Take a culinary tour in the city of sin – Las Vegas

Chef Natalie Young from EAT - Photo: Julie Miller
Chef Natalie Young from EAT - Photo: Julie Miller

MindFood meets chef Natalie Young of EAT, a neighbourhood café in Downtown Las Vegas.

Lounging on a bench outside her neighbourhood brunch joint, EAT, Natalie Young cuts a distinctive, very cool figure. Black, gay and tattooed, Natalie’s relocation to Las Vegas from Colorado 17 years ago was a far cry from the typical “fear and loathing” experience of Nevada’s neon playground.

“I came here to get sober, believe it or not!” she says. “I had a place where I knew I could get help, it just happened to be in Las Vegas.”

Chef Natalie Young from EAT – Photo: Julie Miller

As she began her recovery, so the talented young chef started to make waves in restaurants on The Strip, with stints at the Hard Rock Hotel, MGM Grand and the Eiffel Tower restaurant in the Paris casino. But just as she was planning on leaving, with dreams of opening her own restaurant in New Mexico, a chance encounter with Tony Hsieh changed her life.

“I didn’t decide to go out on my own, someone offered me this opportunity – Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappo’s, offered to open this restaurant for me,” she explains.

“It was his own personal money and I was the first one he invested in. He wrote me a cheque and financed the restaurant, and I paid him back in a year and three months.

“Back then this area was sketchy – super sketchy. This building (where EAT is located) was a Motel 6 – shadeeeeeee! It became more hip when I moved in,” Young says, guffawing at her own joke.

Young’s plan was to open a neighbourhood café, somewhere the community could gather to have breakfast, coffee and to chat.

“When I opened, people would walk down the street, look this way and that way – there was nothing. A couple of prostitutes, drunks and crackheads, that was it.

“The day I opened there were families on bicycles with kids, they walked from the neighbourhood – it was beautiful, and it’s been that way ever since.”

Today, Young owns two other restaurants: CHOW, a catering and events space on Fremont Street serving Chinese cuisine and fried chicken; and a new version of EAT in the outlying suburb of Summerlin. A fourth restaurant in an undisclosed location is also in the works.

But it’s the Downtown “mothership” that is closest to Young’s heart, partly because of the contribution she is making back to the community. Many of the staff at the restaurant are unprivileged kids from the neighbourhood, with a program to teach hospitality and employment skills.

“My thing was if ever made enough money I’d help kids, dogs and women, in that order,” Young says. “I teach them how to do basics, how to fill out an application, how to dress for a job interview, how to shake someone’s hand – basic skills that they don’t teach anymore.

“In Las Vegas we’re also lacking space for women to network, so I wanted to create a space where everyone could help each other and connect.”

As a trailblazer in the Downtown revolution, Young is excited by the current culinary scene in Las Vegas.

“I describe the Vegas food scene as interesting. It’s starting to become more artisanal. There are boutique restaurants opening in small neighbourhoods, and big-name chefs are starting to branch out and open small, independent restaurants. It’s pretty cool.”

EAT, 707 Carson (at 7th) Las Vegas.

My favourite restaurants:

Esther’s Kitchen: A new local spot Downtown serving Italian soul food. 1130 S. Casino Center Boulevard, Las Vegas. estherslv.com

North Italia: Modern Italian with seasonal ingredients. 1069 S. Rampart Boulevard, Las Vegas. northitaliarestaurant.com

Flock & Fowl: A restaurant honouring an Asian comfort food, Hainanese Chicken Rice. Two locations, one on The Strip, the other Downtown at 150 N. Las Vegas Boulevard. flockandfowl.com

Look out for the December issue of MiNDFOOD magazine and discover all that Las Vegas has to offer.

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