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Eater
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
Restaurants to Try This Weekend in Las Vegas — May 16
It's the most pressing question of the weekend: 'Where should I eat?' Here, Eater editors issue tried and true recommendations for places to check out this weekend. For late-night conversation: Peppermill and Fireside Lounge The Peppermill and Fireside Lounge is certifiably a classic — the James Beard Foundation even named it one of its 2024 America's Classics Award winners. More than 53 years after opening on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip, it still delivers all the neon-soaked, maximalist-diner charm: faux cherry blossom trees, cords of purple light, and generous plates of French toast ambrosia buried under fruit cocktail. Stop by for gravy-smothered Southern-fried steak at dinner, or swing through on the weekend in the wee hours for fishbowl cocktails and a round of appetizers. While the Peppermill proper draws the crowds, its adjacent Fireside Lounge tends to fly under the radar — which, thankfully, usually means no wait. On a recent weekend, I lucked out with open seating in the sunken conversation pit, wrapped around a glowing fire-and-water feature that's pure '70s Vegas. Drinks are gleefully oversized and over-garnished — like a chocolate-banana spin on a mudslide or an icy strawberry daiquiri. The lounge menu sticks to appetizers, but the sampler platter — coconut shrimp, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, and bruschetta — could have fed the whole pit. 2985 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas, NV 89109. — Janna Karel, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest For mid-morning Mediterranean fare: Cafe Landwer More than 100 years after starting as a small coffee roasting facility in Berlin, Germany in 1919, Cafe Landwer has expanded to Las Vegas. In a bright and airy space in the Boca Park shopping center, Cafe Landwer does coffee and casual Mediterranean food to impressive effect. I often like to cowork with friends at a restaurant or coffee shop once or twice during the week. A recent visit to Cafe Landwer was just right for a deadline-addled midweek change of scenery. I ordered a Belgian waffle that came as a platter heaping with thick waffles, bowls of Nutella and fresh whipped cream, and sliced strawberries and bananas. On repeat visits — ideally on slow and sleepy weekend mornings — I will again order the mezze platter. Four incredibly soft and fluffy pita pockets come poised for dipping and spreading with pleasantly earthy hummus, smoky baba ghanoush, tangy matbucha, and cool labneh sprinkled with za'atar spices. Warm spring days call if icy mint yes, the Dubai chocolate trend lives here too — croissants half-dipped in glossy chocolate, filled with pistachio cream and scattered with crispy shards of feuilletine. 8704 West Charleston Boulevard, Suite 101, Las Vegas, NV 89117. — Janna Karel, editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest For an easy Italian-inflected brunch without the need for a reservation: Brezza What exactly is Brezza? For the evenings, it's kind of an Italian-style steakhouse with a full line of wood-grilled proteins, but during the day, the Resorts World restaurant becomes a reasonable pizza-and-pasta spot with snacky salumi boards, chopped salad, and a burger. And yet, it's typically not very busy, which means the restaurant works as a solid brunch destination without the need for a reservation. On a visit earlier this year, we took down a few of its Roman pinsa-style pizzas that are great for sharing, topped with sausage and pepperonata peppers or prosciutto and ricotta. Lumache bolognese would've been more soporific if we didn't wash down lunch with ample iced tea and Diet Cokes, but this hearty meat pasta was quite delicious. The best part is that brunch is simply unfussy, which is always the best way to approach the weekend meal at a time when too many of them are over-the-top. 3000 South Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89109. — Matthew Kang, lead editor, Eater Southern California/Southwest Sign up for our newsletter.
Los Angeles Times
03-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Kevin Bacon is having a devil of a good time with ‘The Bondsman'
Kevin Bacon certainly knows a thing or two about catching hell. In 'Footloose,' the 1984 movie that catapulted him to stardom, Bacon played a rebellious Chicago youth named Ren who moves to a small town and clashes with a strict religious leader who has banned dancing and rock music. In 'The Bondsman,' now streaming on Prime Video, Hub Halloran, his latest character, has a different dilemma. The crusty bounty hunter was murdered during an attempted bust, but is resurrected by Satan and given a new assignment: tracking down demons who have escaped from Hell. Bacon is having a devil of a good time playing him. He was sold after horror mogul Jason Blum, who is an executive producer, sent him the pilot script flavored with generous doses of gore, Southern-fried dark humor and foul language. 'As soon as I read it, I texted him and said 'I'm in,' ' said Bacon during a video interview last week from New York. 'The voice and tone of this world was something I felt was unusual and had not seen before.' The veteran actor has seen a lot during his decades-long career as one of Hollywood's most respected and prolific actors. His voluminous resume spans cinematic touchstones ('A Few Good Men,' 'JFK,' 'Apollo 13,'), cult favorites ('Wild Things'), comedies ('Diner,' 'Crazy Stupid Love') and horror ('MaXXXine,' 'Flatliners' and the original 'Friday the 13th'). The series is the latest indication that though he is closing in on the big 7-0, the 66-year-old Bacon is not slowing down any time soon. In addition to 'The Bondsman' and a slate of future endeavors, there's his Instagram where his 4.5 million followers catch witty, musical clips of him and his actor wife, Kyra Sedgwick, and other family members. One recent reel showed Bacon and Sedgwick enjoying a night on the town in Manhattan. 'OK, so why are we here?' Sedgewick asks. Bacon replies, 'OK, I know a lot of the time it's about me, me, me. But here we are in Times Square, it's date night, we're going to go to the theater. So, honey, tonight, it's all about you.' The camera then zooms in on a massive billboard promoting 'The Bondsman.' Over the decades, his relentless drive has continually propelled him to new heights. When asked how he would define his career at this juncture, Bacon winced a little bit, saying it isn't something he does too often. 'I'm just trying to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving. If I'm not creating something or being creative, it's hard for me to know what to do with myself,' he said. 'I'm doing it because I love to do it and I want the opportunity to do more. I would just say, 'The Bondsman' is another chapter, another fun gig and another chance to work in the shoes of someone different than me.' And Hub is markedly different. Besides puzzling over his deal with the devil, he's also trying to repair his strained relationship with his ex-wife, aspiring country singer Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles) and his teen son Cade (Maxwell Jenkins). Meanwhile, Maryanne's new beau Lucky (Damon Herriman) is trying to kill him. 'Hub is the hero, but he's a very flawed person,' he said. 'He's got serious blood on his hands and he's made a lot of mistakes. The thing that's fun and funny about him is that all this weird stuff is happening to him, but he's strangely not freaking out about it the way I would.' The role extends Bacon's extensive gallery of playing good guys that aren't really all that good. In his last TV vehicle, Showtime's 'City on a Hill,' he portrayed cocky FBI investigator Jackie Rohr, who operated on the right side of the law, but had a prominent dark side — engaging in corruption, snorting coke and cheating on his wife. 'I don't think I've ever played a straight-up good guy,' Bacon said. 'I'm a character actor, not really a leading man. Is Hub good or bad? I don't know. I hope people like him. To stick with the show, you have to understand his predicament. He's got demons flying around inside him, and demons flying around on the ceiling. The show is also about redemption.' His commitment to 'The Bondsman' extends beyond the starring role. Bacon's also an executive producer, and he and Nettles, who is the lead singer in the country music duo Sugarland, wrote and recorded songs for 'The Bondsman'- adjacent album, 'Hell and Back,' out Friday. Showrunner and executive producer Erik Oleson called 'The Bondsman' 'a bizarre, goofy show that has family dramedy, country music and Kevin Bacon plunging a chainsaw into the heads of demons. What more could you want in a television show? And Kevin has the natural charisma for the role, which allows the audience to get on board for what oftentimes are his maddening choices.' Both Bacon and Oleson are crossing their fingers that 'The Bondsman' will have life beyond one season. 'I intentionally wrote Season 1 to have an ending that would make it difficult for Amazon not to give Kevin and me more chances to make more episodes. We were evil, devious partners in trying to make sure this show goes the distance.' In the meantime, there are other projects on the horizon for Bacon — one that has him particularly excited is 'Family Movie,' which he and Sedgwick have been developing for their family to do together. Their children, Travis and Sosie Bacon, are slated to co-star with their parents, who will direct the comedy-horror film. 'I really hope we can shoot this spring,' he added. Then there's contributing to his social media footprint. 'I was really resistant to the idea of social media when I first heard about it. But I went into it reluctantly when we were launching my charity nonprofit organization. 'Social media with a social conscience' was our launching phrase,' he said. 'Then I realized that I've always been doing these little movies for my family or for my friends and passing them around. I've made a bunch of videos for my band [The Bacon Brothers], long before there was social media. It's another way, in essence, to perform.' Although the actor says he enjoys creating the footage, he also admitted it's become 'a little bit of a double-edged sword.' While the content may have a spontaneous, on-the-fly vibe, the opposite is true: 'I plan them out. I practice. We've done multiple takes. I have an idea of something, and then basically direct it.' He has mixed feelings about the response to his posts: 'On one hand, people really genuinely like it. On the other hand, sometimes people will come up to me, or me and Kyra, and say, 'You know what my favorite thing you've done is?' And I'll think it's going to be 'Footloose' or 'Apollo 13', anything. And they'll say, 'Your Instagram.' And I'll be like 'Geez.' ' After a moment, he said, 'It's heartbreaking in a way. On the other hand, that's where we're at. If that's what people like, that's OK. The horse is out of the barn now in terms of that. Why not embrace it?'
