The Bootlegger Italian Bistro is located at 7700 Las Vegas Boulevard S in the Southeast part of Las Vegas. This iconic restaurant can trace it’s beginnings to when in the early 1900’s Luigii and Maria Zoia migrated to the Ontario, Canada side of Niagara Falls from Padula, Italy. There they ran a boarding house for fourteen boarders during the prohibition era in the United States. Luigi was known for his homemade wine and became known as “The Bootlegger” in the neighborhood. Eventually their granddaughter, Maria, moved in to help them run the boarding house.
Maria met and married Albert Perry, who was from the United States part of Niagara Falls in 1943. Because of health reasons, along with their baby daughter, Lorraine, they moved to a small town in Nevada called Las Vegas. Maria had learned a lot about cooking when she lived with her grandmother and together, she and Al got into the restaurant business.
Together they opened several restaurants throughout the years. Their daughter, Lorraine, grew up to become an entertainer and opened the Landmark Hotel. Lorraine’s business savvy let her to buy up vacant land in the South Strip of Las Vegas. Lorraine opened the first “The Bootlegger” at Tropicana and Eastern and chose the name in honor of her grandfather, Luigi.
As the years went by, Lorraine became a known figure very much in Las Vegas and became the first woman chairperson of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor’s Authority as well as a Clark County Commissioner. She eventually went on to spend eight years as the 32nd Lieutenant Governor of Nevada and headed up the Tourism and Economic Development. Is it any wonder that “The Bootlegger” has a strong four-point-six-star rating on the internet with over 3,100 reviews?
Esther’s Kitchen is owned by James Trees and is located in the Downtown area of Las Vegas. It is named after James’s Great-aunt Esther who willed him a good amount of money when she passed in 2016.
James got his start working in the restaurant industry for two years before he attended The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He worked at five-star restaurants then became a started working with the CIA with chefs on outside projects. He has worked with many famous chefs before settling in Las Vegas to open Esther’s Kitchen.
Ester’s Kitchen has over sixteen hundred evaluations on the world wide web giving him a 4.6-star rating. Chef James Trees is passionate about his restaurant and loves cooking award winning meals for his clientele.
Located in the South Summerlin area of Las Vegas is La Strega. Sous Chef, Chef Pablo, was born and raised in Mexico and came to the United States at the age of fourteen. He got his first job in a restaurant a couple of years later as a dishwasher but quickly moved up to the kitchen making fresh pasta. He is partnered with Chef Gina Marinelli at La Strega and knows he will be there for years to come.
Chef Gina Marinelli graduated from Le Cordon Blue Color Culinary Arts, which is located in Orlando, Florida, in 2006. From there she moved to Las Vegas where she worked alongside many iconic chefs before traveling ti Italy where she traveled and worked in local kitchens learning authentic Italian food recipes. When she returned to Las Vegas in 2019, she opened La Strega much to the delight of locals.
Her passion for cooking alongside Chef Pablo has earned them a rating of 4.7-stars. They have close to three hundred posts online but give them time and they will definitely get a lot more.