Las Vegas does food better than any place on Earth.

From a simple shrimp cocktail to a banquet for thousands, our hospitality industry is legendary. That legend has grown during the past two decades to include scores of the world’s greatest restaurants. An argument can be made that because of the breadth and depth of our culinary offerings, we are, alongside New York, the greatest restaurant city on the planet. If any other city in the world had our concentration of great restaurants and chefs, everyone from the captains of industry to ordinary citizens would be shouting about it from rooftops. As it is, despite all of this world-class quality, much of the known food-centric universe who could and should be beating a path to our delicious door never hear about it. They don’t hear about it because, in a classic case of the tail wagging the dog, Las Vegas’ marketing machines have failed to keep pace with the extraordinary changes that have occurred ever since Wolfgang Puck took the bold step of opening Spago in the Forum Shops in December 1992. But the fact is, no place in the world has such a unique food and beverage product to sell, and nowhere sells so much of it against such a stunning backdrop.

You name it, we’ve got it: More master sommeliers than New York, more great steakhouses anywhere but the Big Apple and more extraordinary French chefs anywhere but Paris. Do London, Chicago, San Francisco, New York or Los Angeles have two Joël Robuchon restaurants plus a Guy Savoy plus Alain Ducasse plus a Pierre Gagnaire outlet? Nope. Does anywhere but here have a concentration of 50—50!—world-class eateries along a two-mile stretch of road? Not even close. How many cities can boast the best of Wolfgang Puck, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse? None. But outside of food professionals, writers and intrepid foodies, precious few seem to know the depth and scope of what’s going on along Las Vegas Boulevard. Even the hotels, both individually and collectively, seem behind the croissant curve when it comes to crowing about the phenomenon that has taken the food world by storm.

As cataclysmic as Spago’s opening proved to be, it took a few years for its seismic effects to be felt. Shortly thereafter, in 1994, the MGM Grand moved our epicurean needle forward, when it brought Mark Miller (Coyote Café), Emeril Lagasse and Charlie Trotter on board. But it was only when Steve Wynn opened the Bellagio in 1998 that the gastronomic ground shook under the High Mojave Desert and the whole world felt the shudder. Continue reading “Restaurant City U.S.A. – in VEGAS INC”