The Show is UP: FOODIE FIGHT!

We don't do live interviews much on the Saturday show because they're a pain to arrange, but this week they sure did make the episode pop. Al Mancini and I had a really fun and respectful scrum, as had hoped, and Ric Guerrero from Slidin' Thru did something that's never happened before: He broke news in the Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week. Anyhow, a good time was had by all, and now it's your turn. Find the show in the feeds for iTunes or Zune (that's free, fyi) or can click on the date below to get it to play or right-click on it to download it to listen at your leisure.

Dec. 5: Foodie Fight Three Ways...
...with Franck Savoy, Al Mancini & Ric Guerrero

By now everybody who listens to this program, reads Steve’s blog or enjoys eating out on the Strip must know about all the controversy kicked up over this little book that recently came out that names the 50 quote-unquote essential restaurants in Las Vegas. Steve had some issues, so on this show he’s invited co-author and food critic Al Mancini into the LVRocks.Com studio to hash it out on the air, live. Before we get to that, though, Steve interviewed Franck Savoy, the 31-year-old son of Guy Savoy who was just named director of restaurants at Caesars Palace. Savoy dishes about growing up in Paris as the son of the famed chef, what’s really happening at rumor-riddled Bradley Ogden and, of course, what his fast-food guilty pleasures are. And, in a special INTERVIEW edition of the Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week, Ric Guerrero of Slidin Thru breaks some news.

In Banter: The mayor's Ferris wheel, Ruffin's Starbucks, Wynn's expo center, Rhumbar's kangaroos, Frank Marino's blood drive and other absurdities.

Links to Stuff Discussed:

Franck Savoy’s ascendancy at Caesars Palace
Steve’s Las Vegas Weekly column on the book “Eating Las Vegas”
The Slidin Thru website
VegasHappensHere.Com on Slidin’ Thru’s new brick-and-mortar store
VegasHappensHere.Com on the Bradley Ogden drama
Steve Wynn is engaged, per Robin Leach and Norm Clarke
Steve’s LA Times piece on the topless shows in Vegas
Vote for us for the Trippies
The Eating Las Vegas book site
Al Mancini’s blog, The Second Deadly Sin
The Rhumbar, Sea World and the kangaroo
News about Susan Anton in Menopause, Bobby Slayton at Hooters and Boys II Men at Flamingo
Singer Tommy Held’s website
Frank Marino’s blood drive and why Frank can’t give blood

Slidin' Thru Goes Un-Mobile

Apparently a hazard of inviting a very competitive fellow journalist into the studio as a guest of my show for a debate about his book is that said fellow journalist would go ahead and scoop me in the blogosphere on a breaking news item that occurred on the show. Then again, the show was heard live by many via the Web as we recorded it, I did Tweet about this and I could have blogged it sooner if I hadn't been on a deadline for The Daily Beast. But why quibble when "Eating Las Vegas" co-author Al Mancini turned out to be such a good sport about being routed in our scrum over his book?

Anyhow, the scoop. Well, I invited Ric Guerrero from the gourmet food truck Slidin' Thru to join us by phone for an interview edition of our Top Secret Tourist Tip of the Week because (a) we were wall-to-wall food this episode and (b) guest co-host Amy is a Slidin' Thru fan who got me into it. Basically, it's a truck -- now they have two, Guerrero revealed -- that pops up all over town in parking lots serving up really tasty, fairly cheap little burgers, as you see here from Amy and my visit.

Now, however, Slidin' Thru is adding a brick-and-mortar location. Al and I each asked variations (mine clean, his with the requisite "fuck") of the question as to why they'd do that and doesn't that take the cool, discovery, adventurous factor out of the whole enterprise? Ric, sensing opportunities and predicting perhaps several of these proper stores, was undeterred, as you'll hear when I get a chance to post the show.

Anyhow, the first Slidin' Thru restaurant is not quite up and running, but their chefs are in the kitchen at 955 Grier Road just south of McCarran Airport and are serving the burgers now in a bar called Poker Paradise embedded in a commercial plaza. And to confirm it, Amy and I scootched out there after the show to see for ourselves.

The menu and prices -- 2 for $5, 3 for $7, I think 5 for $9 -- is the same, see:


The bartender said they're serving the burgers from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. daily, FYI. Here's our food:


We each had a Captain's Order (roma tomato, arugula, bacon, feta, sautéed onion, balsamic reduction), I ordered a Barby (melted cheddar, caramelized jalapeño, fried onion strip, bacon, BBQ sauce) and a Mystery Burger and Amy ordered a Yaya (lettuce, tomato, red onion, feta, tzatziki, red wine vinaigrette). Sadly, Amy ate my Mystery Burger by accident so we're not real sure what it was. Oops.

We ate at the dingy bar...


...which we're quite sure violated the utterly unenforced Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act, which prohibits food service in places where people smoke and vice versa. Slidin' Thru plans to have a proper restaurant open immediately next door by New Year's. This is what it looks like today, pre-renovation:


So that was fun. And while we were there, the other truck "came in," providing this unique image:


The whole show should be up tomorrow. I've got a couple other deadlines AND the in-laws in town. I'll do my best. God forbid Mancini heard the first segment when I spilled beans on scoops I got from Phil Ruffin, Oscar Goodman and Steve Wynn...