Time again to fill up on local food news.
👏 Upcoming Food Festivals
This weekend’s Greek Festival (deets below) kicks off a fall season plump with Vegas food fests. Johnathan L. Wright helps you mark your calendar. [Review-Journal]
🥘 Speaking of Festivals …
If you plan to venture into the hipster containment zone known as Life is Beautiful, Eater Vegas has some suggestions about what to eat. Just avoid the puddles of beard oil! [Eater Vegas]
👎 A Dissenting Viewpoint
On Monday, I included Cottonwood Station in a rundown of Blue Diamond’s high points. A reader who lives out there demurs. “We have stopped frequenting that business,” they write. “They often don’t have the staff to accommodate simple/basic orders, and they have a 30- to 60-minute gap between breakfast and lunch where customers have to stand around and wait. Also, the staff are not very friendly or welcoming.” The more you know.
📜 Another Day, Another National Food List …
… That Las Vegas isn’t on: Bon Appetit’s rundown of 2023’s best restaurants. Nor does the city figure into the mag’s tally of best single dishes or desserts. [Bon Appetit]
A year ago, I asked local food writers why lists like this ignore Vegas. A sampling of the replies:
John Curtas: “Unfortunately, the reputation of the Strip (as a bastion of tourist-soaking celebrity chefs) hurts the efforts of neighborhood restaurants in their efforts to garner national recognition.”
Jonathan L. Wright: “Las Vegas' culinary origin as a cheap buffet and steak-and-eggs town still colors opinions of the city, as does the current reputation (some of it deserved) for excess. Many food writers look down on both.”
Kim Foster: “What the hell does New York know about Las Vegas?”
