Joe Downtown: Two new restaurants join downtown scene

By Joe Schoenmann

Friday, May 10, 2013 | 3:37 p.m.

A soon-to-open Italian sub joint, along with Mingo, a new bar/restaurant further near Casino Center Drive and Charleston Boulevard, might just give some of the new Fremont East bar/restaurants a run for their money.

Expected to open May 24, Mr. D Original Italian Subs, on East Bridger Avenue near the FedEx office, offers a relatively small menu with a one big difference -- from the bread to the the meats and everything in between, all the ingredients for its subs are shipped here from the East Coast.

Owner Devin Wallace, 22, vows that the subs will taste fresher than any you find elsewhere in Las Vegas.

Taste alert: Several of us shared one of the basic Italian subs – which was at least 12 inches long and only costs $6 – and will call it out as one of the best, if not the best, subs we’ve tasted in Las Vegas.

Mr. D offers a simple menu of tuna, turkey, veggie, chicken salad, classic and original subs, with counter service and seating.

***

The second creation of partners George Harris and Robert Solano, who a few years ago opened Mundo in World Market Center, Mingo has finally opened in Art Square, 1025 S. First St.

Mingo – named after a third partner, Mingo, who is Harris’ nephew – is a bar/restaurant. It will serve some of the same delectable menu items offered at Mundo, which has blossomed in the last year with the opening of the neighboring Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

Offerings on the menu range from fresh-cut fries at $3 to grilled cheese and tomato soup for $9 to a ribeye, one of our favorites, for $22.

For those interested in the ribeye sauce, by the way, Mundo is coming out with a cookbook later this year, Harris said.

Mingo offers indoor/outdoor seating and a large bar open to the outdoors, but unlike some downtown Las Vegas establishments doesn’t suffer from the ubiquitous odor of uncleaned grease traps and garbage cans.

Joe Schoenmann doesn’t just cover downtown, he lives and works there. Schoenmann is Greenspun Media Group’s embedded downtown journalist, working from an office in the Emergency Arts building.