It's imminent, with final proofing underway right now; our hope is to get it to the printer today (as in, Friday, since we're writing this on March 17). Hence, excuse us for keeping this answer somewhat brief, but we have some final photo captions and credits to attend to!
Obviously, with almost a quarter of the year already behind us, this time frame is a lot later than we would have hoped, but following a three-year hiatus (you'll be amazed by how much the dining landscape has altered in the interim), and with two thirds of the authoring team being brand new to the project this time around, there have been some inevitable teething issues. Plus, the new 2016 edition of Eating Las Vegas sees a major expansion of the "Additional Recommendations" portion of our dining-and-drinking guide, with dedicated sections on "Chinatown" and "Best Steakhouses," significantly increased coverage of "Italian/Pizza," "Desserts," "Downtown," and "Late Night," and the addition of entirely new categories, including "Coffee Culture," "Dive Bars & Hipster Hangouts," "Locals Favorites," and "Mexican/Tacos."
We're within an amuse bouche of the finish line ("digestif" might be a more appropriate metaphor, but not until we have the finished item in our hands!); jet's just say we hope to have the new 2016 edition in a book store near you before the end of April. And as soon as this version's been dispatched, we'll begin work on the 2017 update, in order to allow ourselves a more leisurely timetable the next time around.
To backtrack for those readers who have no clue what we're talking about, in 2010 we were approached by local food writer Al Mancini, who had a cool concept for doing justice to the burgeoning Sin City dining scene in the form of a restaurant guide penned by himself ... and his two biggest writing rivals/gastronomic foes. The formula necessitated all three authors to agree on the city's "Essential 50" eateries -- with much spirited debate and dissent along the way. Yes, this is the only serious restaurant guide we'd ever been aware of that freely unleashes expletives and which found the authors delighting in any opportunity to point the finger at each others' perceived personal and professional shortcomings. It was this irreverence that made the approach so refreshing, when so many restaurant guides seem to be nothing more than sycophantic pandering to whichever eateries wooed the author(s) with the best free meals.
Al Mancini, Max Jacobson, and John Curtas (particularly Curtas, who gets almost as big a kick out of being 86'd from high-end eateries as he does from chowing on raw sea urchin and crispy pig intestines), on the other hand, weren't afraid to ruffle feathers (and not just each others') and to tell it like it was. Hence, the end result was an honest restaurant guide that encompassed everything from the most revered temples to haute cuisine, to the best of this city's hole-in-the-wall ethnic gems. We all had great fun -- and enjoyed some extraordinary eating opportunities -- along the way and the book, well-received and gratifyingly supported from the get go, got better with each new edition.
And then, while using a crosswalk as he strolled to the gym on Christmas Eve morning 2013, Max was hit by a truck and suffered a serious traumatic brain injury from which he continues to recover to this day. He is sorely missed by us all and by anyone familiar with the Las Vegas restaurant scene.
For several years, the very thought of bringing back Eating Las Vegas seemed out of the question, so we fully understand why Al Mancini did not feel ready to participate in this new edition. But after much deliberation and soul searching, we at Huntington Press and John Curtas, the third member of ELV's original unholy trinity, took the decision that the right thing to do was to continue in Max Jacobson's honor and not to let our personal loss be perpetuated by depriving the city and its visitors of this supremely useful tool for navigating Las Vegas' gustatory landscape.
So, with some fresh writing (and tasting) talent on board, prepare for the release of Eating Las Vegas 2016, and excuse us as we sign off here and get back to making that happen!
