This series highlights hospitality professionals who are responding to the industry crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic in particularly creative, conscientious ways.
Of all the haunting images of the world’s most recognizable cities on lockdown, those showing an empty Las Vegas may be among the eeriest. They’re no less unsettling on the ground, according to restaurateur Elizabeth Blau. “I’ve lived here for 22 years,” she says. “I was here for 9/11, the financial crash, the horrific mass shooting, and the city weathered all of these things. But this is truly unprecedented. Every casino in the state of Nevada is closed down—downtown, up the Strip, off-Strip and on all sides. Just shuttered. Hundreds of thousands of people out of work.” Inertia is “pretty much the antithesis” of Vegas, she points out—and “what the recovery looks like is mind-boggling.”
At present, only one of Blau + Associates’ five properties, Honey Salt, remains open. The good news is that it’s conceptually well-suited to the moment: “It’s farm-to-table comfort food,” Blau explains, “so it’s very indicative of what people want to eat right now: mac-and-cheese, fried chicken.” Which isn’t, of course, to say that it’s business as usual there. “We’ve become about as flexible and innovative as we possibly can,” she notes. Embracing the curbside-pickup and delivery model, “We very quickly adapted to selling family-style meals for four people at a reasonable price; that dominates our menu.” They also began stocking provisions. “We’ve turned into a marketplace. Never did I think I would sell sunchokes and sesame oil and toilet paper. It’s kind of strange, the things that aren’t available in the supermarkets—and now there are people who don’t even want to be in the supermarkets, so they’re happy to turn to us.” With the city’s approval of to-go alcohol sales, Honey Salt “went into high gear,” as Blau puts it, offering some 50 wines by the bottle and about 15 packaged beers as well as partnering with companies like Patrón and Don Q to sell Margarita and Mojito kits.
But there are far more meaningful partnerships to consider, in her view: “We’re not making any profit—we’re employing 30 people, and in addition to that, we’ve partnered with the county and a number of local nonprofits and formed an organization called Delivering with Dignity,” which has already prepared and delivered thousands of meals to at-risk locals such as seniors and cancer patients. “In this time of complete chaos, uncertainty, and fear, it’s giving our team a sense of purpose to know that people aren’t just getting a cold sandwich from FEMA but a meal that’s produced with love,” she says, crediting local suppliers and farmers with donating everything from brisket and chicken wings to “beautiful mushrooms and hand-grown arugula.” Calling the response “heartwarming,” she adds, “This really is such a tight-knit community, and the responsibility that you have to others is tangible and humbling.”
To further live up to that responsibility, Blau has teamed up with other area restaurateurs on various industry initiatives, from creating a Facebook page where members can “let people know who’s open and what they’re doing and communicate best practices” to petitioning Governor Steve Sisolak and lobbying Nevada’s Congresspeople for assistance measures. “This was going to be so devastating to our industry,” she explains, that “we wanted to be certain that our voices were going to be heard at a national level. I think that the efforts of restaurateurs and chefs around the country really put us at the forefront, and now we’re trying to figure out the CARES Act. We’ve been approved, but I don’t know anybody who’s actually [gotten money].”
Granted, when and if they do see relief funds, “none of us is under any misconception that when the lights come back on, things are going back to normal,” Blau admits. “We’re going to be living in a different world of masks and gloves and temperature checking, and it’ll be a long time before Las Vegas is Las Vegas again.” But maintaining perspective is her topmost goal. “We have to first tackle the issue of people that don’t have food,” she says. “Then make sure our people are OK, and then our community. You can either bury your head and be awed by what is going on or you can dive in and keep reinventing yourself on a daily basis.” —Ruth Tobias
