Speaker A
[Music] one of our roles here has always been to take away excess money from people who don't know what to do with it we can't think of a better idea about how to spend their money in the old days the
Anthony Bourdain explores Las Vegas's excess, its high-end luxury dining, its hidden local dive-bar culture, and the city's complicated relationship with the desert.
Key Takeaways
- Las Vegas is a city built on excess, and it both attracts and profits from people who overspend.
- The authentic local culture of Vegas exists alongside its glamorous image, often in overlooked neighborhoods and dive bars.
- Luxury dining in Vegas can be extraordinary but raises questions about guilt, class, and consumption.
- The city's rapid growth carries real environmental and ethical costs, particularly regarding water and desert land.
What the video covers
- Bourdain opens by framing Las Vegas as a place that takes excess money from visitors, a city built on spectacle and commercial indulgence.
- The episode contrasts the glittering Strip with the gritty local side of Vegas, including dive bars like the Huntridge Tavern where long-time residents drink away the strain of the city.
- Locals are portrayed as cynical and weary after decades of watching visitors behave badly, yet many feel comfortable and at home in the city.
- A segment on the high-roller world features elite suites reserved for 'whales,' with celebrity chef Bobby Flay and others discussing the rise and luxury of Vegas dining.
- Bourdain and companions indulge in extravagant caviar and truffle dishes at Caesar's Palace, then openly wrestle with guilt over such excess.
- The episode examines the history of Vegas, from its mob-era roots and the Rat Pack to its transformation into a family-friendly and corporate entertainment hub.
- Bourdain reflects on gambling, addiction, and the personal stories of people who moved to Vegas to escape their pasts.
- Later segments showcase the city's diverse immigrant food scene, including Thai and Asian cuisine away from the famous celebrity restaurants.
- The closing portion addresses the environmental cost of Vegas, including its water usage and the loss of desert habitat, and the city's xeriscaping efforts.
Chapters
- 00:00Excess Money and the Vegas Mindset
- 03:12Desert Life and the Making of Sin City
- 05:45Local Dive Bars and the Residents' View
- 08:38High Rollers and Luxury Suites
- 11:30Caviar, Guilt, and Fine Dining
- 16:40Vegas History, Mob Roots, and Entertainment
- 25:00Immigrant Food Scene and Local Eateries
- 35:00Water, Desert Preservation, and the City's Future
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
mechanism for doing that was you throw it on a table put that into the context of throwing away a bottle of seven up in a club that's only just slightly more honest about it if you're talking crass commercialism in
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the very best sense of the word this is it is it the cultural center of the country we may not want to think it is but but is it what is the rest of the country i don't know but it's that place where they all
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leave and come here [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i can go to the desert but i am not going to get there by accident and that's part of the whole experience of the desert is that you know it ain't
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friendly and eight nights it ain't good you know you're out here you know a half a mile it doesn't matter if you're a half a mile out or you're 20 miles out there's no reason to walk a mile further
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you're already in an infinite desolation sin city was true it was real part of moving out here was you were never going to see the family again i mean that was this i'm moving to vegas and you ain't coming
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to see me and i ain't coming to see you i mean that's the character of the city it really was the you know the pit of the of america it wasn't that somebody came out here because i'm gonna make a million bucks
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it was i'm gonna come out here and i'm gonna survive and you all ain't gonna bug me anymore back home in vegas there's winners and losers and god knows i've been both in a place like this where you can lose
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your shirt on the unlucky turn of a card you need a friend and for my sins i got rulemen currently evading prosecution in just about every jurisdiction from his hometown cleveland to grand forks wanted for bail jumping usury misuse of
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livestock assault grand theft auto also the respected author of such food-related classics as the french laundry cookbook and soul of a chef he washed up in vegas at just the right time vegas was always the most unlikely of
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dreams the longest of long shots in the middle of the desert a real but imaginary space that keeps expanding creeping ever larger across the wasteland back in the 40s the 50s it was a small town a hundred thousand became three
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hundred thousand became five hundred thousand then a million then two but it doesn't matter if it was five years ago or fifty the town has always ended like this [Music] an abrupt cut and the desert rats on the
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horizon [Music] but there are comfortable dark places too for a man can have a drink meet like-minded sophisticators of the open west places like this [Music] [Music] it's the good stuff that's jameson black yeah [Music] you can do 30 of those huntridge tavern
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where those who have to live it see it the things that men do day after day night after night in a town where people are encouraged to do their worst where they can drink the stain away this is the side of vegas i like
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this side yeah because people here are like really cynical really they have a dim world view even more dim than me that's hard you know what this whole show's about do you know there's a theme no this is about people who live here
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you know when all the meatheads come and go they're still here these people have seen every variety of horrifying human behavior so i mean the whole business bottle has come to vegas and behave really really badly i think it's encouraged people to be
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even worse but they're expected to do that kind of makes my skin crawl really not here here i like it i'm comfortable here even in my basement is this an easy time to make a living or a hard time to make a living
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depends on what you do 25 years behind the bar and you see some if you were born and bred here she's third generation third generation are you an optimist or a pessimist do you think that basically the human race are good people
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i'd say roughly half of them sounds half we're going half we're going there are probably more knuckleheads per square foot in the in the vegas strip than anywhere in america i'm not hanging with those people man there will be a few a few high-end meals
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during our adventure here we will be sampling the other side but there's a but there's a price there's always a price with you [Music] there are places in vegas where the available rooms are not listed on any websites places reserved for the
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whales the high rollers the 10 million a night gamblers who arrive by private plane [Music] bobby flay probably lives like this all the time [Music] yeah it could it could go dark couldn't it could get very dark here
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i honestly never thought it would have come to this well it was dunking fries 14 years ago so you have uh you've made some uh steps up it makes me feel about i feel better about all of this luxury looking back at
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that yeah you deserve this you're right you're i deserve this and through my golden years era they don't show this in the viagra commercials you know they're always running on a beach with a tennis racket they never sit in here
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you know go ahead and kill some young people you'd be like throw another poor person in there it's getting cold to victory woman victory in our time [Music] you always try to comfort yourself in situations like this thinking
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oh i'm sure they're you know people who are really really wealthy you know they're probably really miserable they don't know the sort of ups and downs the happiness the the contrast the passion that i have but we don't know do we
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right like maybe every day is like wonderful gentleman just to welcome you [Music] foreign delicious perfect perfect [Music] the hayden villa at caesar's palace a little pad they give you if your credit line runs into the eight figures
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how did i get it i told the casino that wolf blitzer was coming that he was expected any minute i suggested that wolfe might be hungry and they sent up gi savoir fortunately he doesn't watch a lot of television
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and i plan to live large till they figure out that wolf ain't coming i'll deal with the fallout later but for now we live so gentlemen this dish is called the colors of caviar everything is in layers on the bottom of the glass you're going
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to find a caviar vinaigrette topped with a cream of caviar then top with a puree of french green beans with caviar then a canal of golden ocean caviar and we feel finishing the dish with a caviar ah beautiful look at that
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it's rare that i say it's too beautiful to eat i was just thinking oh speaking of fantastically luxurious so miss you this is a specialty of mr savoir the artichoke soup with fresh black truffle and shavings of aged parmesan cheese
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oh man that's truffle [Music] so this year this is the mommy it's a combination of pheasant wild crab duck seared foie gras cabbage and wild mushrooms please enjoy wow look at this that is beautiful you feel guilty eating this well i do
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you do i do i'm feeling guilty now but it will pass i'll follow you then wow you ever even seen anything like that [Music] i don't think i've ever seen anything anywhere yeah me either and the thing is you can see the main
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pool from the window here you can see the hoi polloi i was thinking about inviting them all up to our credit don't you dare do that for a party no hey don't they deserve a good time [Music] i don't know maybe not it's not gonna
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happen we're getting back to guilt do you feel uh enlightened and inspired by these people what are you asking what are you getting at here you're trying to get at something try to make myself feel better i mean i'm
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trying to try to prove that i'm down with the people man i'm just still i'm still cool this guilt this guilt keeps coming back you keep bringing up the goal you're right i feel guilty don't do these shows what are you doing
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here if you feel so guilty about it i don't i don't i feel guilty about not feeling guilty that's more to the point now [Music] right [Music] it's so easy to say i came out here because it's a line of opportunity well
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that's really great you know but if you're not here why else are you here it's a good old wreck your life you know scenario that's always pretty popular but you can change your mind about wrecking your life now what do i do
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there's a lot less self-reflection about why people are here than there is about most other places what a lost opportunity that is sinatra and the mob are gone but there remains still a certain sentimental attachment to the way things used to be
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there were rules then a way that things were done and when they weren't done there was always the desert and a hole in the ground also there were lounges and rug joints and places where a man could get a proper
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plate of italian-american meatballs at spaghett's thankfully there still are such places places like this the bootlegger it's a family operation mama maria's family has been running it for 41 years you got your veal palm your fettuccine alfredo your steaks and shrimps
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don't forget the iceberg wedge with the blue cheese which believe me you want good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to the bootlegger [Applause] thank you very much this is charlie shafer my esteemed father my name is laura schaefer and uh we're
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your entertainment for the [Music] the evening if i could only make him understand all that surely would the bootlegger has a reputation for being a locals joint and it is but there's a lot of out-of-towners too sentimental fools like me
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who if they don't exactly miss frank sinatra definitely miss dino and louis prima and keely smith when i was 19 i got my first show on the strip and it was a small casino which is not there anymore now it's been imploded for
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something newer bigger and better what i do anyway it's part jazz part nostalgia but i mean obviously i do it with a heavy dose of nostalgia because i'm recreating the whole look not just singing the old songs it's just
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what makes it fun for me [Music] when you left you broke my pick one dean martin or frank sinatra you get to see one of them live in a small room like this uh frank sinatra going with dino
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i like dino as a person better because i've never heard anybody say anything bad about him whereas sinatra you'd have a hard time hearing something good there does seem to be a soundtrack to old vegas a soundtrack upon check-in right yeah
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yeah yeah does that help move me or yeah an affection for the classics an expectation that while i'm here i should hear some standards i don't know if there's a certain place that people stay who are sentimental about las vegas
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because there are very few hotels left that were there in the old days they've all been imploded they've recreated ancient rome sort of on the malthea coast in paris you would think somebody would want to recreate vegas i'd go there
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i'd work there yeah every hour [Music] [Applause] thank you very much [Music] you know you used to be able to go see louis prima 3 a.m have breakfast and then go out and watch an atomic bomb explode in the
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distance i mean that sounds like a good time i would like to live here was it better before is it better now it's better to talk about before people loved having their mob stories and there's that weird uh
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romance of bad people yeah uh i don't think it actually was better i think it was really good if you were sinatra penn gillette another cog in the entertainment machine though at a somewhat more elevated level of the live acts left in vegas
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his might be the biggest draw i suggested this place because raku off the strip is where every chef i know who knows this town said i should go the japanese modern izakaya known as one of the best places
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to eat in vegas casual but pricey pricey because the ingredients many from around the world there's sea urchin from santa barbara okay that's not too far but but good the tuna is from spain where it's best the fresh river crab
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from japan that was good right yeah delicious i didn't even know oysters came that big oh yeah isaki sashimi isaki belly juicy deep fried chicken hamachi and one of my favorites fish collar where all the best tastiest moistest meatiest bits hide
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their favors pen has been living here and performing here for over 20 years he knows the thing about magic is you cannot see it electronically many people come to vegas are people that see one or two live shows a year and if you
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see one or two live shows you might as well see something that you can only see live right you can never ever see a magician anyway but live these days for better or worse live acts live performers are being squeezed out in favor of edm
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electronic dance music it's a dj's world and where once they used to say cocaine was god's way of telling you you had too much money now maybe edm is we get invited to all the openings of the new clubs but
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i simply don't understand it and i'm embarrassed i don't understand are we just old i think that might be are we non-douchey i don't know you want to spin at the ladder i'm afraid it might be the former
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used to be a whole spectrum of entertainers who existed almost entirely in vegas danny ganz was huge here wayne newton they were gods but what's the big money draw now this come ye lords and princelings of douchedom hear my clarion call anointeth thyself
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with gel and heavenly body spray maketh the sign of the devil horns with thine hands let there be high fiving and the hugging of many bros for this is the kingdom and the power [Music] now frolic and maketh it to reign the
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cockpit power it is man it's crazy just press a button and people respond they do man wednesday night at the marquee dj jason lima works for the house tonight at marquis and other clubs like it around vegas somewhere between 8
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and ten thousand people are going to stop by and drop a whole load of cash i mean it's not just coming in here and ordering a bottle and sitting there drinking it right you're getting a full-on group experience
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the new money the new vegas where the take at the big nightclubs is outpacing the take from gambling and slots for everybody for the right price and with enough sparkles and the right mix can be a winner after you finish work how long does it
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take for your adrenaline 11 at least an hour what are your dreams like man i'm not gonna lie sometimes i close my eyes and i still see the strokes here's a ring [Music] i still got like flashes of strawberries
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[Music] [Music] las vegas is an adult playland and that's what we intend to be if people want to see mickey mouse it can go 175 miles down the road and if they want to see bugsy siegel under a rock they
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they stay here is there a mr vegas like elvis or wayne newton or bugsy siegel used to be if there is it would probably be this guy former mayor oscar goodman a man who knows allegedly and to the best of my
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knowledge where all the bodies are buried some of them equally allegedly by some of his former clients we meet over drinks at oscars the steakhouse that bears his name and boasts beef booze and broads you had some colorful uh clients who was
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nice and who was less fun to have uh well the truth of the matter is all my clients were nice to me because i kept him out of prison did uh alleged mom guys know how to eat my mother used to say two things she
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said she's the greatest lady she said oscar's clients don't hurt anybody they just kill each other right and she also said oscar's clients take us to the best restaurants they knew where they're good they knew where to go yeah i know i know he's
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treated right i mean they were always treated like kings and queens did the feds so hold it against you i mean you know you were just doing your job but i mean you didn't see it that way they didn't
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see it they thought i was a consigliere as a matter of fact in order to murder somebody they had to get my permission i mean that's how stupid these people were anthony the aunt bellatro meyer lansky these were gentlemen not unknown to
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mayor goodman well a lot of people tell you that there's a better place when the mob is running it and in many ways that's true there there were rules then that mattered you know the old saying what happened to vegas stays in vegas
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back when the mob ran things there was a certain urgency to that suggestion well we saw that with princess harry i mean uh right i mean that was a perfect example i mean here's a guy who was here
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having a good time in the old vegas that would have never happened there would never have been a disclosure uh in today's modern age it was all over the world in moments moments yes it says something about the
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town that his honor served three terms as mayor he's an unabashed booster entrepreneur drinker of hard liquor and gambler and he was never shy about admitting it that i mean it's unique it's it's it's own sort of environment so that's what
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vegas is vegas is unique but i'll tell you one thing you go to the airport here everybody's smiling when they come in they're smiling they can't wait to lose their money then when they leave they're smiling after they lost their money so i think
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it's very very special it's a special kind of place that people can take their bases instincts and just let it let it fly i think that's good i have no problem with that at all [Music] when you come to vegas you see this the
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lights and smoke and mirrors the casino floors but who manages the machine where did they come from beneath the floors behind the walls above the winking surveillance camera lenses a whole other world manned by thousands and thousands of
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waiters maintenance people repairmen chefs engineers plumbers and croup gays three shifts a day they slip in and out of the casinos almost unseen through their own entrances but it's these people who've seen it all seen everything night after night
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benny's been working here since caesar's opened in august of 1966. he's dealt cards to everybody i dealt with diana ross harry browner fountain sinatra and david sinatra was not supposed to be a particularly um amiable at the table sinatra was
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class really it was class it was a jungle but those are good days but it's nice now too would you describe yourself as a degenerate gambler yeah i definitely have been i'm trying to move past that we have a two-year-old at home
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so i'm working in that phase but i'll always have that gambling gear there's no doubt about it eric and erica lindgren are professional gamblers poker players to be precise it's routine for them to sit down to a game with a bankroll of half a million
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dollars tonight slightly smaller stakes hey benny what how do you like my chances that's a trained answer instead of actual poker we're set up with a dumb down for the camera version of texas hold'em you play against the
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house the odds to say the least are stacked against you oh he is a winner he is a winner yeah two pair he's cutting up over there see how easy it is you got this game down uh-oh that was a
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famous last words all right let's put out a hundo let's see what happens all right now we have a past sevens i want to bet okay i have trips that's gonna be pretty hard to beat you're a dead man benny i'm a dead man
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again okay two pair pair of juices two pair pair of tins oh no kings fatty house goodness benny ah you got a full house this is unbelievable is there like a cooler standing behind us all right well that works for me thank
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you very much what we call a learning experience in my case that was fun we got away with our shirts let's not do it again it's easy to find people that will help you untangle a mess but somebody's got
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to be the one to create the mess in the first place that calls for untangling where's our metaphor here easy to tangle but untangling this this is going to be so much fun anthony bondi is an artist and a born and bred las vegas
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native after many adventures and i'm guessing some misadventures as well he chose to live here you know to what degree am i complicit in the worst of our city by making art that glorifies the city i don't profit directly from
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what those people do but of course i do because i live in the city and just that money rolls all around this but how do we live with it it's not what why and where the people come from who do the
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grotesque things people do here it's how do we live here complicit in it and that's the big issue is to be able to be self-reflective about the place or or you got to just go and stay high all
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the time because because of the shame i mean you know which is another popular way to deal with living here [Music] is vegas a friendly town yeah always friendly because that's our job but i mean to itself to you know
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oh that's right you're a local uh no no not a bit this town's never had any respect whatsoever for the people who just happened to live here in the old days you know we were co-conspirators in those days we weren't
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citizens the new authorities the new power is exactly as anonymous as the old power no phone number no access not a chance there has been for some years an art community in vegas you know like art that makes your life
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all our lives better and makes us think granted vegas is a town designed to make you not think to separate you from your money in as pleasurable away as possible so pleasurable that even after you limp out of town leaking from your ass
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with nothing in your pockets you want to come back and do it again reflection not so good as a resident what are the general rules of survival don't cry about being broke i mean if i'm broke more than likely
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it's because i threw away about money and and too bad for me because i didn't get lucky don't worry about being broke okay it's well it's a smile that's that is that is absolutely local characteristic this is a service
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industry town one of our roles here has always been to take away excess money from people who don't know what to do with it who can't think of a better idea about how to spend their money we'll always take it
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is that worse than before or that the the wrong is there there are people with that kind of income who could put it to so many thrilling uses and can think of nothing so crass and boring than to wave the money in the air
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and throw it away how losa and but within us within those of us who live there's that challenge and this has always been here we are [Music] you are sitting in lotus of cyan best thai restaurant in vegas by far one of the best thai
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restaurants in america jet tila has been here before an la guy he came out here to do four years as executive chef at encore a win casino on the strip he's a reigning authority on thai food but really everybody who
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loves thai food knows about this place what you should order here should only be northern if you go to the back of the menu it says northern specialties if you come here and eat chicken with cashew nuts and drink a noodle so much a punch in
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the face right it's one of those restaurants saipin chutama is the owner and chef now get this and it's important you don't do pad thai here you do what they are uniquely superb at which is specifically the food of northern thailand
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[Music] oh yeah yeah yeah of course i love it literal translation chili dip it's really more of like a composed room temperature salad nam khao tod is a puffed crispy rice salad with preserved pork sausage well that's good
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jackfruit salad jackfruit salad yeah this is a pork oh yeah curry braised down with garlic and ginger this pork is amazing isn't that great and that's northern love right very important dish whoa that looks really pretty this is khao soi
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this is the the food my grandma made that's perfection man what i love about vegas asian food is on one street you've got the best szechuan food the best cantonese food and you drive down the street you get
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the best thai food it's a funky awesome how did that happen gambling but i mean whether they're high rollers and come into town and they need the two a dude with a two to ten million dollar credit line and win
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what is going to go eat a ten dollar chinese meal because it's the closest thing he has to to home food i'm gonna go eat asian food i'm gonna come back i'm gonna drop five million more bucks and then go home
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[Music] and this is what avenger cooking is people think that we want to do things in a way because we want to be cool no we do it because we believe we are increasing the value of the product we
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are working with we are giving you the essence [Music] e by jose andres tonight three seats tucked away in the back of another of jose's restaurants haleo behind the guys making paella over open flame in the center of a crowded
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dining room quiet serene a kind of magic this is granted a far cry from the one dollar shrimp cocktail in the all-you-can-eat buffets groaning under the weight of a thousand carbs iberico ham and bean soup with black and
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roasted garlic come on baby the world's best like from espain nitro almond cup a frozen shell made from a puree of marcona almonds filled with almond milk espuma and finished with andalusian caviar you know chef this meal is working very
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well my palate is open i'm intrigued i'm only growing more hungry and excited the desired effect is taking hold if you are a famous chef and you're lured as so many are to the rivers of green promised by vegas it's nice if you can
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get yourself a playroom so gentlemen this is elvermutz mussels olives with an excavation foam he doesn't use the word foam i will say air air water goes all over the place it's a mess a chef cannot do anything with this
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air give us the opportunity all of a sudden water is no water anymore water has a body belongs [Music] the truffle egg a delay of truffles formed into an egg shape with an actual yolk suspended in the center and this is the idea of
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what if we will be feeding our chickens truffles will their eggs become like this served with onion puree it has a bottle cream and finished with more lots more shaved white truffle this is crispy chicken skin in escobache i'm
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sliding this off right into my face incredible so gentlemen this is your portion of the salt roasted foie gras and brian's gonna come finish it with a clementine sauce for you and light is key light and flavorful gentlemen this is your next course
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cocoa's all peel peel this squid into sauce yep awesome this is or the secret it's the secret cut of the iberian pig located underneath the front shoulder this is an homage of the goodness of the sea means the
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goodness of the earth you know the work that goes into creating a menu like this hold on that we put the work doesn't mean it's good when the food crits they come and they say the chef was not there and i look at the food
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critics saying this almost like a lack of respect who do you think these people are where do you think they come from what do you think their careers are every one of those amazing thousands of chefs sous chefs that we have across the
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world they are as good if not better than the guys that have the big name on top with neon litter [Music] there is not one acre of preserved mojave desert in the city limits of las vegas why would you preserve this this
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desolation is not nurturing we can't be here unless there's a lot of technology supporting our presence and so you know there's a sense of the city versus nature this is not our friend you'd think looking at the vast lakes
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the canals the fountains of vegas in the middle of a desert the flush of a hundred thousand toilets that the casinos and what they bring would constitute an obscene waste of water and indeed water is at an ever more
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desperate premium as the water levels in the colorado river reservoir at lake mead decrease at an alarming rate but it ain't the casinos that are the culprits in fact vegas casinos are a model of water efficiency and conservation
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main culprit the all-american lawn a little square of green robert kern is water police he patrols the vegas streets looking for evidence of water violations there's finally some water in the gutter actually on both sides this is not their day
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we're in an area where there shouldn't be any watering yet there's water here so that's what we do we drive around looking for something like that to give them a little educational visit hey you're not supposed to water
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today so you don't wrestle up to the ground cuff them and drag them in no we do not although we can go to a fee right how much eighty dollars eighty dollars what about that then it doubles 160 320. it just
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keeps going yeah it seems to me a losing battle to try to keep your grass green do you really need a lawn in the first place well every most everyone lives here came from the midwest or the east
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coast and it was all lush and green and that's what vegas was 20 years ago it was lush and green sure the city assigns watering days to control usage and also encourages xeriscaping a landscaping style focused on drought-resistant plants
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and efficient irrigation and if you don't get with the program there's a hole out there in the desert for you dad okay not really you get like a notice pin to your door or something but some people they want the lawn
Speaker A
gotta have it and they can have it just don't water on the wrong day how critical is it very i mean there's no snow on the western sierra so we don't get any continued flow into colorado dumping into lake mead right
Speaker A
so unless something drastically changes which there is no foreseeable relief in the near future but got to stay positive for the first 30 40 years of the development of a town you just couldn't conceive of what was ahead
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what we had whatever was you know the newest thing that was happening was so spectacular and wonderful and oh my gosh we've reached a new eastern edge or western northern edge if the odds are slim to zero that we're
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going to extend to yet a further horizon it was inconceivable so there's the thing so what does the desert do it exceeds our ambition in vegas nothing is permanent it constantly eats itself tears down builds up expands according to no known
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or easily understood plan an organic thing responding to the dark dreams of the american subconscious come frolic live like caesar or make money off those who do drop a few moist bills in a gas station slot see the full spectrum of human folly and
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commit some follies of your own [Music] [Music] [Music] you
Topics:Anthony BourdainLas VegasParts Unknownfood travelgambling culturehigh rollersCaesar's Palacelocal culturedesert environmentdocumentary
