Vegan in Vegas

It's time for my annual ALA conference post. This year ALA was in Vegas. Yes, Vegas. Many people were conflicted. Many didn't go because of where it was located. I had mixed feelings but was looking forward to it because I love kitsch. I'll write more about my other experiences and feelings about Vegas, but this one post is about the food.

I was a little nervous about being a vegan in Vegas but various things I had read made me feel better, like the blog Eating Vegan in Vegas. What made me nervous, though, was that most things I read were about places off the Strip and knowing how busy I would be during the day, going off-Strip would be impossible. Without a car or knowing anyone in Vegas (and this was the first ALA where I didn't actually know anyone in the city it was held), going off-Strip would be difficult.

I had a routine: Breakfast was trail mix and Trader Joe's cookies I had brought with me. Lunch was either stopping at the Johnny Rockets in Bally's (they have a vegan burger, but you need to ask them not to butter the bun) on the way to the Monorail or grabbing a salad at Starbucks. Dinner, well that was different.

I did grab dinner at the Brooklyn Bowl my first night. I was waiting to see a band (more on that later) and had a roasted veggie sandwich that was pretty great. And I had dessert before the sandwich when I grabbed a vegan red velvet cupcake at Sprinkles (and I bought their last one on my way home to have for breakfast in the morning).

Vegan Red Velvet in Vegas, from Sprinkles. 

I had one goal: Go to the Wynn Resorts. Steven Wynn, the owner, is a vegan. Because of this all of his restaurants have a significant vegan menu, and all the servers know what it means to be vegan. The buffet has vegan options, room service has vegan options, and when you call the info line about restaurants, the person on the other end of the phone is pretty knowledgeable.

I know Vegas is a food mecca. I know they have celebrity chefs. I wanted one night of good food. I wanted one night of pure food enjoyment. And I knew that would be at the Wynn. My goal was one night. I ended up going two. And despite some of the issues I had with Vegas in general (more on that later), these two night of food were worth it. Seriously. This food was that kind of once-in-a-lifetime kind of food.

Normally when I go to ALA Annual, I set aside a certain amount of money to buy something, usually a pair of shoes or some such thing. This time, every penny of that extra money went to food. And I don't regret any of it. These weren't cheap meals, but I learned that by Vegas standards, these prices were pretty normal.

Night one: Wazuzu. 
I met a former colleague and some of her coworkers for dinner. After lots of back and forth, we settled on Wazuzu in Encore at Wynne Resorts for no reason other than... well, because. I ordered the Vegan Drunken Noodles with crispy tofu because it looked good. Afterwards I found out the chicken drunken noodles was Giada de Laurentiss' Best Thing I ever Ate (with chopsticks). Was it good? Oh My God, Yes. For dessert I had the Vegan Brownie Sundae. I normally don't like chocolate on chocolate because it is too rich. And because vegan chocolate is dark chocolate, it can be a bit much. This wasn't. This was chocolate sorbet on a brownie and it was much lighter than I had suspected. I figured this was my one food indulgence.

Vegan Drunken Noodles at Encore Wynn, Las Vegas. I got three stars spicy.
There was nothing bad about this. It was wonderful

Vegan Chocolate Brownie Sundae

Night Two: Botero
I ended up back at the Wynn Resort the next night. My friend C had won a big fancy award and she wanted to celebrate. She's a vegetarian and pretty much wanted what I had had at Wazuzu. I was all for a second trip to Wynn/Encore. We decided we'd make the rounds of all the restaurants and choose one. I was leaning towards Red 8 or the buffet. I know that may sound odd, but as a vegan, I don't often get the chance to belly up to a buffet and I wanted to experience the whole Vegas buffet indulgence. We had settled on Red 8 but while walking to the restaurant, we wandered past Botero at Encore. Botero is is fine dining (Wazuzu and Red 8 are casual dining) and had a vegan tasting menu. It was a five course meal, and based on what I spent the night before, the price seemed reasonable. Plus, we were celebrating. And... as a vegan (and as a vegetarian before that), I'd never experienced a multi-course, fine-dining meal in a restaurant. Shortly after we sat down the sommelier asked if we had any questions (we decided to stick with mixed drinks and beer). Ramon, our server was awesome. He swapped our utensils after every course (and at least once I asked C which fork I was supposed to use) and cleaned all the crumbs from our table after every course. Other lovely touches: There was vegan bread and vegan butter and everyone knew without me telling them that I was vegan and it was just so goddamn good. (Actually, they accidentally brought regular butter and had non-vegan bread mixed in with the vegan. They took away the non-vegan butter and I told them to leave the bread as C would eat the non-vegan bread. But they asked multiple times if I was okay with having vegan and non-vegan mixed. It was just nice to have people understand all the intricacies.)

This one of of those meals that I will never forget. This wasn't a meal, this was an experience. This was one of the best things I have ever eaten. I will dream about it. I would return to Vegas just to eat it again. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Pink drinks to celebrate. This was a Paris Martini or some such thing.
Cranberry, vodka, and a other stuff. 

Amuse-Bouche. Heirloom tomato with olive oil and micro basil.
So simple and so good. 

Course 1: Gazpacho. I think this had a fancier name.
I don't care because it was yummy. 

Course 2: Salad of heirloom tomatoes, grilled peaches, croutons, greens.
Light, flavorful, wonderful. 

Course 3: Rice pasta with an avocado sauce with roasted vegetables. And micro basil.
I didn't think I would ever like rice pasta, but it was really great and the sauce had a
silkiness to it that I didn't expect. 

Course 4: Crusted tofu loin over ratatouille and broccolini. With micro basil.
I loved this. I mean loved it. Every bite was amazing. The crust on the tofu was just right.
The ratatouille was full of veggies. Just wonderful. It was about this time that I told Ramon
that this was one of the best meals of my life.  

Course 5: Chocolate mouse with a hazelnut crust with whipped cream and raspberry compote
with micro basil. Again, I often find chocolate deserts too rich. This was perfection.
This was the perfect combination of chocolate and salt and crunch and sweet.
I will dream about this desert. I will crave this desert forever and ever. 

By this time C and I were stuffed. We'd each had one mixed drink, at least one beer (I had a Belgian beer served in a cognac glass), and a huge meal. This is when Ramon brought us a sampler of their sorbet, compliments of the chef. I had coconut, C had mango. I'm guessing the chef brought these because I was so excited about the meal in general and I couldn't shut up about how much I loved the food. 

Thing is, I still can't shut up about the food.



**And just to add to the picture, I was wearing an old black tshirt, a skirt I bought at Kohl's on sale for about $5 and a pair of grungy Keane's with frilly socks. C was wearing a wrap dress she'd found on sale at Penny's and Danskos. Basically, we looked like tired librarians at a conference.