Johnathan L. Wright’s top 5 stories of 2023
This past year marks my first full term since joining the Las Vegas Review-Journal in the spring of 2022. I’d always wanted the restaurant beat at the RJ — it’s one of the best food writing gigs in the country — and suddenly, here I was.
The culinary culture of the city hasn’t disappointed — it’s exciting and relentless and wonderfully diverse. The five stories I’ve chosen to mark the close of 2023 capture some of this energy and breadth. Thank you for reading, always, and here’s to the tasty in 2024.
Prominent pizzaiolo
Michael Vakneen, the owner and pizzaiolo of Double Zero Pie & Pub, opened his pizzeria in Chinatown in June. My profile of him was the best story I wrote, style-wise, in 2023. I think it conveys his passion for pizza, the sensuality of making dough, but also the complex science that underlies the right crust (which is a processing of becoming, endlessly deferred). Vegas is emerging as a top pizza town; Vakneen is helping lead the way.
F1 frustrations
The Formula One Grand Prix ranked among the most consequential events to arrive in years. And one consequence was the effect of F1 construction on restaurants in and around the area. Many, perhaps fearful of seeming insufficiently rah-rah about the race, would not speak on the record. But those who did spoke of plunging reservations and disrupted customer access and concerns about what next year would bring. Those worries should be addressed as the city plans for the 2024 race.
Loss of a Starbucks
Disclosure: I am not partial to the Starbucks hegemony. Or to its lingo. But Starbucks is important to many routines and neighborhoods — how important I learned when I covered the closing of a Summerlin Starbucks after 25 years. What I thought was a routine story instead generated immense online traffic, a dispute about the reason for the closing, a video, a follow-up story and a letter to the editor. What didn’t seem grande to me was clearly grande to lots of readers.
Welcome addition
Ah, the Strip. Famous chefs, haute design, lavish ingredients, cocktails that cost what lobster fetches elsewhere. Excess, indulgence, muchness: all essential to the flavor of the city. But for me, the most compelling Strip moment of 2023 was the quiet launch, just two days before F1 began, of LPM Restaurant & Bar in The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The whimsical, art-filled LPM, inspired by Jean Cocteau, offers the vibrant cooking of the South of France. It’s one of the top restaurant debuts this year.
Famed sandwiches
The southwest is the next food frontier in Vegas, as demonstrated by the news that All’Antico Vinaio, sometimes called the world’s best sandwich shop, is coming to the UnCommons development. The Mazzanti family, who founded the original All’Antico in Florence, Italy, could have opened on the Strip, but they chose the rising area. In 2024, look for sandwiches layering chewy Tuscan flatbread, sliced meats, Gorgonzola or creamy stracciatella, tomatoes or spicy eggplant, swipes of truffle or onion porcini cream, and perhaps a gust of basil or a jab of arugula to finish.
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram and @ItsJLW on X.