If you’re not dressed like this, you’re doing it wrong. (Photo by Jessica Blair | SpyOnVegas.com)

It’s a good week for ethnocentric drinking. There’s San Gennaro coming this weekend and Cinco de Mayo today. We assume you’re already sweating blue agave at this point, but if you have yet to consume so much tequila that you’re seriously considering trying mezcal, you have two options for your celebrity-enhanced Cinco experience. Erik Estrada to hosts T&T’s 12 Hours of Cinco de Mayo, going until midnight, with Angelica Bridges, Carrot Top and the Thunder from Down Under dudes. At Palazzo, Dos Caminos enlists Napolean Dynamite’s Efren Ramirez. Although you may want to wait for 2012 and a proper election cycle to vote for Pedro, and not mess around with this midterm stuff. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

Now if only science can figure out a way to stack them even higher. (Photo by Erik Kabik | Retna)

It’s not even a fair fight. If you had to choose which two people you want to see stacked on top of each other, the Thunder From Down Under dudes do not stand a chance. Yet there they are, taking in the girls of Fantasy tonight at Tacos & Tequila at Luxor during human rooster fighting for their Mischieve Wednesdays from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Dear God. A professional topless dancer riding another professional topless dancer or two beefy dudes wrasslin’ each other. Not even close. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

Why, that skeletal senorita is borderline indecent. You can practically see her sternum.

The cure for the Halloween Hangover? A fistful of candy corn and Dia de los Muertos. Sugar skulls always get the job when it’s time to take the pain awyay. Tacos & Tequila at the Luxor knows you’re probably still wearing last night’s costume anyway, and offers the $1,000 Deadliest Dressed costume contest from noon to 5 p.m. during brunch. Dos Caminos inside Palazzo has their own Day of the Dead brunch going on. Leftover candy corn, sugar skulls and tequila. That’s a solid recipe right there.

• Cherry at Red Rock does costume contests for sexiest, scariest, most creative, best couple and best group costumes.
• Fangoria’s Trinity of Terror film festival features George Romero, Bruce Campbell, Corbin Bernsen and Malcolm McDowell. Day passes $20, weekend passes $50.
• Howie Mandel is at MGM Grand’s Hollywood Theater..
• The Bank has Bad Boy Bill.
• Wasted Space at the Hard Rock Hotel brings in the Genitorturers, Kil Jaden and Drug Adicts
• Lavo at The Palazzo does Vice Vice Baby.
• Body English does a Sunday School costume party.
• Revolution Lounge at The Mirage has Closet Sundays with DJ Dave Aude.
• Zowie Bowie does Cufflinks and Cocktails at Brand inside Monte Carlo.
• Krave does Sindaze.
• Christian Audigier the Nightclub has Sunday Funday.
• Rockhouse holds Sin City Sundays with DJ Sincere.
• Blue Martini at Town Square holds house:kitten Sunday.
• The Thunderbird Lounge (1215 Las Vegas Blvd.) does its gay night, Club Skittles, with DJ Sam.
• The Bunkhouse holds Sunday Schoolin’ with Mikey VIP.
• Divebar has White Rhino and the Sunday Night Hula Party.
• The Beauty Bar holds Suede Sundays: All Smiths/Morrissey and dark ‘80s.
• Cheyenne Saloon brings in Clockwork Hero and the Rock DJ Coalition at 8 p.m.
• The Double Down features The China White Motors and Uberschall.
• Premier welcomes Brokencyde, Kill Paradise, The Ready Set, Watchout! There’s Ghosts and Streetlights to Satallites.

By Jason Scavone

(Photo by Ray Alamo | SpyOnVegas.com)

Tequila doesn’t kill people. People toting Tequila in a holster kill people. Usually by starting with the liver, but don’t ever rule out a good broken-bottle bar fight.

By Jason Scavone

(Photo by Melissa Reese | SpyOnVegas.com)

He should have gone over to Pure to mess with Hogan.

By Jason Scavone

Trust us, she was pretty hot back in the day.

The awesomeness of Dia de los Muertos should be self-evident: It’s the only holiday that requires sugar skulls. Take that, Columbus Day. Not to be lost in all the Halloween stuff going on, there are a few Muertos parties going down to give you that excuse you always wanted to dress up as a skeleton mariachi.

Jeremey Jackson hosts at Christian Audigier inside Treasure Island, home of skull-and-rose bedecked accessories, on Saturday. The matchup was inevitable. Sunday will see Dos Caminos at Palazzo and T&T at Luxor each do their thing on Sunday, which is the actual Day of the Dead.

Dos Caminos brings in DJ Carlos Sanchez, Rico DeLargo, Cauye Woody, the Mayan Kings and a late-night set from DJ Reach, starting at 9 p.m. During the day, though, T&T is doing a brunch from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with music from Mariachi Tapatio and DJ Ernan. They’ll also be doing a $500 costume contest if you missed your chance to haul in the big loot Friday night.

By Jason Scavone

You are a unique and special flower, Tila Tequila’s Myspace friend. (Photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)

Diminutive Tila Tequila helped kick things off at Tacos & Tequila inside Luxor last night, although our secret hope that they were going to invite Kristy Morgan, too, just to see what would happen in a room with those two and copious amounts of Hornitos, didn’t come to pass. This is why we need to be in charge of events planning.

Joining Tequila were the girls of Fantasy, the dudes of Thunder from Down Under, a capella group Mosaic, Zowie Bowie, Rashida Ali, Carrot Top and Criss Angel, shockingly wearing sleeves. Must be the change of seasons is getting to him.

By Jason Scavone

BAD society. Internet fame should NEVER equal real fame. BAD. Look what you did.

Tacos & Tequila marks its grand opening tonight at Luxor by bringing in everybody’s favorite bisexual Myspace-sensation-turned-reality-TV-dating-show-star Tila Tequila. See, she’s named Tequila, and the restaurant specializes in tequila. Tequila, tequila. See what they did there? What do you mean you don’t get it? She calls herself Tila TEQ– you know what? Nevermind.

Luxor performers Carrot Top and the girls of Fantasy will be on hand, as will Excalibur’s Thunder from Down Under dudes, Flamingo’s Nathan Burton and a capella group Mosaic. Partners Michael Frey and Craig Gilbert have teamed with chef Richard Sandoval for T&T, which, as we’ve already pointed out, should never stop playing AC/DC.

By Jason Scavone

An apple a day keeps the doctor checking on your liver.

You’re not going to get to do much apple picking this fall because, well, desert. You can, however, get in on the next-best thing: Appley booze. No, wait, check that. Booze is always the first-best thing. The Spiced Apple at Tacos and Tequila inside Luxor serves up apples the way nature intended: Soaked in tequila.

Mixing Tres Generaciones anejo, sweet apple and lime juices and Falernum syrup, shaken and strained on the rocks in a Collins glass and garnished with a dried apple chip and cinnammon, the Spiced Apple twists and turns and stretches the boundaries of a Margarita. The traditional arrangement of tequila, sweet and sour are still all there — just dressed up in fall clothes.

The drink has a deep cinnamon flavor with enough bitterness on the edges to keep it away from tasting like apple pie. The robust anejo is broad and expansive. Even though you wouldn’t think it would be a natural fit with apple, the heft of the mellow tequila is enough to keep the bright bitterness of the apple and the acid of the lime well in check. We have a suspicion that this would be excellent mulled, but then, we love to mull anything that has a strong cinnamon taste. Seriously, if you throw a cinnamon stick in a Diet Coke, we’d take a stab at heating that baby up. It can’t be any worse than deep-fried Twinkies, right?

By Jason Scavone

Following in the successful footsteps of The Mirage, its sister property further north on the Las Vegas Strip, the Luxor Hotel and Casino looks to make 2008 its year of reinvention. The introduction of new restaurants, bars and nightclubs that started late in 2007 has already given us LAX nightclub, Noir Bar and Company American Bistro among other improvements making this formerly gimmicky casino more appealing to the club-going, money-throwing twenty-something set.

That directive continues this summer with the opening of T&T, a Mexican cantina infused with rock ‘n’ roll style, created by owner Michael Frey under his new company, Drive This Entertainment!. Frey has teamed with some of the industry’s best to bring T&T (which stands for, in case you were wondering, “Tacos & Tequila,” of course) to fruition, including designer Adam Tihany (whose previous Vegas creations include Cravings at The Mirage, Aureole at Mandalay Bay and the original Teatro at MGM Grand), New York-based Alvarez+Brock Design and Master Chef Richard Sandoval.

“This is not your grandma’s cantina — think Pink Taco meets Coyote Ugly interpreted by Quentin Tarantino,” said Frey. No word yet on whether vampire hookers will be involved. Click for more words and pictures »

By Pj Perez