Issue 5 Volume 20
US $3.95
Sammy Hagar Continues to Rock the Spirits World
May 2020
Contents and Comments from Editorial Director Bob Barnes
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It’s with great sadness that I share the news of the passing of Mike Fryer, Senior Editor/ Publisher/Founder of The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional. This will be sudden news to many of you, as after his cancer returned recently it progressed very rapidly and spread throughout his body; Mike left us on April 28. Anyone who had the pleasure to know Mike will surely remember him as an extremely kind and charming man with a witty sense of humor who was always very fun to be around. He was also a visionary, who accomplished a great deal, including the founding of this publication.
Cover
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Our LVFNBPro team will strive to continue to lend a voice to the professionals in the food & beverage industry, as Mike hoped we would. Mike’s passing happened just as we were closing this issue, so to do justice to his memory, the June issue of The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional will be devoted to honoring his legacy. If you have any memories of times with Mike or pics you would be willing to share for the issue, please send them to me at bob@lvfnb.com. Our cover feature, written by Gael Hees, revisits Sammy Hagar and looks at how he continues to rock the spirits world. Since our visit with him in May, 2019 his Santo Puro Mezquila has truly taken off. In this article Sammy talks about making Santo, his close partnership with his friend Guy Fieri, what he has been doing during quarantine and giving to his favorite charity: food banks. Find the full feature on page 12. During this time, restaurant owners, managers and staff are anxiously looking for ways to help their businesses survive. We are here to help, with an article by craft winery owner Mary McAuley on challenges faced by small business suppliers (page 8), words of wisdom from Able Baker Brewing co-owner James Manos on what small breweries may need to do post-pandemic (page 14-15), our own Adam Rains informs on what brands have stepped up to support the food & beverage community and outreach programs helping bartenders (page 17) and our Restaurant Expert David Scott Peters lays out a cash flow plan to ride out the pandemic (page 18). We all need to find pleasure during isolation, and to help us do just that, Erin Cooper & Christine Vanover present wine and ice cream pairings (page 16) and Shelley Stepanek shares three cocktail recipes compliments of three of The Venetian’s finest cocktail bars: Rosina, The Dorsey and Electra Cocktail Club (page 19). In honor of Mike Fryer, I will continue to use his characteristic closing: CHEERS!
COVER FEATURE
Page 4 Hot off the Grill! Page5 Human Resources Insights Human Resources Is Exactly that—a Resource! Page 6 What’s Cooking Page 7 Wine Talk with Alice Swift A Walk Down Memory Lane During COVID-19 Page 8 Small Business Suppliers Face Dilemma Surviving Coronavirus Page 10 The Bottom Line How to Start a Restaurant, From an Expert in Design, Permitting, Licensing and Development
Page 12 Santo Puro Mezquila Continues to Rock the Spirits World Page 14 What’s Brewing Page 16 Twinkle Toast Ice Cream and Wine Pairings Bring Pleasure to Self-Isolation
Page 19 Best of the Best Page 20 Product Review Page 21 Chef Talk Truffles Page 22 Events Ad Index
Page 17 USBG Las Vegas Industry Crisis Relief Page 18 The Restaurant Expert Create a Cash Flow Plan to Ride Out the COVID-19 Pandemic
19 www.lvfnbpro.com
May 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 3
The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 7442 Grizzly Giant Street Las Vegas, NV 89139 www.lvfnbpro.com
HOT OFF THE GRILL!
In loving memory of our Sr. Editor, father and friend.
Mike Fryer Founder, 1949-2020
Bob Barnes
Editorial Director bob@lvfnb.com
Juanita Fryer
This photo depicts Mike Fryer, flanked by Editorial Director Bob Barnes and Creative Director Juanita Aiello, at the Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits launch of Brooklyn Brewing in 2013, demonstrating his playfulness and showing him enjoying life. Anyone who ever had the pleasure to spend time with him, came to appreciate his company and cheerful outlook. He will forever be in our hearts and we all owe him a huge debt of gratitude for having the foresight to create this magazine: the first and ONLY publication dedicated to the food and beverage professionals in Southern Nevada.
Alice Swift
Publisher juanita.fryer@lvfnb.com
Assistant Editor alice@lvfnb.com
Too often servers don’t get the recognition they deserve for the dedicated and professional job they do. Pictured here (taken pre-shutdown) at Sparrow + Wolf is one of the best of the best, Destyn Hamada. To read more about Destyn and one of the top dining destinations in Las Vegas that we’ve missed during the quarantine, read Bob Barnes’ What’s Cooking column on page 6.
Juanita Aiello Creative Director juanita@lvfnb.com
Advertising sales@lvfnb.com
Article Submissions/Suggestions articles@lvfnb.com
Calendar Submissions calendar@lvfnb.com
Website webmaster@lvfnb.com
Press Relase Submissions news@lvfnb.com
General Information info@lvfnb.com
@lvfnb
The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional
CONTRIBUTING STAFF
Journalist USBG Adam Rains
Journalist The Bottom Line Ben Brown
Accounting Manager Michelle San Juan
Journalist Brett’s Vegas View Jackie Brett
Journalist Best of the Best Shelley Stepanek
Journalist UNLV Epicurean Society Nicholas Bilt
Journalist May I Recommend... Blake Myers
Journalist The Restaurant Expert David Scott Peters
Journalist USBG Las Vegas Terry Clark
Journalist Front & Back of the House Gael Hees
Photographer Audrey Dempsey
Journalist Chef Talk Allen Asch
Journalist Don Chareunsy
Journalist Dishing It Sk Delph
Journalist Spirits Confidential Max Solano
Photographer Bill Bokelmann
Journalist Pat Evans
Photographer Joe Urcioli
Journalists Twinkle Toast Erin Cooper & Christine Vanover
Journalists Elaine and Scott Harris
Journalist HR Insights Linda Bernstein
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By Linda Westcott-Bernstein
Human Resources Insights
Linda Westcott-Bernstein has provided sound human resources advice and guidance to Fortune 500 companies and others for over 25 years. Linda has recently re-published her self-help book entitled It All Comes Down to WE! This book offers guidelines for building a solid and enduring personal work ethic. You can find her book on Amazon or Google Books. Phone: 702-326-4040 Email: Vegaslinda89129@yahoo.com
Human Resources Is Exactly that—a Resource! Some of the finest human resources (HR) teams that I have worked on, for and/or directed, all had one thing in common: a person in charge that emphasized and exemplified the qualities of a leader. A consummate HR professional that embraced the essential purpose of HR—to serve our customers, our employees and those who are our partners in our success! To be successful in an HR position and role, you must start, first and foremost, by being a “people person.” I have also worked for a few HR “professionals” that came nowhere near to that definition or personality. I’m sure that you too have encountered “bad” bosses regardless of your career, field or line of work. I am talking about the following types of poor behaviors… Glory grabber-so insecure that they have to take all the credit for their team’s work and achievements, both publicly as well as covertly with their bosses in order to impress. Ego maniac-has such a huge ego that they can’t be bothered with the minutia and have the need to micro-manage because they are “the only one with a brain that can do things right” (or so they say…). Angry boss-(needed to retire years ago) this person is always in a bad mood, having a bad day or tired of working/having to do everyone’s job for them—whether actual or perceived. They keep harping on how they “are tired of the work, complaints, employees, problems and you bothering them!” So, now that we’ve looked at the dark side of HR management, what exactly does it take to be a people person and thereby a resource for your customers? Always first on my list is “enjoy the work that you do!” I want to ask those terrible HR people that I’ve worked for in the past, “Why do you do this work if you don’t enjoy it? It has to feel like torture for you!? Even worse, it creates this perception or environment that HR under your lead is uncaring, unhelpful and just plain unhappy! Is that what you want to accomplish?” On the opposite side is me. I am so fortunate! I love what I do! I can’t emphasize that enough. I’ve always known from somewhere in the back in my childhood and distant past, that I would be good in a job where I could help people to do better, thrive and enjoy their work and life
more. I wanted people to know and understand that managing people doesn’t have to be a drudge, but can be challenging and exhilarating when you engage your staff and see the “ah ha!” light go on for that person when they understand and then excel. How did that feeling and appreciation for “helping” come about you might ask? It came from my upbringing. I was taught and learned at a very young age about pride in my work, helping and carrying my share of the load. My parents and grandmother(s) helped me to understand the basics of gaining satisfaction from my work. It came from two very basic and foundational principles, as follows: 1) do a job well and take pride in that job’s completion, and 2) embrace how accomplishing that job or work adds value to the family, your pride and sense of accomplishment, and everyone’s welfare! Those concepts have stuck with me for my entire life. So, now, how do we take all of those components, and shape them into a vision of how and why HR must be a resource? First, by embracing the fact that the name of this field says it all—human resources—a resource is a place for help, tools, information and to gain insight on how to thrive.
Secondly, the role of HR for employees and the company is to orient, culturalize, indoctrinate, train and offer benefits to employees that have value, are a match with their needs and that support compatibility, success and longevity. And lastly, HR is there to listen, solve problems, correct performance problems and redirect the efforts of both employees and managers in the goal of attaining a good match, minimizing business interruption and reducing overall costs. Remember, from my lessons learned, if HR is uncaring and unapproachable, they have no value to your employees or your organization. They will serve no useful purpose and ultimately become obsolete and unproductive. I know in my heart, that even during times of challenge we must all take responsibility for those we serve and help in any and every way we can. HR is not a field for everyone, but it must be a resource for all!
HR Question of the month:
Please send your HR questions and concerns, or share your thoughts on your human resources challenges via email to the following address. Send input to vegaslinda89129@yahoo.com. Your comments, questions or concerns will help determine the direction for my next month’s column and earn you a copy of my book. Include your mailing address when sending your responses.
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May 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 5
By Bob Barnes
photo credit: Lally Barnes
What’s Cooking
Bob Barnes is a native Las Vegan, editorial director of The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional and covers the LV restaurant scene for Gayot.com. He welcomes your inquiries. Email: bob@lvfnb.com
Sparrow + Wolf Worth Revisiting Once the Shutdown Ends I made my last restaurant visit before the shutdown in late March, and thank goodness it was to one of the best and most unique eateries in Las Vegas. General Manager John Anthony had informed me of several new menu items I had to experience and as Sparrow + Wolf is one of my alltime favorite restaurants, he didn’t have to twist my arm at all. New to my eyes was the enhanced décor. The upgrades include new artwork by local artist Heather Grace depicting the restaurant’s namesake sparrow and wolf, one with a fat sparrow sitting on a tree branch, and another of a larger-than-life wolf perched above the bar. In addition, the private room has been moved and enlarged and now can seat 12-25 guests. This eatery in Chinatown has earned a reputation for excellence and is described as serving cuisine from the heart using a modern hand, featuring live-fired American cookery influenced by the culturally diverse neighborhoods of Chef/Owner Brian Howard’s travels, classic training and Midwestern roots. John shared that the new menu is inspired by Chef’s travels in the past year and is an evolution that changes with the seasons. We began with Really Good Lamb Tartare—which lived up to its name, made with Australian lamb, Indian ratatouille, confit egg yolk and Bhaturah bread; Beet and Green Apple Tartare—which screamed spring, with fennel fern and a cardamom poppy dressing; and Wood Roasted Maitake Mushroom—a menu item dropped from the menu and returned after guests were listened to, served with creamless Turkish hummus and Cascabel chile. We moved on to the meatier part of the menu and indulged in Osso Buco Tortellini—slow-braised and served with the braising liquid reduction and 6 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I May 2020
whipped Peruvian potato. Wood Grilled (charred) Spanish Octopus was described by John as a rock star dish, and I have to agree, as it was the most tender octopus I’ve ever had. The octopus is cleaned in-house and poached before being grilled, and served with Japanese pumpkin and an Asian chili lime vinaigrette. Also from the grill was Diver Scallop, cooked perfectly and served with crispy Brussels sprouts and a bitter/sweet mole. Finishing touches were a Milk Chocolate Cremeux: miso cake with peanut butter ice cream; and Black Sesame Panna Cotta with strawberries and candied kumquats. Along with being impressed with the food, we were equally pleased with the professional, pleasant and hospitable service of our server, Destyn Hamada, who was also quite knowledgeable about the menu items and ingredients used. Destyn told us she has worked at several top dining destinations in NY and Las Vegas and was first drawn to Sparrow + Wolf as a customer. After being so impressed with the operation she talked to (actually in her words, lobbied) Brian, telling him she NEEDED to work here. Destyn said, “At this point in my career it’s not good enough to just work somewhere; I need to have pride and believe in what we’re doing. Working here at Sparrow + Wolf checks all the boxes.” Hopefully reading this will not be too tantalizing in wanting something you can’t have just yet, but instead will remind of a better time, and one that will once again, hopefully in the near future, be returning. Once our restaurants are allowed to reopen, Sparrow + Wolf should top your list. Sparrow + Wolf 4480 Spring Mountain Road Suite 100 702-790-2147 sparrowandwolflv.com www.lvfnbpro.com
Wine Talk
with Alice Swift
By Alice Swift Alice Swift, Assistant Editor and Journalist for The Las Vegas and SoCal F&B Professional, is passionate about hospitality/F&B, education and instructional design, with 15+ years of experience. In 2016, she moved from Las Vegas to Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, working for the UH System as a multimedia instructional designer, while maintaining her hospitality/F&B ties through writing, teaching and consulting (Swift Hospitality Consulting). email: alice@lvfnb.com | website: www.aliceswift.com
Here we are, another month has passed, and still going through a crisis we never thought was possible. The devastating COVID-19 virus has practically halted the hospitality and food & beverage industry since mid-March, and the unemployment rate has reached sky-high records. Just in March alone, Nevada saw over 200,000 unemployment files. In Hawaiʻi, where I reside, unemployment claims were 250,000+, with reports from mid-April showing more than 37% unemployment.With so many hotels, casinos, sporting arenas, entertainment venues/ shows and restaurants all being forced to close, it’s hard to imagine how our hospitality will ever recover. Interestingly, as I explore my social media feeds, I have been seeing many photos and posts centered on one common element: beverage. From scheduling a social “Zoom happy hour” session, to talking about needing to “stock up” on the beer, wine and spirits, it makes sense that people are needing a little vice to survive quarantining 24 hours a day. Although many food and beverage establishments are not open for dine-in services, many businesses are starting to either expand or adapt their services and offerings to explore new ways to generate revenue. Some cities have been able to grant temporary permits to allow stores like Lee’s Liquor (from select Las Vegas, Mesquite and Reno locations) to accommodate home delivery of online orders. Having had lots of time to reflect on the “good times” when we had the freedom to go out in public, and socialize with friends, I decided to look back to one of my first beverage-focused jobs in the F&B industry. I was born and raised in Southern California in the city Walnut (towards inland L.A.). During the latter half of my high school years,
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Photo Credit: Packing House Wines
A Walk Down Memory Lane During COVID-19
EV Sauceda Medina and Sal Medina, owners of Packing House Wines.
EV and Sal providing personal beverage delivery service.
I moved to Claremont, California, most wellknown for its reputable Claremont Colleges. It wasn’t the typical “bustling” college town, as it was somewhat peaceful and kind of mellow. Businesses were closed very early and weekends were fairly quiet, with no semblance of social or nightlife. At that time, the “downtown” of Claremont referred to the Claremont Village, with various businesses and “mom and pop” food and beverage establishments. Fun Fact! Did you know that the city of Claremont has a city ordinance that does not allow conventional drive-thrus, a.k.a. fast food restaurants? Directly across the borders to other neighboring cities like Pomona and Upland are where you will find most of your high traffic fast food chains, like McDonald’s, Jack In the Box, etc. Across the main street (Indian Hill Blvd.) is the historic Claremont Packing House (CPH). This building was home to The College Heights Orange and Lemon Packing House (circa 1922), which after a long period of decline beginning in the 1970s, eventually closed and was renovated and re-opened in 2007, with a multipurpose space housing lofts, offices, galleries, boutiques, food and beverage, and entertainment venues. What I love about CPH is its experiential history and walk down memory lane of the different materials and structural components retained from the days as a citrus packing house, along with display exhibits. Fast forwarding to 2007, after returning home to finish my schooling at Cal Poly Pomona, I was impressed to see that Claremont has picked up its social spirit and vibe over the years, including in the Packing House. Today, CPH boasts almost 100 occupants, with boutique shops, café/eateries, art galleries and many fun special events year round.
After discovering my passion for beverage education, I obtained a job working for Sal Medina and Ev Sauceda Medina, owners of Packing House Wines (then known as Packing House Wine Merchants), where I was able to learn so much about wine while working there. The wine shop has since expanded to a full kitchen to enhance the beverage experience with wine dinners and other special events. With hundreds of wines to explore, plus the many wines by the glass available, it was the perfect beverage classroom to study beverage and food service! Packing House Wines recently celebrated its 13-year anniversary on April 8, and is still going strong. Due to the temporary setback of COVID-19, Packing House Wines decided to close their food service. However, during this stay-at-home period, Packing House Wines is still open for retail purchases and curbside pickup. To help get everyone through this period, they are also offering free local delivery within 48 hours. Next time you head to the Inland Empire, or on your next trip from Vegas to L.A. (or L.A. to Vegas), why not take a detour to Claremont for a history lesson paired with some amazing food and wine? Visit the links below to learn more: • Packing House Wines Website packinghousewines.com/ • Claremont Packing HouseWebsite www.claremontpackinghouse.com • Bonus: Watch the Claremont Packing House episode of visiting with Huell Howser - youtu.be/Fjj-bAOwYqU Take care and stay healthy everyone! Until next month, Cheers~! Alice
May 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 7
Small Business Suppliers Face Dilemma Surviving Coronavirus Founder & Owner of Craft Winery Spotlights the Livelihood of Small Agricultural-Based Culinary Suppliers, and Their Survival Rate, Post-Pandemic By Mary McAuley
People drink wine in times of joy and in times of stress (hello, quarantine) and although we’ve seen a lot of coverage online and social media highlighting the libations people are stocking up on, the smaller, craft, high-quality wineries, distilleries and breweries you don’t find in massive retail chains, are screwed. Really screwed. Boutique wine brands are what the alcoholic beverage industry calls “on-premise brands,” meaning the majority of what we produce is consumed on the premises it is purchased (i.e. a restaurant). I am the owner and founder of Ripe Life Wines, AKA one of those wineries. So while the sales of alcohol through retail has been quite bountiful (Shanken News Daily reported some retailers were up as much as 400%), we small guys who don’t have the brand recognition or the merchandising dollars to be in the type of retailers that are being flooded right now, are feeling the total opposite. And while I do have a number of small wine shops and gourmet markets that carry our wine (whom I love dearly) they are far and few on a national basis and that sort of retail doesn’t do the volume that restaurants do. To give you an idea, my customers are basically split 50:50 between boutique retailers and restaurants, but 85%+ of my total revenue comes from the restaurant accounts alone. Adding insult to injury, that other 15% from my retailers is largely from loyal catering partners purchasing alcohol for their events who now have nothing on the books for months. So on an average day, not when a caterer goes in and does a massive order for a party, a boutique wine shop will sell
0-3 bottles of my wine, whereas a boutique restaurant pouring me by the glass will sell a few cases on a regular old Thursday night. And we, artisanal beverage suppliers, are not alone. Firstly, I must clearly state that I am thrilled by the newsletters and content that fills my feeds daily with suggestions on ways to support the hospitality industry such as virtual tip jars, gift card promotions, and restaurant donation funds. Restaurants need to be supported, full stop. All suppliers in the food and beverage industry need restaurants to reopen on the other side of this pandemic to survive in the long run. The media is doing a great job highlighting the restaurant and hospitality industry crisis as it pertains to the impact of losing consumer dollars. But the conversation and outpour seems to have stopped there, and it is critical we take it one step further up the food chain- literally... It does appear there is a very understandable assumption out there that while grocery stores, take-out, and drop-shipping services still exist, food and beverage suppliers can do a temporary 180 to reach consumers. And while that is the case for many, it is very much not the case for many boutique artisans and farmers due to their small size, regulatory rigmarole, and/or the perishability of their commodity. We need to get included in the conversation too so consumers can modify their current purchasing behaviors and where applicable, gratuitous government limitations on points-of-sale are temporarily lifted until restaurants return to normal service
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as they are the businesses that keep us small suppliers afloat. The only retailers who could post restaurants numbers for any sort of consumable, not just wine, are big chain retailers and that isn’t the playing field for a small, craft-winery (or anything small and craft, really). You have to be mass-produced to even attend tryouts and if you make the team, you have to pay (a lot) to play. As a consumer you see it and don’t always realize it, but in a major retail setting you are being overloaded with options by huge brands that pay for merchandizing tactics to get you to buy their products; being at the end of an aisle aka “getting an end-cap,” being on a middle shelf, or, for white wine and rosé, placement in the refrigerator-- ideally middle shelf, slightly to the right or left depending on which direction the door opens—all these things are negotiated with the retailers who do big numbers, so that is why small producers of artisanal products rely on independent restaurants who don’t play that way yet still do big volume. Restaurant buyers tend to be a lot more concerned with quality because they’re doing the picking for the consumer so it looks bad on them if something doesn’t taste great. They also don’t put competing items on the same menu. If a patron at a restaurant that pours my wine asks for a “light, non-oaky chardonnay,” mine is the one they are getting. But at least my product can last in its packaging for several years without spoiling. As I started to sweat about restaurants closing, I www.lvfnbpro.com
began thinking about all of the other boutique-y and non-manufacture-y supplier friends I have made along the way at the countless fancy food shows and wine and food festivals I’ve spent the last six years attending. I started thinking about my buddies whose products have littleto-no shelf life; cheese mongers, butter-makers, caviar farmers, and so many others with incredible products predominantly sold through restaurants, but also don’t have shelf life so their goods aren’t on the minds of panicked people right now. And then I began thinking about the very delicacies that inspired my first wine, The Clambake Chardonnay; bivalves. And then I thought: f*ck. I immediately texted two of my favorite local oyster farmers – founders of Barnegat Oyster Collective -- to let them know how sorry I was and that I had a garage full of wine they could help themselves to at any point. In addition to them growing some of the most beautiful oysters I’ve ever had in my life, the impact of losing them would, from an environmental standpoint, be horrible for the Barnegat Bay (where I grew up and currently live on) and I realized we really truly need to start turning more attention to the small business supply side of restaurants immediately. We are slipping through the cracks right now and the outcome could be irreparable. “For the oyster industry, I fear the implications of this pandemic are grave. Farmers can’t just hit the ‘pause’ button on a growing crop. We need to continue to work. Farms require maintenance and maintenance requires laborers. Oysters also don’t necessarily fit the category of ‘staple food items’ and they’re a poor candidate for ‘take out’. Us oyster farmers need to come to terms with the likelihood that for a little while we’ll be without income and that many of the restaurants we rely on may not see the other side of this thing” says a friend Matt Gregg, the co-founder of the Barnegat Oyster Collective and owner of Forty North Oyster Farms in Barnegat Light, NJ. Gregg’s partner and co-founder, Scott Lennox, echo’s the same sentiment and adds, “This is a really important aspect that people need to be talking about. We, through the Collective, directly distribute and market the oysters of thirteen independent oyster farms. We are all scrambling to find creative ways to get through this.” The point is us small suppliers like us out there need to find a way into the conversations and homes of consumers while restaurants are closed because losing restaurants and not having a way to sell our product will have catastrophic impacts. Taking this one level further, something to keep in mind: anything that you eat or drink is always tied to agriculture. I repeat: anything you eat or drink ties back to a piece of land and us small producers are sourcing from small farms (either that we own or contract) for our base ingredients and if we don’t have the money to pay for crop, they don’t have the reserve money like factory farms do to care for the farm and harvest said crop and that is when real hell breaks lose. The takeaway here? Please continue to support restaurants through gift cards and donations and take-out! But also, please get the conversation started about small businesses on the supply side. Safely seek out the artisanal and small grocery stores and markets that are still open and buy from boutique suppliers like myself. www.lvfnbpro.com
Or go directly to small suppliers (like us) yourself. Google around and ask a local cheese maker, butter maker, oyster farm, scallop farm, clam farm, winery, craft brewery, distillery, etc., if they can do a curb side pick up or ask them if they can deliver to you. Anything that you’d find in a restaurant, and not a normal chain supermarket, try and have it delivered by calling up or ordering online if they have it set up. Maybe consider paying for future goods if delivery isn’t an option. At least wine lasts in its bottle, but my heart goes out to those who farm or produce a product with a short shelf life and necessitates relentless maintenance. Every penny helps. We aren’t using this scare trying to save our business right now, that will be completely dependent on restaurants opening back… what we are trying to do is have money to feed our families and pay our employees something and pay our growers for more crop. At the very least, just help get this conversation
started about the suppliers most vulnerable from the restaurant shutdown. As a nation who just got a crash course in microbiology and epidemiology, I’ll break this down very simply: if the food and beverage producers who work with (or own) the farms that grow our ingredients go out of business, many small farmers will be without customers and will have to lay off labor and perhaps abandon their land altogether. When crops are planted (or animals are bred) for food and no one is there to care for things or harvest the bounty, crop rots and when crops rot, they attract pests. And when we get an unnatural influx of pests we also get…new diseases amongst humans. If you’d like to purchase from a small supplier in this article, visit ripelifewines.com/wines for wine and barnegatoyster.com/store/oyster-party for oysters, which includes tutorial on how to SYOO–shuck your own oysters!
May 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 9
The Bottom Line How to Start a Restaurant, from an Expert in Design, Permitting, Licensing and Development
Photo credit: Eddie Navarette
Eddie Navarette, also known as ‘Fast Eddie,’ is the Founder and Chief Consultant of FE Design and Consulting. Over the past 19 years, Navarette has helped restaurateurs navigate the complex landscape of permitting, licenses, design, engineering and development, all to ultimately “get the doors open on time.” From building and health codes to permits, licenses and planning variances, Navarette
By Ben Brown Benjamin Brown, MBA is Restaurant Editor of The SoCal Food & Beverage Professional. A seasoned
writer and consultant, Ben works with Fortune 500
companies and mom & pop shops alike in Marketing, Analytics, Consumer Insights, PR and Business
Development. Contact Ben at Ben@lvfnb.com or follow him @Foodie_Biz.
has worked with more than 500 concepts that restaurant development] were. I expanded include renowned names such as Lemonade, my knowledge outside of kitchen design Sprinkles Cupcakes, Providence, Pitfire Pizza, and started working with architects and The Bellwether and Animal, among others. engineers, getting into the intricacies of He took the time to share some tales from the how kitchens and restaurants were built. I learned about the electrical systems and restaurant design and development world, as well as deliver valuable advice for aspiring and types of plugs needed, how to achieve desired temperatures in different areas, current owners to take in. the list goes on. In that journey, I started to What inspired you to go into restaurant provide services from just kitchen design to design and development? architectural plans to alcohol licensing and Kitchen design and navigating folks through planning applications. I led presentations to the perils of restaurant permitting wasn’t neighborhoods and did anything necessary something I wanted to do initially. It wasn’t to get the signoff for whatever application we were doing. what I went to school for or dreamed about, nor would I ever dream about even doing it And what led you to start your own business now [laughs]. around restaurant design and development? My initial goal was to get a job with the I realized that there was a ton of opportunity Power Rangers. I wanted to be a musician to make a business out of knowing the and have a day job in production. When that answers to the questions a lot of industry didn’t work out, I actually got my first job out professionals didn’t know. Restaurant in L.A. as a kitchen designer. In the process development doesn’t have to be complicated. of learning kitchen design and inspecting I thought that I could be that person to help everything from discount stores and gas people navigate through the process. stations to restaurants and nightclubs, I It was also being so emotionally connected to found out there were a lot of limitations [to these folks that put everything on the line to launching a restaurant] governed by the start their businesses. These people who told regulatory bodies and the design team. me about how easy they thought it should be, I wanted to know more, and started learning but got delayed; their friends who gave them bad advice were no longer their friends. It what the codes and processes [around
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was helping these people that told me, ‘this is something I want to do.’ Now, my company has about 17 employees. I get the same joy leading my employees as I have leading the business owners I work with. There are so many challenges out there, but I guess that someone has to be there to help people navigate the journey to create the business they envisioned in the first place. What got you the nickname Fast Eddie? Everyone wants to claim that they were the one to give me the name Fast Eddie [laughs], but the most solid memory I have comes from my time as a musician, when I was first starting out in high school. One of the first venues I played at was a 21+ venue. I was 16 at the time, and when I went on stage I was totally terrified. I played through the entire set in about half the time it typically took us. My bandmates, who were all much older, looked back at me when we finished and said, ‘Oh my god, Fast Eddie.” On a related note, that band was originally called Dogstar, but we were forced to change our name because Keanu Reeves took it from us. It was a ‘growing up in L.A.’ kind of experience [laughs]. But now, everyone in the business just knows me as ‘Fast Eddie.’ It’s become a big part of my brand, to the point when people hear the name ‘Fast Eddie,’ they know someone who’s worked with me and the conversation instantly turns to one of trust and friendship. How did you land your first client? How do you get new clients? I worked for a kitchen designer for three years before going off on my own. It was in that period where I met a lot of customers. They trusted me with the knowledge I had gained at that point, and started asking me to help them with a few issues. I started working with clients before I even left [the kitchen design job], building up my reputation as ‘the guy’ to help people out. It started with little projects like awning permits. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into but I knew I was getting the job done. I knew a lot of professionals in the industry that would help me along the way. My father was a used car salesman. I learned a lot from him, about how to close a deal and get what you needed. It helps me a lot in doing what I do now, working with government bodies, contractors and architects. Being able to adapt and relate to different communication styles is critical to land new business. And as far as getting clients now, I do most of my business by just being out there, attending restaurant openings, dining out and supporting my current clients, being a part of the restaurant community. At the end of the day, though, any professional in the industry would agree that it’s about dedication, being resourceful, and above all, communication. Talk about some of your most recent projects and the challenges they’ve posed that other owners should learn from. The playing field is always changing. Regulations are always getting more www.lvfnbpro.com
restrictive. It’s not getting any easier. One of the biggest issues in restaurants is Different governmental bodies and industry how to reduce labor and how to increase professionals all have a different way of efficiencies to become more sustainable. The interpreting code. This is especially hard underlying change we should be looking to is for restaurant owners, who don’t really making it so that restaurants aren’t spending speak that language. It’s like walking into a so much. mechanic’s shop without knowing anything For me, it’s about logistics and coming about cars. up with responsible designs that increase It comes down to doing your due diligence. Do your research, understand a realistic efficiency. Ways to save on utilities, designs timeline and budget to get a project off the that require fewer people on the floor. I really enjoy the design portion of my work. Laying ground. Understanding these items gives out a flow for the business. Each little piece you negotiating power with landlords, of square footage means so much. But in construction professionals and others. order to be a responsible designer, you have There are all kinds of different governmental regulatory boogymen out there, and the due to be familiar with regulation and how you’re going to execute your design to ultimately diligence is really going to help you. People make the mistake about talking to the city save on these costs. about how long a project is going to take. The And you say you do advocacy work for people behind the counter don’t necessarily restaurants? have that knowledge. Only someone who’s Advocacy has been at the core of why I do done it before will. what I do. It’s not just about getting through You’re going to need folks who know about applications, regulations and planning, the process and not looking back…I can never otherwise you’re going to have a hard time. If do that. I see these issues and bottlenecks you’re hiring an architect or engineer, make with restaurant regulations, and look at how sure they have experienced building out we can modernize codes to get with the times. restaurants before. They need to be familiar Restaurant owners deal with a lot of outdates with the dynamics and regulations of that regulations that make opening a business area. unnecessarily hard, so we go to bat not You can never do enough due diligence. just for them, but all business owners and entrepreneurs like them. We’ve been in Where do you see restaurant design trends going in the next 5 years? What types of the field long enough to know that it’s our layouts and concepts are going to pop up responsibility to help shape the bigger more often? picture.
May 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 11
Santo Puro Mezquila Continues to Rock the Spirits World
By Gael Hees | Photo credit: Santo
In Search of Higher Spirits Last month, a Robb Report article touted Santo Fino Blanco Tequila as, “an old-world style tequila designed for session drinking.” This is the perfect description for a tequila, launched less than a year ago by two crazy, tequila-loving, wild men, Sammy Hagar and Guy Fieri. This new-on-the-market tequila was listed in “The 20 Best Tequilas You Can Buy Right Now,” rubbing shoulders with two Patron offerings, two Clase Azul tequilas and spirits from tequileros around the world. Hagar and Fieri consider the development of the Santo brand to be the search for a higher spirit. Creating a tequila they themselves want to drink has been the ride of a lifetime.
On Making Spirits Hagar loves the world of distilling and spirits. “When I sold Cabo Wabo to Campari Group I thought to myself, I can never top this,” said Hagar. “Within a year, I called Luca Garavoglia
with Campari and said, ‘I want to make tequila again.’” Since it was not an option with a fiveyear non-compete agreement, Hagar started making rum, because as he says, “I really just love this business.” Hagar is still owner of the Cabo Wabo Cantina franchise with locations in Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He has Sammy’s Beach Bar and Grill locations in Las Vegas and Cleveland, plus two on the islands in Hawaii, where Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum is distilled. Santo’s first offering was Santo Puro Mezquila, a rich blend of mezcal and tequila—the only blend of its kind in the world. Released in 2017, Santo Puro was a 2018 Silver Medalist at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Mezquila is the word coined by Hagar to describe this unique offering inspired by a late-night mixing of spirits, food and friends on the Cabo San Lucas beach.
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The mezquila/tequila proved to be so enticing it inspired a search to find a distiller that ended with Juan Eduardo Nuñez, a third-generation master distiller with El Viejito distillery in the highlands of Jalisco. Hagar believes that artists should always work to the best of their ability. “You don’t want the guy to make something special for you,” said Hagar. “A real chef says, ‘I’m going to make yours as good as that guy’s over there, the one I just made.’” That’s exactly what they found in Nuñez. When the new Santo Fino Blanco was being developed, everyone kept asking how to make it different, make it special. When Nuñez said, “I only know how to make tequila one way, and that’s like this,” everyone stood around, looked at each other and said, “Okay then, that’s what we want.” “He’s such an artist,” added Hagar. “He’s uppity www.lvfnbpro.com
and hard to deal with. He’s all those things that make you want to break his neck, but you love him at the same time because he will not compromise. He smacked me around saying, ‘I’m the real deal.’ That’s the rap we got when we asked if he could make it better!” The “real deal” means using hand-selected, 100 percent Blue Weber agave plants that are at least seven years old. In a time when agave is very expensive, in high demand, and difficult to source, Nuñez insists on investing in ingredients of the highest quality. Even older plants have new growth, and the “real deal” also means cutting off up to thirty percent of the plant to ensure that only the sweet, ripe portion of the plant is used. “Because it is from ripe agave, it doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste,” Hagar said. “It doesn’t taste like dirt, it tastes like a beautiful plant.” They must be doing something right. Santo is one of the fastest growing tequilas in the country. It sold out a six-month allotment in two hours in one state earlier this year and sold almost 200 cases in one night.
On Making Spirits (and Records) Hagar and Fieri are not in the spirits business because they want to make money, it’s because they want to make (and drink) the best agave spirits in the world. “When you walk into a bar, a liquor store, a grocery store or a restaurant, and you see your product sitting on the back bar or the shelf, man, it’s like woo!” said Hagar. “You start calling people over and saying ‘hey, that’s mine, that’s me. I own that little company right there.’ It’s really a chest beater for a rock star who’s been beating his chest his whole life!” Continuing in this vein, Hagar waxes on about watching people enjoying his spirit products and it being like walking into a store and seeing one’s record on the top ten list. “Boom! Right there it’s number seven on the charts and you just get all excited.” And then he got goosebumps (or so he said, it was a phone interview after all). “I’m telling you, I have goose bumps on my arms and legs right now just talking to you about this. I’ve got them. I’m sitting here looking and thinking, I’m feeling this. It’s really true. It feels so good. It’s not like an ego thing, it just makes you happy.” Apparently, Fieri feels the same way. According to Hagar, the Santo development team sometimes starts worrying about costs such as the added expense of keeping the product in the barrel for another six months for that extra bit of flavor. Fieri’s response? “It doesn’t matter. Don’t worry, you guys. We’re still paying you. We want to make the best in the world—that’s the goal.” To Hagar and Fieri, it is worth the wait. It’s like making a record. Van Halen didn’t rush just to get the thing done and make a bunch of money, he wanted to the best job he could. He wanted to make the fans swoon! For Hagar it was, “We’re going to blow their minds. Oh my god, wait till the fans hear this! Oh! Oh! The fans are going to die when they hear this. This is the way I approach my spirit www.lvfnbpro.com
business and Guy Fieri is right on the money, the same kind of guy.”
On Fieri (and Aging Agave Spirits) Hagar and Fieri are first and foremost, friends. They were drinking buddies long before Santos, and they drank tequila. Today, they still drink tequila, but also do blind taste tests. “This is what we do on our own,” said Hagar. “We don’t do it for the press or anything, we do this all the time on our own. Some new tequila will come out or I’ll find one in some small artisanal agave store and we’ll taste it and say, ‘that’s pretty good tequila, but it ain’t Santo.’” In barrels, at right this very moment is the next product offering from Santo. When will it be ready to launch? They really don’t know. “I’m pacing the floor like my wife is in the delivery room,” Hagar said. “Hopefully, by the first of the year.” “Having Guy as a partner is like having your own private taster,” said Hagar. I’ve got a pretty good palate, but he’s a chef and his nose and his palate are so sophisticated. In an unknown number of months from now when we look at each other and say, ‘High five, this baby’s ready.’ That’s when we’ll know it’s ready.”
On the Business of Things For Hagar, one of the best things to happen in the past year, was when Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits (SGWS) took on the Santo brand for distribution. Now the Santo spirits and Sammy’s Beach Bar Rums are available through SGWS. “We’re with Southern nationally and that just makes it so much easier,” said Hagar. “Guy and I couldn’t be happier. It really makes a difference to have everything unified. Before we had everything spread out all over the place.”
wife was a housekeeper. His truck needed new tires and their son was in college and they were trying to support him too. He said a couple of visits to the food bank allow him to pay all of his bills and still put food on the table. That’s what this is all about—people feeding people. Hagar himself helps put food on the table. Over the last 11 years, he has donated $1,200 to the food bank in every community where he has performed. That’s millions of dollars over the years. Plus, he said that with the coronavirus and so many people out of work, he is going to give even more. He also makes communitybased donations totaling the profits from all four Sammy’s Beach Bar and Grill restaurants. Hagar does have a vision that when the pandemic restrictions loosen up, he and Fieri will start doing special events where he will perform and Fieri will be the chef. He pictures about 200 or so guests at $1,000 a plate to support a local charity. Giving back is on his mind—a lot.
On Las Vegas It should be no surprise that Hagar loves Las Vegas. It was on his list of things he misses because of the pandemic (including playing to his fans and traveling). In his mind, there is no doubt that Vegas will come back full and strong. “It’s the party capital of the world, the food capital of the world, the entertainment capital of the world—we can’t lose Las Vegas!" AUTHOR'S NOTE: I’ve interviewed hundreds of people for articles over the past fifty years (started in junior high school). I have never enjoyed an interview more or spent time with someone as full of energy, enthusiasm and joy as Sammy Hagar. Writing this article was a true pleasure.
On the Coronavirus, Life and Living Like multi-dimensionally busy people, Hagar is finding his time at home due to COVID-19 to be an amazing time to relax and regroup. He’s spending time helping his wife with the garden, cooking, playing music and walking on the beach. He described an amazingly “simple” pasta dish he fixed for his wife with homemade sausage, Swiss chard and basil (both from the garden), and stock over linguini. This was eaten on the beach and Hagar sent Fieri a picture and video of the dish and surroundings. Fieri replied, “I want to be you when I grow up.” “I’m a big fan of simplicity, food and writing a great song,” said Hagar. “You can be sitting on the beach next to Oprah and Bill Gates, and someone who works in someone’s yard. We’re all looking at the same view, sitting on the same sand and being touched by the same sun. It makes me happy. You don’t have to be rich to do that.”
On Giving “Food banks are my favorite charity,” said Hagar. “I visited a food bank recently and there was a family—father, mother and three children—waiting in line. They were fairly well dressed. I went over and was talking to the father who told me he was a gardener and his May 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 13
By Bob Barnes
BREWING
Big Dog’s and Boulder Dam are also offering limited delivery. Over at CraftHaus, Head Brewer Cameron Fisher reports they participated in the worldwide collaboration brew, All Together Beer to benefit our hospitality industry, and chose the Nevada Craft Brewers Association to receive 100% of the proceeds. The beer, released on April 27, is a classic West Coast IPA heavily dry hopped with CTZ, Cascade, Mosaic, Simcoe and Citra with flaked oats for mouthfeel. In addition, on April 23 CraftHaus released Vegas Stronger Ale, a 10% ABV, 100 IBU American Strong Ale with Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe and Calypso hops; and a touch of Red Crystal Rye malt for added depth. Coming in June will be Barrel Aged Comrade 2020 (in bottles); and Giggle Juice IIPA, Urban Panda Schwarzbier and All the Peaches (a fruited sour), which you can pick up in Crowlers using curbside pickup.
Some Words from James Manos
Southern Nevada Breweries Selling Beer and Brewing During the Shutdown On March 17, Nevada Governor Sisolak ordered all nonessential businesses to close, which at the time included the majority of our local breweries, but eateries were allowed to stay open to offer takeout. Weeks later, Clark County, Las Vegas and Henderson approved special permits allowing breweries to sell beer for curbside pickup and eventually delivery. By the time you read this, it’s possible that some on the following list will have ceased serving and that new ones will have started up, but as I write this in late April it’s worth noting and saluting the breweries and pubs that have been helping us get through the shutdown by letting the beer flow. From the time of the shutdown, Aces & Ales, Big Dog’s Brewing, Boulder City Brewing and Chicago Brewing have remained open for pickup of food and beer. Opening for curbside pickup once permitted to do so, were Able Baker, Astronomy, Bad Beat, CraftHaus (both locations), Hop Nuts (both locations), Lovelady and Mojave. And, as of late April,
Able Baker co-founder/owner James Manos was kind enough to share what Able Baker has been doing during the shutdown and also offered some thoughts on the future of the brewing industry. Following are his remarks: Sometimes you get a little lucky. That can happen when you feature a duck as your mascot...“lucky duck” and all. Fortunately, for Able Baker Brewing, we were able to transition our on-location kitchen (Arts District Craft & Kitchen) into an entity that could operate during these unique times, while still providing a menu full of fantastic, freshly prepared food. It’s a credit to both staff and ownership that we could make that happen so efficiently and effectively while overcoming all the obstacles that seem to be getting thrown at us. Providing food allowed us to open for curbside to-go service, and we've been doing so for several weeks with solid success. The COVID-19 safety guidelines have forced us to shift our business model somewhat. We’ve detoured to a focus on providing products in to-go formats while amping up our production of canned offerings. The can releases have been very well received. We had such a huge response to our first canned Hazy IPA release, “Quarantine Edition” Duck, that we released three new canned beers last week: “Of Balloons & Unicorns” Hazy IPA, “Split Bill” Hazy IPA, and “Excited State” Pilsner, and we have even more on the way. We couldn’t have done this without the unwavering support of our local community, who continue to seek out our beers, and the local outlets that strive to support Nevada craft brewers. Obviously, these are challenging times for all
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Nevada small businesses, but especially for local breweries, as the difficulties of running a successful brewing operation have been compounded by the limitations put on our abilities to serve the community. Adapt and overcome has long been a mantra in both sports and business, and it couldn’t be applied more aptly than now. As the total number of craft breweries in the US rose dramatically over the last five years, smaller breweries shifted their business models to become taproom-centric, concentrating on producing beer in smaller batches and serving it as fresh as possible directly to their consumers. The basis of this model both helped to drive and reinforce the explosion of the Hazy IPA. As craft breweries slowly shifted from dreams of regional distribution to a more concise focus on serving their local market first and foremost, taprooms became even more important as a brewery's primary source of revenue. The current business climate, as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic, has put taproom revenue on hiatus, and that’s a difficult hurdle to overcome for any small business with limited cash flow and expensive cost of goods. Unfortunately, as popular as local taprooms are, the transition back may be a slow process. Consumer habits shift much more quickly than they did in the past, and newer consumers no longer shop at the local hardware store just because their parents did...they look for convenience, perceived value and authenticity in an ever-evolving and constantly changing landscape. Being “old-school” can be cool.
Photo credit: Able Baker Brewing Company and CraftHaus Brewery
what’s
Bob Barnes is a native Las Vegan, editorial director of The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional and covers the LV restaurant scene for Gayot.com. He welcomes your inquiries. Email: bob@lvfnb.com
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However, operating in an “old-school” manner has become extinctive. The parameters placed on breweries during this pandemic might create a cultural shift in spending and drinking habits that don’t rubber band back to the previous norm very quickly. Breweries are going to have to adapt or perish. Here are some trends I envision moving forward: • Curbside and to-go service for breweries, here to stay. I see breweries pushing to be able to maintain this portion of their business, perhaps even expanding on it, or upon re-opening, encouraging guests to visit for shorter periods of time (at least initially) and compensate by taking beers home with them. • Upon re-opening, take home options from breweries will expand. Expect more breweries to feature crowlers and growlers as important parts of their business and to encourage guests to explore these purchase options. • More breweries will be canning and exploring micro-canning and bottling options. Expect to see more diverse and plentiful offerings from breweries available in their own to-go coolers. Where before you might have seen only “flagship beers” or “special releases,” you'll see a much more continuous flow of canned or bottled products made available directly from the brewery. • A movement towards “easier to drink” styles of beer. Craft community pundits have been advertising the coming surge of the craft pilsner, craft lager, lower ABV and lower calorie craft beers, for years...this might be the match that finally lights that fire. • Brewery consortiums. Closely located smaller breweries may “band together” and consolidate under one umbrella to allow multiple breweries to survive under one roof or as a way for popular brands www.lvfnbpro.com
to stay alive under combined ownership. This may not happen, due to legal hurdles, but in cities with fully formed markets and educated consumer bases, it would be interesting to see someone give it a try. • More contract brewing. With newer businesses likely becoming even more risk averse and wanting to keep initial expenses down, expect more brewers to explore the contract brewing option. Previously established breweries, looking for a source of income and ways to keep their tanks full and employees working, may be more open to accepting contact brewers than before. • Better beer & better service. Situations like these create “survival of the fittest” scenarios, and one way for small breweries to survive and thrive is to create better products and provide better service. Sadly, there are likely to be some very talented people re-entering the hiring pool who will help make the above possible. • Rise of the virtual brewery tour and the virtual beer festival. Brewery tours and allowing guests into the production part of the facility will cease altogether for the short term and likely never return to the level of popularity or availability they once enjoyed. Virtual brewery tours offer brewers and owners a chance to show off the same equipment and layouts, but provide even greater depth of detail and a much more layered experience by including humorous stories, video clips, guest appearances, educational shorts, etc. The beer festival marketplace was becoming saturated, and the pitfalls of putting on large outdoor festivals are numerous. Smaller, virtual festivals (with the beer packaged and delivered to your home prior or picked up at designated locations) might provide a forward-thinking option. The ability to include more than 2-3 ounces of each beer eliminate lines, offer interactive videos of brewers/owners describing each beer, video
or printed tasting notes, increased safety, limited liability ... there are many positives. Smaller groups could form at homes, or friends could participate with each other via Zoom, etc. Lots of kinks to work out on a macro scale, but on a micro scale, where highly sought after beer was provided, this would be an interesting option. • The Hazy train keeps rolling and IPAs dominate. With breweries looking to package more of their products, the extra expenses involved will influence brewers to brew and package only the most well-received styles. This means less experimental and/or dark beers on shelves and lots of the increasingly popular Hazy IPAs and IPAs in general. Stop and take a look at your local beer shelves to see this in full effect already. • Hyper-localization. While it was getting tougher, more expensive, and more competitive to expand your distribution radius, lots of breweries were willing to test the waters. Expect that pool to shrink and for smaller breweries to not only focus locally but to go “hyper-local,” focusing intently on garnering guests and sales from very specific addresses and locations. Able Baker is currently open for takeout service via curbside delivery Tuesday-Sunday from 12-6 p.m. All orders MUST include at least 1 food item, and everything is completely contact free, from your order to the wave goodbye. You can follow the link on the top of our Instagram page to view our current menu or place an order: www.instagram.com/ablebakerbrewing Aloha, James Manos
May 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 15
Twinkle Toast Ice Cream and Wine Pairings Bring Pleasure to Self-Isolation
By Erin Cooper & Christine Vanover Erin Cooper and Christine Vanover have been residents of Las Vegas since 2007. Vanover is also a UNLV Alumnus. Cooper is a Territory Manager for the Resort Wine Team at Southern Glazers Wine & Spirits. Both women founded Twinkle Toast in 2017. info@twinkletoast.com • www.twinkletoast.com Facebook: @TwinkleToast Twitter: TwinkleToastLV Instagram: TwinkleToastLV
All of the pairings are like that. Taking our already elevated flavor profiles to that next level. I feel our collaboration works so well because Garagiste’s wines and our ice creams are both specialty and small production with limited availability. If you had to choose one of your ice cream flavors that best represents Mario, co-owner of Garagiste, which would it be and why? Mario is definitely Spoil Me Daddy (Dark Chocolate Stracciatella + Macerated Strawberries). What else do you call a guy who likes to shower people in bougie wine? That, and he really likes chocolate!
Photo credit: Christine Vanover
MARIO ENRIQUEZ
What do you get when you take two Las Vegas Arts District-based businesses, who have officially been open less than a year, and add in a global pandemic that threatens even the most “essential” industries? A new combination of flavor and creativity that tantalizes the taste buds and elicits feelings of joy and comfort during a time filled with added stress and uncertainty. We were fortunate to interview Valerie Stunning, founder and Head Creamstress of Paradise City Creamery, and Mario Enriquez, co-founder of Garagiste Wine Room & Merchant, about their recent collaboration resulting in decadent ice cream and wine pairings. It is pairings like these that demonstrate the beautiful resilience and grit of the entrepreneurial spirit and that show how even the most adverse situations can still allow for pleasurable experiences.
VALERIE STUNNING
What inspired you to create Paradise City Creamery? Paradise City Creamery was born of my love for facilitating pleasurable experiences and my dream for a more curious, intersectional world. A lighthearted world where adhering to alternative lifestyles and dietary choices is engaging, exciting and fun! When people experience our dense, decadent flavors, I want to invite them to be curious, celebrate themselves, feel indulgent and not judged. How do you develop your flavors and naming conventions? My flavor profiles and names are inspired by my experiences of the world. I’ve traveled a lot, lived abroad for three years and was a stripper for nearly a decade. In that time, I expanded my palate and learned to really appreciate the flashier, more indulgent things in life. How many different flavors have you created in total? I love working with a limited menu. It allows me to be super intentional about our ingredient choices, waffle cone and garnish pairings. Between names and flavor profiles, each flavor literally has its own personality and every season we introduce, or re-introduce, four new ones! Why did you elect to create products that are plant-based and gluten-free? Because my body doesn’t f*ck with dairy or gluten. Had you ever considered pairing your ice creams with wine prior to teaming up with Garagiste? Why do you think this concept works so well? I believe more is more, so naturally I thought of it, but let me tell you, you don’t know an ice cream and wine pairing until you’ve tasted our Hedonista (White Truffle + Burnt Honey Swirl) with Mario’s recommendation of COS ‘Pithos Bianco.’ That orange wine though! 16 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I May 2020
How did your collaboration with Paradise City Creamery come about? I responded to a Paradise City Creamery post on Instagram that they had posted shortly after Governor Sisolak’s order for non-essential businesses to close. They had mentioned curb-side pick-up in the post and I commented about adding their ice creams to our food offerings and working together out of our space at Garagiste since Artifice, where they normally operate out of, was closing. What is your process in determining which wines to pair with the current week’s flavors? First, I taste the ice cream! Then, I think about the main flavor components in the ingredients and try to find wines that are either congruent with those components or that might be considered a pleasing marriage of flavors. I think of it as, “what topping would I like to pour over my ice cream this week?” Except instead of chocolate or caramel syrup, my toppings are wine. What is the most difficult thing about pairing wine with ice cream? How do you pair wine with glitter and gold leaf? Ha ha! Just kidding. The hard part thus far has been deciding which component(s) in the ice cream should be the primary flavor pairing component and which should be the secondary or structural pairing component. Sometimes they line up, but most often, they do not. What has the local response been like to your wine and ice cream “Pleasure Packs” and which pairing has been the most popular so far? Since we’ve posted the first pairings, I think we’ve sold out of every flavor before each weekend has ended. So I’d say the response has been phenomenal. It makes sense that people are looking for some way to brighten up their days during this stressful time of isolation and unknowns. Ice cream and wine have always classically been considered comfort items in and of themselves so it makes sense that people would naturally gravitate to a combination of both. I don’t think that I can definitively say which has been the most popular since we’ve sold out every weekend thus far. If I had to choose one that has seemed to be pretty popular immediately upon posting, it would have to be the Balsamic Burlesque ice cream with a Touriga Nacional from Portugal. Which ice cream and wine pairing (or pairings) has been your favorite and why do you think it works so well? Thus far, my favorite has been the Hedonista ice cream paired with the COS ‘Pithos Bianco’ orange Grecanico from Sicily. The Hedonista has some very “in-your-face” flavors of white truffle and honey and you can pull a lot of similar aromatic and flavor components from wines in the style of Pithos Bianco. Both of them represent an intensely hedonistic and indulgent approach to pairing. Instagram: @garagiste_lv | Email: info@garagistelv.com Facebook, Twitter, Instagram: @paradisecitycreamery Email: info@paradisecitycreamery.com www.lvfnbpro.com
By Adam Rains Adam is lead bartender at The Golden Tiki and a member of the Health & Wellness Committee for the Las Vegas USBG. He has studied at SDSU, USBG, BarSmarts, International Sommeliers Guild, Certified Cicerone Program and Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits Academy.
I N DU S TRY C R ISIS RELIEF The quarantine due to the COVID-19 virus has affected all aspects of society. The food & beverage industry in particular has felt it, as well as our fair city. Being a service industry town, Las Vegas has been hit particularly hard. There is a ripple effect that continues. From full bar and partial restaurant closures to major casinos being completely shut down, the consequences to the supporting businesses and food & beverage community are still revealing themselves. We won’t know its full extent for a while. Ironically, what keeps us apart can also bring us together. The silver lining is that during these trying times, the bonds among the service industry thrives. Our F&B community is tight-knit and our sense of family is robust and sincere. It is part of the reason why even as a growing city, we can maintain our sense of small town conviviality. On a national level, many brands stepped up wanting to support the food & beverage community. Jameson was one of the first to give nationally, along with Brown Forman and Campari. Several others have followed suit and even given to the United States Bartenders’ Guild (USBG). The USBG, through the Bartender Emergency Assistance Program, has been at the forefront of the efforts to help those in the hospitality industry in need. Raul Faria, our local USBG President and a member of the National Charity committee, said, “The COVID-19 crisis has created an overwhelming need that we are working hard to address. With our 475 volunteers we have been able to screen over 250,000 applications, process over 60,000 and have issued grants to applicants with more getting out each week.” Regarding work done in our community, our USBG family is no different. Raul continued, “Locally our Las Vegas chapter here has
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assisted in facilitating the Pantry program from sponsors like Bacardi, El Silencio and Gallo Brands. We have also teamed up with Crystina Nguyen with the Mama’s Care Package program that delivers meals, some cocktails and some education on the sponsor brands like Asahi and Kurosawa Sake.” Campari has had an important role as well. I spoke with our local representative Anthony DeMaria, who said that he has been even busier than before the shutdown. He outlined for me a number of initiatives that they have in play including: commissioning local artists and photographers, online giveaways and Gypsy Kitchen, who has donated meals to senior citizens and those in the hospitality industry. Campari also was a major contributor to the Sparrow and Wolf Challenge, a charity which has donated meals directly to first responders here in Las Vegas, but has recently grown to a national level. Brown Forman, the parent company for Jack Daniel’s and Old Forester, have also helped out locally by distributing 300 heat & serve family-style pans of food from casino food vendor Best West Foods and distributed 96 meals for affected industry workers from local establishments including Balboa Pizza, Gaetano’s, Chicago Brewing Co., Juan’s Flaming Fajitas, Wahoo’s Fish Tacos and Home Plate; distributed 150 custom Jack Daniel’s cloth face masks so far, with another 150 currently being created; and the “Lost Shift” virtual cocktail competition where we awarded 24 local winners a $270 prize. Lemba Rum (which is actually bottled in North Las Vegas), is also doing their part. While they are not the size of the mega-distillers, Lemba knew that pitching in was the right thing to do. They held an online competition which got local bartenders engaged but also gave to the USBG National Charity Fund.
They are also sponsoring a cocktail book (which I am helping with) in which the proceeds will go to Las Vegas bartenders via the USBGLV. It will be called Lemba Loves Las Vegas and will feature recipes from Tony Abou-Ganim, Francesco Lafranconi, Mariena Boarini Mercer and loads of others. Local industry podcasts are helping with the spread of positive information and to let people know what resources are available. Sarah Gage’s “Booze Broad” and “Corporate Entrepreneurs with Sam Bracamontes” have both had episodes on the subject along with the “Fabulous Swiggavino Brothers and Adam.” The latter has had local and national guests on including bar owners, distillers, Livio Lauro from SGWS and Anthony Jamison from the Sand Dollar. I spoke to one of the hosts, Gene Samuel, who said, “We have focused on this on our show mainly to put a familiar face and voice to this drastic situation that we are all in, a friendly voice to help.” Many businesses are remaining open in order to service Las Vegas and help the community. Our hats go off to the many restaurants and grocery stores that are continuing giving us essential goods and feeding the people. We would also like to thank Las Vegas Distillery for continuing to produce and also pivoting some of their production to sanitizer. Also look for Xamay Spirits LLC, who is also producing sanitizer that will be available shortly. While the situation is continuing to develop, our habits and business practices will have to adapt. It is my hope that we will all do our best to buy local, be smart and continue to care for one another so that we can arise as a new Vegas, one that continues to reinvent itself, bring the good times and change the world one celebration at a time! #Salute
May 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 17
The RESTAURANT EXPERT Create a Cash Flow Plan to Ride Out the COVID-19 Pandemic
As an industry, restaurants are very much a cash flow business. As long as sales are coming through the doors, you can pay your bills and make money. So, when sales were reduced for many operators by 40–60 percent or more overnight, many independent restaurants were immediately met with three key options: • Alter the business model. • Close until the pandemic is over. • Close for good. To determine the futures of their businesses, many restaurants are trying to decide if they should take advantage of one of the new loans available through the Small Business Administration. Would a loan keep people employed, or make it viable to keep the doors open? To make an informed and vetted decision, a restaurant owner MUST have a 12-week cash flow budget. Unlike an annual budget where you are looking to create a plan to be profitable, your 12-week budget is all about survival. Do you have enough cash to do that? To create your 12-week cash flow budget, here’s the process: • Look at a typical month. What are your sales? How are those sales broken up by sales categories? What are your current salaries and wages, including taxes, benefits and insurance? What are your operating expenses and what week are you scheduled to pay those bills?
By David Scott Peters David Scott Peters is a restaurant coach and speaker who teaches restaurant operators how to cut costs and increase profits with his trademark Restaurant Prosperity Formula. Known as the expert in the restaurant industry, he uses a no-BS style to teach and motivate restaurant owners to take control of their businesses and finally realize their full potential. Thousands of restaurants have used his formula to transform their businesses. To learn more about David Scott Peters and his formula, visit www.davidscottpeters.com.
• Using that information, create a 12-week cash flow template. Remember this has nothing to do with profits. • Edit your numbers based on your new reality. For example, if sales are down 50 percent, reduce your sales forecast in your budget by 50 percent. If you are only selling food now, food is now 100 percent of sales. Is your food cost too high? Do you need to create a new menu to lower it? Look at salaries. Are you now working on the line? Are your managers doing line employee jobs and need to be moved from salary to hourly workers, including possibly reducing their pay? Add in your beginning reconciled bank balance and you’re on your way to creating different scenarios to help you make the best decision for your restaurant. • Now look at where your cash deficits are. Look at what bills you can cut. Look at what bills you can defer. At the end of the 12-week period, look at your projected cash balance and new accounts payable. Now you have the numbers to help you decide what’s best for you and your restaurant until this pandemic blows over. There are other factors to consider when making your decision. Do you believe for the first time in our lives that the federal government is going to provide the hospitality industry a bailout? It changes every day, but so far, it seems only the largest companies are getting a bailout.
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What can you defer? • Is the state offering sales tax deferments without penalty? • In talking with your CPA, is the federal government going to waive penalties if you are slow to pay employment taxes? • If you’re not already behind on your rent, based on your lease agreement and consulting with your attorney, can you contact your landlord and let them know you won’t be paying the next one, two or three months of rent? Or ask them if they will add it to the end of your lease. • What about your broadline distributors? Don’t bury your head in the sand and just not pay them. They are getting crushed with thousands of restaurants that owe them money and who are not paying their bills. Can you call them and ask if you pay for half of each delivery for the next four weeks, would they keep delivering your food? Remember this is a deferment, not forgiveness of debt. • Every other expense is on the table. Look at every bill and service you pay. Do you need it? If not, drop it. What about those lifelines? If you take money through the Paycheck Protection Program or the Economic Injury Disaster Loan, can you afford to pay loans back if they’re not forgiven? When you look at your 12-week cash flow projections, you will quickly see which decisions make the most sense for your restaurant business. Last but not least, every week, you’re going to look at what sales you actually brought in and what bills you paid and re-evaluate your plan. This is not a one-anddone decision.
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By Shelley Stepanek
Best of the Best
Shelley Stepanek is President of DSA, the oldest non-profit tourist association in the state, along with being on the board of ticket brokers. Shelley has previously owned three restaurants.
Photo credit: The Venetian Resort Las Vegas
While we currently can’t visit our local casinos, at least we can make and enjoy some of their libations on our own. We invite you to try a little bourbon drinks, all compliments of three of The Venetian Resorts' finest cocktail bars: Rosina, The Dorsey, and Electra Cocktail Club. While we wait for this luxury hotel, along with all the others in our great city to reopen, we thank them for being kind enough to share these recipes.
Kentucky River
Fallin’ Rain
Low Blow
from Rosina at The Venetian Resort Ingredients: 2 oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon Whiskey ½ oz Tempus Fugit Crème de Cacao 2-3 dash peach bitters lemon twist Method: Add all ingredients into a double Old Fashioned glass, add a 2’’x2’’ ice cube, stir, garnish with a lemon twist.
from The Dorsey at The Venetian Resort Ingredients: 1 oz Four Roses Yellow Label Bourbon 1 oz Laird’s Bonded ½ oz lemon juice 1 oz pineapple juice ½ oz honey egg white Method: Dry, shake and strain. Serve in a Sour Coupe glass. Garnish with cinnamon.
from Electra Cocktail Club at The Venetian Resort
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Ingredients: 2 oz bourbon ¼ oz pineapple liqueur ¼ oz St. Elizabeth Allspice dram 2 dashes chocolate bitters 2 dashes of Angostura bitters Method: Stirred, rocks, orange twist.
May 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 19
Product Review By Bob Barnes
Brewferm Belgian Beer Kits I began homebrewing in the 1980s, back when the only way you could obtain good beer was to buy expensive imported or make it yourself. I daresay I became pretty good at it and even accomplished 1st best-of-show and 2nd best-of-show homebrew competition honors, along with dozens of first place category wins. I hadn’t brewed in 14 years, and one of the reasons was the 3+ hours it took to complete a batch (which would have been doubled if I brewed all-grain), to bottle and the extensive cleanups. So, when offered to try out the Brewferm Belgian Beer Kits, with directions to craft your brew in a fraction of the time, I was intrigued. Step-by-step directions with pictures include cleaning the fermenting vessel, heating the can of malt in hot water (to make it easier to pour), mixing with table sugar and cold water, adding the dried yeast and sealing the top, all of which took well less than an hour. Fermenting and bottling took place in the same plastic vessel, bottling occurred 10 days later and after another 10 days the brew was ready to be consumed. This brewing method was completely foreign to the way I had brewed previously, as I always boiled the malt for more than an hour (sometimes with unfortunate boilovers), added my own hops at intervals, cooled everything down with a wort chiller, never used cane sugar, used a secondary fermenter and separate bottling bucket and used liquid yeast instead of dried. Needless to say, I was pretty skeptical of how good the results would be and completely surprised and amazed at how good my batch came out. Some caveats and room for improvement include a few essential items and some key directions lacking in the starter kit I was sent. Included was a bottle filler (gadget for filling bottles) but no hose to attach it to the spigot; some starter kits do not contain a capper and caps, so if you don’t already have these and are not using swingtop bottles, be sure to choose the right kit for your needs; and the directions talk about the importance of cleaning, but give no info on how to clean and sanitize the bottles. I also recommend waiting two weeks after bottling before popping your first bottle, as mine were too lightly carbonated before then. Eleven varieties are offered, including several Belgian styles such as Dubbel, Saison and Tripel; and each batch makes about 20-30 pints. www.brewferm.com www.amazon.com
Pulp Culture Many are looking for ways to improve their health, but how about alcohol? Pulp Culture, an L.A.-based company, is offering better-for-you drinks made from 100% raw, fresh juice naturally fermented over three months that contain live probiotic cultures, botanical adaptogens (crafted from medicinal herbs and superfoods) and weigh in at 4.9% ABV and only 99 calories with 0 carbs, 0 sodium and no added sugar. Four flavors are offered, all with healthful sounding names: Think—designed to boost brain power and deliver sustained energy with apple, guava, peach, ginseng, matcha and lion’s mane; Hustle—an uplifting buzz to support an active lifestyle with apple, passionfruit, strawberry, ginger, turmeric and lion’s mane; Restore—a cleansing elixir with apple, grapefruit, goji berry, dandelion, milk thistle and reishi; and Relax—a mix of apple, blueberry, lemon, lavender, valerian root and reishi. With all the healthy ingredients and no additives (with all ingredients listed on the can), you can feel good about imbibing. pulpculture.la
Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager I continue to be impressed at how Stone Brewing has diversified its line of beers. After establishing itself as a brewery known for making bold, hop-forward ales and drawing a following of hopheads, it’s clear the iconic brewery is seeking to satisfy as many beer lovers as possible. Its latest release is a more flavorful version of the lime-flavored lagers which have been offered by the macrobrewers for decades and harkens back to the days when you could put a lime in any bland beer and mimic a Corona. This Mexican-style lager released nationwide just in time for Cinco de Mayo weighs in at only 4.7% ABV and is brewed with Liberty hops, lime and salt. The lime flavor dominates and its crisp, refreshing tartness make this a great thirst quencher for the warmer months. www.stonebrewing.com/buenaveza
20 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I May 2020
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By Chef Allen Asch
Chef Talk Truffles
As I write this month’s column, I hope everyone is healthy and safe and know my prayers are out there for our entire country. This month I’m going to share with you my January trip to Portland, Oregon (luckily before any travel restrictions were put in place). It’s not like I’m showing you my pictures, I’m going to share with you a fabulous tour and tasting of one of Portland’s hidden gems. When talking about truffles most people think of the chocolate kind, but I’m talking about the truffles that are in the mushroom family and considered a delicacy, and are priced like that. While France is known for black truffles and Italy is known for their white truffles, in Oregon you can get both, depending on the season. Chocolate truffles got their name because they look like the black mushroom truffles from France. Truffles traditionally were sniffed out by pigs but currently around the world they are now mostly using dogs, because the pigs would eat the truffles. Almost all dogs can sniff out the truffle, including Chihuahuas, but the Italian breed that is known for this job is the Lagotto Romagnolos. These dogs have a natural ability to sniff out truffles but can cost up to $8,500 for a puppy. Truffles grow underground around the base of a few varieties of trees. In Oregon, the Douglas Fir is the tree that people and dogs usually search around. Unlike other mushrooms that grow above the surface, truffles grow underground. The above ground mushrooms allow water and wind to disburse their spores while their relatives underground scatter their spores via animals that eat them. The purpose of my trip was to celebrate at the www.lvfnbpro.com
Feel free to contact Chef Allen with ideas for comments or future articles at allenasch1@gmail.com. Chef Allen Asch M. Ed., CCE is a retired culinary arts instructor who has earned degrees from Culinary Institute of America, Johnson and Wales University and Northern Arizona University and taught at UNLV. He earned his Certified Culinary Educator Endorsement from the American Culinary Federation in 2003.
Oregon Truffle Festival, which has been around for 14 years and occurs in January every year. During this festival you get to learn about truffles, hunt for truffles and most important, eat truffles. Oregon truffles are a bargain compared to their European relatives. Black truffles (French) go for around $800 a pound while white truffles (Italy) fetch up to $3,000 a pound, but truffles from Oregon cost much less. White truffles from the Northwest go for around $25 per ounce and black truffles go for more than twice that. Oregon truffles have a reputation of not being very flavorful, but part of that was from before dogs were introduced as foragers, as foragers would use a rake, which marred the outside of the truffle, shortening its shelf life and inhibiting flavor. As Oregon truffles only have a shelf life of around 10 days, they must be refrigerated. This is compared to French truffles that have a sixmonth shelf life in the refrigerator or 10 days at room temperature. The fresher they are, the better they taste. Around Portland these Douglas Firs have not, and are not, going to be chopped down, for these trees that allow truffles to grow by their roots are less valuable as timber than for the truffles that are harvested. An acre of trees can foster thousands of dollars worth of truffles every year, and leaving the trees up allows them to reproduce year after year. Oregon’s white truffles have two seasons: They are harvested from May to July and then again November to March. Black truffles are harvested starting in October and ending in May, with January and February being the peak months. This is the reason that the festival is held in January. Additionally, another 350 species of truffles grow in the Pacific Northwest.
Oregon’s Truffle Festival is celebrated in two weekends late in January in Eugene, Oregon, and if you can’t make it then, there’s also a festival in February in the Yamhill Valley, which is closer to Portland. The Pacific Northwest, specifically Oregon, is well-known for its mushrooms. As a matter of fact, the largest mushroom ever discovered was in Oregon, and measured almost one square acre. This species is called a honey mushroom. This mushroom is considered the oldest organism in the world and is estimated to be around 8,650 years old. This mushroom is connected underground with above ground caps appearing throughout the area. This has been confirmed through scientific DNA studies of the different growth areas. This size mushroom is actually a hindrance to the life of the trees it is drawing energy from. Truffles can be verified as far back as 20,000 BC. They lost favor for a long time but regained their popularity during the Renaissance period. During this time the French cuisine stepped away from its use of Oriental spices and began using more earthy and indigenous ingredients. The greatest luxury at that time for the wealthy was a truffled turkey, which will be on my table next year. Truffles can be cultivated, but take a lot of space and moisture to take hold. Unfortunately, a lot of diseases can affect the quality and quantity of growth for truffles. Beware of truffle oils as they are usually not made with true truffles, but rather a synthetic flavoring that replicates the truffle. The next thing I’m going to do with my beautiful truffles I brought home is make a flavored truffle vodka. I hope it’s as good as it sounds.
May 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 21
EVENTS Due to the uncertainty of the coronavirus, with large gatherings being postponed or cancelled, we are putting our Events listing on hold.
AD INDEX Al Dentes’ Provisions sales@aldentes.com 702-642-1100
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Big Dog’s Brewing Company www.bigdogsbrews.com 702-368-3715
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Designated Drivers, Inc. designateddriversinc.com 877-456-7433
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Keep Memory Alive Event Center 702-263-9797 kmaeventcenterlasvegas.com
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Jay’s Sharpening Service www.jayssharpening.com 702-645-0049
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Modelo modelousa.com
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4310 W Tompkins Ave Las Vegas, NV 89103
702-645-0049
www.jayssharpening.com • customerservice@jayssharpening.com
Mobile Service Our mobile service vans provide sharpening services on-site to even the largest resort properties, without disrupting workflow. Commercial Knife Exchange Program We furnish sharp knives to your kitchen on a weekly or biweekly rotation schedule.
Jay’s Sharpening Service
Cutting Board Resurfacing & Replacements
Arville St
Equipment Sales We offer top-of-the-line knives, culinary tools, kitchen supplies and replacement parts.
W Harmon Ave
Steak & Table Knife Re-Serration / Sharpening
W Tropicana Ave
To advertise email info@lvfnb.com
22 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I May 2020
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•Wholesale distributor of exceptional quality dried spices and specialty foods to the finest hotels and restaurants •Owned and operated by a former chef with over 20 years of experience •Custom packed Herbs and Spices •Custom Spice Blends •Private labeling •Now Certified Kosher