The Peppermill Restaurant and Fireside Lounge located on The Strip in Las Vegas was one of six recipients this year from all over the United States of the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award as an America’s Classic. Continuing with us celebrating this honor is Executive Chef Nicholas Orth who has been cooking there since his Sophomore year in high school.
“Opened in 1972 by Nat Carasali and Bill Paganetti, the Peppermill Restaurant and Fireside Lounge has been a Las Vegas icon for over 51 years. It’s appeared in movies like Casino and Show Girls, has been frequented by mobsters and celebrities, and it’s best known for its over-the-top pink and purple neon nights, fire pits, faux botanicals, oversized drinks in the cocktail lounge, and massive platters of elevated diner classics in the family-friendly restaurant.”
“What really makes it special is the welcoming atmosphere. It’s a place where pit bosses, dancers, bartenders and other Vegas industry folk can come after a late shift. It’s a haven, a safe place, described as somewhere no one gets bothered and where longtime waitresses will remember your name.”
“It’s also a place where people want to work and want to stay. Peggy Orth began waitressing at the Peppermill when she was 17, about a year and a half after the restaurant first opened. Decades later, she’s now general manager and her son Nicholas is the executive chef. Not much has changed in the last five decades, and that’s just how everyone likes it.”
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This is something that is here and being more pervasive, and we're enthusiastically presented each and every week by Melissa's World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats. We're journeying back to Las Vegas, specifically the Strip, and we are talking with one of the newest recipients of the James Beard Foundation's America's Classics, this being the very well-known Pepper Mill restaurant on the Strip in Las Vegas, and we are speaking with their Executive Chef, Nick Orth, who's only been the Executive Chef for 16 years, but goes back to the restaurant working there when he was a sophomore in high school. Chef Nick, thanks for hanging in there. Nick, what's really interesting about the Pepper Mill, among many things, is in terms of your guest profile. For those of us that know a little bit about Las Vegas, Las Vegas residents hate going to the Strip because of the congestion and, you know, there's just a lot going on. Your guest profile, from what I understand, is about half locals. What do you do that no one else does on the Strip that makes you such a favorite with the locals? You know, I think that if they like to be treated, like they treat their customers wherever they work on the Strip, you know, I'm going to say about 35% of that, 50% of that makes sense are industry workers. So they like to go to a place where they know that they're going to get the service that they expect. The way the Strip is going, it's kind of like money in, money out, and everybody's kind of treated to exactly the same. Nobody remembers anybody. Nobody remembers anybody's name. So when you come into the Pepper Mill, you know, with our long-time employees, people that, you know, are there five, six times a week, and they have these industry people come in, they remember their name, and they start relationships from there. We've had long-time employees since retired, you know, met with locals, met with, you know, tourists that visit Vegas, you know, anywhere from one to four or five times a year, and they, you know, met them for lunch at the Pepper Mill. And I don't think that you can really get that anywhere else on the Strip. One, because we've been there for such a long time, so people kind of know what to expect. But people, you know, industry people really like to come in where they know they're going to get treated well. You know, certainly an admirable goal. Now, there's a period of the week towards the weekend where you're open continuously. So what time or continuously? What time do you open on Thursday morning, and then that carries through to? So we're open up at 7 a.m. Thursday morning, and then we close at Monday night or Tuesday morning at 2 a.m. So we're open consecutively from Thursday to Monday. That's incredible. And, Chef Nick, as you were telling me earlier, this is a larger operation than one might expect, just casually looking at it. Can you share with us the number of employees that work at the Pepper Mill restaurant and fireside lounge? So we're hovering right around 220 employees currently. Chef Nick, that's one busy restaurant and very impressive. Now, Nick, as I was saying earlier, you know, you owners are always putting money back into the property to keep it fresh and make sure what's going on. You have a small remodeling that's coming up that will close the restaurant for a period of time. And we should share that with our listeners because we certainly have their attention at this point. So we're going to close August 11th at 11 p.m. And hopefully everything goes correct. And then all of my planning goes well. And we will reopen Saturday at the 16th at 7 a.m. And what's going to be going on? We're doing a slight facelift, a new carpet in the restaurant, some repairs in the kitchen, making things more efficient. The bar is going to get a much-needed facelift. We're going to redo the upholstery, some lighting, that sort of thing. We're not really changing anything. We're just updating. So we're very excited. This has been something that we've worked really hard for for the last, I'm going to say about 18 months planning everything out, making sure all the contractors are set up. And if we didn't have to close, you know, that would be optimal because we want to make sure that everybody enjoys that much experience. But there's some other things that we have to do. Well, I don't think yes, we enjoy it. No, no, you know, again, you don't want to be closed a day longer than necessary, but these things need to be done. And probably the best thing is, you know, you shut it down and you can get it all done at once. You were mentioning, Chef Nick, we want to talk about the food a little bit before we run out of time. You have a new pasta item that is on the dinner menu that really sounds like a winner. Tell us about that one, if you would. This is the Cajun chicken pasta. I think we lost Chef Nick. Tony, if you can see if we can get him back on the phone really quick. We are talking with Chef Nick Orth, who is the longtime executive chef at the Peppermore Restaurant and Fireside Lounge, very unusually located on the strip in Las Vegas, again, freestanding independent restaurant, very, very unusual, known for excellent service, remembering their guests, and also, you know, very ample portions for what the dollar is. Nick, are you back with us? I'm sure I am. Sorry about that. You know, these things happen, but we definitely want to tease this dish. You were telling me about this Cajun chicken pasta. So let's share that with our listeners, if you will. Oh, you know, the Cajun chicken pasta, it's on a lot of Italian menus. What we do in house, and a lot of other people don't do, is make everything from scratch, everything from the sauce to the black and seasoning for the chicken. We do a Cajun chicken on that, and the only thing that we buy that we outsource on a dish is the linguistics sausage that's in the dish, and that's made locally at a meat plant that's here in Vegas. So it is, it's absolutely delicious, and it's not your traditional, you know, angel hair. We serve it over any pasta. It's absolutely delicious. Nick also sharing with our audience, what is one of your breakfast items because you're very known for breakfast that you're particularly proud of? You know what? And it's something that I have absolutely nothing to do with. It's our mozzarella yama. It's a, so our basic Cajun I don't like, if you can call it, basic. With a jack and cheddar cheese inside, and then topped with Italian meat sauce, parmesan cheese, and fresh parsley. And it is our most popular breakfast item at the moment. Now, Chef Nick, everybody wants an outrageous dessert. What is one dessert at the pepper mill that you would recommend to a guest that's coming in for the first time and wants to be wowed? You know, it's going to have to be our banana split. It's been, like I said, exactly the same for the last 51 years. Two scoops of chocolate vanilla and strawberry ice cream. You hold bananas, chocolate syrup, mala cream topping, strawberries, and then topped with fresh whipped cream and nuts, and then whatever your toppings you choose. And it's kind of like a fresh fruit salad. You order it and you're expecting something. And when it gets to the table, you're just in awe of the size and the quality of the food. So ideally, that would be one to share, Chef Nick, would you say? Maybe three or four people could share that. Nick, just so our audience knows, as we need to say goodbye, where exactly on the strip is the pepper mill restaurant and fireside lounge? So we're just west of the convention center and just north of the wind and encore. So if you're staying at the wind, the encore, the resorts world, the blue, we are absolutely within walking distance. And due to parking issues currently, we suggest that, you know, you take a cab or an Uber, if you're coming, it's pretty good. Definitely good advice. Nick, I'm also going to suggest to our listening audience when we have the podcast of this show on the notes to your segment, in addition to giving the website of the pepper mill, which is pretty easy. It's pepper mill Las Vegas.com. But there's also going to be the link to the YouTube video, which is the video that was done for the recognition of the pepper mill restaurant and fireside lounge as an America's classic. I can't recommend it enough. Nick, thanks so much for the time. Again, congratulations. And we'll see in Las Vegas. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. When we return, we're going to the Helms Bakery Complex in Culver City and talking about an Austrian-themed restaurant there that is really wonderful called LuStig. We're proudly presented by Melissa's World Righteous Produce and West Coast Prime Eats. Give us a minute. We'll be back. [MUSIC PLAYING]
