Culinary lineup for Life is Beautiful announced

Food is beautiful

The culinary lineup has been announced for the fifth annual Life is Beautiful Festival Sept. 22-24 in downtown Las Vegas. More than 40 restaurants, food trucks and other vendors will be positioned in four Culinary Villages throughout the festival’s footprint. Among high-end restaurants represented will be B&B Ristorante, Echo & Rig, Fleur, RM Seafood, Rx Boiler Room and STK. They’ll join local favorites including Buldogis Gourmet Hot Dogs, Cousins Maine Lobster, Nacho Daddy, Other Mama and Truffles N Bacon Cafe.

Leave your cash at home.

That’s the message the popular Sahara Avenue restaurant Flock & Fowl and its soon-to-open downtown sister spot, Flock & Fowl DTLV, will soon be sending customers. Co-owner Jenny Wong recently posted on Facebook that the restaurant’s going cashless, elaborating, “It will serve to provide our staff with maximum security, mitigate fraud so our managers can be worry-free, and we hope that you, your family and friends can look toward the future with us.” So far, the majority of the response online has been positive. How do you feel about a restaurant that doesn’t accept cash? Take our poll here.

New chef at Momofuku

Shaun King has taken over the kitchen at Momofuku at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. King has cooked locally at RM Seafood and SushiSamba. More recently, he worked for Mina Group.

Speaking of King, he was one of the chefs who took part in a promotional video shoot at Herbs & Rye on Tuesday (along with a live chicken) for the new Back of the House Brawl food truck competition series. King will compete with Ricardo Heredia of China Poblano in the first event Sept. 16 outside Sparrow + Wolf at 4480 Spring Mountain Road.

Leaving Las Vegas

Longtime Las Vegas chefs Joe and Megan Romano are leaving town. Joe, corporate vice president of food and beverage for Golden Entertainment, and pastry chef Megan moved to Las Vegas to open Aureole at Mandalay Bay in 1999. Megan went on to open the popular west valley bakery Chocolate and Spice, which she later sold. The couple, who run a consulting business, will relocate with their family to Bozeman, Montana, where they’ll open two restaurants.

Openings

Robert Irvin’s Public House at Tropicana is set to open at noon Thursday.

Sightings

NBA players Kevin Durant, Matt Barnes, DeAndre Jordan and former player Marcus Camby, plus Luke Hemmings of 5 Seconds of Summer, at Tao at The Venetian.

Have an item for Kitchen Confidante? Email Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or Al Mancini at amancini@reviewournal.com.