Go: Where to Go, What to Do & Why

By James P. Reza

Despite a bandaged left elbow, Francine is friendly, smiling and pleasant in the sweltering summer afternoon. One of a handful of servers at the comfortable Milo's Best Cellars (538 Nevada Hwy.; 293-9540) in Boulder City, she had taken a dive the day previous after launching from a ski lift on her mountain bike at Brian Head. Despite the elbow and a belly painted red with painful-appearing road rash, Francine gamefully served us--and several other tables--on what was a busier-than-expected late Monday afternoon, never missing a beat and guiding us through our virgin visit with style.

Francine, and Milo's Best Cellars, are increasing rarities in Southern Nevada: a genuine person working a small, comfortable restaurant, both of them bursting with personality. While most of the Las Vegas area plays its new hand as the lap dog for seemingly every focus-grouped corporate craptrap in America, joints like Milo's boldly intend on proving that such formulaic blandness and forced sterility is as boring, predictable and uninspiring as we sense but cannot pinpoint through the haze of economic expansion and a so-called recession-proof economy. Milo's represents a quarter-million-dollar investment (with help from Boulder City's redevelopment program) by Milo Hurst and David Rivera. Yes, casino ultralounges brag about spending that much on lighting alone, but for a small storefront, it's plenty. Flanked on either side by the kind of (now-closed) antique/curio shops that punctuated many a Route 66 family road trip, Milo's, like the original location of Jazzed Cafe, boasts a long list of 23 wines by the glass and dozens of beers by the bottle. A satisfying menu of bistro-styled nosh (salads, sandwiches, cheese and fruit plates) and the authentic, nongaming atmosphere are wonderful, but hardly complete the experience.

That job is left up to the location and the people who frequent the place. Located bang in the middle of an old, pedestrian-friendly downtown bisected by creeping traffic along the two-lane "business route" of U.S. 93, Milo's, since opening in early 2003, has become the focal point in the on-again redevelopment of Boulder City into a slightly larger version of the West's charming, artsy small town archetype (Sedona, Telluride, Moab). On any given night, a similar, pleasing mixture of artsy folks, local businesspeople, mountain bikers and hikers, and a vocal but friendly few of the Harley crowd park in the angled streetside spots out front, grab a table on the sizeable streetside patio or the smallish (nonsmoking) indoors, and do something that's impossible in almost any other bar in the big city: They talk.

Recognizing the success of and need for more places of Milo's ilk, the proprietors are busy remodeling the due-east storefront into a coffeehouse, and building a bed-and-breakfast in the back. All of which sounds vaguely familiar when it comes to discussing downtown redevelopment a little closer to home. That Milo's--or anywhere like it--would be welcome in downtown Las Vegas is to ply the kind of understatement that went quietly into that good cornfield with the arrival of Oscar Goodman. "Hell yes we want them down there," the mayor might say. "Downtown Las Vegas is open for business!" he would scream. "There's no terrorist threat that can stop the spread of art and wine!" And yet, Milo's is in Boulder City. But with residents getting accustomed to 45-minute commutes to work, is 30 minutes so bad to have a nice time in an old town tonight? Just watch your speed on U.S. 93. The local police still act like it's a backwater out there.

Hot, hot, hot

Again with the outdoor concerts. Are you booking managers nuts? The last time I checked the temperature, before burrowing myself into an ice-filled pit, it was touching 100 degrees at midnight, giving new meaning to the idea of Burning Spear. The Jamaican legend, now in the third decade of his pioneering rocking reggae style, is touring behind his latest effort, Free Man. He'll be performing at Friday's installment of the Mandalay Beach Concert Series (Aug. 13, 9 p.m.; 632-7777).

A short physical distance away, but light years in terms of crowd, atmosphere and reggae style comes Steel Pulse, the British roots band that, in 1975, sympathized with the emerging punk rock nation by taking conscious reggae style from bottom of Birmingham to the streets of Great Britain at large. The band's popularity with the sociopolitical activism movement in England led to similar treatment in America, where they were the first reggae band booked on the "Tonight Show," and toured, in the 1980s, with New Wave popsters INXS. They return to Vegas at the Palm's Skin Pool Lounge concert series on Friday (Aug. 13, 7 p.m.; 942-7777).

Elsewhere in this newspaper, someone has undoubtedly written a gushing, self-promotional piece about Saturday's Las Vegas Mercury Jazz Festival, which features the Rippingtons, Down to the Bone, Kim Waters, Praful, Turning Point and Sacred Groove (Aug. 14, 6 p.m.; 730-0300). It's at the Clark County Government Center Amphitheater, which goes to prove that we aren't all that smart, either. Which part of August do we not understand?

No room for boredom

Have you taken a look for something to do this week? Now that's what we call an events calendar. The highlights? Aussies the Vines return after their show with Jet at the Hard Rock a few months back. This time, the band opens for Incubus at the Thomas & Mack Center (Aug. 14, 7:30 p.m.; 739-3267). ... Joe Walsh is the latest Eagle to visit Vegas during the spate of recent fly-throughs. The ordinary, average guy strums and sings after Beth Hart at the Joint (Aug. 13, 8 p.m.; 693-5000). ... And if you thought you were going to escape this column without hearing about Rachel Hunter and the stage show Pieces (of Ass), think again, politically correct one. Sort of the glammed-up Hollywood version of The Vagina Monologues, Pieces (of Ass) offers a series of edgy monologues delivered by what are promotionally described as "hot chicks"--models, actresses, whatevers. We're not sure if this is going to be a hip, thoughtful, sexy think piece, or a "Man Show" disguised as theater, but we'll be there to find out. See the hot chicks rant Saturday and Sunday at the Joint (Aug. 14-15, 9 p.m.; 693-5000).

Native Las Vegas James P. Reza has considered moving to Boulder City many times, but he thinks it might not work out between them. E-mail the author at jpreza@cox.net.