Las Vegas tops nation in premium food and wine events

Las Vegas Food Wine Festivals Abound 

The Vegas special event calendar is loaded with food- and drink- festivals and events. There is the wine-centric UNLVino and Wine Amplified (Oct.), beer-driven Downtown Brew Festival (Oct. ) and food truck-based Great American Foodie Fest, which brought top trucks to the Rio .The Venetian hosts the fabulous Epicurian Festival. UnLvino and Vegas Uncorked hold events in multiple venues for several days. The national wine and spirits convention, Food and Beverage and Restarurant conventions are all hosted in Las Vegas. The wine spectator hosts a super-premium wine festival in late April.  

Forbes Magaxine called Las Vegas “America’s food and wine festival capital,” and USA Today readers recently voted Vegas Uncork’d the top food fest in the country.

Vegas Uncorked certainly stands out as one of the best.  For one of the grand tastings, at booths surrounding the Italian styled emperor aqua pools at Caesars, Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck, Guy Savoy and more than 70 other really famous chefs mingle with guests and serve culinary tastes at the Grand Tasting  finale of the  Vegas Uncork’d by Bon Appetit food festival. Small to large seminars abound in the ballrooms. The weekend-long event include meals, tastings and demos at four Strip resorts, and brought diners from nearby neighborhoods and far-off cities to enjoy expert cooking and meet culinary all-stars.

Most of the 70+ celebrity chefs appearing at the food festval also own restaruants in Las Vegas. All of the great culinary names open a flagship on the Strip, much like every famous entertainer hosts a show there at one time or another.

“Our food festivals draw thousands of people,” said Caroline Coyle, vice president of brand strategy for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). “They cause people to book a plane ticket, get in a car and make a reservation.”

Coyle said food is the most important and popular vertical in Las Vegas, and that “98% of our visitors dine out during their stays here. It’s something that we have found through our visitor surveys has become increasingly important.”

The average visitor to Las Vegas spends over $300 on food and beverage, according to the LVCVA. Doesn't sound like much? Try multiplying $300 time 42 million visitors per year to see how many billions is spent on food an wine in Las Vegas.   

Food and beverage now accounts for 40% of the average visitor’s non-gaming spending, up from 30% in 1995.

For some visitors, Vegas dining means grabbing a burger at New York-New York’s Shake Shack or a slice from Cosmopolitan’s Secret Pizza. For others, it means indulging in a 16-course dinner at MGM Grand’s Joel Robuchon or snapping up tickets to Vegas Uncork’d or UNLVino or Wine Spectator or Las Vegas Wine & Food or one of the city’s many other dining fetes.

Indeed, “We feel that [Las Vegas has] almost become this sweet spot for dining and for food festivals…” said Coyle. And, she added, “I think there’s room for more.”

by Rob Long