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Desert Design
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Creating Living Spaces in the Mojave BUILDING COMMUNITY
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EAT GREEN
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MATZO MAVENS
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DEAN COLLINS Legal and Medical Specialist / 866.980.9585
RITA VASWANI Legal and Medical Specialist / 866.909.8764
SPECIALIZED BANKING FOR NEVADA’S PROFESSIONALS We specialize in helping Nevada’s professionals. Our bankers understand your industry, how your business operates, and the financial tools* you need to be successful.
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CASH FLOW SOLUTIONS | IMPROVE YOUR BUILDING/FIRM/PRACTICE FINANCE EQUIPMENT | FINANCIAL STRATEGIES | CUSTOM HOME FINANCING WEALTH MANAGEMENT** RAINE SHORTRIDGE Legal Specialist / 866.907.7717
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PATRICK MILBANK Medical Specialist / 866.950.7512
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Not FDIC Insured Not Bank Guaranteed Not Insured by any Federal Government Agency
May Lose Value Not a Bank Deposit
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APRIL
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explore The month’s event listings to help plan your day or your stay
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devour Where to find some of the best eats, drinks and foodie happenings in the Valley
28 know The Jewish Federation of Las Vegas adapts to the changing times and targets millenials with social media. 32 sense Square or round the bread of affliction, matzo, is replacing baguettes for just over a week this month. 36 taste A local restaurant group is a pioneer in sustainablity. Other than eating your veggies, what is green dining?
42 All Better Now? Condo projects that were shuttered during the recent economic downturn are being repurposed as rentals.
58 Kerry Clasby, The Intuitive Forager The month’s spotlight on someone to know.
24 discover Places to go, cool things to do, hip people to see in the most exciting city in the World
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22 desire Sin City abounds in world-class shopping ... these are a few of our favorite things
46 Desert Design Defined Interior design that harmonizes with the natural environment. 52 Essential Milly Michelle Smith and husband Andy Oshrin’s line is all about reimagined luxury.
on the cover
Desert Design
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Interior design by Jill Abelman of Inside Style Home, photo by: Richard Faverty of Beckett Studios .
Creating Living Spaces in the Mojave
www.davidlv.com
BUILDING COMMUNITY
EAT GREEN
OUT OF MOTHBALLS
MATZO MAVENS
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Copyright 2015 by JewishINK LLC. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. DAVID MAGAZINE is protected as a trademark in the United States. Subscribers: If the Postal Service alerts us that your magazine is undeliverable, we are under no further obligation unless we receive a corrected address within one year. The publisher accepts no responsibility for unsolicited or contributed manuscripts, photographs, artwork or advertisements. Submissions will not be returned unless arranged for in writing. DAVID MAGAZINE is a monthly publication. All information regarding editorial content or property for sale is deemed reliable. No representation is made as to the accuracy hereof and is printed subject to errors and omissions.
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ALL NEW MENU Featuring
Potato Knish, Stuffed Cabbage Rolls, Over Stuffed Sandwiches, Hot Corned Beef, Reuben Sandwich and much more!
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Publisher/Editor Associate Publisher
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Max Friedland
max@davidlv.com editor@davidlv.com
Joanne Friedland joanne@davidlv.com
EDITORIALllllllll
Calendar Editor
Brianna Soloski
brianna@davidlv.com
Copy Editor Pulse Editor Production Assistant
Pat Teague
Contributing Writers
Marisa Finetti
Marisa Finetti ZoĂŤ Friedland
E.C. Gladstone Jaq Greenspon Rebecca Orlov Brian Sodoma Lynn Wexler
ART & PHOTOGRAPHY
Art Director/ Photographer
Steven Wilson
steve@davidlv.com
ADVERTISING & MARKETING
Advertising Director
Joanne Friedland joanne@davidlv.com
SUBSCRIPTIONS 702-254-2223 | subscribe@davidlv.com
Volume 05 Number 12 www.davidlv.com DAVID Magazine is published 12 times a year.
Copyright 2014 by JewishINK LLC. 1930 Village Center Circle, No. 3-459 Las Vegas, NV 89134 (p) 702-254-2223 (f) 702-664-2633
To advertise in DAVID Magazine, call 702-254-2223 or email ads@davidlv.com To subscribe to DAVID Magazine, call 702.254-2223 or email subscibe@davidlv.com
DAVID Magazine sets high standards to ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable manner. This copy of DAVID Magazine was printed by American Web in Denver, Colo., on paper from well-managed forests which meet EPA guidelines that recommend use of recovered fibers for coated papers. Inks used contain a blend of soy base. Our printer meets or exceeds all federal Resource Conservation Recovery Act standards and is a certified member of both the Forest Stewardship Council and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. When you are done with this issue, please pass it on to a friend or recycle it.
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contributors
Marisa Finetti is a local writer, marketing professional and blogger. The Tokyoborn Finetti has called Las Vegas home since 2005. She has written for such publications as Spirit and Las Vegas and Nevada magazines and has a healthy-living blog at bestbewell. com. When she’s not writing, Finetti enjoys family time with her husband and two boys.
E.C. Gladstone is a Las Vegas-based writer/photographer and social media consultant. Covering the ever-growing worlds of travel, food, wine & spirits, he has contributed recently to BonAppetit.com, About.com, Thrillist, Everyday With Rachael Ray and multiple local Vegas outlets. Previously, he helped launched JLiving magazine and has held editorial positions with many websites and magazines including AOL.com, US Weekly, and Alternative Press. His ideal day involves a busy kitchen, soul music, laughter and cask spirits. Currently he is compiling a book of his rock journalism from the ‘90s. Find more of his writing on food and beverages at nowimhungry.com and sipsavorswallow. com.
Jaq Greenspon is a world traveling, dog loving, scuba diving, book collecting, writer currently residing somewhere in Eastern Europe. His words have been spoken by Capt. Jean-Luc Picard and Robin Hood, been read by David Copperfield, and criticized by his 7th grade English teacher. He’d like to thank the members of the Academy, although he doesn’t know why. In his spare time, he’s a university professor and a kick ass uncle.
Rebecca Orlov has been writing about design for the last 7 years though her blog, loving. living. small., as well as contributions to lifestyle sites such as HGTV, Apartment Therapy, Refinery 29, House Beautiful, InStyle and more. She is also a seasoned Integrated Marketer and Producer, creating and producing marketing + content campaigns for Fortune 500 companies and brands through her consulting company, Sweetline Collective. After living in Los Angeles, DC, and New York, she now calls Las Vegas home. You can follow her @ lovelivesmall
Brian Sodoma has been writing professionally since 1998. He has called Las Vegas home since 2002, and enjoys covering the city’s business issues, real estate, health, sports ... anything that isn’t fashion. Sodoma currently is working on a feature-length screenplay about Las Vegas real estate meltdown with local fi lm director Roger Tinch. When he’s not hunting for new story ideas, Sodoma dabbles in real estate, coaches youth soccer and plays ice hockey.
Lynn Wexler has been a feature writer and contributor for magazines and newspapers, locally and nationally, for over 20 years. She writes a monthly online column entitled Manners in the News, which comments on the behavior of politicians, celebrities and others thrust in the public arena. She is the Founder and President of Perfectly Poised, a school of manners that teaches social, personal and business etiquette to young people. She is a former TV Reporter and News Anchor. Of her many accomplishments, she is most proud of her three outstanding teenaged children.
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from the publisher So … I crashed my Mac this month. Control freak, computer maven me, I did the thing in. Deader than dead. Even the little spinning wheel of doom gave up the ghost. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Every month I have the responsibility of producing a house NMLS 335665 ad, the one we run to solicit your advertising in upcoming publications. In our first issue we launched our “Hey Travelers” photo competition, which we later combined with our ad pitch. For those new to DAVID, let me explain: We ask our readers to pack an issue or two of our fabulous publication in their valises when they leave town. Besides being a great travel read, a selfie taken with the magazine in an exotic tourist hotspot can win a lucky jetsetter a free year’s subscription. Our readers’ enthusiasm for this offer continues to amaze us. DAVID has circumnavigated the globe, thanks to them, and visited many world heritage sites, certainly more than yours truly. Of late, submissions have petered off a bit, requiring us to Refinance feature recent covers instead. Usually, we spotlight a half dozen Purchases representing our publication’s most recent scope. To mark Reverse Mortgages this month’s milestone edition of DAVID (and to recognize 60 months of existence), I was determined to feature all of our covIra Epstein 1401 Hillshire Dr. #150 ers. According to our art department, I “really did it this time.” Las Vegas, NV 89134 President I killed InDesign, Photoshop, Bridge, Illustrator and every other form of software Adobe CreTel:702.8717800 NMLS 308738 Nev. Lic. 2749 Cell:702.561.5444 ative Cloud offers. With much hair pulling and tech support CPR, we finally got up and runFax:702.871.7808 ning, and the ad was produced. I must confess my guilty pleasure is obsessively staring at it ira@statelinefundinginc.com when no one’s around. Seeing all 60 covers in one document, representing the first five years of DAVID Magazine, is really cool. For 30 years before DAVID I practiced architecture. I cannot remember getting such a rush from any one of my projects. As a recent devotee of Articeles, the Greek god of journalism, I Ira Epstein sixth page 03.15.indd 1 2/17/15 10:00 AM salivate for process. (Oh, the smell of ink in the morning, alongside my cup of java.) I was going to profile the great content of this month’s DAVID. It seems as if I’ve gotten a bit carried away, however, so here are my, ahem, abridged notes for April 2015. – The big word this month is HOME. Designing it, decorating it, sustaining it or creating a Now in Las Vegas community for it to exist in. – The Jewish Federation of Las Vegas has been around for about 50 years, assisting with the creation of a home for the Jews in the desert – kind of biblical, don’t you think? They have had to confront the strains on resources that explosive growth brings and adjust to “A True Taste of South Africa” new operating modalities that a generation of future community leaders demands. – It may not be readily obvious on the plate in a fine dining establishment, but produceconsciousness and -sourcing has gone green big time. A visit to the farmers market at Down(Beef Jerky) town Summerlin any Saturday morning, and a conversation with its orchestrator Kerry Clasby, will change the way you relate to your Brussels sprouts. (Dried Sausage) – Thankfully, Las Vegas architectural and interior design has started to reflect the palette and textures of our majestic Mojave; we feature one local designer and explore this phenomenon. – The cranes are back, baby! Hardhats are once again de rigueur, and mothballed mega-proj(Farmers Sausage) ects are back from the dead. We visit three of them to feel the construction industry’s pulse. – Finally, we dig a little into the wonderful world of matzo. Before you read further, let me caution you: As in all things Jewish, there is disagreement, this time about the spelling of the word. We opted for the one on the box. Happy Spring, and for our chosen readers, Happy Passover. See you all on the Racks.
Jamie G’s Biltong
Droewors
Boerewors
For Prices and Orders: james.geere70@gmail.com
720.346.0048
Max Friedland max@davidlv.com
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TONY ORLANDO: Through April 5, 7:30 p.m., $45. South Point, 9777 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-796-7111. southpointcasino.com KENNY CHESNEY - THE BIG REVIVAL TOUR: Through April 4, 8 p.m., $155. Hard Rock Hotel, 4455 Paradise Road, Las Vegas. 702693-5000. hardrockhotel.com
V E G A S
ELTON JOHN: Varying dates through April 14, 7:30 p.m., $55-$250. Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-731-7110. caesarspalace.com CLINT HOLMES - SONGS I WROTE AND A FEW I WISH I'D WRITTEN: Through April 5, times vary, $37. The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-7492012. thesmithcenter.com ETHEL M. SPRING EVENT: Through April 5, times vary, free. Ethel M., 2 Cactus Garden Drive, Henderson. 800-438-4356. ethelm.com
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SHINKA - LIFE CYCLE OF A DANCER: Featuring the Pink Tutu Ballet Company with special guest Ms. Nevada United States, Brittany Cherie Williams. 7 p.m., free. Sammy Davis Jr. Festival Plaza in Lorenzi Park, 720 Twin Lakes Drive, Las Vegas. 702-229-3514. thepinktutuballet.com 7TH ANNUAL WALK WITH ME: To benefit Easter Seals. 9 a.m., costs vary. W. Wayne Bunker Family Park, 7351 W. Alexander Road, Las Vegas. walkwithme.org/lasvegas
STEELY DAN: 8 p.m., $93.50. Palms Hotel, 4321 W. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas. 702-9443200. palms.com
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NEON MUSEUM TOURS: Through April 30, times vary, $18-$25. Neon Museum, 770 Las Vegas Blvd. N., Las Vegas. 702-387-6366. neonmuseum.org LUCKY DEBELLEVUE - COLLABORATION / EXCHANGE: Through April 12, times vary, free. Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-698-5000. cosmopolitanlasvegas.com WHILE I AM STILL ART EXHIBIT: Through May 9, times vary, free. Sahara West Library, 9600 W. Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-5073630. lvccld.org JEFF DUNHAM: Varying dates through April
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MARTIN NIEVERA: 7 p.m., $30-$46. The M Resort, 12300 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-797-1000. themresort.com LIPSHTICK COMEDY SERIES PRESENTS LISA LAMPANELLI: Times vary, costs vary. Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-414-1000. venetian.com
30, 7 p.m., $72. Planet Hollywood, 3667 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 877-333-9474. planethollywoodresort.com
HOP & SHOP — EASTER EGG HUNT AND FAMILY FESTIVAL: 10 a.m., free. Town Square Las Vegas, 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-269-5001. mytownsquarelasvegas.com
7TH ANNUAL ALL-STAR GUITAR PULL: 7 p.m., $29-$59. Green Valley Ranch, 2300 Paseo Verde Parkway, Henderson. 702-6177777. greenvalleyranch.sclv.com
JAY CUTLER DESERT CLASSIC: 10:30 a.m., $29-$78. Palms, 4321 W. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas. 702-944-3200. palms.com
LAS VEGAS STORIES - HOW JAY SARNO’S WILD LIFE CHANGED LAS VEGAS: 7 p.m., free. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas. 702-507-3458. lvccld.org BRAVE: 8 p.m., $22. The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-7492012. thesmithcenter.com
DAVID PERRICO — POP EVOLUTION: Saturdays through April 25, 11 p.m., free. Red Rock Hotel, 11011 W. Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas. 702-797-7777. redrock.sclv.com WAKA FLOCKA FLAME: 9 p.m., $20-$55. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas. brooklynbowl.com
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THE FOUR FRESHMEN: Through April 5, 7:30 p.m., $15.95. Suncoast, 9090 Alta Drive, Las Vegas. 702-284-7777. suncoast.com MICHAEL BERKOWITZ AND THE GENE KRUPA ORCHESTRA: 5:30 p.m., $50. Sam's Town, 5111 Boulder Highway, Las Vegas. 702284-7777. samstownlv.com
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IN ITS ENTIRETY - THE BEATLES - SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB & ABBEY ROAD: 7:30 p.m., $15. Red Rock Hotel, 11011 W. Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas. 702-7977777. redrock.sclv.com
HIGH ON FIRE: 8 p.m., $15-$20. Backstage Bar and Billiards, 601 Fremont Street, Las Vegas. 702-382-2227. backstagebarandbilliards.com
BOYZ II MEN: Through April 12, 7:30 p.m., $39.99. Encore performance April 17-19. Mirage, 3400 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-791-7111. mirage.com
LGBTQ COMMUNITY SEDER: 6 p.m., $10-$36. The Center Las Vegas, 401 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas. 702-733-9800. thecenterlv.org
CLEAN BANDIT: 9 p.m., $22-$24.20. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas. brooklynbowl.com
RATATAT WITH SPECIAL GUEST SYLVAN ESSO: 9 p.m., $28. Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-698-7000. cosmopolitanlasvegas.com ART AND WINE - FABERGE REVEALED: 5 p.m., $34-$42. Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-693-7111. bellagio.com STILLPOINT CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT PRESENTS JUDAISM 101: Featuring Rabbi Sanford Akselrad. 6:30 p.m., $20. Stillpoint Center for Spiritual Development, 8072 W. Sahara Avenue, Suite D, Las Vegas. For more information/registration, call 702-2434040 or email stillpoint@stillpointcsd.org. stillpointcsd.org
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RAY ROMANO AND DAVID SPADE: Through April 11, 10 p.m., $79.99. Mirage, 3400 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-791-7111. mirage.com
MILKY CHANCE: 9 p.m., $17-$20. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas.brooklynbowl.com
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PIRATE FEST: Through April 12, times vary, costs vary. Lorenzi Park, 3333 W. Washington Avenue, Las Vegas. piratefestlv.com ST. VINCENT: 9 p.m., $25. Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-6987000. cosmopolitanlasvegas.com ILLUSIONIST RICK THOMAS: Through April 12, 7:30 p.m., $15. South Point, 9777 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-796-7111. southpointcasino.com SIXX:A.M. WITH SPECIAL GUEST APOCALYPTICA: 8 p.m., $35. Hard Rock Hotel, 4455 Paradise Road, Las Vegas. 702693-5000. hardrockhotel.com
THE OSMONDS: Through April 12, 8 p.m., $34.95. Orleans, 4500 W. Tropicana Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-284-7777. orleanscasino.com TONY BENNETT & LADY GAGA: Through April 11, 7:30 p.m., $69-$250. Planet Hollywood, 3667 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 877-333-9474. planethollywoodresort.com BILLY GARDELL: 9 p.m., $54.95. Treasure Island, 3300 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-894-7111. treasureisland.com CONTORTION WITH RULE OF THUMB: 8 p.m., $5-$7. Backstage Bar and Billiards, 601 Fremont Street, Las Vegas. 702-382-2227. backstagebarandbilliards.com THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND: Through April 19, times vary, $8-$12. CSN Cheyenne Campus, 3200 E. Cheyenne Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-651-4000. csn.edu/pac
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ROX IN SOX CHILDREN'S MUSIC FESTIVAL: 10 a.m., free. Sammy Davis Jr. Festival Plaza in Lorenzi Park, 720 Twin Lakes Drive, Las Vegas. 702-229-3514. artslasvegas.org SAMMY HAGAR AND THE CIRCLE: Time TBA, $63.75. Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, 200 S. Third Street, Las Vegas. 702388-2100. dlvec.com RAC AND ST. LUCIA: 9 p.m., $20. Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-6987000. cosmopolitanlasvegas.com FRANKIE MORENO: 7 p.m., $19-$39. Red Rock Hotel, 11011 W. Charleston Blvd., Las Vegas. 702-797-7777. redrock.sclv.com
COLLIN RAYE: 7 p.m., $22-$42. Sunset Station, 1301 W. Sunset Road, Henderson. 888-786-7389. sunsetstation.sclv.com
301 N. Buffalo Drive
255-3444 www.thebagelcafelv.com
WhereTheLocalsEat.com
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LIPSHTICK COMEDY SERIES PRESENTS ROSEANNE BARR: Times vary, costs vary. Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-414-1000. venetian.com STEELY DAN: 8 p.m., $93.50. Palms, 4321 W. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas. 702-944-3200. palms.com JEWEL AND MOISHE HOUSE MIMUMA DINNER: 7 p.m., cost TBD. Moishe House, 2244 Diamond Bar Drive, Las Vegas. For more information, contact Marni Unger at 702-479-4437 or marni@jewishlasvegas.com. jewishlasvegas.com
Photo by Jeff Speer
MADE L.V. SPRING FLING TOURNAMENT AND TAILGATE GRILL OUT: 10:30 a.m., $20. MADE L.V., 440 S. Rampart Blvd., Las Vegas. 702-722-2000. made-lv.com
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CADILLAC THROUGH THE YEARS: 11 a.m., free. Town Square Las Vegas, 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-269-5001. mytownsquarelasvegas.com
Houssels Family Foundation presents
Giselle This Mother’s Day weekend be transported to a world where true love triumphs over deception and vengeful spirits from beyond. ^
YOM HASHOAH/HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY COMMEMORATION AND MEMORIAL PROGRAM: 4 p.m., free. Congregation Ner Tamid, 55 N. Valle Verde Drive, Henderson. jewishlasvegas.com
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MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS WITH SPECIAL GUEST KIESZA: 9 p.m., $25. Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-698-7000. cosmopolitanlasvegas.com
ALT-J WITH SPECIAL GUEST JUNGLE: 8 p.m., $39.50. Hard Rock Hotel, 4455 Paradise Road, Las Vegas. 702-693-5000. hardrockhotel.com
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LYKKE LI WITH SPECIAL GUEST RYN WEAVER: 9 p.m., $20. Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-698-7000. cosmopolitanlasvegas.com DONNY AND MARIE: Varying dates through April 30, 7:30 p.m., $95-$260. Flamingo, 3555 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-733-3111. flamingolasvegas.com
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INTERPOL: 9 p.m., $25. Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-698-7000. cosmopolitanlasvegas.com STEPHANIE HIRSCH - LIGHTSEEKER: Through May 10, times vary, free. Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-698-7000. cosmopolitanlasvegas.com EXPLORING JAPANESE CULTURE AND HISTORY THROUGH HAIKU: Encore April 22. 10:30 a.m., free. Summerlin Library, 1771 Inner Circle Drive, Las Vegas. 702-507-3866. lvccld.org IVY + BEAN THE MUSICAL: 6 p.m., $12.95. The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-749-2012. thesmithcenter.com DUCK COMMANDER MUSICAL: 7 p.m., $100+. Rio, 3700 W. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas. 866-746-7671. caesars.com/rio-las-vegas
^
Saturday, May 9 • 7:30pm & Sunday, May 10 • 2:00pm ^
^
(702) 749-2000 NevadaBallet.org
Interpol 4.15
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STROMAE: 9 p.m., $25. Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-698-7000. cosmopolitanlasvegas.com UNLVINO: To benefit UNLV Harrah College of Hotel Administration. Through April 18, times vary, costs vary. Various locations throughout Las Vegas. unlvino.com STEEL PULSE: 8 p.m., $29.43-$33. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas.brooklynbowl.com
AN EVENING WITH GARRISON KEILLOR: 7:30 p.m., $29. The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-7492012. thesmithcenter.com
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HOWARD HUGHES - FOOTPRINTS IN THE DESERT SAND - A CHAUTAUQUA PRESENTATION BY BRIAN KRAL: 12 p.m., free. Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse Jury Room, 333 Las Vegas Blvd. N., Las Vegas. artslasvegas.org THREE DAYS GRACE: 8 p.m., $29. Hard Rock Hotel, 4455 Paradise Road, Las Vegas. 702693-5000. hardrockhotel.com BUCK-O-NINE: 8 p.m., $11-$13. Backstage Bar and Billiards, 601 Fremont Street, Las Vegas. 702-382-2227. backstagebarandbilliards.com SUS·TAIN·A·BLE - A THREE-DAY GUIDE TO LIVING GREEN IN LAS VEGAS: Through April 19, times vary, free. Town Square Las Vegas, 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-2695001. mytownsquarelasvegas.com JERRY SEINFELD: Through April 18, 7:30 p.m., $75-$150. Caesars Palace, 3570 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-731-7110. caesarspalace.com BRAND NEW: 8 p.m., $36.30-$40.70. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas. brooklynbowl.com GRIOT NATION - A POET'S CORNER NATIONAL POETRY MONTH EVENT: 2Â p.m., free. West Las Vegas Library, 951 W. Lake Mead Blvd., Las Vegas. 702-507-3989. lvccld.org RAMSEY LEWIS TRIO: Through April 18, 7 p.m., $45. The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-749-2012. thesmithcenter.com
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ARTRAGEOUS VEGAS YOUTH - JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF ART: 4:30 p.m., $5. The
Center Las Vegas, 401 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas. 702-733-9800. thecenterlv.org PAT BENATAR AND NEIL GIRALDO: 8 p.m., $39.50. Hard Rock Hotel, 4455 Paradise Road, Las Vegas. 702-693-5000. hardrockhotel.com LIPSHTICK COMEDY SERIES PRESENTS JENNIFER COOLIDGE: Times vary, costs vary. Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-414-1000. venetian.com ALABAMA SHAKES: 9 p.m., $40.15-$44. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas. brooklynbowl.com BRUCE HORNSBY: 7:30 p.m., $32. The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-749-2012. thesmithcenter.com SECOND ANNUAL SMOKIN' NOTES BBQ: 1 p.m., free. Knickerbocker Park, 10695 Dorrell Lane, Las Vegas. 702-216-2020. providencelv.com
R I V E R
N O R T H
420 S. Rampart Boulevard
TIVOLI VILLAGE 2nd Floor Inside The Market LV 7 0 2 . 3 3 1 . 0 3 4 4
BEN VEREEN: Through April 19, 7:30 p.m., $15.95. Suncoast, 9090 Alta Drive, Las Vegas. 702-287-7777. suncoast.com
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AIDS WALK LAS VEGAS: 8 a.m., costs vary. Town Square Las Vegas, 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-269-5001. mytownsquarelasvegas.com FORTUNATE YOUTH: 8 p.m., $8-$10. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas. brooklynbowl.com JEWISH GENEOLOGY SOCIETY OF SOUTHERN NEVADA: Ask the Experts Panel. 1 p.m., free. Sahara West Library, 9600 W. Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas. For more information, contact Laura Moskowitz at 702-243-5917 or email her at President@ jgssn.org. jgssn.org
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AN EVENING WITH MARIE LU: 7 p.m., free. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas. 702-507-3459. lvccld.org MARVEL UNIVERSE LIVE! Through April 26, times vary, $20. Thomas and Mack Center, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas. 702895-3761. thomasandmack.com
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STURGILL SIMPSON WITH THE LONE BELLOW: 8 p.m., $22-$24.20. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas.brooklynbowl.com
www.rivernorthlv.com!
www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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ART IN THE AFTERNOON: 11 a.m., free. Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, 888 W. Bonneville Avenue, Las Vegas. 702483-6055 or louruvosocialserv@ccf.org. neonmuseum.org MORGAN HERITAGE: 8 p.m., $13.20-$16.50. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas. brooklynbowl.com THE KAHURANGI MAORI DANCE THEATRE OF NEW ZEALAND: 7 p.m., free. Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas. 702-507-3459. lvccld.org
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OK GO: 9 p.m., $19.50-$25. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas.brooklynbowl.com
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella 4.28 - 5.3
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RAINBOW COMPANY YOUTH THEATRE PRESENTS MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS: Through May 2, times vary, $5. Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush Street, Las Vegas. 702-2296383. artslasvegas.org
AMY SCHUMER LIVE: 8 p.m., $45. Cosmopolitan, 3708 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-698-7000. cosmopolitanlasvegas. com CRYSTAL GAYLE: Through April 26, 7:30 p.m., $45. South Point, 9777 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-796-7111. southpointcasino.com DANIEL TOSH: Through April 25, 10 p.m., $59.99. Mirage, 3400 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-791-7111. mirage.com DUNCAN SHEIK: Through April 25, 7 p.m., $39. The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-749-2012. thesmithcenter.com
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LIPSHTICK COMEDY SERIES PRESENTS FORTUNE FEIMSTER & CAMERON ESPOSITO: Times vary, costs vary. Venetian, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-414-1000. venetian.com GRANT A GIFT AUTISM 5K RUN FOR HOPE & FUN WALK: 7 a.m., costs vary. Town Square Las Vegas, 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702269-5001. mytownsquarelasvegas.com SPLASH DOWN FOR KIDS: Through April 26, times vary, $25. Wet 'n' Wild, 7055 S. Fort Apache Road, Las Vegas. 702-979-1600. wetnwildlasvegas.com
IGGY AZALEA: Time TBA, $39.50-$69.50. MGM Grand, 3799 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-891-1111. mgmgrand.com ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA: 9 p.m., $38.50-$71.50. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas. brooklynbowl.com VOICE OF RUDY - THE JOURNEY TO THE MOVIE: 7 p.m., $34. The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-7492012. thesmithcenter.com WIZARD WORLD COMIC CON PARTY: Time TBA, cost TBA. Paris, 3655 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-946-7000. parislasvegas. caesars.com LET'S HANG ON - A TRIBUTE TO FRANKIE VALLI AND THE FOUR SEASONS: Through April 26, 7:30 p.m., $15.95. Suncoast, 9090 Alta Drive, Las Vegas. 702-284-7777. suncoast.com
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SEBASTIAN BACH: 8 p.m., $20-$25. Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, 3545 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-862-2695. vegas. brooklynbowl.com BABY'S BOUNTY OH BABY TEA: 2 p.m., $30-$50. Bally's, 3645 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. For details visit babysbounty.org. neonmuseum.org 12TH ANNUAL BEST IN SHOW: 11 a.m., $5$12. Orleans Arena, 4500 W. Tropicana Avenue, Las Vegas. animalfoundation.com/event/show
RODGERS + HAMMERSTEIN - CINDERELLA: Through May 3, times vary, $39. The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-749-2012. thesmithcenter.com CANTINA LAREDO TEQUILA DINNER: To benefit Junior Achievement. 5:30 p.m., $65. Cantina Laredo, 440 S. Rampart Blvd., Las Vegas. For tickets call Lauren Romero at 702888-0511. tivolivillagelv.com
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JEWISH NATIONAL FUND I LOVE ISRAEL BREAKFAST: 8:30 a.m., cost TBA. Adelson Educational Campus, 9700 Hillpointe Road, Las Vegas. For more information, call 702434-6505. neonmuseum.org
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STEVE SOLOMON’S “CANNOLI, LATKES AND GUILT — THE THERAPY CONTINUES”: Through May 2, times vary, $35. The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas. 702-749-2012. thesmithcenter.com
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BLACK MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE - READING - RICHARD SIKEN: 7 p.m., free. UNLV, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas. blackmountaininstitute.org
BELLAGIO EXECUTIVE CHEF'S CULINARY CLASSROOM - TEQUILA AND TACOS: 7 p.m., $135. Bellagio, 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-693-7111. bellagio.com
To submit your event information, email calendar@ davidlv.com by the 15th of the month prior to the month in which the event is being held.
18 APRIL 2015 | www.davidlv.com
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devour Classic American-Italian Chicken Parmesan is a hybrid of dishes and ingredients from different parts of Italy, brought together by the Neapolitan Italian communities in New York during the 1930s. Chicken Parmesan would be unrecognizable to Italians for the combination of meat and red sauce and the overload of mozzarella cheese. But, in America the taste is supremely recognizable: succulent golden cutlets of lightly breaded chicken are baked in a homemade tomato sauce and topped with mozzarella cheese. Glorious! Triple George Grill, 201 N. 3rd Street, Las Vegas. 702-384-2761.
The Pineapple Bump The Pineapple Bump is bright and refreshing. Served in a 24-oz copper pineapple, the cocktail reminds you of relaxing on a beach of sugar-fine sand, but is sophisticated and balanced enough to drink regularly – in moderation, of course. It serves two…or if you don’t want to share, who are we to argue?
Cupcake party There are two theories food historians believe the name cupcake came from: one, the cakes were originally cooked in cups, and two, the ingredients used to make them were measured out by the cup. Did they think the cupcake would become such an overachiever? Not sure, but Sprinkles had a vision and paved the way for how cupcakes are made today. The company opened the world’s first cupcake bakery in Beverly Hills 10 years ago, and this month we can celebrate their milestone with a free cupcake on April 13. Guests can stop in to the store and receive a cupcake of their choice, including their new birthday flavor, vanilla with sprinkles - of course! Sprinkles Cupcakes, The LINQ, 3545 S. Las Vegas Blvd. Las Vegas. 702-733-0522
Pineapple Bump • 2 oz. Absolut Elyx • 2 oz. Pineau des Charantes (Normandin Mercier) • 3 oz. Pineapple Juice • ½ oz. Apple Vinegar (Pok Pok) • 2 oz. Fresh Lemon Sour • 2 oz. Fever Tree Club Soda Glass: Collins Method: Combine all ingredients except soda and shake with ice. Add soda to mixture and strain over fresh ice into a Cooper pineapple Garnish: Pineapple Leafs & Lemon Wheel Andiron Steak & Sea, Downtown Summerlin, 1720 Festival Plaza Drive. 702-685-8002 www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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Bio-Friendly Beauty Purify and balance eruptive skin with this clay-based, oilabsorbing treatment mask by Shira. Salicylic Acid combats congested skin. $36.75. LOOK Style Society, Town Square 6539 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-712-4345.
Visibly correct and reduce dark spots and reveal a brighter complexion with the certified-organic Green Apple peel by Juice Beauty. $45. Whole Foods, Town Square, 6689 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-589-7711.
A soothing, 100% organic herbal infusion, naturally sweetened with licorice root and peppermint steeps the sipper into a deeper calm. $27.50. AVEDA, Fashion Show, 3200 Las Vegas Blvd., S., Las Vegas. 702-733-6660.
Zuii Organic will captivate with pearl-ized lustre inspired by diamonds, reinforced with certified organic rose petals, jasmine buds and chamomile flowers to soothe and nourish the skin. $28.95. Zuiiorganic.com
20 APRIL 2015 | www.davidlv.com
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All of the products by Ilia are created in an ethical and sustainable manner and certified organic bio-active botanicals. Packed with nourishing ingredients, including cocoa butter and jojoba oil, this richly pigmented lipstick formula glides on like a balm offering beautiful, comfortable coverage. $24. Four Seasons Hotel Spa, 3960, Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-632-5500.
A bathroom staple, Dr. Sponge biodegradable scrubber is the ultimate shower favorite. Made of vitamin-rich konjac plant fibers, colorful varieties include lycopene, charcoal, aloe, and green tea. $8. Amazon.com
www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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discover 20º Chocolate Although named Sugar Factory, it was not an actual factory, now it is. Renamed and redesigned as Hexx (under the same management and chef), Hexx is doing something they claim nobody else in Nevada is—making their own chocolate from the bean. Five different sourced bars, from Peru, Tanzania, Venezuela, Ecuador and Madagascar can be sampled at the 20 Degrees bar every day. Hexx Kitchen Bar Chocolate Paris Las Vegas, 3655 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas. 702-946-7000, hexxchocolate.com
A Sprinkle Of Whimsy Her treats have been adored by the likes of Whoopi Goldberg, to the White House staff and guests, and now her bakery has found another home in Downtown Summerlin. Allyson Ames, owner of Wonderland Bakery, offers custom confections, cakes, desserts, chocolate fountains, as well as the signature Wonderland experience where decorating parties bring out everyone’s inner artist. Wonderland Bakery, Downtown Summerlin, 2010 Festival Plaza #150, Las Vegas. 702-363-3333
A World Of Flavors Listen up all you gourmet foodies, Vom Fass has hit the Las Vegas Strip. Celebrate premium oils, cask-aged vinegars, spirits and liquors direct from the cask. The 24-year-old Bunnahabhain single-barrel, single-malt Scotch is enough to make your visit worthwhile. Tasting is part of the experience, ask them for samples and be ready to be regaled with colorful historical and source information about all their products. Explore their wide range of chillies, curries, exotic salts, gourmet peppers, herbs and seasoning blends. Your home cooking will never be the same. Vom Fass, The Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian Hotel & Casino, 3377 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas. 702-388-2022 22 APRIL 2015 | www.davidlv.com
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JEWISH FEDERATION OF LAS VEGAS WOMEN’S PHILANTHROPY POMEGRANATE RECEPTION Venue 3
Silk Road at Vdara
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Date Tuesday, February 17
Photos 1.
Fran Fine Ventura and Tonya Amid
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Elizabeth Breier and Dr. Eve Breier
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(left to right) Julie Katz, Leora Blau and Cari Marshall
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(left to right) Barbara Silverberg, Ilana Vann, Heather DiChiaro and Melanie Howard
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(left to right) Lisa Katz, Juli Ann Ruben and Janet Wellish
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Joyce Sherman and Robin Greenspun
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Dr. Stephanie Lehrner and Faye Steinberg
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Shelli Wara and Betsi Steinberg
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(left to right) Stefanie Tuzman, Heather DiChiaro, Special Guest Vanessa Hidary, Robin Cohen and Debra Cohen
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Photos by Tonya Harvey
Photos by Tonya Harvey www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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mingle UNITED WAY OF SOUTHERN NEVADA WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP COUNCIL LUNCHEON & FASHION SHOW Venue Four Seasons Hotel
Date Friday, February 20
Event This event was held to recognize the Women’s Leadership Council’s impact in the community and several women community leaders for their outstanding contributions. Event emcee Punam Mathur welcomed the luncheon guests and introduced the honorees, Sandy Miller, Kathleen Miller, Dr. Trina Wiggins and Chelsie Campbell. The event highlight most certainly was the fashion show featuring WLC members and honorees modeling the latest DNKY collection. A diverse, dynamic group of over 100 of our community’s top women leaders, WLC members have raised over $1.6 million in the last seven years to create a better future for southern Nevada.
Photos courtesy of United Way
24 APRIL 2015 | www.davidlv.com
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mingle PLANNED PARENTHOOD OF SOUTHERN NEVADA’S 6TH ANNUAL CORKS AND FORKS “AN EVENING WITH DR. RUTH” Venue Meet, Las Vegas
Date Thursday, March 12
Event Over 250 people enjoyed spending the evening with Dr. Ruth knowing that proceeds were going to a good cause. 5
Highlights of the event were the inspiring speech by America’s favorite sex therapist, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, along with Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, who received the Joyce Mack Philanthropic Award from Joyce Mack herself. Also honored was Honorary Chair Shelley Berkley, CEO of Touro University, for her unwavering support of Planned Parenthood’s mission. The event raised over $175,000, ensuring that Planned Parenthood continues to be a leader in offering high-quality health services, medically accurate, age appropriate sex education and strategic advocacy in Southern Nevada.
Photos courtesy of Planned Parenthood www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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JEWISH FEDERATION OF LAS VEGAS WOMEN’S PHILANTHROPY UNITED DINNER FEATURING MAYIM BIALIK Venue Foxtail @ SLS Las Vegas
Date Tuesday, March 17
Photos 1.
Cece Ventura, Vanessa Yerushalmi, Special Guest Mayim Bialik and Emina Cunmulaj
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Lynn Rosencrantz, George Wara and Shelli Wara
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Katie Epstein and Jonathan Fine
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Jessica Marshall and Cari Marshall
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Marla Letizia, Dr. Stephanie Lehrner, Michael Levine and Caline Schwartz
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Maggie Rubenstein, Judy Stone and Ellen Schaner
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Alexandra and Jonathan Gudai
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Fran Fine Ventura and Julie Downs
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Juli Ann Ruben, David Stone and Lara Stone
10. Rachel Shiffrin and Suzanne Handler
Photos by Tonya Harvey
26 APRIL 2015 | www.davidlv.com
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live Building Community @ 28 Matzo Deconstructed! @ 32 Eat Green @ 36
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Jewish Federation of Las Vegas staff standing in front of their offices
28 APRIL 2015 | www.davidlv.com
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Building Community
Explosive Growth, Social Media, Millenials and the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas By Jaq Greenspon
U
ntil the 1990s, Las Vegas had a relatively small Jewish population. By most estimates, the community numbered fewer than 10,000. As a small little village, a shtetl if you will, Jewish life here was fine. And it was all centered around one main synagogue — Temple Beth Shalom. As the primary synagogue, it became more than just a synagogue. In essence, Temple Beth Shalom became the de facto community center — the locus of Jewish activity. That’s where Las Vegas Jewish life emanated. Then the boom hit and population in the Valley exploded north of 2 million, where it is today. Naturally, the number of Jews in town increased as well. As the Jewish community beStaff meeting with President & CEO Elliot B. Karp gan to grow, more synagogues appeared on the scene and the need for a real Jewish Community Center burgeoned as well. And through it all, the Jewish Federation of Las Vegas was there to handle it as best it could. Federation has been in the Vegas Valley for nearly 50 years and was doing just fine, taking care of the small community even as most of the funds it raised went to overseas charitable works. As Elliot B. Karp, President & Ceo of The Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, puts it, “Everything here was nice and small and tidy.”
East Coast communities, even Midwest ones, were started with Jewish great-grandparents arriving from the old country. Places like Chicago, Cincinnati, even Kansas City had years to build a leadership cadre, which led to strong foundational building and organization. Those communities also benefited from the process of “Americanization,” which gave them rallying points in terms of Jewish identity. They all had the chance to not only come together as a whole, but to celebrate their differences. These communities had the opportunity to develop through The Great Depression, the Holocaust, the birth of the state of Israel, the Six-Day War, basically the entire 20th century. All of that means the Las Vegas chapter of Jewish Federation is facing some interesting 21st century challenges: The “post-modern” Las Vegas developed after all that. The tremendous amount of growth in such a short period left Vegas with a lot of organizations and synagogues, but no focal point. Groups were all working, toiling in their own spheres, without looking to anyone else for help or even cooperation. Board member Nancy Weinberger says this is the job of Federation, “to be sort of a gateway to the Jewish people in the community. Be the funder for all the agencies.”
Then it wasn’t.
Easier said than done.
“We basically exploded onto the scene and became a very mature Jewish community very quickly,” Karp says. It happened without the infrastructure a slower growth rate could have afforded. Las Vegas simply didn’t have generations of Jewish settlement from which to draw support.
In those early days of the new millennium there was no real sense of cooperation and collaboration. This discordance still manifests itself in the lack of an actual Jewish Community Center, something missing for the roughly half-century that Federation has been operwww.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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ating in the Valley. Recently a series of highly successful community events such as the Seek, Nourish, Ignite women’s retreat and The Mikveh Monologues evidence the community’s real desire to turn the page and come together. It is not impossible to do a community center without walls, with walls however, is so much better. “In lots of other communities, you know in times of crises or emergency, but also in terms of celebration, that’s where you go. It is the community center. It isn’t synagogue Aleph or Bet or Gimel. You come together as a community.” But all of this is predicated on tradition, a sense that this is the way it’s always been done. Las Vegas, curiously, is a city predicated on the opposite — a lack of tradition, a town in a constant state of renewal. That means for the Federation and the JCC to survive, a new culture of Jewish community must be created, one where many disparate factions need to communicate openly. “You have a lot of different people in this community,” says Weinberger. “Everybody wants something different.” So how do you build a culture? “Through engaging more people, by having open discussions, by debating issues,” says Karp. That’s not an easy task for a group of people who spent 40 years debating whether to turn right or left while wandering the Sinai. That culture has to come from a new place. A widening generation gap has become so apparent that any new culture must contemporize in order to meet the current needs. For example, if you’re of a certain age, born before the end of the Vietnam War, your parents belonged to a synagogue. This is simply how it was done. No longer. The demographics of synagogue membership are skewing older. Fewer 30-year-olds are joining. Then there are 40-year-olds, and if you’re in your 20s, synagogue membership is the aberration. To keep the community thriving, you have to go where the Jews are, not ask them to come to you. It’s not even meeting them halfway; it’s making programs available and understanding that the world we live in now is quite different from the world of our parents and grandparents. Today, to maintain relevance, Judaism needs to be custom fit. Karp likens it to walking into a Starbucks: No one there has to get the same thing, and everything can be individualized. There are programs like Moishe House, a free, international “house party” approach to getting younger generations involved. They had a Purim masquerade party at the house recently, which included a lot of socializing. Was the Megillah read? Sure. Were there costumes? Definitely. Are they joining synagogues? No.
Las Vegas Birthright participants enjoying their time in Israel.
30 APRIL 2015 | www.davidlv.com
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HAL
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B R O A D WAY AN EVENING IN WORD AND SONG
Jewish Emerging Leaders (Jewel) volunteers, Mitzvah Day 2014.
Find the activity, then, and bring the Judaism into it as opposed to the other way around. They call it Clusters. “That’s what Marni Unger (director, Young Leadership & Community Development) has been doing,” Weinberger says. “Finding out what people like and developing a program around that.” The Cluster Programs, which Federation is piloting, center around social activities, from drinking wine to hiking Red Rock and hanging out with your pets. Even the LBGQT community is slowly becoming involved. Karp calls this “Jews doing Jewish.” The other side of “Doing Jewish” (and meeting the next generation where they live) is understanding that they live in the virtual world as much as in the physical world. Sure, Karp says, “In our quest to be high-tech, we can’t forget to be high-touch,” a great sentiment. But even he acknowledges that more than 90 percent of Federation’s communication to the public happens electronically. This is where Lauralie Ezra and her company, Crowd Siren, come into play. Crowd Siren was brought in to increase the digital presence of the Federation and the JCC. “We’ve been working on it for the past year,” says Ezra, a Vegas native, “gathering the Las Vegas Jewish community in a way that was really untapped before.” It’s working, too. When they started, the Federation’s Facebook page only had 700 “likes.” Now there are almost 3,000. They’ve made it easy for people to connect online anyway they choose, from Facebook to Twitter. Within the past year they’ve started text messaging, and a local Instagram account is coming soon. Ezra and her team also have made sure to integrate event registration and online donation plans. This past Super Sunday, thanks to digital reach, Federation beat its goal by more than $75,000. Ironically, it’s not just the Millennials that Ezra and Karp are reaching where they are. “More Jews doing Jewish,” Ezra says, echoing Karp’s sentiments. “How do they find it? Well, they’re on their Facebook all day, they’re on their Twitter all day.” She pauses. “I know we get a lot of questions about the older demographic, but it’s the older demographic that’s connected to the Federation (more) than are even participating on Facebook. We have captured the people who are there. We’re trying to cover a lot of ground.” And they do. Birthright trip buses are already full this year. The “Clusters” are attracting more and more participants. And relevancy is returning to the community. “Being Jewish is something to celebrate. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s not a chore,” says Karp. “We love being Jewish. We want other people to love being Jewish too.” Jews Doing Jewish. It’s how we say “keep the faith alive” in this new millennium.
MAY 14 | TICKETS START AT $24 21 TIME TONY AWARD® WINNER CREDITED FOR MORE THAN 50 PLAYS AND MUSICALS INCLUDING
For tickets visit TheSmithCenter.com 702.749.2000 | TTY: 800.326.6868 or dial 711 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89106
“I couldn’t stop laughing!” - Liza Minnelli
APRIL 29 – MAY 3 | TICKETS START AT $35 Steve Solomon is the author and star of the three-time award-winning, critically acclaimed show, “My Mother’s Italian, My Father’s Jewish and I’m in Therapy.” We now bring you “CANNOLI, LATKES & GUILT… the therapy continues,” Steve’s newest project.
For tickets visit TheSmithCenter.com 702.749.2000 | TTY: 800.326.6868 or dial 711 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89106
www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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Matzo Deconstructed! In the beginning, there was dough ‌ By Lynn Wexler
32 APRIL 2015 | www.davidlv.com
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n a tradition where food choices are often divisive, the eating of matzo during the eight-day Passover holiday – most specifically at the Seder table - is a ritual that seems to be one of Judaism’s strongest culinary bonds. Kosher keepers and hardcore reformists alike eat matzo. The descendants of Ashkenazi (Jews of Germany, northern France and Eastern Europe), Sephardic (Jews of Iberia and the Spanish diaspora) and Mizrahi (Oriental) Jews all eat matzo. While some Jews share little in the way of theology or lifestyle, most break “the bread of affliction” on Passover. After all, eating unleavened bread at the Passover Seder is a tangible reminder that the Israelites, when fleeing ancient Egypt, had no time for their “cakes of dough” to rise. On a deeper level, this implies that history’s fluxes shape even timeless rituals. Besides being an essential component in Jewish history, matzo also serves as a metaphor. Like the Jewish people, matzo underwent significant changes brought about by invention, vision and exodus to new lands. These changes transformed the character and manufacturing of matzo, and in the process revealed much about transformations within Judaism itself. They also provoked fierce debates among Europe’s rabbinical leaders that, in some respects, remain unresolved. In the Bible, Passover is referred to as Pesach or Chag HaMatzot, meaning Feast of the Unleavened Bread. Surely, there were many other difficulties and obstacles that the Israelites’ quick departure from Egypt presented. So why does the story of the exodus focus on bread as its primary illustration? Why is this simple food the foundation of Jewish experience and ideology? Why has matzo come to symbolize human freedom? In The Foods of Israel Today, author Joan Nathan points to the central role that baking bread plays in the establishment and identity of a society. In the case of the Israelites, she writes, the earliest breads were unleavened flatbreads or cakes of roasted barley. “The barley was ground with a flat stone; the stone was then heated with a flint stone until it was hot enough to cook the bread.” Israelites consumed these flat breads for centuries until the ancient Egyptians introduced them to the leavening process. History tells us that the Egyptians were the first civilization to discover the effect that leavening had on flour and water. In Six Thousand Years of Bread: Its Holy and Unholy History, H.E. Jacobs writes that the Egyptians, who lived amid the Nile’s rich, grain-growing river valley, set their dough aside until it soured, then watched the process of fermentation that led to natural leavening. The Egyptians also created the first ovens, which were used to bake this new, more delicate bread via indirect heat. Nathan and Jacobs suggest that the ritual of eating matzo to commemorate the Passover story denotes more than a hasty departure: It symbolizes the commencement of a passage that would bring the Israelites from dependence to self-sufficiency. In both situations – as slaves in Egypt and as free citizens gathered around the Pesach table – Jews ate the same flat wafers. As enslaved people, they ate the matzo while essentially cowering in subservience; after the exodus, matzo was eaten with the dignity accorded a free people. One thing is clear: Judaism takes its bread rules seriously. For some 3,000 years matzo was traditionally made by hand. It was round – called shmurah or guarded matzo – and was made from grains watched by a Jewish official from the moment of harvest to ensure that they or the dough never came in contact with a liquid that would lead to accidental leavening. www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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Under rabbinic law, once the flour is combined with water, matzo dough must be kneaded, rolled and baked within 18 minutes — otherwise it will begin to rise. In 2001, agents of Israel’s interior ministry raided local restaurants to make sure the proprietors weren’t serving leavened bread during Passover. Before Passover begins Jews are supposed to remove leavened products from their homes or places of business. In 1838, during the Industrial Age, Frenchman Isaac Singer invented a matzo-dough-rolling machine that cut down on the dough’s prep time and made mass production of matzo possible. But not everyone is quick to swallow new changes to millennia-old religious traditions. Singer’s invention became a hot-button issue for 19th century Jewish authorities. Meanwhile, demand for matzo rose steadily in the United States, as America’s Jewish population grew. Until then, matzo was baked almost exclusively by synagogues, which maintained special ovens or hired and supervised commercial bakers to do the work. But the decline of the synagogue community gave private entities a chance to resume this responsibility. In 1888, Lithuanian immigrant Dov Behr opened the first matzomaking factory in Cincinnati. Behr adopted the name “Manischewitz,” called his factory the B. Manischewitz Co. and developed an entirely automated method of matzo production. In his advertisements, he boasted that “no human hand touches these matzos!” By the 1920s, Manischewitz was the world’s largest matzo producer, turning out more than a million matzos a day and claiming that it kept kosher laws in the process. Manischewitz endured the controversy that came with his machines. After 13 years of studying the Talmud (the body of Jewish civil and ceremonial law) in Jerusa-
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lem, he became an accepted authority on the subject of matzo. The Manischewitz machine revolutionized the matzo industry. No more lumps and bumps as with the handcrafted process. Manischewitz matzos were uniform in size, shape, taste and texture. In 1990, the family sold the company for $42.5 million. The brand is still the most popular in the world. Other machine-made-matzo companies opened around the country. And by the mid-20th century, nearly every grocery store carried the product, which might be flavored, spiced, chocolate-covered, organic or gluten-free. “People started buying flavored matzo year-round sometime over the last few decades,” says Alan Adler of family-run Streit’s. The Lower East Side fixture (established in 1925) recently moved to a
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larger, more modern facility in nearby New Jersey. Streit’s offers every kind of matzo from unsalted to sundried tomato. But Adler – the company’s director of operations – says the Passover-approved matzo, supervised by rabbis holding stopwatches to guarantee adherence to the 18-minute rule, is still the most popular. “For the bad rap it gets at the holiday, as being the ‘bread of affliction,’ I guess it’s still pretty good,” Adler says. In 1912, the demands of technology and packaging prompted Manischewitz to take a marketplace risk with square matzo. The company described them as “fine matzos” and packaged them in cigar-type boxes that protected the contents from breakage and projected an aura of affluence. The company correctly guessed that
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if rich and powerful Jews accepted the product, other Jews would soon follow suit. At one point in the ‘20s, Manischewitz claimed it was delivering matzo “to 80 percent of the Jewish population of America and Canada.” Despite all the technological advancements and the added flavors, matzo remains a food steeped in religious tradition. In 1959, well known Ukrainian Rabbi Solomon Kluger published an angry manifesto against machine-made matzo. His brother-in-law, Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson, published a defense. Jewish communities around the world contributed opinions and took sides, suggesting that handmade matzo provided kneading jobs for the poor; that machine-made matzo was more affordable to the poor; that the mitzvah of eating matzo was ruined if a machine was used; that the machine made it easier to abide by the 18-minute rule and so on. The big megillah over matzo comes down to the great importance ascribed to a food made of flour and cold water. Nothing more. The difference between the leavened and unleavened versions comes down to time – 18 minutes worth. Nothing more. According to ancient Jewish sages, the “inflated” nature of leavened bread reflects the traits of arrogance and conceit; the unleavened version represents humility, which the Bible instructs the Jew to aspire to. The sages also teach that the Jew is meant to conquer time, to live beyond time, by never wasting it, and to view it as a precious commodity to be used in the service of mitzvot (the commandments) and chesed (kindness) in order to heal the world. These lessons are meant to be learned, and relearned, each year at the Seder table through the experience and the story of the most modest of foods — the matzo!
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Eat Green Batali & Bastianich Restaurants Offer Up Food that Feeds the Body and Nourishes the Eco-conscious Soul. By Marisa Finetti
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e love to eat out. Americans spend roughly 48 percent And by press time, B&B Burger & Beer may have a green seal, too. of their total food budget eating at places outside their Elizabeth Meltz is B&BHG’s food safety and sustainability homes. In Las Vegas, a city known for an abundance of director. She says collaborating with the chefs is the key to the dining options (not to mention an amount of food and drink that company’s success. “Our restaurants are very chef-driven. For would make Falstaff blush), we can’t help but think of the waste all example, it was chef Jason Neve’s (B&BHG Las Vegas’ culinary this must generate. director) idea to do away with straws.” On average nationally, a Neve, astounded at the restaurant produces 50,000 environmental impact of straws, pounds of garbage per year; of asked if there was something those 25 tons of waste, all but the restaurant group could do to about 5 percent of the total help reduce the amount of plastic could be recycled or composted. entering the waste stream. Meltz What’s more, the restaurant took his idea and ran with it, industry is responsible for and now all B&BHG restaurants a third of all the energy the across the country have a “straws retail sector consumes, and the upon request” policy. average food service facility “I did a quick audit and swallows some 300,000 gallons discovered that our restaurant of water a year. group alone could remove a But Batali & Bastianich quarter of a million straws and Hospitality Group – Las Vegas stirrers from the waste stream is doing something about in a given year,” says Meltz. it. From reducing waste and “I love this initiative for so sourcing sustainable, local many reasons,” chef Mario food, to implementing out-ofBatali says. “It reduces plastic the box-thinking initiatives, in our waste stream, without the company’s about as green compromising the customer as it can get. And guests into experience. If you want a straw, indulging their food fantasies and you can still get one!” But it will maintaining a good conscience be made of paper or some form seem to be eating it up. of compostable material. B&BHG is firmly rooted in Batali’s restaurants also Tagliatelle with asparagus from Quail Hollow Farm, Overton, NV. traditional Italian principles: benefit from being in the food’s best enjoyed in its simple, fresh delicious-ness; the dining largest LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) experience should be shared with loved ones; and the world should buildings around. The Palazzo is the largest LEED silver project in be left better than we found it. B&BHG – Las Vegas comprises: the world, while The Venetian is the largest stand-alone LEED gold B&B Ristorante (The Venetian), a classic Italian dining house; building in the state. Otto Enoteca e Pizzeria (Piazza San Marco, The Venetian), an “We are lucky that we are in buildings that have the same ideals eatery specializing in casual Italian fare; Carnevino (The Palazzo), that we do,” says Meltz, who acknowledges that sustainability may a celebrated Italian steakhouse; and B&B Burger & Beer (The not always be obvious or sexy but does make a difference. Venetian). The dining is pure, artisanal perfection. Each stop Take, for example, the triple carbon filtration system that UVhighlights an inventive menu that features organic, sustainable, sterilizes flat and sparkling water, which is then served in reusable locally grown ingredients. carafes; or the grease that’s recycled into biodiesel or energy, or the In fact, Carnevino, B&B Ristorante and Otto are the Green low-flow faucet aerators in the hand washing and prep sinks. EnergyRestaurant Association’s only green-certified restaurants in Las Vegas. efficient rechargeable “flicker” candles also do their part, and local www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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farmers have been solicited to pick up chef Jason’s vegetable scraps. Being a step ahead and doing more than the minimum epitomize the farm-to-table philosophy introduced in Las Vegas by Batali nearly six years ago. Together, with The Palazzo and key individuals (professional forager Kerry Clasby), B&BHG helped mark the opening in 2009 of a sustainable farmers market inside the Palazzo Waterfall Atrium. The market, whose actual origins went back to Batali’s storage warehouse on Dean Martin Drive, now operates as the Downtown 3rd Farmers Market. Frequented by Neve and other top chefs in the city intent on using locally sourced ingredients, it’s a foodies mecca and has given farmers – the dine-out world’s true rock stars – a place to showcase top-shelf produce. Neve’s relationship with “intuitive forager” Kerry Clasby goes back to when the chef and Batali looked to California as a fresh produce source for their Las Vegas restaurants. Clasby, considered a trusted distributor by farmers, travels about 1,500 miles up and down the West Coast each week gathering seasonal fruits and vegetables for Las Vegas restaurants. “Unfortunately, our industrial food distribution system prevents us from being able to get the best-tasting, ripest, most nutritionally dense food available,” says Clasby. “It starts with the farmers’ care and ends with how you pick it. These chefs order from me and they get their produce – picked and on the table in two days. That’s unheard of these days.” She credits Batali and Neve with bringing the best ingredients into this town, starting with B&BHG’s Bet on the Farm market. It has evolved into the markets we see today, including the newly opened Downtown Summerlin Farmers Market that Clasby curates. “If you’re eating Batali food, you’re eating with incredible creative vision behind it,” she says. “As for the produce that’s left over here after today?” at the Downtown 3rd Market. “Jason (Neve) buys it. (B&BHG – Las Vegas) takes it every single week. Nobody really 3:00 PM knows about all this great stuff that happens behind the scenes.”
Elements of a caprese salad featuring locally sourced organic heirloom tomatoes, burrata cheese and a purple basil leaf garnish.
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Increasingly, Neve says, customers want to know more about what goes into their meal, and are making more educated food choices. By working closely with farmers, he adds, the restaurants can adjust their offerings on a more than seasonal basis. “Every day we go over menu changes during preshift,” Neve says. “We have a really welleducated group of servers ready to answer questions our clientele might have.” This month he’s expecting asparagus and radish from Quail Hollow Elizabeth Meltz Farm in Overton; miners lettuce, stinging nettles, Persian cress, fava beans, English peas and a wide variety of greens from Kerry Clasby, California Family Farms/Downtown 3rd Farmers Market; rocket arugula and herbs, such as mint, basil, chives, garlic chives, peppermint, from Prime Growers in Sandy Valley; and apricots from Gilcrease Orchard. Neve says responsible meat sourcing starts with buying and using the whole animal. Carnevino practices the nose-to-tail philosophy, he says, an Italian sensibility that has the side effect of encouraging customers to discover new menu items. “Our pork comes from Heritage Foods,” Neve says. “Our lambs come from Anderson Ranch in Oregon. All the animals are raised on natural diets, hormone- and antibiotic-free … they’re treated humanely.” Beverages at B&BHG restaurants also get the fresh ingredient approach. “B&B Ristorante has a constantly evolving seasonal cocktail menu, and Carnevino has a dedicated ‘Farmers Market Cocktail’ that showcases seasonal ingredients,” says Kirk Peterson, Beverage Director B&B Hospitality Group Las Vegas. Ingredients from the freshly-foraged list this month include Comice pears, Sorrento lemons, Caviar limes, and Weikiwa Lavender Chef Jason Neve Gem tangelos. In the end, it’s about glorifying local, small farming enterprises, and celebrating food and drink in their purest forms, and environmental preservation. Buon appetito!
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All Better Now? Mothballed condo projects find new life as rentals — sales market still sluggish By Brian Sodoma
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ou could call 2014 a comeback year for mothballed condo projects. The former Manhattan West, just west of the 215 Beltway off Russell Road in the southwest Valley, is slowly evolving into the hip, mixed-use, live/work/play Gramercy. Near the South Strip, City Club — once touted as a 100-unit luxury condo offering, with prices from $200,000 to $1 million — is now the Lennox, a high-end rental complex; and Vantage Flats and Lofts, 201 S. Gibson Road in Henderson, has most of its 110 luxury units leased. While resurrecting these projects as upscale rentals is certainly more positive than watching them languish in disrepair, selling them is still a challenge. Price increases for condos, in general, haven’t kept pace with the double-digit climbs seen in the single-family home market, and lenders are still cool to financing condo units as well. “The price per door or foot isn’t economically feasible today for (selling),” acknowledges Benjy Garfinkle, a principal with WGH Partners, a segment of the redevelopment team at the Lennox and Gramercy projects.
Recessionary unwinding Today, the once-scrapped projects are rounding into forms similar to what their creators envisioned. This is partly because many of the projects were more than half-finished when they stalled. Roofs were in place and the general footprint was already constructed. Developers really didn’t have to do a lot of floor plan tinkering, other than perhaps downscaling to less expensive appliances in units. For the most part, the units have been finished to condo, not apartment, specs, Garfinkle says. And as rentals, developers acknowledge they are still learning a bit about the luxury market they are targeting. “I think we’re all kind of testing this higher-end market,” Garfinkle adds, “and we don’t know how deep it really is.” The investor also was interested in purchasing Vantage. Construction originally started on that project in 2006 by Slade Development. Back then it was touted as a $160 million effort, with spectacular Valley views and units priced from $400,000 to $1.6 million.
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Rendering of public open space and interior of an apartment, The Gramercy.
With a tanking economy in 2008, three partially finished buildings and $70 million in spending dissolved in bankruptcy. At its low point, the 10-acre project was reduced to a $3.9 million valuation. In 2012, Rothwell Gornt purchased it out of bankruptcy. Principal Richard Crighton said it would cost about $15 million to finish the project, and he felt the market was ready for a lessexpensive version of those spectacular Valley views. But by January 2013, Crighton’s team changed course and went to the city of Henderson to rezone for rentals. A couple of months later, the investor flipped the property for $10 million to Goodman Real Estate, a Seattle-based firm with more than $20 billion in assets, according to its website. Goodman, in a partnership with Tilton Development Co. of Scottsdale, Ariz., did indeed finish Vantage and started leasing last May. Vantage business manager, Cassie Bostic, calls it “a love story now. It truly was resurrected.” Vantage’s 110 units range between 1,000 and 2,700 square feet in size, with rents from $1,500 to $4,700. Only six lofts are left, Bostic says, at prices ranging from $3,400 to $4,500 per month.
Who’s leasing? Bostic said her team primarily targets the Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York markets for residents. Entrepreneurs, resort corridor executives, entertainers, physicians and other working professionals call Vantage their second, or vacation, home, she says. “The only competitors we have are the Strip and private, custom homes,” she adds. Bostic calls Vantage a “yes” community with 24-hour concierge services, round-the-clock clubhouse and fitness center access and numerous other amenities. The luxury touches are what residents from high-rent markets are accustomed to. They are not bargain shoppers. “Giving a month free rent is not what makes the deal for our clients,” Bostic said. “When they see it, they usually know it’s what they want.” At Gramercy, Garfinkle has been focused on the commercial side of the venture, with roughly 200,000 square feet of office space to fill and plenty of dining options to bring to the site. He has found large office tenants and signed on Cupa Café, DW Bistro and other non-chain dining establishments that he thinks will make the site a dining destination. www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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Pool area and interior of an apartment, The Lennox.
There’s a central park, sitting areas, fire pits, benches and couches built into public spaces for residents and guests. And there should also be plenty of events too, from Super Bowl parties to concerts and more. Gramercy recently began leasing its 160 residential units, with about a dozen leases executed. Unit sizes range from 530-squarefoot studios at $1,075 per month to penthouse lofts topping 2,000 square feet for $4,600 per month. “There’s a lot of interest because of the office, retail component,” he said. “Everyone knows the southwest is a growth area, but this is what’s missing. There hasn’t been this kind of gathering type of courtyard community down there.” But Garfinkle’s market appears to be a little different than Bostic’s, despite its high-rent similarities. He is seeing more local gaming industry people who work in the resort corridor moving into both Gramercy and Lennox, which has about 20 of its 100 units leased. Leasing activity started at the beginning of the year at Lennox, and one-, two- or threebedroom units range from $1,350 to $2,500 per month.
Tackling the projects Garfinkle brings a stomach for mothballed projects. He’s done it before, even locally. He was part of the team that created Rumor Boutique Hotel near the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
His team purchased Gramercy for $2 million, but has put about $50 million into it so far. And Lennox, also purchased for pennies on the dollar, still required $13 million to finish. “People look at that first number and think ‘what a great buy’. … I tell them ‘call me in two years.’ There’s a real web of unknowns in these projects. If you don’t have the expertise and the right people … contractors and engineers, you’re going to have problems,” he adds. Garfinkle hired Thomas & Mack Development as a consultant on the two developments and Martin-Harris as the contractor. MartinHarris also completed Vantage. He even hired back some of the original designers and engineers as consultants. A key selling point for Garfinkle on the Lennox and Gramercy, and even Vantage, properties was the availability of built-out parking podiums. Underground parking is costly to develop, and having the structure in place was a big attraction and cost savings. Elevator access was also unique to the market, he says. Still, he had his share of added expenses on the projects. “You see AC duct that’s not going through a wall. There’s an unfinished roof drain. Wiring is wrong. You don’t really know until the contractors are in the bones of the deal and starting to piece it back together. … On some level, you also have to remember that these things were built during the heyday and there was some shoddy workmanship,” he says.
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Interior of an apartment and project exterior, Vantage Flats and Lofts.
When to sell Most developers acknowledge that selling the units is the ultimate goal. Bostic says there is interest in purchasing Vantage units. About one in five lessees has asked about buying. For now, some of her team’s eyes are on Strip condos to see where pricing on luxury units is trending. Ed Coulson, director of the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at UNLV, says condo pricing really mirrors the broader real estate market, where some leveling is occurring after increases. But he’s encouraged by broader economic improvements, such as a lower unemployment rate and increasing wages. “As long as the economy is strong, people will feel like Las Vegas is a good location to have a first or second home,” he says. James Brooks, a Realty One agent whose team sells about 100 high-rise condos a year, is cautiously optimistic about the mothballed projects. He says the city’s condo market still has plenty of skeptics. He estimates about 90 percent of the sales he sees on or around the Strip involve cash buyers. Financing is still not easy to get, he says. And on the whole, he adds, buyers still seem to need further assurance of a stable Las Vegas real estate market. Brooks also said the projects have location going against them,
even though marketers of the properties would tell us otherwise. Second-home buyers, who make up the primary market for luxury condos, prefer the Strip and likely don’t want to pay a high persquare-foot rate to live on the outskirts of town. “In general, the second or third home buyer wants to be close to the action. … I live in Henderson. I love Henderson. But no one’s really coming to hang out in Henderson,” he says. Park House Las Vegas, formerly The Modern and originally developed as Luxe Lofts, on west Flamingo Road, near the 215 beltway, was purchased by BondRok Partners in 2012 for $6.7 million. After finishing the project, investors tried with limited success to sell units. After converting to rentals, the team is now taking a second stab at selling again. The 83-unit complex’s condos include underground parking and range from 1,200 to 1,500 square feet, with prices from the high $200,000s to more than $500,000. For outlying projects like Vantage to sell, Brooks says, developers need prices to top $300 per square foot, and he doesn’t see that happening for three to five years. For Garfinkle, whose leasing team is going full tilt at the moment, selling units is not in the immediate picture. “I don’t even want to say when it would happen,” he adds. www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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Desert Design Defined
Celebrating Spaces Inspired by the Great Mojave By Rebecca Orlov Interior Design by Jill Abelman of Inside Style Home Photos by Richard Faverty of Beckett Studios
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as Vegas may show off its style with glitzy, manufactured lights and flashy neon signs along the Strip. But it’s our glorious desert backdrop that truly reveals the natural wonder and beauty of our city and environs every day. From sunrise to sunset and beyond, natural color stories and organic elements can be found at any turn, and Southern Nevadans are embracing it through their own design stories at home. Desert-inspired design has been a style go-to for decades. From neutrals to textures to accessories to decor, we’ve seen this style in all facets of the home. But what is desert design? Globally, it is open and balanced neutral design. More specifically, it is however you want to integrate neutral color ways and organic elements into your spaces. Like most design, it is more than just an item, a product or a way you place an object. Rather, it evokes waves of emotions, such as inspirational, calmness and comfort. We asked local Las Vegas interior designer Jill Abelman of Inside Style Home to share her thoughts on desert design. “When I think of a desert design, I imagine a serene, open vista with all elements of the landscape living in harmony with each other,” she says. That harmony she speaks of is the foundation for desert design, an idea people can tackle in their own space, regardless of the overall design style they love. Modern, traditional, contemporary. Each style is able to accommodate the beauty of desert design – and do it well, as in this gorgeous Las Vegas condo in the Marin II. Jill created a beautiful modern space with several desert design moments in the mix. She accomplished this design effort by embracing the neutrals and organic elements our desert provides.
Beyond Beige Neutrals shine brighter than many people realize. And when it comes to desert design, using a neutral color palette is the key to
Desert neutrals and natural sunlight provide a layered foundation to the main living and dining rooms.
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Left: Exposed light adds depth to a smaller space. Above: The custom dining table made of organic wood - is desert design, defined.
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embracing a neutral palette: keep the hues in relation to each other, and depart just one shade up or down to get a layered neutral look. Also create your neutral foundation using your larger ticket items – sofas, rugs and chairs. Also consider the fabrics you’re using. “As we select fabrics and finishes for our clients,” Jill says, “often we dismiss certain selections because they are too ‘heavy’ for the desert. Would you wear a wool coat in the summer? Of course not. The climate and weather play a big part in how we design and select our materials. We love to pick natural, breathable fabrics like linens, cottons and comfortable silk blends for maximum comfort and appeal. We tend to select neutral backdrops that complement the architecture but not overpower it.” Jill certainly achieved this in the Martin II condo. Of course the importance of designing a home is to make it feel livable and comfortable. “I feel like the desert décor, like all interiors, should strike a delicate balance,” Jill says. “Mother Nature has the perfect hand when it comes to mixing elements. We strive for beauty, comfort and the right scale, so all is comfortable, yet livable.”
Connecting the outdoors indoors
creating this harmonious vibe. To achieve this look in your space, consider turning to natural color stories found in desert life to highlight neutral options. Let’s start with a few of the more common color ways and neutrals – browns and grays. Brown hues, including the desert floor and rocks, can range from beige to cream to sand in color. Another popular color way found in desert design is gray. Pulled from the stones and the rich, deep color of the mountains as the sun sets over Las Vegas, gray hues such as charcoal, pewter and silver are widely used in desert design. We also want to share the orange/red color story as a neutral. (Yes, a colorful neutral does work!) Displayed in our desert sunrise and sunsets, oranges, reds, pinks and golds strike a sweet opportunity for placing color as a neutral background. Design tip for
We all have an inherent connection with the outdoors, and desert dwelling offers several organic design options. From rocks to woods to foliage to sunlight, choosing materials and design layouts that resonate with your personal style is the first step for bringing organic elements into your home. One homeowner may enjoy the rugged aspects of natural rock walls in the kitchen. Another may prefer the more sophisticated flair of dark mahogany flooring in the living room. The most important idea is choosing natural elements that incorporate your style and connect you to your interiors. “Use it with moderation,” Jill advises. “I feel like the desert décor – like all interiors – should strike a delicate balance. Mother Nature has the perfect hand when it comes to mixing elements. We strive for beauty, comfort and the right scale, so all is comfortable, yet livable.” As with any layout, there are many ideas to consider when designing your home with natural desert elements. One specific idea we’d like to point out is using natural desert textures as a focal point or backdrop. In any size space, the focal point of a room is where the eyes are drawn to first. Secondary or backdrop design comprises the blended items and layers that help create your design story. Knowing this can help balance your desert-inspired space. Are you introducing a rock wall in its natural form, or altering it to suit your color palette or style through paint or fabric? Either way works. Just make sure to balance your design ideas with your overall design goal. In the Martin II, Jill introduces natural elements in a variety of ways. She explains how desert design can focus emotion throughout an entire home. “We used a natural charcoal-colored ledgestone on the walls of the living room and master bedroom wall for drama and texture,” she says. “We love the natural stone backsplash we incorporated in the kitchen to both warm up and personalize the cooking area. “We were inspired by the clients’ desire for a wood plank dining table,” she continues, “and we had this one custom made and paired it with leather chairs in metallic leather for the dining room table. We used mostly neutral textures like the shaggy gray rug, the tan silk in the master bedroom ... with a pop of color in the artwork and pillows. Steering away from too much color on the wall, we still wanted some drama – so a local artist painted the columns and the hallway in a faux cement. It looks like a windswept sky to me.” www.davidlv.com | APRIL 2015
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Above: Another desert neutral foundation - this time in tones of white - found in the bathroom design. Right: Create a focal point with organic textures, like this rock wall, in the master bedroom.
The best desert design accessory is free Embracing the natural colors and elements of the Nevada desert is amplified best by one of the most important design accessories – lighting. And many of us can enjoy our noted “free accessory” every day in the form of good old-fashioned sunshine. Natural light not only creates harmony and balance in your space, but also evokes emotions and enhances moods. By embracing natural sunlight, your design layout will feel cohesive and complete. And since homes face in all different directions, with varying sunlight exposures, adding a few mirrors in your space will help achieve the brightness levels you desire. Light also changes the “color” in your home as the day progresses. With our desert-designed neutral backdrop, this is an efficient way to increase depth in a room. In spaces with little or no natural light, and for evening lighting, think about using lights at various intensities. Pulling inspiration from Nevada’s landscape and weaving it into your home is an accessible and authentic way to design your space. Through natural color ways and natural elements found right here in our vast and beautiful desert landscape, decorating with desert design in mind can have beautiful effects in both style and emotion. Some of our favorites are happiness, comfort and finding beauty in the everyday world. With that sentiment in mind, Jill offers a final thought on desert design: “Like the desert landscape, a new day or a new painting can change everything.” We wholeheartedly agree. 50 APRIL 2015 | www.davidlv.com
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Essential Milly
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Michelle Smith and Husband, Andy Oshrin’s Contemporary & Edgy Collection By Marisa Finetti
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fter graduating from Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Michelle Smith wrote the president of Hermès, using her best French to ask for an internship at the Gallic house whose expensive handbags she’d sold from a Manhattan counter as a part-time shop girl. Done! “I was the first American to work in the Paris office,” says the designer and founder (with husband Andy Oshrin) of MILLY. “I developed an eye for luxury, which has always stayed with me, and which I have carried through to my collection today.” Designs from MILLY — the business gets its name from Smith’s childhood sobriquet — seem to personify contemporary fashion, with a feminine edge that reflects the dynamic businesswoman’s own mien. “I use cutting-edge European fabrics in my collection,” Smith says, “and I design many of my own prints. I place a great deal of emphasis on custom hardware as well. Details are important to me.” Smith, who travels Europe extensively, designs fabrics for her collections and transforms classic silhouettes by merging American sportswear influences with distinctive Parisian atelier techniques. Her eye for detail and her line’s precise tailoring have made MILLY a cult favorite across the globe. Smith says her collections exemplify the quintessential “MILLY woman” and are constantly evolving, based on the changing seasons and other inspirations. “But the DNA is consistent. My designs are feminine and advanced, with vibrant prints and impeccable details.” As a sixth-grader, Smith sketched her nascent fashion imaginings on the kitchen floor. “My mother was very encouraging,” she recalls, “and brought up the idea of going to Paris for design school very early, which was something I worked towards.” Later, while a scholarship student at F.I.T., she supported herself by working at the Hermès counter in New York, where her well-heeled clientele included Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Eventually, during her three years in Paris, Smith would log internship stops at Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior Haute Couture.
Upon graduation from the ESMOD design school in Paris, she returned to New York to begin her career. She and her businesspartner husband, now parents of Sophia, 8, and Will, 4, met when Andy interviewed her for a job. They fell in love and some years later teamed up to start MILLY, which turned a profit in its first year. These days, MILLY has moved beyond the ready-to-wear category to include handbags, small leather goods, cabana swimwear and MILLY Minis (children’s wear largely inspired by Smith’s daughter) in its growing fashion arsenal. Beyoncé, Allison Williams, Kate Middleton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Mila Kunis and Sofía Vergara are among the many MILLY aficionados. Other fans of the contemporary style can look forward to the Resort Collection (on the following pages). It features cute, abbreviated bustiers and pleated shorts in a structured fabric as the base for several looks. In several instances, bra tops come layered under sheer latticework bombers, and pencil skirts reinterpret spring’s perforated mesh group in embroidered tulle. While sophisticated, the collection still manages to pack a graphic punch. Elsewhere, bustiers mixed with clean, tailored separates (including tuxedo jackets and a pair of high-waisted, wide-legged trousers) give the impression of skyscraper legs. Smith’s creative styling also features soft silk shirtdresses worn open and loose, and incorporates swimwear as ready-to-wear, or vice versa. And while the contemporary MILLY customer will appreciate the modern, relatively pared-back basics here, she’ll also find it hard to resist a flirty party outfit for a night out. Highlights in this category include a boldly printed organza, with just a hint of transparency. Looking back on her career, Smith says she never doubted she’d get that Hermès internship: “Each door opens up a new door. I think it’s just about having the will and determination. You have to believe it yourself.” Her timeless collection echoes that maxim. All items shown are from the MILLY Resorts Collection and are available at Nieman Marcus, 3200 Las Vegas Blvd., S. Las Vegas. 702-731-3636.
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Zip Coat $650
Lattice Mesh Bomber Jacket, $595; Lattice Mesh Midi Skirt $375.
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Striped Long-Sleeve Cropped Tee, $265; Double-Weave Cady WideLeg Trousers, $345.
Double-weave Cady Stretch Pleated Skirt, $275
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Floral Mirage Border Print Organza Shirtdress $525.
Floral Mirage Organza Skirt $425 Floral Mirage Organza Utility Jacket $675
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Aztec Fill Coupe Overlay Dress $595
Stretch Silk Crepe Romper $395,
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Kerry Clasby The Intuitive Forager Kerry Clasby’s interests include astrology, spirituality and natural healing. The Ivy Leagueeducated New Englander studied political science and worked in hotels, the corporate world and alternative education before finding her true love: bringing California’s best produce to chefs and home cooks throughout Las Vegas. “My grandfather and grandmother ran a farm shop,” she recalls, “selling what they grew on my family’s land: peppers. cucumbers, rhubarb, lettuces… One of my favorite childhood memories was eating these fat tomatoes on Irish soda bread.” Coincidently, heirloom tomatoes were the first item Kerry sold at farmers markets, a surplus crop from a gardening program she organized for her second grade students. From there her network flourished to 13 markets around Southern California before she met Chef Michael Mina while selling some market surplus to his restaurant in Dana Point. Chef Mina asked her if she could find an unusual item: rose-scented geraniums. Uncannily, as Clasby tells it, a farmer friend in Ojai had just had her to take five buckets of the same flowers off his hands. Today, under the umbrella of her company Intuitive Forager (the name inspired by Chef Mina’s request), she delivers curated produce to several of the Strip’s best restaurants and sells much of the same—some 250 items on average-at two locals farmers markets: Downtown Third on Fridays and the newly opened Downtown Summerlin Farmers Market on Saturdays. DAVID: Is intuition really your guiding business principle? CLASBY: The mind is a tool. We’ve all had problems we don’t know how to solve. And then we go take a shower, and that answer comes to us magically. I think it’s been my own personal path. I found in my life that every time I went against my inner knowing, it was tragedy; and every time I went with it, it was magic. … I travel from Oregon down to San Diego every week talking to local farmers. I want to know who is growing my food and where. When people understand it, they want the best for their children and their families. DAVID: How did you come to Las Vegas, and what’s the secret of your success? CLASBY: My husband and I lived in Las Vegas 20 years ago … back then I was driving back and forth from farmers markets in California with coolers full of produce for our family. Years later, I was selling to Nancy
Silverton at Mozza, and Mario Batali and his team would see that and asked me to come to Las Vegas. And I said, no, it was too expensive. So they said let’s open a farmers market (Bet On The Farm) because they were paying all these high trucking fees. Without the B&B group and chef Shawn McClain (at Sage), I wouldn’t have done it. I credit them, Devin Hashimoto, Alex Stratta, Tom Colicchio, Akira Back, Sammy D. and Grant MacPherson for subsidizing this. DAVID: With all the brand name markets in Las Vegas why do we need farmers markets? CLASBY: It’s a community gathering place. It’s an ancient marketplace experience, where people are able to gather and converse. And when people come together and talk and share, it’s just so much fun, and that’s why we’re supposed to be here. DAVID: What are some of your favorite products? CLASBY: I have two different varieties of late season tangerines right now, Tahoe Gold and Murcott. We just finished with a Kyushu tangerine from Japan, the Page mandarin … Blenheim apricots are a favorite of mine. We have six varieties of potatoes. We are bringing in white truffles. It’s getting better and better. I love to source the unusual. And that’s where the ‘intuition’ comes in, because along the road there are detours. Matt Accarrino at SPQR wanted scallop testicles, and I was able to source them from Nantucket. Akira Back has me sourcing different seaweeds. DAVID: Your principal focus is on bringing California produce to Las Vegas. What about Southern Nevada produce? CLASBY: I’m bullish on it. At Quail Hollow farms, they’re growing in rich river soil, although the heat and cold are very severe. Their crop got totally wiped out in the rains last year. But we have people growing greens in greenhouses, and they are incredible. DAVID: Farmers Markets have a philanthropic element to them – true? CLASBY: My goal is to bring people the best thing (they) can eat, but also education. Our food is our medicine. … I’m very aware of the low margins in markets. It’s really like running a not-for-profit business. Farmers need to make money, chefs can’t pay a lot. But … you don’t look back on your life and say I wish I made more money.
— E.C. Gladstone
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