First Friday foods
For this month's First Friday celebration, I took a walking tour around the Arts District looking to see what kind of good eats were available.
My first stop was a must-do when it comes to artistic comestibles downtown: Las Vegas Paper Doll.
Every First Friday, this awesome boutique features platters of incredible (but totally edible) cupcakes from Creations Bakery.
Past themes have included intricate snowmen and a riotous rampage of Easter bunnies. For August, summery-looking frosting tops appeared like little wildflower-strewn meadows.
Whatever the motif, Paper Doll's cupcakes are always crowd pleasers for First Friday goers over at Holsum Design Studios.
This completely cool store is one of our city's true new gems, even when there are no cute cupcakes. Check it out.
Las Vegas Paper Doll
231 W. Charleston Blvd., Suite 130
385-7892
Next I headed to the First Friday nexus of Casino Center
and Colorado Avenue. I first stopped off to chat with the cool, intelligent artist/teacher Andy Slocum at his kiosk. He doesn't serve up eats, rather very funny cards with cute animals in sinister situations and sly commentary on common sayings.
A number of Slocum's cartoons do, though, deal with food and eating -- often large anthropomorphic animals about to chomp on their tiny counterparts.
I think the notion of giant clothed cats sitting at a bistro table with rats underfoot is particularly funny. Cats certainly exceed the five second law when it comes to food on the floor, especially when it comes to succulent free range rodents.
I give a big shout out to Andy and his art. Definitely head to his website and laugh more.
Andy Slocum, artist
www.andyslocum.com
Back when I moved to Vegas close to two years ago, the Agave taco stand was a centerpiece of First Friday. I always thought the cooks shouting out "taco, taco, taco" and the sizzling grill was audibly colorful and aromatically enhanced the street scene. But Agave's been gone for months, so I could not enjoy one of their tasty "birria de chivo" or goat meat tacos.
I did, however, have a griddled lamb kofta kebab from the Wild Truffles stand. With a roll and yogurt/cucumber sauce it was $3.
Of course there was midway food to be had: kettle corn, hot dogs and the like.
There was also a barbecue stand (with a smoker) taking the shape of a large wooden cabin. Now that's rustic for downtown, even in old Vegas.
I noticed, too, that the district's sit down restaurants like Casa Don Juan and The Grill at Holsum were busy with art walk goers.
Whatever the future holds for First Friday, with its occasional internal turmoil, I truly hope street eating stays a part of the festivities for a long time.
Just bring back the chivo, man!
Note: Farewell to "Summer Wine"
In melancholy cultural news, song crafting genius Lee Hazelwood passed away last week in Henderson.
Catch this heady mix: Some Velvet Morning video