Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/641526
128 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM LIP SERVICE LIP SMA ING FOODIE TOURS TAKE THE GUESSWORK OUT OF THE LAS VEGAS CULINARY SCENE. With hundreds of restaurants on the Vegas Strip alone, fi nding one worthy of high praise is the kind of ambitious venture that can only be made easier with the help of an unbiased guide. Enter Lip Smacking Foodie Tours, a locally owned culinary tour operator founded by 32-year-old Donald Contursi in 2015. We joined Contursi, a restaurant- industry veteran, for one of his fi ve-stop Strip tours, traipsing from Bardot Brasserie and Sage inside Aria, to Estiatorio Milos and Jaleo inside Cosmopolitan, to Hexx inside Paris for small bites and cocktails (thankfully, the walking did its part to counteract the caloric intake). Just as eye-opening as the food— which ran the gamut from escargots and calamari to Spanish paella and bean- to-bar chocolate—was Contursi's commentary. How else would we know that Sage houses one of the largest absinthe collections in North America, or that Jaleo's open-fl ame paella pit comes complete with its own $1-million ventilation system for fi ltering out all that orangewood smoke? "All of these restaurants have something beautiful about them," Contursi muses. "I'm just the one who knows and gets to show other people." From $125. 888-681-4388; vegasfoodietour.com . PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF LIP SMACKING FOODIE TOURS (SOUP, ENDIVES, HEXX); BY SAID M (FLAMING GLASS); JESSE KUNERTH (SUGAR CUBE); MICHAEL NAGLE/BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES (STRIP) LIVING LAS VEGAS