney big items for Keith

Toby Keith hoists a cold one Friday while showing off a 90-pound cheeseburger in the shape of a guitar at his I Love This Bar and Grill at Harrah's. Photo by Jeff Scheid.

Country music star Toby Keith unveiled the biggest burger in Las Vegas on Friday, but truth be told, his Oklahoma heart belongs to baloney.

Keith's co-star at a media event at Harrah's to promote his I Love This Bar and Grill was a 90-pound cheeseburger shaped like a guitar.

But when asked about his favorite menu item, the country star acknowledged that he nudged Harrah's chef into adding a down-home favorite.

Keith said he told the chef, "We got to have something that's really out of the ordinary that's really, really country ass" -- a fried baloney sandwich. The chef cringed, Keith said, but added it to the menu.

Shortly after the soft opening a few weeks ago, Keith checked in and got the news: the baloney sandwich was a No. 1 hit.

Keith vowed it would be quality food, and that it was. The baloney sandwich, to my surprise, is a winner, and you'll go ga-ga over the strawberry shortcake and sweet potato pecan pie.

"I know when you do these theme kind of things, everything's there but the food," Keith said.

"The food (usually) sucks. I told these guys going in I do not want to put up with that. I don't want to be at some football game or a Super Bowl and have somebody say, 'Hey, your steak sucks.' "

By the way, that megaburger would feed a lot of troops.

The ground beef "patty" weighed in at 35 pounds and was sandwiched between an eight-pound burger bun filled with 10 pounds of shredded lettuce, 12 pounds of sliced tomatoes, 10 pounds of sliced onions, six pounds of sliced pickles, eight pounds of American (of course) cheese and three quarts of mayonnaise.

Roy returns

Roy Horn returned from Europe on Thursday, five weeks after checking into a clinic to undergo stem-cell treatment.

Siegfried & Roy publicist Dave Kirvin said the treatment "was completed successfully."

Roy entered the Leonardis Clinic in Germany and an Austrian clinic. Horn's doctor at the Austrian clinic told an Austrian radio station this week that Horn was planning to return for further treatment in two or three months.

Horn was greeted at his Jungle Palace by eight dogs, all adopted from the Lied Animal Shelter, Kirvin said.

The Scene and Heard

Las Vegas Hilton headliner Barry Manilow hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts 27 years ago today with "Looks Like We Made It."

Sightings

Motley Crue's Tommy Lee, hanging out at the Palms pool on Friday, definitely not with Pamela Anderson, who on Friday shot down a report earlier this week claiming that they got engaged last weekend at the Palms. "A huge misunderstanding," Anderson wrote in her Web site diary. "I am NOT getting married ... period. We're not back together ... we just love each other." There's a lot of speculation that Lee's camp put out the engagement story to promote his upcoming (Aug. 9) reality show about joining the University of Nebraska marching band. ... Hip-hop star Kanye West, downing Dom Perignon and climbing on stage at the Pussycat Dolls lounge at Pure (Caesars Palace) on Thursday night. West rapped for 20 minutes on stage with pals. ... Country star George Strait, getting an old-fashioned lather shave and a haircut Thursday at Truefitt & Hill, the upscale gentleman's barbershop at the Forum Shops expansion. ... St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson, a former standout for Eldorado High School, celebrating his 22nd birthday at OPM (Caesars Palace) on Thursday after dining earlier at Joe's Seafood, Prime Steak and Stone Crab (Forum Shops at Caesars).

The Punch Line

"Michael Jackson says he wants to move to Berlin. As soon as the Germans heard about it, they started to put the wall back up." -- Jay Leno

Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com.