Marc Marrone has spent much of his career feeding Las Vegas.
As a longtime executive chef for Tao Group Hospitality, he built menus for some of the city’s busiest and iconic restaurants and dayclubs. Today, he’s focused on feeding families through a different kind of destination.
The chef turned rancher recently opened Diamond Spur Butcher Shop & Deli with business partner Todd Lunger, bringing regeneratively raised meats, prepared foods and neighborhood market charm to southwest Las Vegas.
At the heart of the concept is a simple promise that customers should know exactly where their food comes from.
Marc Marrone
“We realized that the only way that I could confidently look you in the eye and tell you what’s in something is to do it ourselves and raise it,” Marrone says.
His path to ranching was unconventional. It began through a friend’s equine therapy program that paired rescued wild mustangs with veterans and first responders coping with PTSD. After completing the program himself, Marrone learned to train horses, acquired land to support rescue efforts and, through veteran rancher Cindy Tolle, found himself immersed in the world of cattle ranching.
What he discovered was a food system increasingly detached from the people it serves.
“Traceability is a word that’s being thrown around quite a lot lately,” Marrone says.
Today, through Evergreen Ranching, Marrone and his partners steward tens of thousands of acres across Arizona and South Dakota, where cattle roam open pasture rather than crowded feedlots. Their approach embraces regenerative ranching, a philosophy that views livestock not as industrial inputs but as participants in a larger ecological choreography.
“Regenerative ranching is using herd animals the way they’re supposed to be used,” Marrone says. “They free-graze, fertilize the land and help create a self-sustaining ecosystem.”
The result, Marrone says, is beef and other proteins raised without antibiotics or added hormones at prices often lower than those found at grocery stores.
Despite its lofty agricultural ideals, Diamond Spur remains refreshingly unpretentious. Inspired by the neighborhood markets Marrone grew up on in New York City’s Arthur Avenue, the shop is filled with vintage touches and playful details, from framed Las Vegas memorabilia and retro cowboy motifs to a decorative payphone with names of characters from The Sopranos on the call card.
Most tellingly, customers stream through the door and only weeks after opening, many are already greeted by name.
Ranch steak frites
The butcher case glistens with meticulously trimmed cuts of pasture-raised beef—ribeye marbled like topography, thick New York strips, briskets destined for low-and-slow transformation, and oxtails rich with possibility. Nearby, shelves of sauces and pantry provisions stand ready to complete the meal, while a refrigerated case overflows with house-made accompaniments designed to make dinner feel effortless.
Then there’s the deli, where culinary pedigree meets blue-collar comfort. Made-to-order steak frites, succulent meatball heroes, cheeseburgers and chicken Caesar Parmesan sandwiches emerge from the kitchen piping hot and ready to be devoured.
For Marrone, Diamond Spur is a true effort to reconnect people with the source of their food while making quality ingredients accessible to the community that has supported his career for decades.
DIAMOND SPUR BUTCHER SHOP & DELI 8241 S. Fort Apache Road #101, 702-763-3567, instagram.com/eatdiamondspur. Daily, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
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