I'm Christopher Kimball, and this is a special episode of Milk Street Radio in collaboration with our sponsor, Las Vegas. Today's show, it's my big night out in Vegas with Al Mancini. You might remember Al from the live episode we did in Las Vegas last year. He's a food journalist and host of the podcast Food and Loathing. He also runs the Vegas restaurant guide Neon Feast. Coming up, Al and I eat the Vegas dish you need to try right now. I got a nickname. They call me a duck master.
If you give me a duck, I'll make it magical and make something happen. We also visit a bar unlike anything I'd ever seen. So the whole concept behind our bar is that we're sitting here inside of a sunken pirate ship. A dog pirate ship, mind you. And that's all later in the show. But first... We're venturing beyond the Las Vegas Strip to downtown, and that's where we found Atomic Liquors, our first stop of the night. Al wanted to meet me here for a very special taste of Vegas history. You know...
One thing I love about Las Vegas is it covers the full gamut. You have the big casinos and the strip, and then you have downtown. I'm looking at the sign right now for... Atomic liquors, cocktails, package liquors, cold beer. You know, it's a dive bar, but it's an incredibly charming dive bar with a long history.
The first thing I notice is it says dress code enforced, which really makes me feel at home, right? Because in Boston, that would mean coat and tie. Unfortunately, here it doesn't. It says bikers, no colors allowed, including jackets, vests, and t-shirts. Thank you. So I guess... dress code here is a little different than dress code in Boston. So let's go ahead and get a drink.
So the first thing is I can't see anything because it was really bright outside. And this is really dark in here. You can almost see nothing. So I'll stumble my way to the back. Long L-shaped bar. And there's my guide, Al Mancini. Al, how are you? Good to see you. Welcome. Yeah, it's been a long time. Been a few minutes, man. It's great to have you back in Las Vegas. Well...
We need to talk and have a drink, not necessarily in that order, maybe. I've got to show you a different type of Las Vegas. You know, last time you were here, I was telling you, there's a lot of different sides to this town, so we're going to go out and see a few of them tonight.
Well, the reason I'm back is you talked a good game last time. Now we're going to find out. See if I can actually come through, huh? Okay. Deliver, okay. So let's go back to 1950 because I was doing a little research on this. They were blowing up in the atmosphere like a hundred nuclear tests a year or something, which is crazy. And actually, people used to advertise to come to Vegas to watch.
these things go off, right? And now we're sitting at Atomic Liquors. So tell me about that, because that's just like, people would get up early in the morning and you'd look out your hotel window and watch a nuclear blast. Is that what was going on? Yeah, I feel like in those days, the way we all want to get a... view out of our hotel window to see the sphere right now right it's like the big same thing back then they wanted to see a mushroom cloud
to be a big tourist attraction. People thought there was nothing cooler than watching a mushroom cloud. And this actually became the first licensed liquor distributor in the state of Nevada. They got the first license to sell takeout package goods. 00001. 001, yeah.
So, you know, that's pretty amazing, and it has a fantastic history. They embrace the dive bar aspect of it, but they do it as a good dive bar with really great craft beers, with high-quality spirits. They know how to make a cocktail. So the other thing I like is famous entertainers used to come down from this trip after they're done.
and hang out here, right? Yeah, I mean, we know that the Rat Pack used to hang out here. We know that Barbra Streisand used to hang out here. I think it's probably a lot more than we know about because this is the kind of place where people, even if they're famous, they want to sink into a corner. They want to just not be noticed by anybody. They want to hang out. And this is just a classic one that went on for decades and decades. Somewhere I read that Lauren Bacall was the one who
came up with the term Rat Pack, I think. Yeah, and I believe that that was back when Bogart was the unofficial leader of the Rat Pack, and that's, I guess, what they looked like when they came home from a night of partying. And someone else said, I read that...
that Dean Martin sometimes would be sipping a drink and turn out to be apple juice. Now, what was that story? That's the story about Dean, because Dean Martin was the notorious drunk of the Rat Pack. And when they would play their big shows during the Ocean's Eleven days...
they're partying at night, you know, they're doing all that, and they're performing at the Old Sands. And Dean apparently always seemed like he was drunk when he came out. And then the stories that were released years and years later is, he was sipping apple juice, yeah.
Well, he was a great actor, I guess. Yeah. So, yeah, I guess shooting Ocean's Eleven, the original, they would shoot just a few hours a day and they... half their lines were just ad-libbed or something it was not a very controlled set right not at all it was meant to be a party it was meant to be a way for the rat pack to really kind of redefine who they were right the rat pack were trying to take dominance again
over Las Vegas in those Rat Pack days. Sinatra knew that he was sort of being edged out by Elvis, by the Beatles. And he sort of set up shop in Vegas to be that bastion of the old school. And of course, Elvis eventually followed him here to do. But that was really Sinatra's way of making one last grab of a place that he really owned the town.
Welcome to Atomic Guys. My name is Dean. How are you today? Hey, Dean. How are you? I'm fantastic. Good to see you. So, before the drinks, I need a quick tour. Absolutely. Well, this is Atomic Liquors. It's the oldest freestanding bar in downtown Las Vegas. Opened up in 1947 as originally as a cafe 1952 they decided to switch over and add a bar to it There's tons of cool history in this place
I think I heard you guys saying the Rat Pack hung out here. Hunter S. Thompson, of course, who wrote Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, he hung out and drank Old Crow whiskey here. We actually found a bottle of his... from 1976. So I think that's actually the best place to start. It's right down on the end here. So what do we got? This is our little memorabilia wall here. We've got a few fun things. This is one of the bottles that was here for Hunter S. Thompson. You can see though.
Big heavy bottle, the old tax stamp on there. So that's one of the cool things. We've got some Geiger counters up here. These actually were at the test site. There was a gentleman in town who worked at the test site. And he brought us these. So these are all authentic from there. So the legend of Atomic is that they picked up the name Atomic Liquors in the 50s during the days of the nuclear testing. The testing happened about 70 to 80 miles north of here. The blasts were so big.
you absolutely could have seen them from downtown Vegas. So this was a place that a lot of the locals would come. A lot of those blasts happened about three, four o'clock in the morning when it was pitch black out. So they'd come in, they'd have a party, they'd go up on the roof, they'd hang.
and then about 3 a.m. the bomb goes off and then the party's over and you go home. So just some of the cool little things. We have a few others, little ones on the other side. We'll go around and show you those. So this chair right here with the blue star on the back is not for the Dallas Cowboys. This is in honor of Barbra Streisand. This is what we like to call Babs chair. It's positioned here for a very specific reason.
You'll look across where you'll see our beer taps right here. On the other side of that beer tap was an office, and there was a desk right there, and there was a window that passed through between the office and the outside area. And Barbara Stratizen would sit in this chair.
and she would talk to the owner's wife through the window of the office right there. So that's why specifically this is Barbara Streisand's chair because she would hang out here and talk to the owner all day. Dean, thank you. There's one thing missing, which is my cocktail. Let's rectify that. What do you like to drink? Old-fashioned is really my...
Virtually only drink. Oh, absolutely. We'll make you a great old-fashioned. We do a lot of great cocktails here. We do a very good old-fashioned. We have a couple signature cocktails that we do, our Hunter S. Smash. I like to describe it as a bourbon-y mojito. So anything you like, we'll do both. We can make you an old-fashioned.
sure bourbon or rye uh half bourbon half rye okay that's that's how i like it sorry no no problem i'm difficult however you like it that's how i want to make it absolutely so We are making our old-fashioned, very classic style. We start with our orange peel. We're going to hit it with a little bit of bitters. We do a little bit of a rich demerara syrup. It's like a dark sugar syrup that we make. Muddle it up.
Get those essential oils out of the orange peel. And then we want to add ice and basically just stir it to dilute. Thank you, sir. Excellent. Yeah, things are looking up now. Here is to a savage journey into the heart of the American dream, my friend. Mmm, that's good. Oh, good. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thank you very much. Really well done. We take a lot of pride in our cocktails here. So, let's talk about something.
First of all, when I do an old fashion, I do something you hate. Okay. So we're going to have a fight now. Did I guess? You put an orange wedge in it and a cherry. No, I do not do that. You top it with soda, Wisconsin style. No, I don't do that. I shake it in a shaker. And I knew you were going to pass that. You hurt my heart. Now, the reason is...
I like a little dilution. Someone told me if you're at over 85% proof that it's hard to taste all the other flavors. So a little dilution is good. And also it's cold. It makes it a little more tolerable. Every bartender I've ever spoken to said, if you ever shake in old fashion, you need to leave now. Dean, thank you. This place is phenomenal.
In my not-so-humble opinion, I think that's the best bar in the city. If you come to Las Vegas, come to Atomic Liquors. That's my little commercial for this place, by the way. Thank you so much. We appreciate you guys coming to hang out with us. So there were a lot of movies shot here. It was a Scorsese movie, right?
Well, Casino actually set up here at Atomic. They used it as an office, as a production office while they were shooting. The building in the back over there, they shot some scenes in. I believe they shot some scenes right where we're sitting. But it is fun to watch that movie.
You could do a whole trip to Las Vegas only eating and drinking in places that you saw in a casino. It's like going to Salzburg and doing the Sound of Music tour, I suppose. You could just go to Piero's and you could go to the Plaza and you could come here.
but this is one of the coolest places because it's not just used as a set piece, but it's actually where the creative people were hanging out doing a lot of the work. Okay, so we've had a first drink or two, and now we're on to get something to eat. So what's next?
Well, you know, we were talking a bit about, you know, Las Vegas having a lot of signature dishes. And I came up with one that I think is a little, it's not what you would have expected, right? So I'm going to take you out. We're going to go over to Fountain Blue and we're going to go into China Club. This is not steak, obviously. It ain't steak and it ain't shrimp cocktail. I'll tell you that. You got to do a little of everything when you come to Vegas. After you, sir.
That was Atomic Liquors with bartender Dean Howard. You're listening to a special episode of Milk Street Radio sponsored by Las Vegas. Next up, we're leaving downtown for the Strip. And we're going from one of Vegas's oldest spots to something brand new, Coat at the Venetian Resort, which opens later this year. Simon Kim came to Vegas for college to study hospitality. He'd always dreamed of working in restaurants and hotels.
Years later, he started Coat. It's part Korean barbecue and part American steakhouse. And by the way, it's the only steakhouse in New York City with a Michelin star. When I created Coat as a concept... The DNA of Las Vegas was always there. The darkness, the loud music, the neon signs. And sometimes people are like, hey, Simon, you have a club restaurant. And I'm like...
You want to see a club restaurant? Wait until we open code Las Vegas. Whenever we open a new branch, it's so important that we don't just bring what we have been doing to a new place. For Las Vegas we have made a sandwich that's to be served in the bar so it's exclusive to Las Vegas and we call it the Blackjack It is Japanese A5 Wagyu ribeye grilled topped with generous amount of black truffle in a milk toast. This is going to be a showstopper.
We have amazing food that you would expect from a Michelin star restaurant, but we never lost the fun and fire of Korean barbecue that's so unique, where you can go in with your bros or girls night out or friends. So as the world's first Korean steakhouse that's Michelin star, what we're going to bring to Las Vegas is something nobody has ever seen before.
I always yearn to go back to Las Vegas and to be able to bring back my own restaurant, to bring it back to where it all started. It really feels like a homecoming. So get ready, Las Vegas. That was Simon Kim, founder of Coat. This is a special episode of Moe Street Radio sponsored by Las Vegas. You know, most cities have a signature dish, something you have to try when you visit.
For Vegas, that dish is always evolving. The dish you need to try right now in Vegas is elegant. It's a show-stopping spectacle, but it's also steeped in tradition. I'm talking about Peking duck. Al and I got to try some of the very best Peking duck in Vegas, prepared for us by the legendary chef, Richard Chen. Here's our next stop, China Club. Okay, we're...
fresh from the Atomic Liquor store, bar. And what's next? Yeah, well, welcome, man. Welcome to the Fountain Blue, Las Vegas' biggest and newest and craziest attraction here on the Strip. And I wanted to take you here to China Club. one of their high-end restaurants. It's just, it's beautiful. So from a dive bar to very high-end. Is it the Fountain Blue or is the Fontainebleu?
We all say Fountain Blue here. Fountain Blue. Okay, I just want to make sure I get that right. And they've got a great bar here. I don't know if you'll be able to get, you know, a Hunter S. Thompson signature cocktail, but they do have some great signature cocktails here. Hunter S. Smash. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So follow me. Let's go back to the bar.
Okay, so let's grab a seat at the bar, and Quincy is going to make you an amazing cocktail. Quincy, I'm here. Welcome. You're here. Welcome to China Club, yeah. Evidently, you probably have a signature drink or two. We do. Well, we definitely have the most unique cocktail program, I think, in Fountain Blue. And among the program, I think our staple is the Bloody China.
You'd be hard pressed to find another cocktail like that on a strip. And we call it a Bloody China because it's a riff on the Bloody Mary. But our Bloody China, it's more like drinking a martini, right? So it's a clarified version of a...
Bloody Mary, I want you to think about it almost like a second cousin removed from a Bloody Mary. It drinks really nice, really easy. You can have it in the morning, dinner, and you're going to feel good. All right, if I start making one for you? Well, it's not morning, but okay, I'll take your word for it. All right, yeah.
Yeah, it's probably put a lot of love, blood, sweat, and tears into this cocktail. It takes about two days to make this cocktail. So what we do is we get all the ingredients for Bloody Mary. And, you know, we chopped it up. Thai chilies, simple syrup, some lemon juice and a couple other fun stuff. We put it into a cambrough overnight and let it marinate so all the ingredients kind of dance with each other.
And then once it gets to the right flavor profile that we're looking for, we strain it through a coffee filter, maybe four or five different coffee filters, and it takes about another six, seven hours to do that. And then what you have left is a beautiful... martini style cocktail and that's our buddy China. Let me serve it up for you right now. This is a humongous martini glass with a humongous martini and it's stirred not shaken by the way.
And what's in there, it's actually, it looks like an olive, but it's actually called a tom olive. So it's a tomato olive. Oh, my God. That is really good. This is superb. It really is. I mean, it's got some heat to it, but it's just the right amount. Quincy, this may be the best cocktail I've ever had. I mean, I love my old fashions, but this is on another level. I'm glad to really be fortunate enough to show you something a little different.
to see you come again. I'm never going to make this at home. Every year I'm going to have to come back here. That's a good excuse to come back then. Yeah, it is. Great. Thanks, man. Pleasure meeting you, Chris. Take care. Unfortunately, cocktails are over. Now it's time for the kitchen. It's Chef Chen. It's Richard is your first name? Yes, Richard. I've seen a lot of restaurant kitchens.
This is the biggest and nicest I've ever seen. It's gorgeous. So I'm going to show you how we make our China Club famous Peking duck. China Club since we opened the Peking duck probably the top of the town. So I want to show you the secret how I put the pig and duck together. Follow me this way please. So first we're going to cook with the humidity.
hundred percent humidity trapped in the oven so it will cook internally of the duck and that last 20 minutes we're going to open up the chimney basically will be zero humidity in the oven So let all the steam go out, then it will crisp the duck nice and crispy.
Where did you start your career? You were in Taiwan initially? Yeah, I grew up with my parents in Taiwan. Then I moved to the state when I was 12 years old. I was in Chicago. So in Chicago, I grew up in an Asian kitchen with my dad. My dad was a chef. When I graduated from high school, I went to a culinary school in New York State High Park. I want to know the both sides of the world. What can we do? How can we take the Asian kitchen to the next level? This is my favorite kitchen of all time.
I kind of like to move in. I'm going to get a cot and a mattress. Anyway, time to go eat. So we're going to go head to the dining room. So, I've had my drink, and now the Peking duck has arrived. So the duck just came out from the oven. You see the color? Nice. caramelized color and the skin is a nice and crispy. So now I'm gonna start cutting the duck for you.
Now I can smell the aroma of the duck while carving it. Now I can smell all the spices of the five spices and star anise and there was cinnamon with the salt and you see the The duck is super juicy right now. Okay. The meat is just very super tender and juicy. I don't have to barely put any pressure on it. The meat just comes right off. I was 30 years in Chicago. I got a nickname. They call me a duck master.
Because a lot of times you see the duck on the menu is in the fall or the winter time. But I can use the duck all year round. So I can, you give me a duck, I'll make it magical, make something happen. So I'm going to let you start. trying this duck right now well i'm gonna these are ready for you thank you chef okay thank you thank you chef oh man
First bites, what are the thoughts, man? My first thought is the pancakes are super thin. They're usually much starchier. And the duck is nothing greasy or fatty about. No, and the skin's beautiful. Nice and crispy on the end there. It's just, the whole dish is just very, very delicate. There's so many flavors and they're so delicately balanced. And man, it works in this room, right, with the elegant golden kind of walls and the chandelier overhead. This is high-end dining.
I would say, though, when you eat something that's this good, you could be on the sidewalk on a Formica table enjoying it. Like, the room's fabulous, but it ultimately comes down to the food, and this food's great. Yeah, absolutely. fantastic food again peking duck you have to make it well you have to make it at an elevated level in las vegas and there are
There's a huge competition for the chefs who know how to do it well. And Chef Richard Chen, who's here doing it, I mean, he's been doing it in Las Vegas for a very, very long time. And he knows what he's doing with this dish. So this is just one of your, on your... List of top 10 signature dishes in Las Vegas. Give me a few others. And they don't have to be all highbrow either.
Yeah, and they're not all highbrow. You know, there are a lot of things that are just very, very Vegas to me. You know, you talked about steaks. You thought I was maybe going to bring you to a steakhouse, right? And of course, Las Vegas has some of the best steakhouses in the world. But for me, if you want to do a really... not too expensive steak in Las Vegas, you want to have a real experience, you go to Monamiga B.
In the Paris Hotel, you sit on their patio and you have steak frites. That is a Vegas experience. You've got the Bellagio fountains on the other side of the street. You've got people walking by. You've got all the energy of the strip. And they do steak frites. numerous ways. So if you, like in Paris, if you have steak frites, they have like six or seven cuts. Yes. So that you can choose your cut for this. Yeah, they do it that way and you can choose some different sauces.
from time to time, so that's fantastic. That, to me, is just such a Vegas experience. Yeah, steak frites, I don't know why it works, but it's one of the top 10 or 15 dishes, I think, in the world. It just works well. Just perfect. Okay, so what else? Beef Wellington made a huge comeback when Gordon Ramsay invaded Las Vegas. And there's plenty of places that you can get...
Great beef Wellington now in Las Vegas. But I like to do something a little different. I like to go to Carver Steak where they do the lobster and croat. So rather than doing the beef within the pastry shell, they do the lobster in that pastry shell. And I just absolutely love it. I think it's just, you know. They cover it.
with duxelles as well like you do in beef yeah exactly and then of course you take that off and you go in and it's like a lobster thermidor preparation but then to take that dough and just dip it in there and eat it it's One of my favorite dishes. You know what? Also, one thing that people love is the Oyster Bar at Palace Station.
They're open 24 hours a day, and people line up for three hours, four hours. It's their first stop off the plane when they get to Las Vegas. Is that just because the oysters are so good, or it's the other things they do with them?
It's just the experience, really. It's one of those things that you do. It's part of people's trip to Las Vegas. They wait for three hours, so somebody holds the space online, and the rest of the people go gamble. They make new friends. I would say that the food is very, very good there. but you're not really going there for the food. You're going there for that experience of bonding with people, standing online for hours.
So right now I'm going to present you some dessert we serve in China Club. So right in the middle right now you'll see the Japanese, it's called crown melon. The crown melon 20 years ago I was in Japan. I went to the supermarket and I calculated the price, holy cow, it's $125 a piece. When you take a piece, it's just sucking like honey. It tastes so sweet.
So I got only two left. I thought we might share one with you tonight. Thank you so much. Thanks, Chef. Well, thank you. So I'm very glad to meet you. Yes, very nice to meet you. Thank you. And by the way, this melon. is unbelievable. It's just so good. It's like the best fruit I've ever had in my life. This is sort of like Alice Waters who wants to serve you the perfect peach for dessert. This would be something as Chez Panisse.
Just a beautiful, perfect milk. This is like a honeydew on steroids. This is just phenomenal. Well, let's see. Peking duck and the hospitality was absolutely outstanding. Lovely. Lovely meal. Great place. Okay, so we've done Atomic Liquors. Now we've had a fancy meal here at Fountain Blue. You're still up for drinks tonight though, right, man?
We're just getting started. Okay, cool. I just want to make sure because I've got someplace in mind. I have a feeling we're going slightly down market after this. You couldn't go higher than this probably. It is. Yeah, it's almost impossible to go higher. But now we're going to live a little funky for our drinking tonight. Of course. Let's go.
That was China Club at the Fountain Blue Las Vegas with executive chef Richard Chen and bartender Quincy Palo. This is a special episode of Milk Street Radio sponsored by Las Vegas. While Chef Chen has his Peking duck, every chef has their own specialty. Within the shops at Crystal's in Las Vegas, world-famous chef Jose Andres launched Bizarre Mar.
There we visited head chef Daniela Romero, who shared with us her favorite dish. So everybody that goes into a carnival smells the funnel cake, fried batter. Powdered sugar on top. Very delicious. So we did our take on it. So it's a California roll on a seaweed funnel cake that is enjoyed in two bites. Chef Romero says the most exciting part about Bizarre Mar is actually going beyond recipes with their constantly changing menu.
So we started working with some vendors and their main shipment comes from Japan. So they have something called the amakase box, what I call a fisherman's box. It's basically what that fisherman have caught that day. The fun part of it is we don't know where we're going to get, like literally. our invoice says fish box, right? So once we open the fish box, we see the names and we see the fish and we've just come to push that fish box just because we as chefs get to learn something new.
really fast and honestly the servers have just loved learning the different selection of fish. just having that fun friday of hey guys this is a new fish look at it it's completely different this is what it tastes like you know learning all those things of how to best prepare it how to best get the flavors out. That is a Friday day, an entire day for me. We don't stick to one fish, so we try to be fair to Mother Nature and really represent her as best as possible.
That was Daniela Romero, head chef at Bizarre Mar. You're listening to a special episode of Milk Street Radio, sponsored by Las Vegas. Up next, Al wanted to bring me to a bar unlike anything I'd ever seen. So for a final stop... Here is Stray Pirate. So there's been a Twilight Zone transition. I've just gone from China Club in a private dining room, very high end. amazing chef and food. And now I'm sitting in a dark room with sharks going by the portals. And there's portraits of dogs all over.
What exactly are we doing here? Well, look, I hope you like pirates and I hope you like dogs because that's what this place is all about. This is Stray Pirate. We're one block off the main drag in the Arts District. This is one of the newest bars to come in down here. And it's just a very immersive...
of not quite a tiki bar, but it really channels that tiki theme. I mean, look, the beauty of Las Vegas is we have something for every audience. When you have a great mixologist like my friend Tater, who you're going to meet here. It becomes very immersive. It becomes about the alcohol and the room and the decor all taking you on a journey that really sets you aside from what you've probably thought the Las Vegas drinking experience was like your entire life.
Las Vegas to me 10 years ago, I would not think I'd be sitting in a... dog pirate bar and that's the beauty of this town right now you have to explore the neighborhoods and you will be blown away so look let me introduce you to one of the finest mixologist bartenders this town has to offer my friend tater here tater this is my Hey, welcome to Stray Pirate. My name is Chris Gutierrez. My friends lovingly call me Tater, and I'm here to show you around my place today. So this is a relatively new...
Bar, I guess. It hasn't been here since like 1948 or something. No, we just try to make it look like it's been here since 1748. But yeah, we've been here for just a little bit less than a year and a half. Looks really cool. You ready for a tour? Absolutely.
Can we just start with the portholes here with the ocean? So the whole concept behind our bar is that we're sitting here inside of a sunken pirate ship, and the portholes and the holes in the back bar kind of give us the illusion that we're in this. this sunken pirate ship that's in the bottom of the ocean. A dog pirate ship, mind you. So let's talk about the dogs. So these were actual dogs.
They're painted after real dogs, is that right? All the pups in the portraits are all our own, all the partners and investors. Right over here was mine, Tito, the captain of the ship. Sarge over there in the corner, Sarge the Schnauzer, he's who we're dedicated to. We have over here Ticker and Gordita and Steve down in the corner, as well as Archie hanging out here too.
So what's the backstory of the dogs in the pirate ship? So the story is that some pirates were sailing along searching for treasure and they got called into a cove and they were cursed and turned into dogs. and learning that the real treasure is not so much in the riches but in loyalty and camaraderie as we all know if you're a dog owner yourself.
Can we talk about what's going on in these portals here? Sure. So how did you assemble? It's kind of cool because you think it's just going to be a landscape and then every minute or so a shark goes by or something else. Yeah. How did you?
get all that put together? So it was all built in Unreal Engine. It's an entire world that these are viewpoints into so if you were to explore it it actually would be like a video game if you zoomed into the boat there's cannons on it it's everything in place in a 3d environment
And that these are just our little windows into the rest of it. Super cool. So we've done the tour. I've seen the dogs. I've seen the scorpion fish. And now it's time for, well, I guess to have a few drinks. Sounds great. Let's do it. Hey, so here we have arrived at the bar, got some menus for you to peruse, and I wanted to start making some drinks for you.
For starters, I'm going to go with a drink that we call the Get It Kraken. Is this Kraken like K-R-A-C-K-E-N? Exactly. Unleash it. We've got some great Thai food here in Las Vegas. And in the world of us having this pirate bar and being... able to draw from as many inspirations as possible. We made this drink with a combination of coconut, lime juice and lime leaf.
which you'll also find in tomkaw soup so it's a fun little like colada coconut variant cocktail that has some really fun nods to some awesome las vegas culinary culture also features of la cachaca which gives it a little bit of a grassier note it's definitely not the sweet colada cocktail that you're thinking of it's really well balanced with the lime and we use some calamansi which is a south pacific sort of a yeah citrus all right guys drink up
let's try it that you know what i love about this drink it's complicated like it has a lot of different layers to it has some sweet to it that's kind of got some savory to it like a great dish you know the 10th bite is as interesting as the first and i also like the little umbrella this is this is excellent really excellent thank you
So I do have a question. So instead of little umbrellas, which I love, would you have little dog umbrellas or pirate umbrellas? Or maybe you need... It's interesting that you say that. We actually put the umbrella, we kind of destroy it like it's a windblown umbrella. I love it. has alcohol in it but if you're getting a dry drink we keep the umbrella intact the umbrella tells the story well it basically an intact umbrella keeps the cocktail dry
So this is like asking Bob Dylan how he wrote all those songs. I'm going to ask you the same question. So you obviously are extraordinarily talented. So how do you come up with these ideas for these drinks? We call it liquid memories. I love eating Thai food here in Las Vegas. If you were to catch me after work, you know, Ocha, I think, right down the street, I think has one of the most heartfelt late night menus. They're serving Thai food that's made.
just as good at 5 in the morning as it is at 5 in the afternoon. So if you ever wanted to catch me post work at 2 or 3 a.m., you could probably find me there with a bowl of Tom Ka. And it's really just taking these experiences that I've had in my life and holding on. onto them and then sharing them through these drinks that we have. Yeah, and the drinks were phenomenal. Tater, thank you. You got it. Our pleasure. Thanks, man.
In the theme of there's no place like Las Vegas, which I think is true. Yeah. This is just a really super cool place. Now, there are other places you recommend that are.
Kind of places you would only find in Las Vegas. Yeah, I mean, you know, we've touched on it, that immersive, this idea of immersive has become a buzzword. And I think Vegas does it better than anybody else because that's what we're all about is creating fantasies. And I think when you try to look at what we mean by an immersive.
bar or restaurant in Las Vegas, it's two different ideas one they immerse you in the idea of being in las vegas try to put everything under one roof and then the other idea would be they immerse you in a place like where we're sitting right now where you forget that you're in las vegas so if
If you want to be totally immersed in the entire Las Vegas experience, the Strip does it incredibly well at places like Mayfair Supper Club, where you can spend an entire evening there. You can see entertainment. The entertainment is choreographed to the Bellagio Fountains.
out the window. The food is old school Vegas. They're doing prime rib on carts. Dancers are over your shoulder and it's really intended to have an entire evening there. Similarly, at Wynn Las Vegas, Delilah is another one of those places where It's a supper club and you're meant to spend the entire night rather than go from the blackjack table to your dinner, to the club, to whatever.
That's a trend in Las Vegas, is keeping you in a place that's very, very Vegas. Then the other trend is kind of making you forget you're in Vegas and speakeasies, that idea of going behind a hidden door. and finding a refuge, that is so popular right now. We have speakeasies everywhere. There's many of them within the food halls that are another huge trend of Las Vegas right now.
Food halls have almost replaced buffets for the quick, something for everyone, inexpensive. And now most of them are putting a speakeasy in the back. So one of my favorites is Here Kitty Kitty over at the Cosmopolitan, and you feel like you're in a little grocery store.
store, and you push a shelf, it opens up, and you suddenly feel like you're in Tokyo, in a tiny little cool hipster bar in Tokyo. So it's the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, but they're cocktails. Yeah, and then, you know, theme restaurants. You know, there's a great
show running at the link called disco show and they have a 70s diner that's built in right next door called diner Ross and you feel like you're in a crazy 70s diner when you're in there and you can go from there to the show and back into the So things like that are a lot of fun, really immersive. And then if you want to do crazy stuff, you know, go down to Area 15 and you can go to Liftoff Bar. And it's this massive bar that's built around...
kind of a giant flagpole, and they lift you up into the air. And, you know, you're open air having a cocktail up there viewing the entire Las Vegas Valley. What about a place that... You're sitting on a terrace, you're watching people go by, it's sort of lazy.
It's more people watching than it is just the food. Yeah, my favorite places for people watching are places that are right down there on the strip. And again, this is a situation where we have something for just about everybody. There's great people watching at Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo.
Really a great patio to watch the world go by. But there are also so many relaxing places. You know, go to Spago and hang out on the patio and watch the Bellagio Fountains go up. And it's just a lot of fun. And eat salmon pizza. Yes, salmon pizza with a... Scoop of caviar. So if someone's coming to Las Vegas, what would you tell them about how they should really get the most out of it? Yeah. First of all, you need to clear your mind of what you think Las Vegas is.
One thing that people don't understand is that Las Vegas is at its most successful when we have an experience for everybody. Whatever you're into, whatever your price range is, whatever your tastes are, whatever weird sport you're into, we probably have a championship. of it here we'll have a demolition derby one week and you know whatever so research it because what you're into we're gonna have for you here in Las Vegas there is something for everyone in this town
Thank you. You know, I rarely go out at all. I actually went to three places in one night. The food was amazing. The people were just great. And the drinks, well, the drinks are absolutely A+. Thank you. Well, I appreciate you letting me show you the Vegas that I know, which is a little bit of something for everybody. So cheers. Cheers. Cheers to Las Vegas.
al thank you that was my final stop with guide al mancini stray pirate featuring partner and general manager chris gutierrez or as everyone calls him Tater. Thanks for listening to this special episode of Milk Street Radio. And now I'd like to tell you a little bit about our sponsor and also collaborator on this episode, Las Vegas.
You know, during the last year, I traveled to Las Vegas for the food from the high-end restaurants to the downtown dive bars. And what I discovered is that Vegas has a very special culinary energy. It's a city based on hospitality. And that enthusiasm for serving customers makes the food scene a real pleasure. What also impresses me is the diversity of the experience from Peking duck and the bloody China cocktail at China Club, which, by the way, is phenomenal.
to the drinks from Stray Pirate downtown, including Get a Kraken and Tito's Toad Venom. Now, there's always an element of fun and also surprise from the botanical gardens and fountains at the Bellagio. to the scene at atomic liquors where the rat pack used to hang out after hours you can find just about any dining experience you want
from food courts to Wolfgang Puck to local chefs who've created the evolving downtown culinary neighborhoods. And I would say that more so than with any other American city, Las Vegas has a culinary food scene that is evolving rapidly. Come back six months later and you'll find a host of new places and new experiences. And that's the fun of Las Vegas. Something new, something old, and a food scene that is part fantasy.
but also part excellence, catering to almost any taste. So my advice is to try a taste of Las Vegas. You'll be well-fed and well-met. To learn more, please go to visitlasvegas.com slash culinary. One more time, visitlasvegas.com slash culinary. This special episode is produced by Milk Street, co-founder Melissa Baldino, executive producer Annie Sinsebaugh, editor Nancy Rosenbaum.
Senior producer, Sarah Clapp. Producer, Caroline Davis. Engineer, Myron Kaplan. Audio mixing by Jay Allison at Atlantic Public Media in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Special thanks to Melissa Allison, Jeff Town, and, of course, my guide and co-host, Al Mancini. You can find Al's Vegas restaurant guide at neonfeast.com, and his podcast is Food and Loathing.