This Just In: Tom Sietsema Eats Las Vegas While Dave Berns Tries To Chew Up ELV
ELV, as our usual, self-aggrandizing self, can’t let two recent media events go unreported on this site.
So in case you missed them: here is uber-food writer’s Tom Sietsema’s recent article in the Washington Post about his recent trip to our humble burg….
…and here is the link to today’s State Of Nevada interview on Nevada Public Radio, wherein we go toe to toe with uber-news guy Dave Berns over the state of our restaurants, dining out, Strip v. neighborhood dining, and the impact Top Chef (Las Vegas) — premiering tonight on Bravo — will have on our tourism.
Ever the contrarian, Berns challenged us at the end of the ten minute interview about all the food (and chef and restaurant) falderol being just an elitist, esoteric phenomenon (a fair enough question) that has little relevance in these tough economic times.
And in our usual refined, restrained, and dignified style, we then proceeded to (try to) beat him like a drum.
But he was gracious enough to let us have the last word…
Restaurant reviews, quips, picks and pans-with some seriously salivating history-from the man who eats his way through Sin City every day.
August 20th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Yes, you smacked down Dave Berns pretty well. Still, I want to add something that I wish Dave had said. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to the type of food we take for granted. I can see where he was going when he talked about people not being able to afford dinner at a Strip restaurant or grocery shopping at Whole Foods, but I wish he had gone farther on food inequality. Believe it or not, there are many millions of people in inner city neighborhoods across the country that do rely on convenience stores and fast food because of financial issues, company politics (not wanting to build grocery stores in these areas), and transit limitations. It’s something I wish we’d talk about more whenever we start lecturing poor people about how fat and unhealthy they are.
OK, enough of me on my political soapbox for now. ;-)
August 21st, 2009 at 12:38 pm
John curtas,
The more I listen to your garble, the more I like your style. You stood well to the devil advocate (Dave Berns), saying yes, the public should be buying brocolli instead of frozen pizzas, and supporting local restaurants instead of applebees, chilis etc. Way to go. I believe you are a culinarian at heart and have matured through the pass year. Sometimes you act like you invented or are king of the dining scene like the critic on ratatouille, but most of us do have an egotistical way when were passionate. Keep rocking and dont hold back the punches buddy.
August 21st, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Anytime anyone starts going off on the elitism of our food scene should think about the elitism of professional sports, fine arts or any other kind of rarefied activity. Yes it’s easy to scoff and say “what about the regular folks who can’t afford such things”. Perhaps they should stop and assess the economic impact of professional sports, serious restauranteurs and movie stars and the like. If I brought millions of dollars of value to my business, employed hundreds of regular people in multiple cities and created intellectual property worth fighting over . . . it wouldn’t seem like such a dalliance. In fact, you start dissing the food scene and essentially you are dissing the incredible collective achievement of working men and women across the country. John – you did great on the show.
August 22nd, 2009 at 5:34 pm
franco-
Good point. I agree with you and Mr. ELV on the real importance of our food scene. Now I can’t read Dave Berns’ mind and figure out where he was trying to go with his questions on Wednesday. I’ll just say that I’m disturbed by the increasing food inequality in this country and how working poor families (including a number of formerly middle-class families facing more economic hardship) can’t enjoy the types of food we take for granted. It may take too long to ride the bus to Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s (if they can access RTC service at all), and of course they may not be able to afford what they’d call “luxuries” that we deem necessary (rightly so).
Again, I wish the federal government would address this problem by stopping their subsidizing of the “agribusiness” conglomerates, stop paying them to destroy crops to artificially inflate prices, and support the small, local family farmers who would like to sell their produce (more of them are going organic, btw) and expand their market presence.
Oops, I did it again! I can’t help it. My political soapbox goes with me wherever I go. ;-)