Always a treat to drop into the Aria in the City Center section of The Strip—the dazzling city-of-light glass towers there put me in a cool New York state of mind.  

Then there are the hotel’s signature restaurants like the gorgeously designed Lemongrass where the elegantly tasty Thai food includes standout dishes like the Eggplant Claypot, Black Pepper Shrimp and Drunken Noodle Seafood. 

In the lobby after dinner, we admired the floating cloud fixtures hanging from the ceiling—the eyes painted on them peacefully watched over everyone going about their business.

It’s hard not to start a love affair with Graze Kitchen + its imaginative plant-based creations. From the folks behind Firefly Tapas and Tacos & Beer, this fairly new eatery in the southwestern area of Vegas is part of the city’s dynamic + ever-growing vegan food scene.

The two appetizers we ordered were instant home-runs: the Firecracker Cauliflower (with panko breadcumbs + sweet & sour glaze) + the heaven-sent Crab Cakes (with cornmeal breadcrumb + remoulade sauce). Our entrees were a Cobb salad with deviled tofu, a taco salad + another with soba noodles—all dreamy + crunchy—plus the Graze Burger (quinoa-walnut patty on a toasted pretzel bun) served with fries.

We couldn’t leave without trying Graze’s carrot cake + a slice of their lemon blueberry cake—both were subtle + on-point. And the Moon Milk, with the lavender syrup + steamed oat milk, is a must-have.

The dishes at Graze are flavorful + creatively plated, and the eatery’s whimsical interior design perfectly complements the experience of dining here.

As testament to this city’s vegan movement, this past November marked the debut of the Vegas Vegan Culinary School. Founded by self-described “passionate animal welfare advocate” Heather Heath, it’s the city’s first vegan cooking school and, impressively, the first non-accredited vegan cooking school in America.

What these chefs are doing with plant-based food is uplifting and feels revolutionary. There will always be people flocking to the classic Vegas steak houses, but an eatery like Graze, to my mind, is a more interesting route to take.

Meanwhile, all eyes are on the upcoming opening (in late-May) of Crossroads Kitchen—the Vegas outpost of the acclaimed high-end L.A. vegan restaurant—at Resorts World.  Hopefully it will be another plant-based gem to fall in love with.

Everyone needs a Decompression Day, and I took mine this past Saturday. Got in the car, turned up Roxy Music’s “Stranded” album +  landed, just like that, at the newly reopened (4/28, after a two-year pandemic closure) Palms Casino Resort. It’s the first resort in Vegas now fully owned + operated by a Native American Tribe.

Soon after walking through the casino, I was poolside at the bar enjoying a specialty cocktail + the standout avocado toast, listening to a hot salsa band with warm desert breezes contributing to my lightness of being. It’s definitely a nice touch that the pool is available not only to guests, but to locals as well.

Add in the free parking + one of the most welcoming staffs I’ve seen at a Vegas hotel, and you know I’m rooting for this off-Strip property’s full-on comeback. Looking forward as well to the reopening (this summer, per the website) of its 2500-seat Pearl Concert Theater + the opening of the Shag Store art gallery, which will fittingly bring a little bit of “Palm” Springs to Vegas.

When the world gets on your case, there’s one dish I’d recommend to make things instantly right:  Portuguese Wok Fried Rice, courtesy of veteran Chef Lam at Chinglish Cantonese Wine Bar. It’s dreamy + velvety and more than lives up to its description on the menu: “Coconut milk custard with chicken and vegetables over a bed of egg fried rice. Brûléed under the broiler.” With smart + fun food like this, everything that was hassling you fades away.

It was also easy to fall under the spell of two appetizers we ordered there recently: the Poh Poh Chicken Dumplings (chicken, chive + mushroom) + the lightly breaded, crunchy + immediately addictive Green Beans Deep Fried.

Chinglish has a hip, stylish ambience, but at the same time there’s an appealing relaxed vibe. This is a family restaurant proudly run + owned by Chef Lam, his wife Anna, daughter Kitty + her husband Ken. (They also own the adjacent sister restaurant Kosher Chinglish.)

Chinglish definitely benefits from its Boca Park location in the Summerlin area where it stands out. And with other tempting menu items like the Braised Tofu with Shiitake Mushrooms and the Char Siu Lollipops (“slow roasted boneless pork shoulder basted in a honey glaze”), we’ll be back soon to try them, even when the world isn’t annoying us.

We headed last week to the newly remodeled Latin eatery Chica at the Venetian. I mean, how could we not go after receiving a $75 free credit via the Chica newsletter? It directed us to download the In Kind app + receive the 50 Eggs Hospitality Group Credit (this free-money special lasts through month’s end).

So with $75 to play with, we stepped into Chica’s visually playful interior  + jumped headlong into Chef Lorena Garcia’s magical menu with influences from Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Mexico,  Argentina + more Latin countries.

I was instantly seduced by an insanely great non-alcoholic drink— “Cranberry Fizz: Cranberry Cordial, Lemon, Egg White, Soda Water”—which set the tone for what was to come. We started with “Lorena’s Arepa Basket with Beet, Cilantro, Black Bean, Cheese, and Nata Butter.” From there, the hits kept coming—in the form of the “Spit-Roasted Peruvian Rotisserie Chicken Pollo a la Brasa Style, Plantains, Watercress, Aji Verde & Ají Amarillo Sauce,” which was full-on flavorful + succulent, and the two sides we ordered:  the “Wood Fire-Roasted Heirloom Carrots, with Avocado Yogurt, and Sunflower Seed Dukkah” plus the “Huancaina Mashed Potatoes.”

For food, ambience + service, Chica is hard to beat. To top it all off, the parking is free at the Venetian/Palazzo…which is something us Vegas locals take serious note of.

It’s definitely Taylor Tomlinson’s moment, and the packed audience at the Wynn’s Encore Theater in Las Vegas this past Saturday night showered the 28-year-old southern California comedian with non-stop love.

The star of two Netflix stand-up specials and intelligentsia coverage in the New York Times and Vulture has already been through life’s ringer, losing her mom to cancer when she was eight and riding the mental health roller coaster with depression, night terrors and panic attacks. Tomlinson’s shows offer insight and comfort, especially to folks who’ve been dealing with these issues. Taylor’s advice to herself and her audience is right there in the name of her current theater tour:  “Deal With It.”

She also resonates with her young audience who face the humiliation of being single in a cruel dating app world. Funny, too, to hear her lampoon the boredom that can creep into longtime marriages.

Tomlinson is smart, funny and commanding, hitting all her targets with rapid-fire precision. No guerrilla-style humor or political commentary here.  She’s an artist who aims to please, having sharpened her craft on the church comedy circuit (as part of her conservative Christian upbringing) before ascending to the national arena and “going dirty.”

Tomlinson is also fearless and vulnerable. From the moment she walks on stage, she masterfully gets you on her side. She is clearly pissed off, and you want to cheer her on as she works through her own issues. Because of her tight professionalism, you don’t get the sense that this sky’s-the-limit star is going to unravel in front of her audience. There’s this show to finish of course, and another one to do in another city.

YouTube screen grab from her current Netflix special, “Look At You”