"las vegas restaurants" news and stories

There's been a lot more to Vegas than a good roll of the dice for a long time. But Sin City is nonstop, and the food you can find in between bouts at the blackjack table just keeps changing. Eater checked in with Vegas food writer John Curtas on what's new and noteworthy, and came up with a Heat Map of the best new joints that may make you forget you lost at craps. From Steve Wynn's new wine bar La Cave, to chef Michael Mina's American Fish (left), to Twist, an outpost of the French king of cuisine minceur Pierre Gagnaire, there's a lot that's hot in Vegas now. Yes, we'll always have showgirls (and boys).

The recession is wielding its ax on high-end dining in Sin City.

Celebrity chefs David Burke and Charlie Trotter are walking away from the Las Vegas restaurants that bear their names, Nation's Restaurant News reported.

Burke announced last week that he was ending his affiliation with the restaurant David Burke at The Venetian, a joint venture with Orlando-based E Brand Restaurants. E Brands chief executive Rashid Choufani said the recession was to blame for the split.

"Celebrity chefs in restaurants there today, with this economy, it's a little hard," he told NRN. "It was hurting our concept."

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Las Vegas has oversaturated its high-end restaurant scene, according to a prominent restaurateur.

Drew Nieporent, president of the Myriad Restaurant Group which owns Nobu, believes Las Vegas' new City Center development and its top restaurants may kill other eateries in this gaming town.

"Las Vegas is a fantastic place now for restaurants except it seems to me they've oversaturated," Nieporent tells Bloomberg. "This new City Center has approximately, I think it's close to two dozen new establishments, all pretty high end, and what that's going to is it's going to -- I think they'll do well because it's new -- but a lot of the other places in Las Vegas are going to feel the impact because they don't have the mass audience like we do in New York."

Nieporent says the current economic crisis hasn't affected New York's high-end dining scene too badly because "New York is 365 days of business."