Princes of the pawning universe. (Photo by Scott Harrison | Retna)

Pawn Stars’ Rick Harrison earned the title of Pawnbroker of the Year at the National Pawnbroker’s Association convention at Caesars Palace. By National Pawnbroker Association bylaws, Harrison will have to hock the trophy for $60 cash and a signed Color Me Badd concert poster in trade within the year. Has there ever been a more no-brainer choice for an award than this? Unless maybe they can give the title of Greatest Ice Road Trucker to the show Ice Road Truckers.

Anyway, he had lunch today at Rao’s inside Caesars Palace with a couple who bid $5,000 in a live auction Tuesday that included a Mickey Mouse phone featured on the show. Five large for lunch and a phone. For $5,000 we’d want Donald Duck’s pants.

Harrison’s co-star/lackey Chumley was at Hussong’s Cantina inside Mandalay Bay last night, while over at Lavo, someone completely unrelated to the pawn business, John Cleese, had dinner with a group that included Anthony Cools.

By Jason Scavone

we don’t know. It doesn’t look … gin-y enough. (Photo by Bryan Steffy)

Hizzonner was at Hussong’s Cantina inside Mandalay Place last night with owners Scott Frost and Jeff Marks to be added to the joint’s Charcoal Wall of Fame. He drank Bombay in the tequila shop because Oscar Goodman, that’s why.

Love is celebrating its four-year anniversary tomorrow, and to get the festivities going, four cast members went to Niagara Falls last week for the start of Ringo Starr’s summer tour. All things being equal, if you found yourself in that situation, would you be able to resist the temptation to pack Ringo in a barrel and send him over the falls like some kind of Hanna-Barbera cartoon? Because we couldn’t. It’d be like any time Fred and Daphne had to save that week’s guest star. Except instead of Don Knotts, it was a former Beatle.

By Jason Scavone

As a bonus, he’s now equipped with a mug shot that can run in the Wall Street Journal. (Photo by Al Powers)

Titan Nightlife Group President Scott Frost celebrated his birthday the way every birthday should be celebrated — with the introduction of a new cocktail named for you. We’re calling ours this year “The Whiskey-Soaked Nerd.”

Hussong’s Cantina — a Titan project — introduced the El Gigante in honor of the tall Frost. It’s Corzo Reposado with grilled ruby grapefruit, ginger and lemongrass. A percentage of proceeds will go to the Spinal Injury Recovery Foundation, the charity that debuted alongside the cocktail. Frost was injured in a motorcycle accident last May, resulting in his paralysis from the neck down. He’s recovered enough to the point where he was able to walk into Hussong’s during its January opening, and launched the foundation to help new victims of spinal cord injury.

By Jason Scavone

Sombreros: Signifier of good times, terror of the Alamo. (Photo by Tony Tran | SpyOnVegas.com)

Dust off your tux and quickly grow out that beard — dressing like the swarthy, Hemingway-esque Dos Caminos spokesbadass The Most Interesting Man in the World will net you a free Jose Cuervo or Don Julio cocktail for Cinco de Mayo at Hussong’s Cantina inside Mandalay Bay — and if you’re Most Interesting enough, a $250 bar tab at the 7 p.m. contest. They’re also doing giveaways every hour from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and will have live mariachis. Because you can’t have Cinco without silver-embroidered pants. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

Light. Airy. Occasionally goat-y.

It’s simple, really, but when simplicity comes down to “meat, and things that make meat easier to eat,” we’re not ones to argue.

Hussong’s Cantina offers traditional sopes, with corn masa dough boats topped with chicken, steak, carnitas or pulled goat, and garnished with lettuce, tomato and sour cream. Everything fits together like it should, and it still manages to be lighter than their so-simple-and-perfect-it-has-to-be-a-stroke-of-genius elote plazero (an ear of grilled white corn brushed with mayonnaise and butter and dusted in cojita cheese).

The sopes can go in a bite or two, and certainly won’t short out your palate for your entree. They’re almost creamy — just lingering long enough to taste like they’re evaporating.

We chased them with the Baja Sidecar, a sturdy drink that draws out the meat, but lends a foundation to the sopes so they still manage to taste airy while dancing over bourbon and cinnamon. Just, you know. Make sure if you go for these, you don’t do it at the expense of the elote plazero. Double down. Corn is a vegetable. Even corn with cheese on it.

By Jason Scavone

Wasting away again in … Sidecar … town. Seriously, please don’t sue.

The great thing about the Sidecar is it’s a timeless drink that’s A) delicious and B) no one orders anymore so C) you always look secretly classy and cocktail savvy when you order one. It’s the Pythagorean Theorem of Looking Cool While You Booze.

It’s actually an important drink for Mexican restaurants as the recipe — brandy, triple sec and lemon — is just a base liquor and a choice of citrus away from being everybody’s favorite taco-washer-downer. (Yes, this is a thing.) Sub tequila for brandy, swap lime for lemon (and rim with salt instead of sugar) and you’ve entered Margaritatown. Pop: You. (Any resemblance between Margaritatown and Margaritaville is purely coincidental. Please don’t sue us, Jimmy Buffet.)

At Hussong’s Cantina inside Mandalay Bay, they’ve taken it a step further. Still ditch the brandy, for Agavero tequila, but keep the lemon and then add Maker’s Mark. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass loaded with a horchata sugar rim for the Baja Sidecar. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

One of these days we’re going to fulfill OUR lifelong dream of having mariachis play when we enter a room. (Photos by Al Powers)

While developing Hussong’s Cantina at Mandalay Place, Titan Nightlife Group president Scott Frost was hurt in a motorcycle accident in May that left him paralyzed from the neck down. From his hospital bed, Frost (along with partner Jeff Marks) negotiated the lease and financing of the restaurant, and last night saw it open its doors. Doors he walked through. This is most likely a story about the indomitability of the human spirit, although we do think it raises a valuable point about the redemptive power of tequila.

After standing from his wheelchair and taking 18 steps to the bar at Hussong’s last night, Frost talked to the crowd before celebrating with his fiancee, Megan Powell. And from there, it was onto less heavy stuff, like mariachis and girls with tequila bandoliers. You know. The important stuff in life.

Not the only Latin-fare joint to open this week, Hussong’s was joined by Cana at Town Square, which did its grand opening on Tuesday. It’s a ceviche spot that specializes in sugar cane-based spirits. In other words: Rum and cachaca as far as the eye can see.

By Jason Scavone