89102 Travel Guide
Tags: Bars / Locals Vegas / Off the Strip / → All Tags
Beware of the Cellar Lounge, Its Charms Could Keep You There Through the Night
Serendipity--the feeling, not just the ice cream shop at Caesars-- can be a good thing, case in point - the Cellar Lounge. It’s the kind of basement bar just west of the Strip that you may have discovered while driving past it, curious of its interior, but may never had the time to step and take a look - and that’s where we come in. The bar's name states just what you’re going to get with this place - a cellar, an underground bar that gets to the business at hand, smart bartenders serving affordable cocktails in an atmosphere that we like to call...festive.
It’s a hideaway for sure, with a nice courtyard patio in the back of the building to grab some fresh air if things feel a touch crowded inside. The interior is sparse but still inviting and thankfully, they didn't go overboard with any sports memorabilia.
As for the mix of people here, there are tourists who took a 10 minute cab ride from the Strip, divorcees looking for a new lease on life, casino workers trying to unwind, or literature majors who just want to hang and observe.
Tags: Strip Malls / Donuts / Locals Vegas / → All Tags
Even 'Jesus' Hangs Out at The Spring Mountain Plaza Strip Mall
In keeping up with our hip credibility, we continue to strive for those out of the way places that are not too ubiquitous, and that normally means some interesting mom and pops and a few offbeat minor chains. Now we do understand that with rising gas prices and our ever dwindling spare time, it’s hard to roll off the couch and head out to that one quirky store or restaurant. Instead, we will again recommend a keen, under the radar "Low-Fi" strip malls that just you’ll most likely find amusing.
Spring Mountain Plaza at Spring Mountain Road & Decatur Boulevard.
Just up a few blocks west from Chinatown and generally just a 15 minute drive west from the Strip is the Spring Mountain Plaza, a contagiously fun little strip mall that’s quite popular on a daily basis. It suffers from an unbelievable tight parking area, but those in the know will seek out Ronald’s Donuts (702.873.1032).
Tags: Special Events / Palace Station / Belly Dancing / → All Tags
An Alternative to the Three-Point Stance: Belly Dancing
Ladies, looking for an alternative to all the NFL hoopla that will be consuming much of The Strip this weekend? The Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive & Festival will be wiggling and jiggling through the weekend over at Palace Station and the Clark County Library Theater.
Billed as “an event that serves to promote & celebrate the full spectrum of belly dancing-from Oriental to Tribal, from Folkloric to Fusion,” the festival sounds like it could be a truly eye-opening thing to behold. It started yesterday, but there are numerous events with space still available.
Tags: Shopping / Secret Vegas / Showgirls / → All Tags
Indulge Your Showgirl Fantasies at Rainbow Feathers
Of course there’s a shop like Rainbow Feathers & Crafts in Las Vegas. Even if you didn’t think of it until this moment, your subconscious knew it had to be here. Because, in addition to being able to support those shops on West Sahara Avenue that purvey all kinds of stripperwear, this town would have an abiding need for all things flouncy and feathered.
Rainbow Feathers & Crafts is located downtown on Main Street, which is technically in the Vegas’ Arts District neighborhood. Perhaps for that reason, it’s the feather’s artsy potential rather than its kitschy glamour that’s emphasized; the store’s slogan is “Welcome to a World of Crafts and Gifts.”
Tags: Food / Charity / Cheesecake Factory / Henderson / → All Tags
This Weekend: Eat Cake and Help End Hunger
Timed perfectly to coincide with Restaurant Week, The Cheesecake Factory’s "Drive Out Hunger Tour" will make a stop in Las Vegas this Saturday, September 5th.
Teaming up with Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief charity, The Cheesecake Factory will be giving away a free slice of Stefanie's Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake in exchange for a donation of two cans of soup.
In case you aren’t privy to the deliciousness of this slice, it layers Red Velvet Cake and Original Cheesecake with Cheesecake Factory cream cheese frosting. For future mental note: if you dine at the restaurant, 25¢ from the sale of each slice is donated to Feeding America.
Tags: Classic Vegas / Restaurants / Golden Steer / Steakhouses / → All Tags
Golden Steer Makes List of 'Must-Visit Classic Restaurants'
With a half-century-plus in operation, the Golden Steer is doubtlessly one of Las Vegas’ oldest restaurants. It’s a novelty destination for a lot of locals and frequent visitors for its swanky, old-school atmosphere if not the stellar cuisine.
Don’t get us wrong: it’s not bad at all, but with so many uber-chefs opening up cutting-edge, contemporary steakhouses in town, the Steer’s fare can seem by comparison a little – oh, shall we say – fusty.
The restaurant, which is located in a tiny strip mall on Sahara Avenue just west of the intersection with Las Vegas Boulevard, has just earned recognition by the restaurant editor of Bon Appetit magazine for being one of 10 “must-visit classic restaurants” in the September issue. He says:
For a taste of vanishing Vegas, you can’t beat this steakhouse (circa 1958) where an order of Caesar salad, New York strip and multiple Martinis would make Sinatra proud.
Tags: Food / Summer Relief / Local Hangouts / Capriotti's / → All Tags
Capriotti's Sandwich Shop :: Vegas' Best, Hands Down
Vegas is known for three main qualities amongst its accessible fast foods: cheap, big, fast. Unfortunately, quality sometimes gets lost in the scrum. Among those victims: sandwiches. Finding solid tastes between two pieces of bread just isn't an easy task in Vegas, a city known for a lot of things, but simple specifics (like subs) not being one of them. They're often relegated to chains like Subway or Port O' Subs, and left for dead (tastes). Unless you know better.
Enter Capriotti's Sandwich Shop, the first (and last) word on sammies in Vegas. Even better is that - since arriving to town in the early 90's, and locals consequently going craving-crazy over their gluten masterpieces - there're now plenty of locations in the Valley. Ground zero, however, is on Sahara, just west of the Strip, where low-key business lunching is a sport. But what makes them so good?
Tags: Summer Relief / Chinatown / Boba Tea / DNA Snack House / → All Tags
It’s Boba Tea, Not Bubble Tea!
One of the grooviest kinds of relief you can have if those temperatures get too high is a delicious rush of boba tea. Some of you might refer to it as bubble tea, and either way, the effects they have to revive you on a frustratingly hot day are considerable.
Those tea drinks, which were originated in Taiwan, are referred to by those chewy little pearls (or tapioca balls) at the bottom of the cup, and while you can find a boba tea spot anywhere in town, but the best of them can be found around Chinatown.
Located just east of Las Vegas Boulevard on Spring Mountain Road, Las Vegas’s Chinatown (C-Town or A-Street as locals call it) is actually a long stretch of Asian shopping malls, retail shops, restaurants and boba tea spots that cover at least three miles from Valley View and extending out to Rainbow Boulevard.
Tags: Supermarkets / Brits / British Grocers / → All Tags
Where Do the Brits in Town Go For Some Kippers?
The numbers for ex-pat Brits living in Sin City are hard to come by, given the transient nature of Las Vegas and that there's no definitive census taken for that purpose. However, with many social organizations in town that cater to those who grew up under the Union Jack, there is a ballpark figure, and they put it well into five figures (i.e. at least 10,000) and with that readers, means there has to be a store to cater their across the pond needs - and that is where British Grocers comes into place.
Now here is a store that caters to all the Brits, and the devoted anglophiles needs. You want proof? They have sausage rolls, bangers, meat pies, Devon cream (if you never had, ‘tis a pity), digestive biscuits (we call ‘em cookies), kippers and much more. Also, if you are the kind who is into ersatz British kitsch, then why not buy a Union Jack apron, or a Queen Elizabeth II alarm clock, because it is not uncommon to find such cute knick knacks in here.
