Sometimes just trying to choose the best restaurants and the best dishes may seem like a lot of work. And you’re on vacation! Maybe you need someone to figure it out for you.
That’s where Donald Contursi’s Lip Smacking Foodie Tours comes in. “People are overwhelmed with all the different options—and they don’t know which places, or even which dishes, that (those restaurants are) famous for,” he said. So Chicago native Contursi, who had a long history in the hospitality industry in Las Vegas, combined his passion and connections in Vegas’ food industry to help those folks out.
“There are so many amazing restaurants in Vegas, and it’s really difficult to try them all—it would take you a long time and a lot of money,” he said. “I wanted to help curate the experience for people where they could actually experience the top restaurants and the top dishes from each one and make a tasting menu out of the highlights of each restaurant.”
That concept has proven to be a fabulous success. He’s expanded out to providing multiple tours up and down the Strip and downtown, with guides leading diners from hot restaurants at Aria and The Cosmopolitan as well as The Venetian and Wynn, plus specialized tours including steakhouses and brunches. In one tour, you’ll even cap your night off with a helicopter flight over the Strip. Although these offerings were curtailed due to the shutdown of the Strip, most resume in July.
To give people even more options, Contursi recently announced self-guided online walking tour options for downtown and the Arts District through Lip Smacking Foodie Tours’ sister company Finger Licking Foodie Tours. The downtown tour, about 2 1/2 hours long, currently includes stops at Carson Kitchen, Therapy and 7th and Carson, with three signature dishes to taste at each venue. Your table will be waiting for you, and shortly after you enter, get ready to try some truly memorable dishes.
In between stops, you’ll get a lot of information about the area via the online tour, complete with a virtual guide, and a walk through Container Park, the shopping and dining area consisting of colorful, stacked shipping containers. The Arts District tour has a similar format, in an area that is undergoing a renaissance, with plenty of antique stores, galleries, clothing boutiques, bars and restaurants.
There is a two-person minimum for the self-guided tours, and that allows a level of intimacy the bigger tours don’t have. “I wanted to really focus on couples and date night,” Contursi said. “People that want to get out after some time of being in a home, and for a reasonable price point. The flexibility is really nice because you could choose whatever day you want and whatever time you want, because it’s a private tour. You don’t have to be set to our schedule, and you could go with whoever you’re comfortable with.”
If you want to order another dish at the restaurant, you can, and it will be 15 percent off. The tour is $79 per person.
So let somebody else do the heavy lifting—you deserve to fully enjoy this vacation.
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