It’s Friday, and Andy Maiden is in the front seat of his car, holding a quad espresso from The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and lip syncing to Madonna’s “Hung Up.” Dressed in a blue blazer with white windowpane checks and a snappy pocket square, Maiden’s face is wide-eyed and animated as he sings into a flip phone: “Every little thing that you say or do/I’m hung up/I’m hung up on you.”
“I’ve been doing it for two years now,” says Maiden of his car karaoke clips, which he posts every Friday on Instagram under the handle @lasvegasdrew. Now his followers expect the vignettes and make requests for future songs, but the videos are just a small part of what he does on the social network. “Certainly my favorite part is to go out and explore this city,” says Maiden, who’s lived in Las Vegas for 21 years and works as director of employee communications and culture at International Market Centers.
When he’s not bringing fun to the interior design company, he’s focused on food—cooking it, eating it, photographing it and sharing it with his digital fans. “Las Vegas has become the culinary mecca of the world,” Maiden says. “New places open up constantly. It’s so hard to keep up.” His feed is full of evidence of his efforts. There’s the chicken katsu burrito from Fist of Fusion Island Grill, an avocado toast piled with prosciutto and a quail’s egg from Kitchen Table Squared and a lovely bowl of pesto alfredo fettuccine with grilled prawns.
That last one is the product of Maiden’s own kitchen, where he turns inspiration from meals on the town into elaborate home-cooked plates that followers sometimes mistake for restaurant dishes. “I love to cook, and I think that Instagramming has helped me in becoming a better cook,” says Maiden. “I try to re-create that presentation at home. I take pride in what I serve my guests and my family.”
Click here to follow Andy on Instagram.
