Hakkasan celebrates fourth anniversary in style

By Chris Kudialis

Tuesday, April 11, 2017 | 1:16 p.m.

Talk about hospitality.

Hakkasan celebrated its fourth birthday this past weekend in a fashion only one of the world's leading nightclub groups could - with fanfare, games, cocktails, a pool party, a treatment at the spa, more cocktails and a performance by Tiesto at its namesake nightclub.

The weekend event, which started Friday with cocktails at Hakkasan's Ling Ling Lounge, quickly moved over to Level Up gaming lounge at MGM Grand.

With tables that made the red beer pong Solo cups actually look like part of a classy game, bar games like shuffleboard and dome hockey, and a life-size Pac-Man. Machine, Level Up was the perfectly embodied an arcade for adults wanting to have some non-gambling fun. Among the casual Friday night crowd at Level Up included Pittsburgh Steelers' linebacker James Harrison, whose willingness to take a picture with one of our group's attendees mirrored the lounge's joyful, yet laid-back atmosphere.

Nothing stood out at Level Up like Golfstream, a state-of-the-art golf platform that featured the latest King Cobra golf clubs, a shifting turf putting service with lights that shows users the line of their putts and a screen that shows the distance and trajectory and distance of a golf ball whacked full-swing into it.

It was a good wake-up call to see my best drive travelled only 250 yards, according to the Golfstream screen - a sign that as a lifelong golfer I'm due a few trips to the driving range (or Topgolf).

Male media members at the weekend event were offered a facial shave at MGM's spa on Saturday morning, where "Master Barber" Tony fixed up my beard in about 15 minutes. Tony, who has worked at the barber shop area of the spa since it opened two years ago, delivered a remarkably close and accurate shave, made enjoyable by a warm towel placed over shave recipients' face.

World-renowned DJ Steve Aoki then electrified thousands on hand at at MGM's Wet Republic pool for the better part of nearly three hours under sunny skies and perfect temperatures hovering around 75 degrees. Aoki's set list included hit songs "Delirious," "Back to Earth" and "Just Hold On" in front of the sold-out pool crowd.

After a three-hour break, Hakkasan's restaurant served a one-of-a-kind, four course meal that included dishes like Chilean seabass, roasted duck and ribeye steak cooked and flavored with a modest combination of exotic ingredients like Chinese honey and Chinese mustard.

The most curious and delicious item came for dessert: black sesame and chocolate dumplings infused with ginger yuzu.

"I don't know what just happened, but it was incredible," one of the guests at the 20-person table said after trying the chocolate-infused dumpling masterpiece.

From there, house music legend Tiesto dazzled a sold-out crowd of light-up wristband toting fans at Hakkasan's nightclub bounced through hits like "Red Lights," "Split," "Lethal Industry" and "Secrets."

The Hakkasan anniversary weekend experience also offered a handful of attendees a look at MGM's new "Stay Well" suites, which offer an air purification system not found in other rooms, custom "aromatherapy" room scents, a special memory foam mattress and shower heads pushing out liquid Vitamin C, which is infused with tap water before it leaves the rooms' shower heads, to neutralize chlorine and other chemicals found in that water.