Food ‘Zine Frenzy

If you’re reading this, it means you are among 42.9 million Americans who visited a food-related Web site in the past month. And if you’re a big fan of Everyday with Rachel Ray — and let’s face it who isn’t — you are part of a 6.2% jump in her magazine sales recently. Jumping into the thick of this cornucopia of food ‘zines comes Food Network Magazine, a joint venture between Scripps Network Interactive and Hearst Publishing. It becomes the latest among 336(!) food magazines currently available in Amerika. With an initial publication run of just two(?) issues, ELV thinks its chances for success are about as great as his are of ever doing this.

Read all about this plethora of palate-pleasing periodicals here.

EL SOMBRERO Has A New Sign

El Sombrero on Main Street (circa 1950) has a bright new sign painted on its exterior wall. This would hardly be news but for the fact that The Big Hat is Las Vegas’s oldest restaurant. It still has the same cheap prices though (pegged to 1980 these days instead of the We Like Ike era), plus some of the best salsas, chile colorado, chile verde, menudo, huevos con chorizo, service, sopapillas and smiling, satisfied customers in town.

And we’ve never noticed after eating here maybe a hundred times over the years, but apparently Chef Jose Aragon (a Vietnam vet who took over the restaurant in 1970) also used to be a bull fighter…or perhaps he just likes groovy old Spanish posters.