More food trucks and chefs jumping Strip: foodie predictions for 2012

Beverly Poppe

Brock Radke predicts more top chefs will find their way to the neighborhoods, as Bread & Butter’s Chris Herrin did in 2011.

By Jim Begley, John Curtas, Brock Radke (contact)

Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011 | 5:24 p.m.

We’re going to see more of the same in 2012: quick-casual restaurants booming and fine dining finding success only on the Strip. Expect more talented chefs to sneak away from the tourist corridor and create affordable eats in the neighborhoods, especially Mexican and Asian cuisine concepts. –BROCK RADKE

The Strip has become hopelessly moribund in its dining options (more steaks, anyone?) as the recession wears on. Spring Mountain Road is a different story. Bad times make for cheap rents, and great Japanese eats have proliferated there in the past couple of years, with more to come. Nakamura-Ya may soon become the Raku of Japanese pasta palaces, and a great bakery and traditional fish restaurant (both owned by Raku’s Mitsuo Endo) are planned in the same shopping center. Kanpai! –JOHN CURTAS

My bold 2012 trend predictions are twofold: Chef-driven events like the Saturday Night Truck Stop Back of House Brawl and Bread & Butter’s pop up dinners will continue to propagate, and the food truck revolution is not dead, with the arrival of new trucks. I’m still hoping for okonomiyaki and gourmet PB&Js, but not on the same truck. –JIM BEGLEY