It begins with the Beltway. The first iteration of the highway we now know as I-215 was completed in April 2003, which makes this 50-mile-long stretch of pavement only slightly younger than Olivia Rodrigo. At the time, it looked like a road to nowhere: If you drove the Beltway’s southwest leg, from I-15 to Flamingo, you’d encounter only a few scattered rows of residential and retail development, adrift in giant swaths of as-yet-undeveloped desert.
It took a while for the western Valley to crowd in around the 215, but today, southwest Las Vegas is booming. The southern portion of Summerlin filled out; Spring Valley and Enterprise built up. Driving the Beltway today, you see giant midrise apartment buildings, rows of tract homes and even a few mega-mansions carved out of rocky hilltops. You see several corporate headquarters, including those of UFC, Boyd Gaming and Switch. And you can easily spot many densely-packed dining and retail developments, and an IKEA the size of a fjord. All of this seemingly sprung up, fully formed, in just under a Rodrigo.
Southwest rising
“When I first moved out there 20 years ago, it was a pretty barren area,” says Clark County District F Commissioner Justin Jones, whose area of oversight includes a good portion of the southwest Valley. “But it was a popular place for people to move, and as they moved out here they wanted good places to eat, wanted good places to shop. That’s led to some really creative and innovative projects.”
And those projects are hitting now. Durango Casino & Resort, a luxe 200-room Station Casinos property, opens next month. Steps away is UnCommons, a live-work development filled with boutique retail and upscale dining spots both local and national. Coming next year, just north of IKEA, is the Bend, a dining and entertainment complex anchored by a 10-court pickleball center. UNLV’s 122-acre tech incubator, the Harry Reid Research and Technology Park, is now seeking tenants ranging from startups to film production companies. And Desert Breeze Park, just a bit outside of the southwest boom, is expanding to include an outdoor event space that can accommodate 10,000 to 15,000 people.
“It’s exciting to see the kind of development that you see in places like Tucson popping up in the southwest Valley,” Jones says, adding that he likes to think that he’s “living in the southwest of the Southwest.”
Aside from easy access and abundant land, it’s tough to conjecture exactly why the southwest is going off the way it is. (It’s also tough to say where the southwest begins and ends. For the sake of this roundup, let’s say it’s bordered by Flamingo Road to the north, Decatur Boulevard to the east, Blue Diamond Road to the south and Fort Apache Road to the west, though we may blur those lines a bit.)
But we can say this: When a part of your city sprouts some of its best dining, its biggest parks and its most unique retail spaces, attention must be paid. Join the Weekly as we hop the beltway and drive through the suburbs, exploring Vegas’ newest and hottest corner. –Geoff Carter
Lunch, dinner, drinks and dessert
The southwest Valley is home to some stars and some lesser-known gems for dining and drinking. Pull up to the raw bar at Other Mama (3655 S. Durango Drive #6) to enjoy fresh oysters, creative seafood dishes and craft cocktails. Just south at Sean Patrick’s (8255 W. Flamingo Road) drink specials and bar biteslike fish and chips, shepherd’s pie and drunken potato skins await. Next, Milpa (4226 S. Durango Drive #101) not only serves up healthy food featuring corn ground in-house; they also pour mean palomas and micheladas and have some of the tastiest coffee on this side of town.
Tamales at Milpa.
Continuing south, Giuseppe’s(6065 S. Durango Dr.) offers classics like stuffed banana hot peppers with Italian sausage, chicken parmigiana sliders and pastas, sandwiches, pizzas and a variety of Italian-American entrees in a sports bar setting. Taps & Barrels (6111 S. Buffalo Dr. #110) has dozens of self-serve craft beers, delectable charcuterie boards, butter boards and crispy, flavor-packed beerhouse wings. For a sweet break, try luxury confections from Crumbl Cookies(6255 S. Durango Dr.), particularly the peaches and cream or red velvet creations.
On the south side of the 215 beltway, neighborhood favorite Katsuya Ton Ton (7225 S. Durango Dr. #105) usually has people lining up out the door for crispy fried cutlets served with rice and tonkatsu sauce with sesame seeds. Across the street, Garlic Yuzu (7250 S. Durango Drive) presents New American-style food with a Far East twist. Prix fixe menus include sake-steamed Maine scallop with risotto, and 12-hour slow-cooked pork jowl with garlic puree and ube gnocchi.
At Jason James Pizza Bistro (8680 W. Warm Springs Road #100), fill up with pastrami pickle pizza, street corn dip, or their house bread made with coarse sea salt and olive oil–pure comfort in food form. Round out this southwest Valley excursion by hopping over to Beer Zombies (8680 W. Warm Springs Road # 170) for a 100% independent craft brew.
East of Durango, Good Morning Kitchen (5587 S. Rainbow Blvd.) serves up barbacoa benedicts and breakfast sandwiches worth the inevitable wait. Rainbow Boulevard brunch continues at Rosallie Le French Cafe (6090 S. Rainbow Blvd.), where sandwiches arrive on freshly baked sourdough, croissants come savory or sweet and the question of more quiche keeps customers shouting, “Oui, oui!” Steer the morning to Lemon Tree Cafe & Market (6111 S. Buffalo Drive #150) next and enjoy smoked Scottish salmon and queso fresco egg scrambles, or meet up later for a glass of wine and charcuterie.
For deep-fried fare, try Bonchon Korean Fried Chicken (6455 S. Rainbow Blvd. #101), world famous for its double-fried, audibly crunchy drumsticks, wings and strips, tossed in Bonchon’s signature sauces or the sweet and spicy yangnyeom flavor for an extra bit of yum factor. South of Bonchon, the Asian cuisine heats up with steamboats of flavor from Alleyway Hot Pot (7385 S. Rainbow Blvd. #120).
Basilico’s branzino.
Treat yourself to a bacon-wrapped Dirt Dog (8390 S. Rainbow Blvd. #100), smothered in toppings that range from cheddar sauce and chimichurri to pastrami and carne asada. Wash that ultimate hold-my-beer dog down with a brew from Scooter’s Pub (6200 S. Rainbow Blvd.), a tavern with a generous happy hour, round-the-clock games and your regular on draft. If you’re springing for something more date night, check out Basilico Ristorante Italiano (6111 S. Buffalo Drive #100), an upscale take on modern Italian headed by Francesco Di Caudo, a James Beard Award semifinalist chef bringing playful new dishes like the “smoked cigar” duck mousse roll to life.
All this cuisine calls for dessert and lucky for you, Creamberry (7965 S. Rainbow Blvd. #140) and Sorry, Not Sorry Creamery (9484 W. Flamingo Road #165) are both in the southwest. Creamberry’s famous cotton candy burrito, along with its rolled ice cream and color-popping puff waffles deserve all the praise, while Sorry, Not Sorry’s house-made ice cream, sourced from a 100-year-old dairy farm, comes in 16 flavors, including four seasonal options like the pumpkin spice cheesecake crumble and roasted fig, goat cheese and honey scoop. –Shannon Miller & Amber Sampson
Parks and recreation (and a little sports retail)
Southwest Vegas has a teeny bit of natural grandeur going on. The craggy Desert Hills loom impressively in the background when you visit the area’s parks, particularlyRed Ridge Park (9198 W. Arby Avenue), which boasts a disc golf course and mile-long walking trail; Mountain’s Edge Regional Park (8101 W. Mountains Edge Parkway), a sprawling paradise of picnic spots and sports fields; James Regional Sports Park (8400 W. Robindale Road), all soccer, all the time; and Mesa Park(5401 Mesa Park Drive), which accentuates the rocks with a huge, doggo-friendly expanse of green grass. And if you want to experience those hills up close, the Gypsum Ridge Trailhead (at West Wigwam Avenue and South Grand Canyon Drive) offers a spectacularly scenic walkabout.
At this time of year, however, you might prefer to glide through your life. The Las Vegas Ice Center (9295 W. Flamingo Road #130) provides ice for hockey, figure skating, fitness and good-old public skate sessions. (And their in-house bar and restaurant, Brooksy’s Bar and Grill, is ideal for those of us who prefer to watch others getting cross-checked.) The aforementioned Desert Breeze Park (8275 W. Spring Mountain Road) has a pair of regulation roller hockey rinks and a giant skatepark in close proximity. And while you enjoy these cool-weather activities, you can dream of the hot, sunny day in 2024 when Cowabunga Canyon Summerlin(7055 S. Fort Apache Road), the waterpark formerly known as Wet ‘n’ Wild, turns on the water to its slides and begins its long summer season.
The southwest is also home to some Valley-favorite sporting gear suppliers. Haynes Bowling Supply (5255 S. Decatur Blvd. #102), run by bowlers for bowlers, sells practically everything but the alley. Las Vegas Cyclery (10575 Discovery Drive) will set you up with a two-wheeled ride that’s ready to tackle the Red Rock Scenic Loop if you are. (They also have a large selection of E-bikes if you’re not much into rolling hills.) And true to its name, Gravity Sports(9775 W Russell Road #120) is a full-service skateboard and snowboard shop devoted to enabling you to slip gravity’s pull. –Geoff Carter
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