Peppermill in Wendover
Written: Oct 02 '09 (Updated Oct 02 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Affordable, Jacuzzi mini-suites, clean, polite staff
Cons: A LOT of smoke, uninspiring restaurants, pool off-grounds.
The Bottom Line: If you have some reason to be in Wendover (or you're a Northern Utahn looking for a brief respite), Peppermill is a great place to hang out.
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| Trawma's Full Review: Peppermill Casino, Wendover, NV |
It’s been a lean year. We’re saving for a cross-country move, you see, so we’ve been doing without a lot of things. Vacations, for instance.
As things around here are terrifically stressful, the lack of a vacation, a break, was really taking its toll. My husband, son, and I were really hurting for a little privacy, a little time on our own without the anxiety that comes of being in this place.
And then we missed the air show.
My son is currently obsessed with aircraft, especially military aircraft. The local Air Force Base has an annual air show . . . which we missed. It would have been his first air show, and oh, it was a sad day. So I hopped online in search of other air shows, hoping perhaps I could mollify our son with the promise of a back east air show. And then I found it.
The Wendover Air Show. A mere hour-and-a-half drive from home. In a town with hotels that have casinos and Jacuzzis. In-room Jacuzzis.
There we go, happy medium. Instead of a 3 week vacation, we’d take a three day excursion to Wendover. Three in a room, personal hot tub, dinner in Elko, drives through the desert and Salt Flats. That would do the trick.
We rented a car (another great experience with Hertz!), and drove on out on Friday morning. The weather was perfect, and our son, who had never seen the Salt Flats before, was suitably impressed with the scenery, including Orthanc (MagCorp’s mega-polluting smoke stack), the floating mountain, and the amazing salt heaps. We made many picture-taking stops (with our fancy new 16 gig camera card), and wound up at the Peppermill Hotel and Casino at around 3 pm.
The Peppermill Hotel and Casino is a fair-sized outfit (382 rooms) for a town the size of Wendover, and is one of five good-sized outfits in town. Don’t be fooled, though—they do sell out. In fact, had we not reserved well in advance, we’d not have gotten our Mini-King Suite with in-room Jacuzzi. My Sister-in-Law attempted to get a room two weeks out and she was unable. I’m sure the Air Show and the drag races had something to do with the dearth of rooms, though weekends are always busy.
Room rates vary depending upon room desired and day of the week, with a range of $35.00 to $144.00. Weekends are markedly more expensive, as are reservations made closer to the desired date.
Being a Nevada casino, the Peppermill is, of course, astoundingly gaudy. Many bright lights, flashing gee-gaws, neon, mirrors, etc. Everything to appeal to the crouching addict that may be hanging out inside the brain.
Again, being a Nevada casino, the smoke inside really is breathtaking. I’ve been home five days, and I’m still sniffling and hacking up strange things. The sore throat is gone, though. We reserved a non-smoking room, and, to Peppermill’s credit, our room did not smell at all of cigarettes. The hallway, which served only non-smoking rooms, did smell of smoke. Strongly.
Check-in was a breeze (though there is no “check-in” parking, and parking can be a real challenge)—no mistakes, polite desk crew, and an offer to haul our luggage up for us. The staff throughout the hotel and casino was nice, helpful, and overwhelmingly Hispanic. Sometimes language is a barrier, but I’ve never had a serious communication problem at the Peppermill that couldn’t be solved by both of us speaking a little more slowly and clearly.
The room proper is . . . well, it’s a hotel room in a casino. There are mirrors on most walls (full mirrors around the Jacuzzi, including on the ceiling, which is a bit painful), and silly little casino running lights in a double row along the ceiling (run by a dimmer). The carpet is fairly plush, with a very dark, sculpted pattern. The bed, a King, comes with a feather-like (didn’t feel like real down) duvet, two fuzzy hotel blankets, two sheets (three, if you count the bottom sheet), and five king-sized pillows, including two down pillows. The bed was fairly firm without being stiff or unyielding. It sits rather high, which makes climbing up a bit rough for the shorter crowd (of which I appear to be a member).
The furnishings in the room are nice enough, with the chairs coming in a velvet-ish seafoam color. Unfortunately, there is too much furniture in the room—a small round table, two rolling chairs to match, plus a high-backed chair for the “desk.” Not enough room for this much furniture, which renders use of ANY of it almost impossible without a lot of lugging and shoving.
The counter/dresser/desk/TV stand unit is long and low-slung, and is constructed of a strange black and grey faux granite, as is the table top. In smaller doses, it might be nice looking, but in this volume, it overwhelms. Luckily, we weren’t really there for the décor. This unit appears to have a fridge, but the cabinet is actually empty. In some queen rooms, there IS a fridge. Not so the mini-suites. The TV was a large (perhaps 46 inch?) flat screen HDTV being served by Direct TV. Not many channels, though—the local Salt Lake City channels, plus a few cable stations (CNN, MSNBC, and two ESPNs). Don’t expect Cartoon Network, Disney, or Nickelodeon here.
The room size is typical of a two King room, with the space for the second king being taken up by a rather fancy shell-shaped black Jacuzzi with six fixed jets and four adjustable jets. The water temperature is adjustable, which is great for folks like me whose blood pressure doesn’t appreciate the high heat of normal hot tubs. This Jacuzzi is nicely deep, has a little waterfall along the back, and is set into a marble-like platform. Again, being short, I found it really tough to get out of (getting in wasn’t so bad). The platform is surrounded by fake plants, towels, and fancy soaps and body gels. The tub is the perfect size for two adults and an 11 year old boy who’s never been in a hot tub before. To his joy, this Jacuzzi makes a mean bubble bath, and it only takes a few minutes to produce bubbles better than a foot deep. Yes, that led to many bubble fights.
I do have a strange complaint about the room. If you’ve ever owned a torchiere lamp with an incandescent bulb, you know what scorching insects smell like. Well, when the outdoor lights go nuts at night, that smell makes its way into the room. Remember, this is the desert of Nevada—the insects are insane at night. Speaking of lights, though, the room is outfitted with compact fluorescents. A nice touch.
The bathroom is quite nice looking, with a nearly-convincing stone floor and walls, a broad vanity (plain formica), a light up magnifying mirror, coffee maker, and an in-wall hair dryer. Instead of a tub, the bathroom comes with an enclosed steam shower. Roomy, with a ledge/seat in the back, the shower can be used as a normal shower or programmed to serve as a steam room. Beware! The steam head is down close to the floor, and getting a leg even a foot away can result in a quick sting from the heat. Remember, if your blood pressure is a problem, keep the steam-bathing to a minimum.
My one complaint about the bathroom? The stone-ish floors are frighteningly slippery. Slicker than any floor I’ve ever dealt with, in fact. Make sure you’ve got a towel or bath mats to spare yourself a nasty fall.
Speaking of towels, these are typical mid-range white hotel towels, and the room could use at least twice as many. Come on, Peppermill, there’s a HOT TUB in here!
While on the subject of getting wet, the Peppermill does NOT have a pool. However, as the casinos in town are all strangely interrelated, Peppermill patrons can head up and across the street to the Rainbow Hotel and Casino for pool time. Montego Bay amenities are also available to Peppermill patrons, though that’s a bit farther away.
The hotel boasts the following two restaurants, one a full-service, the other a buffet, and both non-smoking:
Coco Palms: Coco Palms is open 24 hours (gambling town), and offers a wide variety of mediocre food and screaming fuchsia neon lights. My son ordered the chicken strips, which were rather rubbery and utterly plain. My husband ordered the carne asada, which claimed to contain “marinated and mesquite broiled” beef. The beef was utterly un-marinated, un-broiled, and un-spiced in any way. It was only bailed by dumping a cup of picante all over it. It wasn’t bad meat, it was just totally bland. I ordered the French dip because—well, because it’s hard to screw up a French Dip. They managed. It tasted as though the beef had never met a pan. It had the taste and texture of unseasoned beef sliced, microwaved, frozen, then re-microwaved. It was rubbery and flavorless. The roll had the texture of frozen, then nuked bread. I ate three bites, then gave it up as a bad job. The orange juice was a nightmare—it was so watered down and so bitter that even my son couldn’t bear it. To be fair, the appetizer, a chicken quesadilla, was quite tasty, with enough crisp to it that I feel confident it wasn’t heated in a microwave. The fries were perfectly okay, too.
Grand Buffet: Grand Buffet has varied hours, depending upon the day, with a daily lunch from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, a seafood banquet, and weekend brunches. While there certainly is some nasty, overdone buffet fare to be found here, there are also some prizes, including the prime rib (overdone, but still tasty and tender), the kung pao chicken, the fajitas, the fresh fruit, and the hash browns. The scrambled eggs can be bailed with cheese and either ketchup or Cholula, and the eggs Benedict, while being absolutely overcooked, is certainly palatable. The décor is slightly less garish (only slightly!) than Coco Palms’, and the booths are more roomy and comfortable.
Speaking of roomy booths and the like, if you are heavy, this is a casino that isn’t very friendly. The chairs on the gambling floor (and in Coco Palms) are very small—think budget airline width, but with an enclosing cushioned frame so there’s no overlapping or spilling over allowed. If your butt struggles with coach air seats, you’re going to be very unhappy with these chairs.
In addition to the two restaurants, there is a small barrista/snack shop called “Café Espresso.” Think bakery case, coffees, and a few deli-style sandwiches. It’s directly across from the front desk, and appeals to the “hungry off the road” crowd.
I don’t do a lot of gambling, but the Peppermill floors seem pretty standard for Wendover—black jack, Texas Hold ‘em, sports betting, craps, and slots. There are poker tournaments, but most seem to be hosted at the Rainbow and Montego Bay. My husband picked up a hundred at blackjack, I dropped forty on slots, and that was the extent of our gambling.
Is there anything else to do at the Peppermill, besides eat average-ish food, gamble, and soak in the Jacuzzi? Not really, but does there need to be? Wendover does boast a golf course not too far from the hotel, and there is a city park across the street that probably doesn’t have too many tarantula hawks and the like. But really, if you’re here, you’re either here for a planned event or you’re here to immerse yourself in casino life. The Peppermill Hotel and Casino does a fine job catering to those demands. The food could certainly use some improvement, but overall, I’ll likely stay again, should the opportunity arise.
Recommended:
Yes
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