In a city filled with celebrity chef restaurants, I found better places to eat

James Trees is something of a freak, even for Las Vegas. Take a look around when you’re walking the infamous Strip: the Hawaiian-shirted gamblers, the no-shirted partygoers, the buffed-up gym junkies, the plasticised glamour-seekers. No shortage of characters.

And yet still, Trees stands out, because he is none of those things. He’s a local.

Trees grew up in Las Vegas, and still lives in Las Vegas. In one of the world’s most transient cities, particularly in the hospitality industry, where employees are often here for a good time not a long time, Trees has stuck it out his entire life.

Perhaps that’s why you won’t find him, most days at least, anywhere near the unchecked hedonism of the Strip. Instead you are most likely to discover Trees on the corner of East California Avenue and South Main Street, apron tied, baseball cap on, banging pans and calling orders behind the heat lamps at Esther’s Kitchen.

Trees is a chef, one of a band of Vegas locals on a mission to change the perception of this city’s culinary offerings. To so many who just call through this place for a few days on a gambling-fuelled holiday, dining in Las Vegas is all about celebrity names in overly expensive casino-based venues, the likes of Gordon Ramsay’s suite of eateries, Nobu at its own hotel, Pronto by Giada, Cut by Wolfgang Puck.

Indeed, I’m visiting the city because it’s playing host to a glittering awards night for the World’s 50 Best Restaurants announcement, an event packed with some of the biggest names in food from around the globe.

But is that all this city has to offer? High-priced cuisine by people who don’t even live here?

The answer, obviously, is no. But you do have to steer clear of the Strip. You do have to get in a taxi or an Uber and ride about 10 minutes north to the Arts District, a formerly shabby, unloved area near Downtown, where a series of culinary venues is creating a buzz among locals and visitors alike.

Esther’s Kitchen leads the way with its original, high-quality take on home-cooked Italian cuisine.

Trees bakes his own sourdough loaves and serves them with various things to smear or dip: burrata and basil; anchovy butter with capers; cannellini beans with lardo. He makes pizzas on three-day-proved sourdough bases. He serves casarecce pasta with crab, nduja and lemon; or Apulian lamb shoulder in white wine, orange, fennel and parsley.

This is cooking from the heart, food with soul. Not a celebrity chef in sight.

But take a stroll around the Arts District, today baking beneath an almost-summer sun, and you discover many similar purveyors of fine, tasty things.

There’s a sign on a blackboard outside a shop just a few doors down: “We have gamay.” This is Garagiste Wine Room, the passion project of sommelier Eric Prato, who is all in on the current trend towards light, juicy, fruity wines from the Beaujolais region of France.

Prato took a chance, opening Garagiste in the Arts District. Back then it was mostly just him and Trees fighting the good fight, trying to draw tourists away from the Strip, and locals away from Downtown.

But the bar’s offering of a lovingly curated wine list – focusing on low-intervention, small-batch wines from Europe and the US – and the fact everything is available to drink either on site or take home with you, plus a few well-chosen bites to eat, has proved irresistible.

The neighbourhood is flourishing now, home to “Brewery Row”, a group of six craft breweries and two tap houses scattered throughout the area; Velveteen Rabbit is here too, another early arrival in the Arts District, a cocktail bar run by Las Vegas locals Christina and Pamela Dylag; with plenty more coffee shops, barbecue joints, art galleries, fashion boutiques and more spread around.

But we’re here to eat, so it’s time to move on, because the true Las Vegas food scene, the legit Las Vegas food scene, doesn’t just exist in the Arts District. It’s also a little further south, at a strip mall on West Sahara Avenue.

Vegas’s best restaurants aren’t always where you would expect them. There’s a dry cleaner here on West Sahara, a cheap takeaway sandwich shop, a cigar seller (We Ship Worldwide!) and a gigantic billboard spruiking a local defence attorney. And between them all sits the Golden Steer, the second-oldest restaurant in Las Vegas – opened in 1958 – and plenty would say still its most glamorous.

This is a steakhouse with history: Frank Sinatra used to dine here in the ’60s with his Rat Pack buddies; Elvis Presley was a regular; Marilyn Monroe had a favourite table; various mafia members held meetings in the private dining room.

The restaurant has entered a new era under new owners Amanda Signorelli and Nick McMillan, but the leather booths still feature photos of the celebrities who once favoured them, and the steaks are still a premium product. You may not find any world-renowned singers or notorious mafia members lurking, but really, that’s OK, isn’t it?

This is the great thing about the Las Vegas dining scene: it isn’t just the new restaurants that are drawcards for foodies. Plenty of the classics have upped their game, too.

Ferraro’s Ristorante has been serving Italian-American fare to the masses since 1985, but has been reinvigorated recently by second-generation chef Mimmo Ferraro. The Peppermill is a down-home diner that’s been serving early morning bloody Marys to Las Vegas hospitality staff since 1972, but has had a surge in popularity thanks to its kitschy fit-out and walls-could-talk history

And plenty of legends have remained true to their roots.

The next stop on my all-singing, all-binging journey through Vegas’s outer reaches is just at the northern end of the Strip, once again surrounded by pawnbrokers and T-shirt shops and discount liquor stores: Tacos el Gordo. No one writes about this place when they mention the city’s best eateries because it’s not cool, it’s not glamorous – it’s barely even comfortable.

The company has been in business since 1972, and specialises in Tijuana-style tacos. That means cabeza, or meat from a cow’s head; tongue; tripe; or good old grilled pork with pineapple salsa.

You order by standing in line in front of the cook who makes your taco filling of choice. Want several tacos? Join several queues. Pair it with a Mexican soft drink and grab a seat in a plastic-covered booth, where you can enjoy some of the tastiest, most shockingly complex and sophisticated flavours this side of the border.

There are Mexican restaurants in the casinos, too. They charge an outrageous amount of money for far worse fare. And you’re surrounded there by Vegas’s more predictable freaks.

The details

When
Las Vegas is a year-round destination, though uncomfortably hot from May to September – winter is best.

Stay
The Palazzo at The Venetian Resort is a five-star property that provides easy access to the restaurants mentioned in this story, with rooms from $520 a night. See venetianlasvegas.com

Dine
Esther’s Kitchen is open daily for lunch and dinner; see estherslv.com. Garagiste Wine Room is open every evening; see garagistelv.com. Velveteen Rabbit is open every night; see velveteenrabbitlv.com. The Golden Steer is open every night; see goldensteer.com. And Tacos el Gordo is open for lunch and dinner daily; see tacoselgordobc.com

The writer travelled as a guest of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. See lvcva.com

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