Vegan Pizza at The Pizza Place, Wynn Casino: review

I HAD to do it. Gotta work my way through the Wynn's vegan offerings sooner or later! I went last weekend to investigate with some of my vegan and veg friendly friends who were visiting from Florida. We had the vegan pizza with Teese cheese and all of the available veggies as well as the salad and vegan garlic knots. They even had vegan gelato on the menu (!!) as well as gluten free options and other clear allergen listings. It was a totally separate menu that they whipped out from behind the counter.

This is also one of the less expensive places to eat at The Wynn, as well as somewhere you could easily bring omni family and friends. There's even a beautiful manmade waterfall outside! And if that isn't your scene, there's flatscreen TVs with sports for those who are so inclined.

The pizza was quite tasty. The Teese cheese was a pleasant change from Daiya: more stretchy and less oily. I liked it and would definitely buy Teese if I could get my hot little vegan hands on it! The pizza came out very fresh (obviously made to order) and the service was great. My friends even asked, "Why are all the servers so incredibly nice here?" Oh, and the garlic knots were amazing! Real East Coast style---I devoured them all by myself.

Ironically, a few weeks ago I was with my vegan buddy Easy Ice at the Riviera while she was working an event and I overheard some guys talking about working at the Wynn. One of them stated that Steve Wynn was "totally fucking insane" and really didn't sound like he liked working there all that much. He also said that he's a control freak, but that he thought it probably takes being a control freak to build a casino empire. Yeah, probably! I've also heard a lot of blowback from my brothers' friends in the restaurant industry who know people who work there. Apparently a lot of the employees (including some of the chefs) think Steve Wynn's vegan thing is a very annoying kick that he's temporarily on and that hopefully he will get over it soon. I hope not, because selfishly I want to keep eating all of his awesome food!!! And obviously, it's great for the animals and for creating awareness of veganism locally and in the media. Thank you, Steve Wynn---I'll be back!

This vegan thing seems to be sticking...!

Vegas gets a bad rap. When I first came here as a visitor, I thought it was the most vegan/veg unfriendly place on the planet. It seemed like everything was smeared in fois gras and not a veg entree to be seen for miles. It was easier to find venison medallions than it was to find it a veggie burger. When I decided to go back to being a vegan (man, I wish I had never stopped...but that was my path I had to go down), I discovered a whole world of vegan food and it just keeps growing and growing. There's been a huge upsurge in interest in veganism since I've lived here for the last 4 years. I switched over to this blog as an outlet for all of my vegan interests (including bodybuilding),cooking and activism. I've imported some of my vegan focused posts from my old blog, Slayer Is My Personal Trainer. Sorry if it seems piecemeal or weird, but it's been a long hard road to get to where I am now. Getting sober, having serious surgery, changing jobs---moving to Las Vegas started a whole chain reaction of transformation and upheaval for me and I am so glad I did it! Didn't do it alone, of course...I've had help from every direction, and even when it's been really, really hard, it's been worth it.