September 2020 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional

LE

PIC

E'S

Issue 9 Volume 20

The Raiders Kick Off Inaugural Season in Las Vegas

K

UP

DI

C

SC URRE OU NT I NT SSUE LIQ S AT UO R

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

On August 3 the food & beverage community lost one of our own, as Justin Cooper lost his battle to COVID-19. Justin most recently worked as Executive Banquet Chef at Green Valley Ranch and was known for his love of bacon, being a friend and mentor to many and was much loved and respected by all who knew him. Pictured here are Justin’s smiling face and his chef’s jacket signed by many of his co-workers and friends. My favorite comments are “Heaven is a wonderful place because they’ve got you, Chef” and “May there always be bacon.”

Alice Swift

Publisher juanita.fryer@lvfnb.com

Assistant Editor alice@lvfnb.com

Editorial Director Bob Barnes made it out to The Front Yard at Ellis Island and after posing with Executive Chef John Alers experienced his new gastropub menu. Read all about the beer-friendly menu Chef Alers has created in Bob’s What’s Brewing column on page 8.

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 HR Insights Linda Bernstein

Journalist The Restaurant Expert David Scott Peters

Journalist Front & Back of the House Gael Hees

Journalist Chef Talk Allen Asch

Journalist Dishing It Sk Delph

Journalist SoCal Craft David Mulvihil

Journalists Twinkle Toast Erin Cooper & Christine Vanover

Journalists Elaine & Scott Harris

DISTRIBUTION You can pick up printed copies of our monthly publication at the following locations: Lee's Discount Liquor locations: 7752 N El Capitan Way 1450 W Horizon Ridge Pkwy 10935 S. Eastern 9355 W. Flamingo

4427 E. Sunset Rd 3480 E. Flamingo 1780 S. Rainbow 4421 N. Rancho 9110 S. Las Vegas Blvd.

7411 W. Lake Mead 8785 W. Warm Springs 2830 W. Deer Springs Way 1388 S. Boulder Hwy 4230 S. Rainbow Blvd

2 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

780 S. Rampart Blvd 4605 Blue Diamond Rd 8180 S. Maryland Pkwy

www.lvfnbpro.com

September 2020

Contents and Comments from Editorial Director Bob Barnes

4 Cover

4 5

7

7 21 22

As summer winds down, in Las Vegas the temperatures continue to sizzle, and based on the articles I’ve read through, so does the content in this September, 2020 issue of The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional.

Our cover feature this month written by Ben Brown, celebrates the realization of a dream that has been anticipated for years and one of the most momentous occasions to happen to Las Vegas: the Raiders relocating from Oakland to the new Allegiant Stadium. Read Las Vegas Raiders President Marc Badain’s remarks about how the Davis family’s decades-long search to find a long-term home for the Raiders has now become a reality. Also, key to the story is how football and beer are an iconic duo and why the partnership with Modelo, which has been selected as the team’s official import cerveza, is the perfect match for the Raiders.

In my What’s Cooking column this month I spotlight one of our all-time favorite chefs, the extremely gifted, award-winning Chef Steve Young, who now has taken on double duty as executive chef of both Edge Steakhouse and Fresco Italiano at Westgate Las Vegas. Fresco is Italian for fresh, and after checking out my article you will see why it was a wise and fitting choice for the restaurant’s name.

Now that the summer break is over and classes have resumed at UNLV, we are delighted to welcome back the UNLV Epicurean Society column. In his article this month, Nicholas Bilt describes how the club is adapting to the current reality of having classes online and the creative ways the Society is keeping its members connected, even while some are scattered throughout the world.

A great read is the account from Elaine and Scott Harris about a restaurant bringing an angelic touch to the Las Vegas culinary scene: Heavenly Pies. This brand-new eatery is an endeavor by a giant of our local industry, acclaimed James Beard award-winning Chef Luciano Pellegrini. This article tells of yet another example of how off-Strip dining is blossoming even in the age of COVID, bringing exceptional chefs, their staff and cuisine beyond the neon into the local neighborhood.

As previously mentioned, temperatures are still sizzling and what better way to cool off than with one of our most treasured treats: ice cream. In this month’s Chef Talk Chef Allen Asch tells us everything we always wanted to know about America’s favorite dessert, such as its history, plethora of flavors (including some quite unusual ones) and the ideal temperature to best store, serve and eat ice cream.

A few months ago, we announced that we would be merging The SoCal Food & Beverage Professional with this publication, and now I am happy to report that this has come to pass. In this issue we have a report from our SoCal Foodie Biz columnist Ben Brown, who tells us about how Dog Haus, the fast-casual chain known for gourmet hot dogs, sausages, burgers and chicken sandwiches, has shown great generosity in donating $85,000 to No Kid Hungry. And, our SoCal beer correspondent David Mulvihill, details the challenges facing the brewing community in California and how unfair state regulations are treating the wine industry differently than the beer industry.

Cheers!

Bob Barnes/Editorial Director

Page 2 Hot off the Grill!

Page 4 What’s Cooking Page 5 UNLV Epicurean Society Page 6 Wine Talk with Alice Swift Welcome Back to School: Get Your Online Wine Education On! Page 7 Heavenly Pies Brings an Angelic Touch to the Las Vegas Culinary Scene Page 8 What’s Brewing

22 www.lvfnbpro.com

Page 10 The Bottom Line Zenreach Revolutionizes Restaurant Marketing with the Walk-Through Rate

COVER FEATURE

Page 12 The Raiders Kick Off Inaugural Season in Las Vegas

Page 19 Human Resources Insights Doing More with Less; It Requires Creativity

Page 14 Brett's Vegas View

Page 20 Product Review

Page 15 USBG Las Vegas

Page 21 Chef Talk I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

Page 16 Front & Back of the House It’s a Cheese Thing!

Page 17 Twinkle Toast Khoury’s Fine Wine & Spirits Page 18 The Restaurant Expert How to Secure Your Restaurant’s Future

Page 22 SoCal Foodie Biz Page 23 SoCal Craft He Said Wine. We Said Beer! A California Perspective

Page 11 Best of the Best

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 3

By Bob Barnes

photo Credit: Fresco Italiano

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

Fresco Italiano at Westgate Las Vegas Serving Fresh Authentic Italian Cuisine Fresco Italiano at Westgate Las Vegas has reopened along with the casino resort that sits next to the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Earlier this year Chef Steve Young took over as Executive Chef, doing double duty as he also holds the same position at Edge Steakhouse next door (which hasn’t reopened yet). Very recently Chef’s brilliance was once again rewarded, as Fresco was ranked the #1 Italian restaurant in Trip Advisor (beating out 289 other restaurants), an accomplishment also bestowed upon Edge Steakhouse. After my recent visit I’m not at all surprised the restaurant has achieved this impressive accolade.

First of all, on my previous visits to Fresco I had not had the good fortune to be seated in one of its two semi-private dining rooms, but this time I was in luck. The rooms feature a round table with seating for four, high ceiling with chandelier, artwork, Old-World statues and best of all, seclusion. The rest of the restaurant is situated in a beautiful room with a Tuscan theme, featuring an open kitchen with copper overhangs, round pillars, wood floor and tables and a red brick walk adding to a rustic effect.

Having only experienced Chef Young’s fare at the fine-dining Edge Steakhouse, I was curious about his background and experience in preparing Italian cuisine. Turns out, Chef’s mother and grandmother are Italian and during his high school years he was tasked with

cooking dinner for his family every night and practiced the skills they (especially his mother) taught him. And, his 2nd professional cooking job was working for renowned Chef Michael White (known for his soulful interpretations of Italian cuisine and Michelin-starred restaurants) at Due Mari and Due Terre in New Jersey.

Chef delighted us with a tasting that included nearly half of the menu, all of which are new items he designed since taking the reigns as executive chef. Our antipasti round included Bruschetta with heirloom tomatoes and basil pesto; Calamari with Calabrian chilies; Meatballs made with slow braised pork, beef & veal topped with grana Padano and stracciatella; and Guazzetto di Cozze—Salt Springs mussels, the best I’d ever experienced that were nearly as tender as butter, which Chef shared is the reason he prefers these particular mussels.

The pasta course was well represented by Frutti di Mare with the bounty of the sea: shrimp, scallops, clams and mussels with strozzapreti pasta and spicy tomato sauce; Salsicce Italiane e Rapini—fennel sausage, orecchiete pasta, roasted peppers and ricotta salata; and the simple yet perfect Spaghetti Pomodoro with fresh basil, garlic and grana Padano.

Although we were nearly full, we pressed on with the entree course, of which we enjoyed Costata di Manzo, a tender, flavorful, perfectly cooked 18oz bone-in rib eye with fingerling potatoes and wild mushrooms, which was evidence of Chef’s mastery of preparing prime cuts of meat; Pollo Arrosto—lemon & rosemary marinated roasted half chicken with

4 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

wild mushroom marsala and creamy polenta; and Salmone in Padella served with artichoke hearts, capers, fregola sarda and lemon butter.

Our finale was Tiramisu with mascarpone, Amaretto and espresso; and Bomboloni—lemon & ricotta doughnuts with a trio of raspberry, crème anglaise and Nutella dipping sauces.

While the menu offerings are very reasonably priced, a great deal is the Chef Selection: a three-course menu for $40, with choice of soup or salad; Fettuccine Alfredo, Lasagna, Salmone in Padella or Pollo Arrosto; and Bomboloni, Tiramisu or Gelati. You can also add an optional wine pairing for $7 a glass.

Fresco is Italian for fresh, and after enjoying Chef Young’s offerings I can see that it was a wise choice for the restaurant’s name. And, he provided a quote that sums up keys to their success: “Keep it simple, and buy the best ingredients.” Chef never ceases to impress us with his talent and accomplishments at such a young age, having earned the Best New Chef/Rising Star award at the 2017 Silver State Awards and in 2018 being named to the Vegas Inc. 40 Under 40 list sponsored by the Greenspun Media Group.

I used to refer to Chef as a rising star, but once again he indeed has proven himself to be an established star and clearly has risen to the top.

Open daily from 5-10 p.m. www.westgatedestinations.com/nevada/lasvegas/westgate-las-vegas-hotel-casino/dining/ fresco_italiano www.lvfnbpro.com

By Nicholas Bilt

Photo credit: Nicholas Bilt

Nicholas Bilt, a Hospitality Management student at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, represents the Epicurean Society, a collection of food and restaurant enthusiasts.

Nicholas is the journalist for Epicurean Society, and is sharing the club’s experiences with the public. Coming from an arts high school for culinary arts and hospitality, Nicholas looks at food and service from an artist angle.

It has been a tough couple of months. In March, right before spring break, everything was starting to change and universities around the world were telling students after spring break the schools were switching all classes to online.

As I got home for spring break the news broke UNLV switched all classes for the rest of the spring semester to online and remote learning.

I do not think I need to say that that changed all of Epicurean’s plans for the semester.

Many students have switched to all online and remote learning. The difference between an online and remote class is that a remote class still keeps a lecture part to the class with digital zoom classes. Needless to say, our members are all over the world at the moment. We may not be able to meet in person but that will not slow us down.

Part of being in the hospitality industry is being able to think on your feet, being able to find a different and creative solution to a problem.

The Epicurean leadership board has thought of many different ways to help engage our current group of members and gauge the interest of incoming hospitality freshmen to help foster an encouraging and friendly environment for both professional and personal growth and education on hospitality and cuisine. Not only that, but also to create a social network for our members.

College can be a tough time and a hard transition period and it is not getting any easier with the current circumstances, so we think that as a group maybe we can make that a little bit easier for our members. www.lvfnbpro.com

Epicurean Society will be launching a greater online presence and building a strong community for our members to communicate.

Our general meetings will be moved to Zoom and we have some plans for our new meeting format.

A big thing we have planned for our Zoom meetings is guest speakers: industry professionals from restaurants, hotels and other culinary arts and hospitality sectors. This was a very difficult task as our meetings were at 4:00 p.m. on a Tuesday and that could be a difficult time for people to slip away from their positions for an hour or two to make a trip to UNLV’s campus. Now that all our meetings are over Zoom all you need is a computer with a camera and 30 to 40 minutes of free time.

And, it is easier for guest speakers to come to our meetings and educate us on the part of the industry they are from and give us a few tips on working in the industry.

The other thing we want to do for our meetings is communal cooking, or for our members living on campus, dorm room cuisine. We do have members living on campus in the dorms and sometimes you need to have a break from dining commons food and have a nice home cooked meal. So, we are developing some cooking classes for dorm room cooking, recipes that will be at the most $10 to make that are easily done with minimal space in a microwave. We would send out the ingredient list beforehand and then at the meeting do a step-by-step walkthrough of the dish. We would also do cooking classes

not specific to dorm room cuisine since some of our members will still be cooking at home, and we will throw in some challenging recipes to keep our members growing. The goal with our cooking classes is to expand our members’ understanding and knowledge of food, as well as get them to think of food in more creative ways.

A way we are building our community outside of our Zoom meetings is our Epicurean GroupMe, which is open to all of our members.

For those who do not know what GroupMe is, it is a group messaging program run by Microsoft.

We are using it as a way to communicate with our members in a quick fashion if needed, and is a way for our members to contact each other for support, such as help with our hospitality classes. We may be far apart, but we aim to build a stronger and closer community.

Our social media manager Christina Yuan has been working to expand our social media presence, and we are interacting more with our members on social media. One thing we are starting to do is repost our members’ food, which is exposing the different cuisines of our followers and showing what our members are making and what food they like.

Even though we cannot be in the same room and we are not sure how long it will be till we can, we at UNLV’s Epicurean Society plan on growing and strengthening our community.

Here’s to a great fall semester!

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 5

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

Welcome Back to School: Get Your Online Wine Education On!

Another magazine issue, and still another month of social distancing and restricted hospitality and tourism. As part of the “back to school” with students in K-12, colleges and universities nationwide returning back to school in mostly online and hybridized formats, this month I thought I would share a few online and webbased opportunities to learn about wine without “formally” going back to school.

Explore the list from top down to view casual learning opportunities all the way to full online courses complete with optional (paid) certificates of completion from reputable educational institutions. Note, however, that there are endless resources for wine education beyond what is presented below. This list is curated by yours truly, with a little something for everyone.

Podcasts • Guild of Sommeliers Podcast: Available on podcast apps or directly at http:// guildpodcast.com Master Sommelier Geoff Kruth started this podcast over 10 years ago, and caters his monthly series on a variety of wine and beverage topics. This is a great resource for those who want to dive deeper into wine studies, hear wine experts in interviews or even gain some insights on how to study for wine certifications and exams.

• Wine Enthusiast Podcast: Available on podcast apps or directly at www.winemag. com/podcast Want something a little less intimidating? This podcast is for the “wine enthusiast,” where you can learn a little something about wine, explore hot topics and trends and also meet and learn more Wine Enthusiast’s editors and other special guests.

Videos • Wine Folly: https://winefolly.com/episode Want some fun and down to earth videos to learn about wine? Wine Folly was established back in 2011, and since then, the company has published wine guide books that have won acclaims such as a NY Times Best Seller and James Beard award! Check out Wine Folly’s series of videos, or explore the winefolly.com website for more great wine education resources.

Mobile Apps • Decanter Know Your Wine app for Apple iPhones and iPads https://apps.apple.com/ app/apple-store/id1356107397 Decanter, the UK-based wine and spirits magazine, released its own wine education app in 2018. The app utilizes a technique called “spacing,” which essentially is the strategy of delivering learning into bite-sized chunks.

If you don’t have an iPhone, try your hand at Decanter’s Wine Quiz challenges instead! www. decanter.com/learn/winequiz Wine Website Subscriptions • Jancis Robinson Purple Pages Membership: w w w. j a n c i s r o b i n s o n . c o m / a b o u t membership Jancis Robinson, Master of Wine, is wellknown for her books and publications, such as the Oxford Companion to Wine, and the comprehensive Wine Grapes: A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties. Become a Purple Pages subscriber for a little over $100 and access hundreds of thousands of wine tasting notes, tens of thousands of articles written by wine experts and exclusive online access to The Oxford Companion to Wine and maps of The World Atlas of Wine! Or, subscribe to the free weekly newsletter for complimentary beverage tidbits of information.

6 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

Online Courses Finally, do you want the full online course experience? There are many wine education courses available, but the below options are MOOCs (Massive, Open, Online Courses) that you can audit for free from reputable institutions, or pay a minimal fee to obtain a certificate of completion.

• Wine Tasting Sensory Techniques: www. coursera.org/learn/wine UC Davis is quite well known for its viticulture and enology programs. In 2017, it produced this Coursera online course available for free to audit, or obtain a certification of completion for $79. So far, over 38,000 people have enrolled in this online course, which takes approximately 14 hours to complete. Learn about the wine tasting process, wine varietals of the world, food and wine pairings and more!

• World of Wine: From Grape to Glass: www. edx.org/course/world-of-wine-from-grapeto-glass This online course offered by the University of Adelaide, Australia, has been available for a number of years. Since its first offering, almost 90,000 people have enrolled in the course! As with many other wine introduction courses, you will learn about wine styles, wine tasting, viticulture, winemaking, production, etc.

Being socially distant from others and staying home whenever possible doesn’t mean that you can’t still be productive! Take this opportunity during this unique period of time to professionally develop yourself and learn a little more about wine, whether at the beginner or the advanced level!

Until next month, Cheers~!

Alice www.lvfnbpro.com

By Elaine and Scott Harris

Photo credit: Elaine and Scott Harris

Heavenly Pies Brings an Angelic Touch to the Las Vegas Culinary Scene

Elaine and Scott Harris are full time journalists for over a decade covering resorts, spas, fine dining, wine, spirits and luxury travel. The husband and wife writing duo are sommeliers through the Court of Master Sommeliers and their work has appeared in the LA Times, Travel and Leisure, Google Travel, Modern Luxury, French Quarter Magazine in France and Monaco and Lausanne Tourism City Guide. Visit their website at Cuisineist.com to read articles and view over 400 videos featuring celebrity chefs, winemakers, sommeliers and Food Network stars.

When it comes to great food, James Beard award-winning chef Luciano Pellegrini appears to possess celestial inspiration and divine culinary skills while preparing, innovating and creating impeccable Italian food for more than three decades. Pellegrini’s relentless drive for culinary mastery continued while working alongside the best Italian chefs at acclaimed kitchens in Los Angeles and then to his present home of Las Vegas, Nevada. His most recent project is in partnership with fellow chef and cousin, David Ryan Brister, with the opening of Heavenly Pies, a small Italian restaurant in Southern Highlands.

Pellegrini spent 17 years as the executive chef and partner of restaurateur Piero Selvaggio’s Valentino Las Vegas–formerly located within The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. While at Valentino he earned the prestigious award for Best Chef Southwest by the James Beard Foundation in 2004. After the restaurant closed its doors, Pellegrino has focused on Dolcevita Gelato, a manufacturing company producing his artisanal gelato for wholesale distribution, as well as consulting for various restaurants in Las Vegas, California and Minnesota.

Upon graduation from Le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas, Brister spent time in his home state of Texas honing his culinary skills in Austin and Dallas. Brister returned to Vegas to work with Pellegrini at Dolcevita Gelato. Even in the time of COVID, this was an opportunity that made sense. Business partner and cousin Chef David Ryan Brister together with Pellegrini combine a dedicated love of skills and expertise in opening Heavenly Pies. www.lvfnbpro.com

“I have known David since he was a boy, and I influenced his career,” said Pellegrini. “The opportunity was presented to him and we agreed it was too good to pass on it. We have to adapt during this time of COVID and look, there will be opportunities even in a crisis,” added Pellegrini.

The concept of Heavenly Pies is focused on Roman-style pizzas and a trattoria-style menu along with family meal packages offering pastas, salads, appetizers, entrees and desserts.

Looking over the menu and after tasting many of the offerings we have to say that every item we sampled was authentic and made with the finest ingredients (many of them imported) which certainly pays homage to Pellegrini’s years of award-wining expertise with every bite.

Start with items from the TRATTORIA MENU such as the rich, decadent Meatballs made with beef, veal and pork cooked in tomato sauce, served with fried polenta; or indulge in the Heavenly Wings. These tasty wings are oven roasted, fried and served with carrot, celery sticks and even homemade ranch. On the lighter side, the Heavenly Salad is a refreshing blend of mixed greens, salami, ham, provolone, olives, cucumbers and banana peppers all topped with mustard dressing.

For an excellent PRIMI selection you can’t go wrong with Pellegrini’s old school Nonna’s Lasagna and the Penne Granchio e Bottarga.

This exceptional penne is sautéed with crab meat with a slight hint of citrus for the perfect bite. For a gluten free option, The Eggplant Parmigiana sauced and layered with oven roasted eggplant and house-made marinara then

topped with mozzarella and parmesan is an ideal choice.

The SECONDI course suggests many dishes that can squelch any hunger guests may have.

Traditional Marsala with fresh mushrooms is a nice way to start. Follow it up with a cast iron “Iberico Pork” solomillo and sausage nestled in oven-dried tomato and capers. These two dishes will bring a smile to your face and satisfy your cravings.

Pizza is always a favorite and Heavenly Pies has many options to choose from or build your own.

But if you have to choose one, the signature Heavenly Pizza with black truffle tomato, brie cheese, porcini mushrooms, roasted garlic, speck and escarole is distinctly out-of-this-world in taste and texture. Have a family and want to spoil them for the evening? Bring authentic Italian cuisine home to them. Call ahead and order the Veal Scaloppini dinner package with your choice of scaloppini, a large Heavenly Salad, side of asparagus, side of garlic knots and for the FINI four house-made desserts.

Off-Strip dining is blossoming even in the age of COVID, currently bringing exceptional chefs, their staff and cuisine beyond the neon into the local neighborhood. Pellegrini and Brister are doing just that with their exceptional skills and perhaps a little help from above. Plan to arrive early as you may have to compete with an angel to get a seat at Heavenly Pies.

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 7

By Bob Barnes

Photo credit: Speedee Mart

What’s Brewing

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

A sampling of Speedee Mart's craft beer selection Speedee Mart Offering Expansive Craft Beer Selection Those in the know already are aware, but it’s worth mentioning a chain of convenience stores offering a superb collection of craft beers: Speedee Mart. I spoke with VP of Operations Paul Orluske, who told me 16 of their 22 Southern Nevada locations offer an expansive beer selection with more than 100 craft beers.

Paul worked in the beer distribution biz in Santa Barbara and San Diego before moving here in 1999. After noticing a void for craft beer selection, six years ago he made the move to offer a few shelves of craft beer at his stores.

Now that has quadrupled to two full doors plus open air coolers keeping the beer fresh by storing and selling all of them cold (which is especially key for hoppy beers). Support

for local beers is clearly evident, as the stores carry beers of all of the locals that distribute their brews. For the complete list of the 16 beercentric locations, visit www.speedeemart.net/ craft-beer.

Ellis Island The Front Yard Open for Business and Pouring Great Beer Ellis Island has reopened and so has The Front Yard. The new two-story indoor/ outdoor addition at the front of the building facing Koval Lane originally opened in late 2019. Thankfully, this was after Head Brewer Michael Keys and fellow Head Brewer Eddie Leal had completely transformed the beer offerings with their magnificent, flavorful creations that have become in this reporter’s

8 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

opinion some of the best in town. The beers are pouring at the unbelievably low price of $3 for “The Classics” and $5 for “Specialties” for 20-oz imperial pints, which as far as I can determine make this the lowest price for quality beer in town. During my recent visit I found no less than 12 beers pouring, and I enjoyed all of them, but my favorites were the Belgian Triple, Coffee Stout, Koval Pilsner, Rauchbier (how many places can you find this unique beer style?!) and Golden Bock.

I also enjoyed the new food menu, crafted by Executive Chef John Alers, who is a SoCal transplant and longtime Vegas chef who most recently spent time in the kitchens of Gen 3 restaurants. After coming over to The Front Yard he redesigned the menu to feature a beerfriendly gastropub cuisine and put to good use www.lvfnbpro.com

Photo credit: Ellis Island The Front Yard

Ellis Island The Front Yard

www.lvfnbpro.com

What’s on Tap Big Dog’s Head Brewer/Director of Brewing Operations Dave Pascual tells me they’re releasing Cone of Shame West Coast IPA. Big Dog’s is known for coming up with fun dogthemed names and this one is no exception and also has a fun backstory. It was brewed and named for friend Nick Tribulato’s new pup Murphy, who Nick recently adopted and is scheduled to be neutered in the near future.

Nick has a strong connection to the brewery, as he worked at Big Dog’s years ago, but is now Beer Portfolio Manager for Southern Glazer’s, Big Dog’s local distributor. Dave shared, “Nick is a good guy and is an integral part of our distribution, so we thought we could do something nice for someone who has always had our best interest at heart. This is a classic West Coast IPA using some old school hops— Citra and Mosaic to name a few—and sits at a crushable 6.8% ABV. Dave sums it up, saying, “Not too many bells and whistles on this one, just a good ol' dry and crisp IPA.” Also coming out this month to help us through the dog days of summer (pun intended) are Dog Pound Pilsner and Viener Dog Vienna Lager, both of which will be available in 16oz cans and on tap at the Draft House.

As always, great beer happens in Vegas!

Art Credit: Big Dog's Brewing Company

the restaurant’s smoker. Prime examples are the Beer-Brined (smoked) Chicken Wings, Mac-N-Cheese with house-made bacon and beer cheddar sauce made with Ellis Island Koval Pilsner and Ol’ Smokey—a smoked brisket flatbread with caramelized onions and BBQ sauce. As he grew up in a neighborhood with a lot of Mexican influence, it is reflected in the menu, with items such as Shrimp Michelada (shrimp ceviche in a michelada cocktail sauce) and Elote Dip with sweet corn and spicy creamy sauce. I was advised to try the French Dip, which was incredibly good, as it’s made with roasted prime rib shaved thin with horseradish cream, provolone and side of au jus. And, while I’m not much of a dessert person, his Salted Caramel Bread Pudding with salted caramel ice cream topped with salted caramel sauce was the prefect caramel trifecta.

Hours are currently 4 p.m.-midnight, but beginning Sept. 5 the gastropub will launch a new brunch menu served Sat/Sun from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Check in on Yelp and you can get a free Buffalo Cauliflower (which I found delicious and wouldn’t have known it was made of cauliflower). Also, with several large screen TVs throughout (including an 18-foot), this is an optimal place to watch sporting events, such as the Vegas Golden Knights NHL Playoffs. www.ellisislandcasino.com/the-front-yard

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 9

The Bottom Line

Photo credit: John Kelly

Zenreach Revolutionizes Restaurant Marketing with the Walk-Through Rate

Marketing is one of the toughest hurdles for a restaurant owner. Too often seen as a necessary evil, tactics to ‘get the word out’ are employed in a spray-and-pray fashion, where owners spend big money on ads sent into the ether and simply hope that something sticks. Outlets like Google, Facebook and Instagram have upped the game substantially, tailoring ads to specific target audience demographics. But attribution—or how you can track who gets credit for bringing customers in through your doors—remains a mystery, and is largely one of the most unattainable goals in the marketing world.

But what if you could see whether your ads were actually bringing people in through your doors?

Technology may have finally gotten to this point that marketers have dreamed of for decades, and a platform called Zenreach is leading the charge with what it dubs ‘the walk-through rate.’

“The ability for Zenreach to put a marketing message in front of a consumer, know when that

consumer has seen the message and then when that person walks into the location … it’s pretty incredible,” said John Kelly, CEO of Zenreach.

The former eBay exec took the helm two years ago.

“We have a software layer that sits on top of the local wifi within a restaurant. It becomes a sensor. We can tell when a device walks into and leaves a room, but we anonymize the device so nobody’s identity or contact information is revealed without permission. Your device is looking for a wifi signal every 30 seconds, so we get a pretty accurate read of how long people are spending in a particular place.”

If you’ve ever checked the ‘I agree to the terms and conditions’ box to get free wifi in a restaurant, chances are you’ve given permission to share your information with Zenreach. If you then walk into another restaurant that works with Zenreach, they’ll know when you enter and exit based on your phone’s location. Zenreach tracks

10 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

By Ben Brown Benjamin Brown, MBA is 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.

this movement over time to create an extremely detailed profile for every person in its database, essentially understanding how millions of people dine on an individual basis. Don’t worry though, Zenreach keeps your information private and only reveals data in aggregate unless you give explicit permission at each restaurant you visit (by logging into their wifi networks).

To further explain how Zenreach works, let’s use the hypothetical of a Las Vegas steakhouse, which is inevitably struggling with its traffic and wants to make its marketing dollars count more than ever. If the steakhouse wanted to advertise on Facebook and Instagram, it would create the ads in standard fashion, but Zenreach would show them who actually entered the steakhouse after seeing those ads, rather than who simply clicked on those ads. The number of people who physically enter the restaurant is the ‘walkthrough rate,’ and tells that steakhouse how many customers it got from its ads.

“Online engagement isn’t necessarily indicative of in-store traffic. We did a case study with one of our restaurant clients who invested in Facebook and Instagram ads. The Facebook ads generated five times the number of clicks, but the Instagram ads actually produced a greater walk-through rate. If you don’t have that walk-through signal, you’d keep investing in the Facebook ads and spending that money inappropriately,” Kelly said.

The targeting goes several steps further than standard digital marketing as well. Before, you might be able to program an ad for people whose browsing history say they like steakhouses.

Now, you can program those ads to reach people who actually dined at steakhouses in the last three months.

“We have a very substantial network of consumers because we work with thousands of clients across the country,” Kelly said. By knowing where people have been before, Zenreach can target them on an individual basis with ads to get them back to those types of places. “With thousands of merchants and millions of consumers, the likelihood of one of our customers walking into a new merchant is pretty high.”

Now eight years old, Zenreach has picked up tremendous steam and is working with big names like Peet’s Coffee, Buffalo Wild Wings and Dog Haus, among many others. For Kelly, the sky is the limit, and he’s intent on making business better for as many owners as possible.

“We’re generating anywhere from $5-12 for every $1 spent on Zenreach,” Kelly said. “We’ve seen some great success with a number of our clients. We’re here to help others.”

For more information, visit Zenreach.com. www.lvfnbpro.com

By Shelley Stepanek

AREA15, the highly anticipated entertainment venue on the west side of the I-15 freeway north of Desert Inn with a sign that no one can miss, will be welcoming ODDWOOD, the first of many food experiences. The centerpiece of this bar and cocktail area features a twinkling LED 23-foot high Japanese weeping maple tree set off by a 28-foot-wide canopy with more than 5,000 twinkling LED lights. This entertainment venture will feature retail, art, outdoor concert space and plenty of specialty entertainment. They will serve cocktails, premium beer and a full coffee bar provided by Vesta Coffee Roasters. Las Vegas Entrepreneur Ryan Doherty has brought this venue together.

Another bar and restaurant announced at AREA15 is LOST SPIRITS DISTILLERY, which is one of the world's top distilleries.

The experience starts with a surreal amusement park. Whisky and rum tastings, undersea train rides, boat rides and holograms all come with world class spirits. Winston Fisher, the chief executive officer of AREA15, said Lost Spirits is like a dream-like tasting experience. Co-founder of the distillery Bryan Davis stated he is thrilled to bring his Lost Spirits to the world class AREA15 phenomena. More restaurants will be announced soon.

CIRCA, the new downtown hotel opening late October, will have a host of new restaurants. To start off we have BARRY'S DOWNTOWN PRIME, serving steak and seafood. Barry S. Dakake, formerly of Scotch 80 Prime at the Palms, which was a fabulous venue, is in charge here. The menu will be of the highest caliber. SAGINAW'S DELICATESSEN will serve salads, chopped liver, Reubens, matzo ball soup and breakfast specialties. Yes, that menu is what delicatessens are famous for. PROJECT BBQ will have Carolina barbeque dishes featuring pulled chicken, pork and brisket and will have picnic tables and an outdoor bar.

VICTORY BURGERS & wings will be located in the sports book, serving Victory burgers using brisket, Angus beef and short rib all rolled into one. Along with chicken wings and fries, their second specialty is a Michigan Olive burger with chopped olives and olive brine on the top. Last but not least, is an Asian spot, 8 EAST, featuring all sorts of Asian dishes. To add to all of these, are five new bars: above the sports book, will be the OVERHANG BAR; the rooftop will feature the LEGACY CLUB, with seasonal drinks; inside there will be VEGAS VICKIE's, named after the downtown iconic sign; the 165 ft. MEGA BAR with big screens and 120 beers on tap; and outside with all the excitement and noise of Fremont Street will be the CIRCA BAR, the longest bar in Las Vegas that is outside.

GOLDEN CHICK, out of Texas, is planning a very large expansion.

They are hoping to open 20 locations here, with the first to start in October. They serve roast chicken, tenders, hot rolls and chicken sandwiches and currently have 192 locations across the south.

SICKIES GARAGE BURGERS & BREWS will open Labor Day weekend at Town Square in the former Claim Jumper space.

The chain launched in North Dakota in 2012 known for offering 50 burgers and 50 beers, features a tribute to auto shops with actual classic cars, trucks and motorcycles suspended from the ceiling with cables. The burger patties, made from fresh Angus beef, American Kobe beef or ground turkey, include Twin Cam Burger topped with peppered bacon and nacho cheese between two grilled cheese sandwiches for buns; Glazed Doughnut Burger with American cheese and peppered bacon on a glazed doughnut bun; and Sickies Burger with bacon, egg, pulled pork and onion rings. Also offered are wings; cheese curds; over-sized tater tots filled with bacon, cheddar and chives; and old-fashioned shakes and malts. This location joins six others in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Nebraska. Hours will be daily from 11 a.m.-midnight. www.lvfnbpro.com

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.

Area 15

Oddwood Design + Distill

Lost Spirits

Golden Chick

Circa

Photo credit: Area 15, Golden Chick, Lost Spirits and Circa

Best of the Best

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 11

The Raiders Kick Off Inaugural Season in Las Vegas

By Ben Brown | Photos Courtesy Michael Clemens, Las Vegas Raiders After years of anticipation the Raiders can officially call Las Vegas their home. And while a global pandemic has led this first year to look admittedly different than envisioned, the team has already established roots within the community and put Las Vegas on a pedestal in the eyes of the world-famous Raider Nation.

“The greatness of the Raiders is in its future,” said Marc Badain, President of the Las Vegas Raiders, echoing the words of legendary owner Al Davis. “We have a tremendous history that we celebrate. The move to Las Vegas is in that future.”

Badain began his career with the Raiders as an intern in the early 90s and has stayed with the team ever since. The search for a new stadium and a place to truly call ‘home’ has been top-ofmind for his entire career. Now, nearly 30 years later and at the helm of the organization, Badain is happy for that goal to finally be met.

“This project is the culmination of the Davis family’s decades-long search to find a long-term home for the Raiders,” he said. “We had to solve our stadium issue. We couldn’t remain a tenant of an old building. Today’s customer demands a better experience and we need to be in control of that.”

Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium is set to deliver that elevated experience. And even though fans will have to wait to enjoy the in-person experience, Badain sees the new venue as a key to taking the team’s performance to the next level.

“[Allegiant Stadium] is going to help the organization in terms of being competitive.

What we’re all about is winning football games.

This new building is about putting the best product on the field,” he said, referring to the team’s performance.

Much of the Raiders’ impact, however, is off the field as well. When an NFL franchise moves into a new hometown, it’s not just there on Sundays. The players, coaches and staff and their families, as well as many alumni whose lives have been shaped so significantly by the organization, now call Las Vegas home. “[Owner] Mark Davis said multiple times, ‘you’re not just getting a football team, you’re getting an army,’” Badain said. “Our team, our staff, our Raiderettes, you’ll see them all over the community. They’re all going to live here, their families are here, they’re going to build lives here. [Las Vegas] is such a nice place to live, very affordable, with an incredible standard of living.”

“A lot of our players have foundations, and are here to give back to the community. There’s a lot of places here that can use our help. One cause close to the organization’s heart is domestic violence. In California we’ve been able to make an impact and we’re going to do the same in Las Vegas. We’ve gotten involved with Veteran’s Village [Now Share Village, dedicated to providing housing for the homeless].

Philanthropy has always been a basic tenet of the organization.”

12 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

Marc Badain President of the Las Vegas Raiders While the team has already gotten its feet wet in giving back to Las Vegas in a number of ways, the Raiders Foundation will also continue to serve as the organization’s central outlet for philanthropic causes.

The exchange is somewhat mutual. While securing the team’s move was by no means easy, Badain credits the city of Las Vegas for making the process a positive, results-focused experience.

“What we found in Las Vegas from the first meeting we had here was how coordinated the business leaders and the government were.

People can make decisions quickly. There’s not a lot of red tape. When they saw this was an economic win, there was a lot of support from all parties…Las Vegas is a ‘get to yes’ town rather than a ‘get to no’ town. It’s very refreshing and encouraging.” www.lvfnbpro.com

In addition to welcoming the Raiders to town and the building of the stadium, the city is supporting the gameday experience by closing the Hacienda Bridge—which connects the Strip to Allegiant Stadium—to vehicular traffic, allowing people to walk from the Strip to the stadium…once they’re allowed into the stadium, that is.

Even amidst the pandemic, Badain sees the possibility of tailgaters parking outside the stadium (in a safe fashion) while the game is going on to be as close to the experience as possible. When live events do open up once again, the Raiders have partnered with virtually all major resorts to artfully integrate elements of Las Vegas Boulevard into the stadium experience. He also hinted that artwork from local artists will be featured throughout Allegiant Stadium’s corridors.

Strip resorts are just the beginning of the Raiders’ myriad of new partnerships. Beer and football are as iconic of a duo as steak and fine wine, but like any pairing, the right match needs to be made for perfect harmony. So as the Raiders planned their opening year in Las Vegas, choosing a beer to go with the team became critically important. After substantial deliberation, Modelo will be the official import partner of the Las Vegas Raiders.

For the Raiders, Modelo was a natural fit. “If you’ve ever been to a Raider tailgate, you’ll see that there are plenty of folks whose beverage of choice is Modelo,” Badain said. “When you analyze the data around our fan base and how they feel about the brand, there’s a strong correlation.”

“Since Modelo is the No. 1 beer in Las Vegas, it felt right to pair with the newly arriving team that closely identifies with our mantra: beer brewed for those with the ‘Fighting Spirit,’” said Steve Gomez, Regional Development Manager at Constellation Brands, which owns Modelo.

To commemorate the partnership, Modelo is coming out with a limited-edition Modelo Especial 24oz can on Sept. 9, which will be available wherever beer is sold; as well as a co-branded tap handle that will be seen on draft towers wherever Modelo is poured. When the in-stadium experience resumes, attendees can expect to interact with the brand in many different ways, including the Modelo Cantina Club, a 26,000-square-foot space overlooking the 50-yard line with three branded bars, and the Modelo Tailgate Zone, a dedicated location outside of the stadium that will be home to Raider tailgates during the season.

“When it came to building plans, we weren’t only planning for how to activate our partnership at retail from a marketing standpoint but how our brands would be represented and visible both inside and outside of the brand-new stadium for years to come,” Gomez said.

Modelo and the Raiders are working under the same common goal of ‘New Home, Same Fighting Spirit.’

Gomez, who hails from the Bay Area and grew up as a Raiders fan himself, sees Modelo as working to “drive both excitement for current loyal consumers and fans as well as recruit new consumers and fans into the [Raiders] family.”

“If you have any knowledge of the history of the Raiders, we have what I and many would consider one of the most loyal fan bases in all of professional sports,” Gomez said. “Raider fans are passionate and extremely loyal.”

Badain noted that while 60% of season ticket holders are Nevada residents and 20% live in California, a whopping 20% come from across the country. Couple a fan base that broad with one of the planet’s top travel destinations, and you’ve got a football team that’s appealing to both the travel and local market on a massive level.

“The job that the team has done to market themselves here as Las Vegas’ team has been

awesome. Two great legacies coming together for what is certain to be an even greater future,” Gomez said. “There is no doubt that there will be even more loyal fans here in Las Vegas and the entire state of Nevada to join the ranks of Raider Nation. Does it get any better? Just talking about it gets my juices flowing.”

Both Modelo and the Raiders have faced no shortage of challenges launching their partnership during the Coronavirus pandemic, but remain optimistic about engaging fans as much as possible while the in-game experience is paused, as well as what’s to come when Allegiant Stadium opens to the public.

“Our focus is to engage consumers through a large retail marketing presence such as local consumer-focused programs at displays and point of purchase, co-branded giveaways and activations with retail partners where allowed and within local, state and CDC guidelines,” Gomez said.

While Badain and the Raiders are disappointed that they can’t play out their first season with fans in the stands, he’s “keeping things in perspective,” and is extremely grateful “for the construction teams that went above and beyond” to complete the stadium for the 2020 season. He also noted that the NFL has lifted a few restrictions on how players can engage with fans digitally, allowing the fan experience to reach a higher level.

And in trying times like these, Badain takes a step back from his role as an NFL franchise leader and looks at the Raiders in the same scope as any other sports fan. He’s reminded of the incredible things the sports world does to lift society.

“Sports teams can help galvanize communities in a lot of ways,” he said. “When things are bad, people can turn to their sports teams as a place of hope.”

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 13

Brett’s

By Jackie Brett Jackie is a freelance public relations specialist and writer specializing in the Las Vegas entertainment and travel scene. Her writings have appeared in magazines and newspapers nationwide and on numerous websites.

Email: jackiebrett@cox.net

BRIGHT FUTURE SIGNS

An illuminated arch welcome sign for visitors entering Downtown Las Vegas is under construction. The $6.5 million, 80-foot-tall crisscrossed blue arches will create a gateway over Las Vegas Boulevard near The STRAT. The $52.5 million Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) people mover tunneling project, part of a $980 million campus expansion, should be completed by January. The Boring Company is building the shuttle 40 feet beneath the ground at the LVCC to carry people between exhibition halls.

Two Strip resorts, Wynn and Resorts World, are planning to dig tunnels for passengers to and from the LVCC.

ENTERTAINMENT

“Le Reve” will not open again at Wynn.

The Cirque-scaled water production, which premiered when Wynn opened in 2005, had a long run in the $75 million, 1,600-seat customized theater-in-the-round.

Super Summer Theatre, cancelled this year, has announced the 45th Anniversary season in 2021, for the outdoor evening shows at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park. Plays are Disney & Cameron Mackintosh’s “Mary Poppins,” “Sister Act,” “Addams Family: The Musical” and “Matilda.”

featuring the famed cowgirl Vegas Vickie neon sign. MEGA BAR will be a 165-foot-long bar on the first floor claiming the title Nevada’s longest indoor bar and home to Downtown’s flair bartenders. Overhang Bar will be above Circa’s multi-level, world’s largest sportsbook. Circa Bar will be the longest outdoor bar on Fremont Street Experience. Jack Pots will be a 24-hour modern coffee stand with flair.

Amore Taste of Chicago opened a second larger location, formerly a TGI Friday’s, on Sunset Road in Henderson with a bar. The original location launched in 2008 is closed for renovations.

Dolce is a new decadent supper club experience taking place every Sunday at LAVO inside The Palazzo starting at 9:30 p.m. Interactive new desserts are unveiled by poured flaming hot syrup.

Lagasse’s Stadium at The Palazzo, closed since the COVID-19 shutdown, will not reopen making Emeril Lagasse the first celebrity chef to close one of his Strip restaurants. Replacing rapper Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club, Lagasse opened the sports-themed restaurant in 2009.

DINING • BEVERAGE NEWS

Beer Zombies is a Las Vegas based craft beer lifestyle brand opening a fourth location in Downtown Summerlin.

A COVID-19 advisory is not to blow candles out on a cake. Summerlin-based Rolling in Dough Bakery is offering a free side cupcake– Vickie’s Diner closed after 50 years in the same specifically for the candles–with every birthday building as the former White Cross Drugs, which cake purchased. closed in 2015. Former waitress and current owner Vickie Kelesis changed the name from MUSEUM NEWS Tiffany’s Diner when she took over in 2014. She A Carson City, NV, resident digging a backyard hopes to open in a new location. trench found bones which turned out to be Circa Resort & Casino will feature a diverse remains of Ice Age herbivores. At the Las Vegas beverage program including six original bar, Natural History Museum, the find is being lounge and coffee shop concepts. Legacy Club studied and catalogued. Museum visitors may opening in December with the hotel tower will stop by the Richard A. Ditton Learning Lab be an elegant rooftop lounge on the 35th floor. to see the fossils and meet the paleontologists Vegas Vickie’s will be a lobby cocktail lounge studying them.

14 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

The National Atomic Testing Museum (NATM) is honoring the 75th anniversary of the first nuclear test known as Trinity with a new permanent exhibit. Recently a 1945 Fat Man weapon shell weighing more than 10,000 pounds from the Manhattan Project arrived at the NATM on loan for display from the Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque site.

SIDE NOTES

Circa Resort & Casino’s first exterior “CIRCA” neon sign weighing nearly six tons and three stories high was installed at the top of the building, which opens Oct. 28.

The 500-pound naked Manneken Pis statue at the D Las Vegas and the Statue of Liberty at New York-New York are wearing masks.

The new domed Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders completed construction.

Though ready for business, there won’t be any fans this football season. Garth Brooks was supposed to be the stadium’s first concert headliner on Aug. 22; his date has been moved to Feb. 27, 2021.

Want to learn Cirque-like athletic skills? Las Vegas Circus Center opened a couple years ago at 6425 S. Jones Blvd. The 52,000-squarefoot facility is a well-equipped all-ages training center open daily.

Graceland Wedding Chapel downtown is offering virtual Elvis themed vow renewals and commitment ceremonies for couples. Though not a legal ceremony, it is fun via Zoom.

The Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), the largest electronic dance music festival in North America, was supposed to be held at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in May and rescheduled for May 2021.

After 50-plus years, the Consumer Electronics Show held every January in Las Vegas will be going virtual in 2021.

For the first time in nearly 30 years, Freakling Bros. will not open its doors with multiple haunted houses this year. 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.

Photo credit: Todd Smith

T O D D S M I TH

Todd Smith is “that guy” that everyone should know. Smart, funny and a student of the craft, in all of its aspects. He once defended our shores as a member of the US Coast Guard, but now has made his way to our city, where he delights guests nightly at one of the best Italian restaurants in the city, La Strega. His industry experience ranges from washing dishes, waiting tables, all the way to the bar; there he is able to draw on his culinary passions and his ability to make people smile.

A former coworker said this about Todd: “He is one of the elite bartenders in this town, from his approach to the guest and his love for cocktails.”

From those that already know him, you will not hear a bad thing said about him.

You have a vast array of experience in the industry. How did you make your way to bartending?

Since I was young, I've had the passion for cooking and comedy. I just absolutely love to create and entertain whether it's on stage, in the kitchen or behind the bar.

Tell us a bit about your background?

I'm 43 and was raised mostly in Germany and Arizona. After that, I was in the Coast Guard and stationed in Cape Canaveral, Florida, which took me to places like Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Antigua, www.lvfnbpro.com

Trinidad, the Bahamas, etc..... After working at TGI Fridays, I knew I found my career.

Making people happy makes me happy.

What do you do at La Strega?

I'm a bartender there. La Strega is a magically whimsical, multiple award-winning Italian restaurant by Executive Chef/Partner Gina Marinelli. This is just a place you have to experience to appreciate. The service model is elevated and unique, as well as their overall approach to excellence. I've worked in restaurants for 22 years, and this place is by far my favorite. La Strega is my career. My home.

Prior to La Strega, where else have you tended bar? Where did you find the most growth?

After bartending in varied spots for years, I got my first taste of craft and pre-prohibition era-style cocktails in Florida where I was a part of the opening team of The Continental.

It was super rad and involved so much education. It definitely got me started. But it wasn't until Oak & Ivy in Container Park that I really grew as a bartender who loves mixology. I could talk about that place and those experiences forever. I've happily been a part of La Strega since the opening. I can't

do all the crazy stuff I did at Oak, but I still try to create some “razzle dazzle shazam” as often as I can.

Our current situation has been tough for the world and our industry in particular. How have you mitigated the crisis?

La Strega was closed for about a month before reopening for curbside only. This was certainly a challenge because only salary employees worked doing what they had never done before and they were doing everything!

One great thing, it really brought the management team closer together. We've been re-opened for full service since the beginning of June. We went through rigorous training with masks, gloves and sanitation. While some other restaurants/bars on and off the Strip didn't take COVID-19 seriously, Chef Gina and (GM) Stephanie Torres continue to ensure that La Strega goes above and beyond to keep ourselves and guests safe. What we do creatively to stay open is not only offering tasting menus based on different locations in Italy (we are featuring Puglia now), but offering outstanding daily feature cocktails and cuisine. What Chef Gina comes up with is awe-inspiring and my job as a bartender is to ensure my cocktails keep pace with her dishes. I push myself to dig deep and create nothing but the best. My borrowed mantra is “Good enough isn't.”

What do you love outside of the industry?

I still love comedy, but lost the stand-up bug a long time ago, so the bar has become my stage. When I'm on, I'm on and when I'm not, oh, you'll know...

Todd is always on as far as I’m concerned! Go see him soon at La Strega! Salute!

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 15

Front & Back of the House

Photo credit: Valley Cheese & Wine

It’s a Cheese Thing!

By Gael Hees Gael Hees is a Las Vegas freelancer, and founder of the blog, The Steamy Side of Vegas, Living the Spa Life. She writes for national publications and has won numerous awards for printed materials and videos.

Follow her at steamysideofvegas.com or email, gael.hees@icloud.com with questions, suggestions or comments.

Cheese. How many of us can say we love cheese? All hands in the room raised? But when planning for my interview with Diana Brier, I realized I didn’t really “know” about cheese. Does it have terroir? What should I expect from a good brie? Do happy cows really make better milk for cheese?

The Person Diana Brier’s life with cheese has been a series of right-time, right-place experiences. She is a cheesemaker, affineur and monger and has worked at the creamery of her dreams, Rogue Creamery near Portland, Oregon.

She is a certified Cheese Sensory Evaluator by the American Cheese Society and is now owner and cheese director of Valley Cheese and Wine.

Born in Tomball, Texas, northwest of Houston, after seven years of college spent jumping between the arts and sciences and amassing more credits than any college senior, Diana joined the workforce. While working in financial analytics related to identity theft monitoring, she had emergency open-heart surgery and ended up flatlining in the ICU recovery room.

“After that experience, I discovered I didn’t want to do anything I didn’t love to do ever again,” Diana said.

The beginning?

Diana applied at Whole Foods while she was recovering, and the interviewer said, “What do you think of cheese?” She admitted that she loved cheese to the point that her first password

on her computer was “cheese.” Nothing prophetic here. Even her last name is brie with an extra “r.”

“It was always something I just loved,” said Diana, “but it never occurred to me that it was a career.”

She was hired and enrolled in a Cheese 101 class. It was here that Diana began to understand that she could marry her two interests—science and art. Plus, it was food and making people happy and made her happy!

Her employment as assistant cheesemaker at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah, was another twist of fate. She called on a whim about the possibility of a job during ski season and happened to reach the assistant cheesemaker who had just given her notice.

She set up an interview for Diana with the Belgian cheesemaker who hired her on the spot and a week later she was making cheese!

Soon after she started, she was completing the entire make and following up with the affinage and as she says almost shyly and with an evident bit of wonder, “I became this cheesemaker!”

Her dream job at Rogue Creamery? The president liked to ski at Deer Valley and Diana met him, built him a cheeseboard and worked an event in Oregon with his team. Soon after she had a job as the first female to supervise all cheesemaking at Rogue Creamery!

The Cheese My cheese tasting with Diana was simply amazing—I learned so much. For example, I

16 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

never thought that any variety of cheese could be made with milk from a goat, sheep or cow.

Cheese underneath the rind is always called a “paste,” and when the rind isn’t touching the paste, that’s called a “slipcoat,” which is due to improper moisture levels.

I experienced a richness of tastes new to my experience with cheeses. She told me to take the cheese into my mouth and push it up against the roof of my mouth and at the back of my teeth. She told me to breathe in through my mouth just slightly, letting the air add new heights to the taste sensations.

The first cheese we tasted was a sheep milk Brebirousse D’Argental from France—so rich and buttery! Diana directed me to have a swallow of the J.P. Chenet Sparkling Rose she had poured and pointed out what I should be experiencing: floral on the front of the palate and savory, slightly animal on the back.

It was stunning.

The second cheese was called Midnight Moon from Holland. This gouda-like goat cheese was completely different in taste, texture and appearance but equally delicious. The third cheese was a stunning Guryere. A valuable sensory and informational experience.

Cheese tastings and wine and cheese parings are two of the many offerings at Valley Cheese and Wine, and Diana has special support.

Solenne Peyronnin, former owner of the store, has stayed on as the director of wine. This is a place where one can go to explore new tastes—in both wine and cheese.

But what can Diana do for a restaurant?

Diana’s knowledge is so broad and deep, she can direct a chef to hundreds of different cheeses as ingredients or for cheeseboards.

“For example, if a chef is thinking of using a light cheddar in a recipe, after spending time studying the entire menu, I might recommend several different cheeses that would bring a unique flavor to the dish and better complement what the chef is trying to achieve over all,” said Diana. “I can also provide training for waitstaff members on the individual cheeses in the cheeseboards so they can discuss them knowledgeably with customers.”

Diana has changed my life in relation to cheeses.

I’m always going to love a basic cheddar, but I can tell you I’m going to experiment and ask more questions at the cheese counter.

Diana Brier, Wine Director Valley Cheese and Wine 1570 W Horizon Ridge Pkwy #140, Henderson, NV 89012 702-341-8191 www.valleycheeseandwine.org www.lvfnbpro.com

Twinkle Toast

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

Khoury’s Fine Wine & Spirits

allowed in the shop, we were asked a lot for recommendations. In fact, there were many times our clients would put their faith in us to pick out their entire order for them. We had a lot of fun with that, being able to introduce new labels, varieties and styles to our customers.

Which varietals have been the most popular and why?

Cabernet Sauvignon, Red Blends and Chardonnay are still the king of wine sales; however, we have seen a huge increase in interest for organic, natural and orange wines. (Note: Orange wine is a type of white wine made by leaving the grape skins and seeds in contact with the juice, creating a deep orange-hued finished product.)

Photo credit: Erin Cooper Photography

What has been the most surprising buyer behavior during the Stay at Home Order?

Everyone seems to have turned into a bartender while at home. Items such as Campari, Vermouth, Bitters, Amaro and other fun ingredients have increased in sales with customers trying to recreate the bar experience at home.

Issa Khoury is no stranger to the wine business and his local retail shop, Khoury’s Fine Wine & Spirits, is about to celebrate its 16-year anniversary in September. Khoury’s is one of the few retailers who also provides customers with the opportunity to enjoy wines by the glass and craft beer on tap with a rotating seasonal menu that is sure to keep your palate refreshed and your mind intrigued.

We recently partnered with Khoury’s in promoting wine pairing kits featuring DIY pastries by Cookies & Cocktails, as well as DIY air plant terrariums by The Potted Turtle. In collaborating with local businesses, our hope was to introduce consumers to new wines while participating in fun and safe activities at home. We recently caught up with Khoury to discuss current consumer trends, as well as his perspective on what might lie ahead.

Why did you decide to open Khoury’s Fine Wine & Spirits?

I grew up working and spending a lot of time in my parents’ retail businesses in Northern Nevada. I moved to Las Vegas to study at UNLV and after graduating, I worked for one of the local liquor distributors.

While working at the distributor, I also studied to become a sommelier which helped open my eyes to all these great brands and styles that I felt got lost in the big retail shops. I believed there was an opportunity for a bottle shop to do well while focusing on these unique wines, specialty spirits and craft beers.

What has been the most exciting or interesting thing you’ve learned about your customers and your business since COVID-19 began impacting Nevada?

A pleasant surprise was the overwhelming amount of support we got from the local community. We had so many of our regulars, friends, and even people who have never been in our shop, reach out to place orders for delivery or curbside just because they wanted to support a local business.

As the Stay at Home Order has continued, have your customers become more adventurous with their wine selections or do they tend to purchase brands they are already familiar with? Why do you think that is?

At the beginning of the Stay at Home Order, when customers were not www.lvfnbpro.com

With many people taking their activities outdoors, what have recent consumer reactions been to canned wines and tetra packs?

Have they become more widely accepted?

Canned wines seem to be on the same sales path as screw-top wines were years ago. In theory, canned wines make a lot of sense, but consumers need to be educated on the benefits. Our sales for canned wines have not increased at the rate we had hoped, but over time I think they will, just as screw-top wines eventually did.

We noticed that you have been featuring pairing kits in connection with local businesses. What inspired these kits?

We would not be here if it wasn’t for the support of our community; therefore, we love teaming up with other local businesses and organizations to bring fun, creative experiences to our customers.

How has the consumer response been to the pairing kits?

Luckily, the response has been great! Some of the kits sell out almost as soon as we post them.

What has been your favorite pairing so far and why?

That’s a hard question to answer. We enjoy all the kits, and they each have a certain following amongst our clientele. I would say the Happy Ending Ice Cream Taco and Craft Beer Kit has been the one that customers ask us about the most.

What are some additional pairing kit ideas that you might be interested showcasing in the future?

We are always looking for new, creative ideas. We would love to offer more virtual tastings with winemakers, distillers and brewers. A collaboration with a local chef would be fun.

How can customers find out more information about Khoury's and the kits you offer?

We try to be very interactive using our social media outlets such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. We also send out emails updating customers on our weekly events.

Khoury’s Fine Wine and Spirits 9915 S Eastern #110 Las Vegas, NV 89183 702-435-9463 (WINE)

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 17

The RESTAURANT EXPERT How to Secure Your Restaurant’s Future

No matter what happens in the next weeks and months, the lesson I hope you take away from this industry crisis is that you can never go back to operating the way you were prior to the pandemic. That means if you were flying by the seat of your pants in any way such as using your gut to place orders and schedule your staff, it’s time to accept and adopt systems. This starts with the foundation to all restaurant systems.

What is the foundation of restaurant systems?

Checklists! Checklists allow you to impose your will without being in the restaurant. They set up your standards for your business, from cleanliness to service standards to product quality to line checks to passive and critical control points. They give the steps to make sure that food is safe, the portions are consistent.

They guide you in the prep list, scheduling and cutting labor. You can literally checklist everything.

Another reason to start with checklists is if you can't get a manager to use a checklist, what makes you think that they’re going to follow more involved systems such as inventory every Sunday night?

As an independent operator, if the first thing that came into your mind was, “We have checklists; I can't get anybody to use them.

They don't work,” I’m going to tell you right now, it's because your checklists suck. They're not detailed enough, and you're holding the wrong person accountable.

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.

For example, if you’re going to hold your management team accountable to those checklists, and they decide to let employees go home without doing that side work, then they must get it done themselves. You want to create a culture of close to open, that each manager has each other's back. Do that a few times and guess what—your managers are going to make sure those standards are met.

So, if you’re ready to move forward with establishing a strong foundation on which to build systems for a more stable and profitable restaurant, let’s get started with checklists. The best place to start is your opening and closing side work for every position. Your checklists should be so detailed that anybody could pick it up and do it. It’s not just “clean the bathroom,” but, “Make sure the bathroom is clean: the mirrors have no water spots, there's no standing water on the counter, wipe down the counter and throw away the paper towel, if the garbage pail is 50% filled, take it out and replace the liner.”

It is step-by-step instructions how you want it done, how well you want it done and by when.

Walk around your building with a pad of paper, write down everything that makes you mad, grab any old checklists, grab your new checklist and put it all together. From this point forward, use your checklists to set expectations for every part of operating the restaurant. This is especially useful as you have to implement new processes for cleanliness, delivery and togo orders.

18 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

Checklists are critical to your restaurant’s future because: • They set your standards.

• They allow you to impose your rule without being there.

• They implement accountability without being a micromanager or a frustrated owner.

Our industry is going through something it’s never gone through. You have opportunity.

Yes, your sales may not be as strong, but there will be less competition, which means it's an opportunity to be great. Don’t miss your opportunity!

www.lvfnbpro.com

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

Doing More with Less; It Requires Creativity It seems like these days most of us find that our work or business endeavors require us do more with much less. When it comes right down to it, this challenge is really about our ability to adapt. And, adaptation can result in a sense of accomplishment, spark creativity and contribute to a changed perspective. While doing those adaptive things without planning or notice can also be stressful, they can ultimately bring about the ingenuity and other skills that we seldom need when times are steady and constant.

As we adapt to our changing situation(s) and solve problems on a regular, ongoing basis, it is the perfect time for us to draw upon our creativity and resourcefulness. We might have to dig deep for those resources but with enough time and effort, we can find solutions for most of today’s new challenges and changing environment.

What might be some of those challenges that we could be facing these days when striving to do more with less?

• Managing a business with less resources, funds and choices.

• Working through changes in the way business must be done or operated.

• Maintaining and motivating your team/staff during challenging, worrisome times.

• Adjusting to the wants and needs of our customer base as well as our manpower.

• Keeping our passion, drive and motivation thriving in times of so much uncertainty.

In many places, we are already seeing originality and clever solutions to new issues or business requirements. Where possible, some restaurants are moving their dining options to outside or rooftop venues. Many

locations have moved heavily into marketing for carryout, pick-up and delivery when they had never really offered those options in the past. Changes in operations such as sanitation, social distancing and spacing, as well as product labeling for the guests’ protection are being implemented and applied. All of these ideas and more will require us to think outside the box and be creative in how we deliver business results to our bottom line.

A new way of considering the needs of our team is also in order. Flexible scheduling, consideration for family needs and school schedules and addressing the health concerns or fears of our staff is tantamount to everyone’s comfort and safety, as well as peace of mind. This time and process is going to make a deep and lasting impact on how we think about one another and force a new priority on the needs of others, as well as our own.

Now, we could spend our time in fear, frozen and rigid, or we can adapt, learn and grow from this experience. Maybe there is no silver lining to the situation we face but there are clearly many valuable and timely lessons to take away from all of this. In my mind, the most important lesson that we gain from this challenge is that we all need one other, must value relationships, and finally, will learn to embrace the importance of compassion and caring in a new and creative way. Maybe we’ll actually reinvent ourselves just a little bit and surprise the heck out of ourselves by finding out just how clever and creative we can be when the situation requires it! Bottom line, keep a stiff upper lip and relax. We WILL come through this endeavor smarter, more skillful and better people for it in the long run. It is my belief and faith that we can and are up to the task. Best wishes everyone!

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.

www.lvfnbpro.com

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 19

Product Review

By Bob Barnes

ReadyWise Long-term Food This Salt Lake City, UT-based company started off as one of the leaders of the emergency food storage industry and in 2020 rebranded and expanded into the outdoor industry, launching a line of freeze-dried and dehydrated camping meals through its Simple Kitchen line. Just launched in August, the range of products includes 19 options of fruit snacks, such as Sweet Apple, Mango and Cookie Dough Medley; and hearty meals like Cheesy Potato Soup, Creamy Cheddar Broccoli Soup and Hearty Veggie Chili Soup. I love the simplicity in the ingredients list. Some products contain only one ingredient, such as organic apples, strawberries or mangoes, while those that have more do not have unpronounceable, unrecognizable words or chemicals. Packaging in airtight mylar pouches includes prominently displayed descriptors (like vegetarian, gluten free, no sugar added and 100% real fruit) and many have fun, clever riddles related to the snack or meal on the bottom of each pouch. The snacks are ready-to-eat and the meals simply require water to prepare. Although there are “best by” dates extending two or three years, studies have proven that freeze-dried and dehydrated foods will last up to 25 years or even longer. Other advantages are freeze-dried and rehydrated foods maintain the original flavor, shape, color and texture; better retain nutritional value; are condensed, taking up less space; with all of the water extracted, are extremely lightweight; and when water is added, the food completely reconstitutes itself. While ideal for camping, outdoor treks and emergency food storage, after trying several I found them to be delicious and suitable for enjoying anytime. www.readywise.com

Adams Apple Butter Theresa Adams, creator of the Adams Apple Company, has vivid memories from her childhood of watching apple butter cook in a copper kettle on a family farm. She created her first recipe while in college, canning apple butter as Christmas gifts and twenty years and thousands of homemade jars later, she now offers her perfected award-winning apple butter recreated from her original recipe. I also have memories of enjoying apple butter as a child and after tasting this version it brought some nostalgia but seems to taste much better than I remember and is so good I found myself eating it straight out of the jar. Made in Lexington, SC, the ingredients are apples, sugar, apple juice, water, molasses, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, spices, pectic, salt and lemon juice concentrate; and it’s gluten free. Those looking to bestow this upon someone as an unexpected gift can select the ordering option to have it shipped in a gift box with a spoon. www.adamsappleco.com/product/adams-apple-butter

Flax4Life Gluten, Nut & Dairy Free Baked Goods These days lots of people are looking for healthful products that also have the advantage of being made without ingredients that are harmful to some. This Bellingham, WA-based company has been in business for 19 years and offers gluten-, nut- and dairy-free baked goods. After trying several of their offerings, and although I don’t need to eat gluten-free products, I must say, “who needs gluten” to make something taste great. The gluten substitute is flax and I honestly can’t taste the difference between these and those made with flour. Offerings include Dark Cherry Brownies, Cranberry Orange Granola, Carrot Cake, Wild Blueberry Muffins and several others. Plus, there’s the added bonus of the use of all-natural ingredients, Omega 3, and no preservatives, hydrogenated fat, cholesterol or trans fats. https://flax4life.net

Plant Junkie Gotta love the name of this line of condiments that are made in the US and are 100% plant-based, vegan and delicious. A variety of salad dressings and mayonnaise alternatives are offered, which are low carb and dairy-, egg-, soy-, nut- and gluten-free. After trying some I can say amen to their tagline that “choosing plant-based is anything but bland.” The line includes fun ingredients and flavors like Chia Ranch Dressing, Turmeric & Pepper Ranch Dressing, Avocado Oil Spread, Chipotle Lime Spread & Dressing and Thai Peanut Vinaigrette and are made with 100% avocado oil along with non-GMO canola oil that’s pressed, never chemically extracted. https://plantjunkie.com

20 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

www.lvfnbpro.com

By Chef Allen Asch

Chef Talk

Feel free to contact Chef Allen with ideas for comments or future articles at allenasch1@gmail.com.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

I hope everyone is doing well through this crisis. I’m writing this month’s article in August during the record-breaking heatwave and while it is so hot, one of the things I’ve been thinking about every day is ice cream. This led me to decide to write this month’s article, to give you the straight scoop on ice cream.

Ice cream dates back to the fifth century BC in ancient Greece and has been growing in popularity ever since. From the Greek Empire ice cream moved to China and in the 1300s Marco Polo brought ice cream to Europe. It then took 400 years to reach the United States. At the time in the United States, it was only enjoyed by well-to-do people. The first ice cream parlor in the United States was opened in New York in 1776. Of course, at that time, that part of the East Coast was the population center of the Continental States.

It took until the 1840s for ice cream to be made in a churn. Prior to this it was just two dairy ingredients that were poured into a container and left to freeze.

This early style of ice cream did not contain sweeteners but sometimes you would add vanilla flavoring to the dairy. When the churn was invented it stirred (whipped) the ice cream mixture, and while churning the mixture incorporated air, making the ice cream much lighter than it was at the time. The term overrun is used to measure the amount of air incorporated.

Since ice cream is sold by volume, the more air www.lvfnbpro.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.

the less cream. This, along with fat content, also accounts for some of the mouthfeel. Overrun on regular ice cream is 100%, which means 1-part air to 1-part dairy solution. In premium ice cream it has to be less than 50%, meaning 2 parts cream to 1 part air. The denser it is the slower it melts and more mouthfeel you will have. This is similar to when well marbled meat coats your tongue and mouth. Butterfat in standard ice cream has to be at least 10%, while premium ice cream is 15-25% fat.

In the 20th century ice cream varieties took off and new flavors, as well as serving methods, were created. The 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis helped create the waffle cone and 25 years later rocky road became the most popular flavor after vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.

In 1984 the United States declared July to be National Ice Cream Month, even though it is widely consumed throughout the year. The five top countries of per capita consumption are New Zealand, which consumes 7.5 gallons per person per year, followed by the United States with 5.5 gallons. Australia consumes 4.8 gallons per person and Finland and Sweden finish out the list with 3.8 gallons per person.

Vanilla is the most popular flavor and statistics say that it accounts for 87% of Americans’ ice cream in the freezer at any given time. Although vanilla is grown in many equatorial countries, most of the vanilla used to make ice cream comes from Madagascar or Indonesia. Not

surprisingly, California produces the most ice cream because of the many dairy farms that are there. It takes a lot of milk and/or cream to make ice cream. A cow produces About 6 gallons of milk a day, which equates to 2 gallons of ice cream. About 9% of all the milk produced in the United States is used to produce ice cream.

The ideal temperature to store, serve and eat ice cream is 8-10 degrees, although colder storage can be better. Some geographical areas add indigenous ingredients or regional specialty foods for flavor. In Maine they sometimes add lobster, while in Philadelphia they serve pizzaflavored and the Gilroy Garlic Festival is known for their garlic ice cream. To me the most unique flavors come out of Japan. Some flavors include octopus, shrimp, horsemeat and cow tongue.

A few odd facts about ice cream: To get rid of the ice cream headache you should put your tongue on the top of your mouth, which blocks the sensors from registering the sensation.

The ice cream sundae was invented in Wyoming when it was illegal to sell ice cream sodas on Sunday, so the shop owners created a new way to sell their ice cream.

If you work for Ben and Jerry’s you get to take home 3 pints a day.

It is time to try out the headache cure.

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 21

SoCal

By Ben Brown

| Foodie Biz |

Contact Ben at Ben@socalfnbpro.com or follow him @Foodie_Biz.

Photo Credit: Dog Haus Worldwide

As restaurants continue to struggle through the COVID-19 pandemic, some are nevertheless finding ways to give back to the communities who support them. Dog Haus, the fast-casual chain known for gourmet hot dogs, sausages, burgers and chicken sandwiches, is a poster child for this seemingly miraculous giving, donating $85,000 to No Kid Hungry in August.

Dog Haus has been an official partner with No Kid Hungry since January 2018. This $85,000 contribution is the second annual check the restaurant has written to the charity, which fights childhood hunger by providing meals for at-risk children. To date, Dog Haus’ donations have allowed No Kid Hungry to serve 1.2 million meals. “[This check] is larger than the one we wrote last year and we want to keep growing it,” said Andre Vener, Co-Founder and Partner of Dog Haus. Vener and his partners, Hagop Giragossian and Quasim Riaz, have faced no shortage of difficulties operating dozens of locations across the country amidst the pandemic, but feel strongly about the commitment they made to No Kid Hungry.

“There’re a lot of things during this time that are challenging for restaurants. We’ve made some hard decisions, but we are going to keep our word to help stop childhood hunger,” Vener said. “For us to not do our part when the kids need us most would be horrible. What it takes to sustain our business is our community supporting us. They are, so we have to do our part in giving back to the community. When we looked at line items

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.

for what to cut, not giving to the kids was not an option.”

The money raised for No Kid Hungry comes from Dog Haus’ Chef & Mixologist Collaboration Series, where the restaurant partners with famous chefs and mixologists to create limited-time menu items. $1 from each sale goes directly to No Kid Hungry. Past partners have included Chefs Adam Gertler, Anthony Sasso, Bert Agor Jr., Chris Oh, Eric Greenspan, Ilan Hall and Jessica Bograd, as well as celebrity mixologists Phil Wills, Mia Mastroianni and Lisamarie Joyce.

“We were shocked by turnout and quality of the chefs,” Vener said when discussing how he and his partners launched the Chef & Mixologist Collaboration Series. “These are Top Chef winners, Michelin starred chefs, celebrity chefs and mixologists. For us to work alongside some of these amazing chefs making hot dogs and sausages and burgers is ridiculous.”

Dog Haus and No Kid Hungry have been working together since 2015, with Dog Haus participating in the charity’s flagship Taste of the Nation events. They decided to make it official in 2018 as the brand scaled its operations nationwide and was on the hunt for a national charity partner.

“It’s the perfect partnership. My partners and I all have young children. We couldn’t think about our kids not knowing where their next meal would be. We’re proud of what they’re doing to be the solution to this problem,” Vener said.

Another factor that’s helped fuel Dog Haus’ charitable contributions is the rise of The Absolute Brands, a group of virtual restaurants

22 The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional I September 2020

created by Vener and his partners. Bad Mutha Clucka, Plant B, Bad-Ass Breakfast Burritos and Freiburger each operate out of ghost kitchens across the US and serve up many of Dog Haus’ specialties, some with novel twists. The company launched these brands at the onset of the COVID pandemic and they’ve proven exceptionally helpful as delivery has dominated the restaurant world over the past few months.

“We’d been planning these virtual brands for a while,” Vener said. “They were an ‘in case of emergency break glass’ kind of idea, and this was definitely an emergency.”

Monumental pivots have guided Vener’s career.

Originally running the California Philharmonic symphony, he took the leap into the restaurant world when he opened a fine dining jazz club concept in 2006. The 2008 recession led him to rethink where he wanted to be in the restaurant world, ultimately inspiring Dog Haus in 2010.

Additionally, in Southern California, where health and wellness is top-of-mind for so many consumers, launching a hot concept was a bold move.

“I grew up in Freiberg, Germany. Sausage is a part of our culture. The way we make a hot dog in Germany is not the way it’s done in the US. We wanted to create a clean hot dog the way we have them in Europe,” Vener said. “Our food is hormone free, antibiotic free, no added nitrates, a clean label… People are looking for good food to put into their body with high-quality ingredients.”

Vener expects Dog Haus to make an even larger donation to No Kid Hungry in 2021. www.lvfnbpro.com

By David Mulvihill

SoCal Craft He Said Wine. We Said Beer!

A California Perspective

David Mulvihill strives to experience and write about the ever-evolving face of SoCal craft beer. He also covers Orange County for Celebrator Beer News and provides business and compliance support to SoCal breweries. Contact him at david@socalcraftbeer.com.

Photo Credit: David Mulvihill

Inside before outside at Island Brewing.

Beer Vs Wine

First published in 2008, He Said Beer, She Said Wine was inspired by dinner pairing competitions that prominent Philadelphia-area sommelier Marnie Old and famed owner and founder of Dogfish Head craft brewery (Milton, DE) Sam Calagione have been holding for many years.

While inspired by the above title, and a wine vs. beer debate that has continued for longer than my first glass of wine or beer, my column this month focuses more on California’s COVID-19 business-related requirements, and how present restrictions might serve to favor one segment of the industry over another.

Restrictions at Hand

On July 13th, in an effort to further quell the spread, Governor Gavin Newsom, in conjunction with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), mandated that all CA ABC-licensed businesses with on-premises consumption of alcoholic beverages immediately discontinue all indoor operations. All-inclusive, it applied to wineries, breweries, distilleries, bars, restaurants, brewpubs and clubs and required them to cease indoor operations.

In addition, all breweries, distilleries, bars and clubs were directed to “…discontinue all outdoor operations, unless they operate a restaurant on the licensed premises (either by way of a bona fide eating place on the www.lvfnbpro.com

Outdoors at Artifex Brewing (sanitizer provided by Drift Distillery).

premises or through the use of a bona fide meal provider pursuant to prior Relief issued by the Department).”

Wineries were left out of the above additional imposed requirements. Yes, wineries can serve wine to patrons outdoors without having to meet any meal component requirement that all other licensees must comply with. CDPH and CA ABC guidance appears to be silent in addressing reasons why wineries remain free of these additional, cumbersome and costly restrictions.

In order to stay open for business, stand-alone breweries with tasting rooms must line-up meal providers or close sales for onsite consumption, its major economic lifeblood source.

The Wine Institute was quick to publish the following, on July 13th, in its message communicating Governor Newsom’s newly imposed restrictions: “Under the statewide directive, all winery tasting rooms in the state must move operations outdoors while continuing to follow the guidance for Restaurants, Bars, and Wineries. The order also requires restaurants and all other alcohol beverage licensees to serve a meal in order to serve alcohol for onsite consumption. The meal requirement does not apply to winery tasting rooms unless otherwise ordered by the county.”

The New Normal atop Pizza Port San Clemente.

Questions

While this reporter questions the meal requirement for any licensees (as long as outdoor and distancing requirements are met), the disparity of rules for one licensee or industry-type is more troubling. If restrictions are being imposed across-the-board for the common good, does it make sense to make allowances or draw up a separate set of rules for wine vs. beer? What is the difference between having a glass of wine outdoors (with proper distancing), or a glass of beer, or the beverage of your choice? Why does requiring someone to purchase food make it any safer?

What appears to be obvious disparate treatment definitely causes one to question.

Historic inequalities in the beverage industry have existed, likely in-part, to the strength of a particular industry lobby. One readily relatable example: CA CRV deposit is mandatory for every bottle of beer, but absent from bottles of wine or liquor.

In these days of COVID-19, the strength of a particular lobbyist’s influence on our State’s legislative powers should not be a factor that differentiates our common health goals.

Interesting fact: Our Governor Newsom is a founder and owner of PlumpJack Winery in Oakville (Napa), CA. He said wine. We said beer too!

September 2020 I The Las Vegas Food & Beverage Professional 23