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Thriving or Just
Surviving in Las Vegas- the "Sin City"- My Raw travel experience in Las Vegas by John Kohler
Amongst all the smoke filled casinos and gambling of Las Vegas,
Nevada, are some great raw resources..
For those of you that live in Las Vegas or the surrounding areas,
consider yourself lucky. One of the premier raw food cafe's is located in your
backyard -- (I wish I had it that good here!)
The Raw Truth, located at 3620 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas,
NV 89121 (702) 450-9007. They are open 9am until 9pm on Mon-Sat and 11am to 6pm
on Sunday.
I have visited about a dozen "raw" restaurants, and this
is by far my favorite restaurant/cafe in the world that serves all raw food. I have
visited the Raw Truth Cafe on two occasions when I was visiting Las Vegas for conventions.
The Cafe is on E. Flamingo Road which is about 4 miles from
"The Strip". One trip I had no rental car, but had my rollerblades, so I
rollerbladed there. It was a nice trip, but not for the faint, since the sidewalks
weren't too supportive of a rollerblader, and the Las Vegas drivers can be dangerous!
At current rates, a taxi ride one way from the strip would be about $15.00.
The last time I went to Vegas, I rented a car from Dollar rent-a-car at the
airport for $15.00 a day + the almost 20% tax, which I would say would be your best bet
getting around, since the city is very spread out.
At the Raw Truth, you walk in to a cafe with the kitchen in back,
which is blocked from view by a partition. The atmosphere is really laid back.
There are deli cases on the side that have the pre-made food for the day, and some
shelves with some fresh organic produce available. In the room to the right is more
cafe tables with books for sale as well as some supplements, herbs and related health
products.
Be sure to ask what the specials are, for the best and freshest food
which is made to order. They seem to sell out the pre-made items in the deli
cases, almost every day, so the items that are in there are probably from the morning or
at worst the day before. (Every time I went in there.. 4 consecutive nights, there was
different prepared food available) The refrigerated deli cases has the pre-made
food, best "to go" since they are quick and ready. I had many of the
deserts, which sold for $4.25, for a "pie" slice, which were excellent,
from carob tortes, fig tortes, apple pie and carrot cake, all were delicious. For
the main entree, I had the pizza, the lasanga, wild rice, which were also all excellent.
The Caesar Salad was also excellent to start the meal with.
The prices are decent. For the "entrees" they were
$7.95 for a nice portion. The Salad was $5.95, which was as much as a
"normal" salad, but some much time goes into the preparation of food, I feel its
well worth it! For two people, the cost varied from $25 - $40, depending
on how hungry we were, and if we took some crackers, cookies, brownies or bread back to
the hotel with us for later..
The owner Bob, came up to me on my first visit, and was very
friendly and sincere. He has also started a raw food support group that meets
in the cafe every Thursday at 6pm (call to make sure). If you can schedule
your trip to be there a Thursday, I would suggest it.. I would have loved to be
there on a Thursday, but on my last trip, I was there Sat through Wed..
Other points of interest to "survive" in Las Vegas I ran
across:
The following oriental market had young coconuts, which were .79
cents each, I bought several and they lasted 2 days in the hotel without refrigeration
Gee's Oriental Market 4109 West Sahara Ave., Las Vegas
(702) 362-5287
I always look for Trader Joe's whenever I travel.
They are a "unique grocery store"- they have fresh unpasturized carrot juice,
tangerine and orange juices, they also have some fresh fruits and veggies (some organic
- esp. cherry tomatoes, and pre-washed bagged lettuce), also organic dried fruits,
and some raw nuts.
Trader Joe's, 2101 S. Decatur Blvd. Las Vegas ,
at the northwest corner of O'Bannon, one block north of Sahara Ave., behind U. S. Bank.
(702) 367-0227 (open 9am-9pm 7 days)
Trader Joe's, 2716 Green Valley Parkway, Henderson
in the Green Valley Plaza, at the corner of Sunset, in the center with Blockbuster.
(702) 433-6773 (open 9am - 9pm, 7 days)
Of course the "chain health food store" - Wild oats.
I visited one of them, they had a fresh juice bar and organic produce.. all the
normal stuff..
Wild Oats, 7250 W. Lake Mead Blvd., Las Vegas, NV, 89128
Phone: 702-942-1500 Fax: 702-942-1507
Hours: Monday-Sunday 7:00a.m.-10:00p.m.
Wild Oats, 517 North Stephanie St., Henderson, NV, 89014
Phone: 702-458-9427 Fax: 702-458-9431
Hours: Monday-Sunday 7:00a.m.-10:00p.m.
Have fun and try to stay away from that aweful casino food! |
