Las Vegas Mixtape v24: Buzzy Burgers, Beautiful Sounds, and a Metal Health Check-up

Track #3: Chicago Joe’s @Downtown Vegas

In an ever-changing city, some places blessedly remain the same. Take Chicago Joe’s, an Italian restaurant in a small, converted brick house in downtown Vegas. Next year, the proudly old-school eatery built in 1933 turns 50 (it opened in 1975).

There’s no doubt that the city’s mobsters all dined here, with their eyes firmly on the door in between bites of pasta. In fact, Chicago Joe’s fully embraces its mobster past. Just look at the bullet hole motif in the restaurant’s sign outside.

This is not a place that serves Instagramable food. Instead, it specializes in Italian classics like Fettuccini Alfredo and Scallops Marinara.  Chicago Joe’s mission is to warm your soul, down to the red checkered tablecloths and year-round Christmas lights hanging throughout the space. There are even white lace curtains—and wood paneling, too—suggesting an Italian grandmother’s home. Me, I was very content eating my chicken parmigiana and penne pasta in front of the fireplace in one of the three rooms.

The restaurant’s “Lite Bite” dinner menu, offered Tuesday through Saturday before 6:30 pm, is a good option with “smaller prices” and “smaller portions”—it’s also an invitation to save room for one of their six desserts like the Godiva chocolate cheesecake.