Chocolates à la Carte

Chocolate Amenities Are No Gamble at Mirage Hotel

Amenities are a huge part of doing business in Las Vegas, says Eugen Ess, executive pastry chef at the Mirage Hotel. We spend a lot of time and effort to make them special. Ess likes to use chocolate in many of the amenities produced in the hotel's pastry shop.

According to the Austrian-born Ess, who has been with the hotel since it opened in 1989, there are two types of amenities he is responsible for creating. They include regular amenities, and high-end amenities for invited guests of the Mirage that are usually connected with special events.

"Amenity of the Month" Program

Regular amenities are sometimes given to guests by the various departments of the hotel and on other occasions they are bought by outside people to be given to hotel guests. Ess has developed an "Amenity of the Month" program with chocolate designs that tie-in with holidays or other themes during various months.

For these amenities, Ess doesn't know in advance how many he will need at any given time and must have a flexible supply available. Consequently, he creates these amenities around stock product designs available from Chocolates à la Carte.

"When I was developing these, I worked with Chocolates à la Carte and they sent me all of their product samples that tie-in with holidays," says Ess. "I then added my own touch to them when I designed the different amenity packages." He had professional quality photographs taken of the finished monthly amenities and distributed them to the different departments of the hotel.

High-End Amenities for VIPs

High-End amenities are usually delivered to the guests' rooms during the special event and are specifically designed to connect and carry through with the event's theme. For example, in 1996 the Mirage hosted a fantasy-themed New Year's party. Ess created a fantasy-inspired chocolate sculpture rendering of the numbers 1996 which was delivered to the rooms of VIPs.