Party like it's 1957
In the recent weeks of fifty-year Sputnik sphere anniversary celebrations and sad doggie Laika revelations, I rocketed out to those remaining mid-century modern design sporting Vegas satellites – old downtown Henderson and Boulder City.
As ever, the best and usually only remaining beacons of yesteryear are displayed on restaurants, motels and old casinos. Of course some of these designs could be recent and faux, but that's okay when you're looking for classic kitsch or merely earnest or passable Space Age stylings.
Mondo Hendo
In old downtown Henderson there's
the (slightly and relatively) towering outcrop of the Eureka Casino. It's all Miami Beach art deco outside, in parts (but not in the inside). Across the street, new office and commercial buildings are holding true, as far as they can, to the art deco model.
Back on a side street there is a Chinese restaurant (have not eaten there) with a simple, pictographically-minded sign that I think is nearly sublime. It merely has a neon scrawl of “CHINESE” slanting upward to the right above a painted wok, lid and sidelong chopsticks. Below is more neon: a horizontal “FOOD” signifying glowing glass tube.
The sign is shielded by thick plexiglass (dulled by weather) plates, which is sad but understandable. I try to think back how that sign first looked free of its once pellucid but nonetheless obscuring cover. It was surely a
deeper red in the base coat. The sign could be three years- or thirty years-old. I'm not sure. Didn't ask. Who knows in this accelerated weathering Mojave sunshine? I like it anyway.
Flashing Bob
A drive into Boulder City provides a cavalcade of mid-century design. Some is slightly derelict – an Italian place in an old drive-in? (I'll go check this place out to see what's up now that I mention it
casually.) A number of old motels feature the post-war motif on their (NO) Vacancy signs.
Bob's All Family Diner has a large, white-bulb flashing chevron drawing diners to its tables. Or is it a slash mark enticing eaters? I stopped in for breakfast (no retro inside, sadly, but some early back lot BBQ smoking brisket smelled great).I enjoyed a a chile verde omelet. Nevada doesn't seem to be chile verde country in general, unlike not so far away New Mexico and Colorado, nor even abutting Arizona and close neighbor (when it's knowing) Utah.
Bob's chile verde was very good, if not actually more meaty than expected. Large chunks o' pork. It tasted nice with the tomatillo splurge in the sauce.
Bonus sighting
In the parking lot of the Railroad Pass casino/hotel I came across a giant metal sculpture of a longhorn steer/auroch looking beast. Truck plates were from Washington State. Movable art of movable meat moving down the road to some installation ...
*EV*EV*EV*
Inside patio eating
I stopped in to Rachel's Kitchen on Town Center in Summerlin for the second time.
The first occasion was for a rare weekday breakfast on the way to the office.
For this most recent visit I had a curry chicken salad sandwich with onion rings. I was a bit surprised at the slice of melted cheese on the sandwich (had not read the description), and it made it a richer bite, to be sure. After a tryptophanic turkey-fest the night before, the sweetness and very curried taste was a little more than my palate probably needed at the moment. But it was tasty as I think of it now in a more objective mode.
There's a side note on those onion rings ... there were only three. And you know what, this was the perfect amount. Often onion rings come in huge blooming portions, dripping of grease from soggy, puffed-out batter coatings. Rachel's Kitchen's allium hoops were tightly breaded and not greasy at all. With a stylish rectangular platter of ketchup nearby on the plate, they were a pretty, structural-looking fried complement. As I am seeking little fried food (not none, but not very much) in my eating, three rings made for a significant taste but not a gorging.
Rachel's Kitchen is cooking right.
(This blog was dredged in unbromated flour and fried in trans fatty acid-free oil to the strums of Pete Droge's “Skywatching.” A double dip: the Pixies' now crispy “Bossanova” fell into the vat, too. Death to the Pixies!)
Greg Thilmont is the editor of Ralston Flash. He can be contacted at [email protected]