Winter in Vegas ’24

by Jeff · March 6, 2024

We spent the winter in our home town of Las Vegas, arriving the last week of November and leaving on March 4th. It was a fun time, hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones. It did get cooler than when we spent the winter in Arizona last year and we definitely had more weather (rain, wind, dust storms).

The goal of most full time Rv’ers is to “chase 70 degrees”. We almost accomplished it this year with an average mean temperature of around 67. We had some rain and some impressive snow up in the mountains and we did have a few nights that dipped down around freezing, but nothing drastic.

Being Las Vegans it would have been wrong for us to not tour the new Casinos and eat at new restaurants (along with old favorites). We toured the new Fountainbleu and Durango casinos. We sampled the fare (new to us) at a number of restaurants around the valley and discovered some new favorites and visited some old ones. Places of note for this trip:

It’s Sushi, AYCE. Excellent service, Excellent Sashimi quality of fish, really cool birthday candle (think Roman) for the Big birthday bash with friends for E’s b-day.
The Broiler at Boulder Station Casino. Great steaks and accoutrements.
Cane’s, not new to us but worth a shout out. I feel qualified enough to say that there is no equal to their chicken. It outshines all of their rivals.
Luv it Custard. This is in the most questionable part of the north strip (panhandlers and nasty folks). Just ignore them and carry on ordering the BEST EVER custard and ask about custom flavors to go home with.
Craft Kitchen. Can you say custom food? Try the salmon, eggs benedict.
The Palette Tea Lounge is a craft Dim Sum restaurant.
And the best deal in town is at the South Point for $1.50 hot dogs, not new but not really known outside of the regulars. Think Costco regular dogs.
It’s Sweet is a wonderful coffee/snack shop in Chinatown that is open late, with hand crafted crepe cakes and other sweets along with nicely roasted coffee.
Grouchy Johns is a nice alternative to Starbucks in a bohemian, crafty, internet cafe sorta way. E has been going there with her art mentor and likes the atmosphere.
The Golden Tiki isn’t new to us or Vegas but is an awesome bar to go drinking in. It’s in Chinatown and near tons of great asian food places. This funky place is fun and cool, definitely get reservations for the weekend unless you want to sit at the bar.
Bob Taylor’s Ranch House is the oldest continuously run steakhouse in the valley (way out on the northwest). This kitshy restaurant is in the original ranch house and the decorations are mostly 50’s-60’s era western movies. Really good steaks and the best crab cakes I’ve had away from the coast.
In the mood for any type of asian foods? Take a drive up Spring Mountain toward Decatur and experience Chinatowns’ shopping and eateries.
Roma Deli is neither new to us or Vegas. Thisis an old iconic Italian deli/eatery that hosted many of the old stars. Now owned by poker players Todd Brunson and Max Pescatori, they keep the old recipes alive and still have a deli case.
Honorable mention goes out to Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner in the town of Yermo, California. We stop here on every drive through the area for whatever we are hungry for. They provide good food at decent prices for dine in or togo. A great little historic stop on old Route 66 as well as a fun stretch break from the Interstate.

The Fontainbleu is a gorgeous new property that we wish had a poker room because we would spend more time there. The Durango (no photo) is a typical Stations casino, packing fun into a small package for locals.

I spent some time in the desert surrounding town and then went to Quartzsite, Arizona for a break (read about it here https://bigfokkerdog.com/a-week-in-the-desert/ ).

When we hit town, I paced myself with playing some poker and did well playing some small buy-in tournaments around town.

IT seems that no matter how long we are at one place, it always leaves the impression of going way too fast. Have we seen everything and done everything we wanted to do this visit? Have we had enought time with friends? We always worry that we didn’t get quality time on this particular stop. But then we know we will be back, heck we own a house here, of course we will be back.

We are both looking forward to the next adventure. Bring it on South Dakota! I write this with visions of fishing high country waters and doing my best to entertain the tourists from the command deck of the jeeps in Custer State Park.

Til next time,