Welcome to The Neon Mohawk

 Welcome to my blog, The Neon Mohawk.

For those of you who don’t know me -- my name is Al Mancini, and I’ve been covering the Las Vegas food and beverage scene for approximately 18 years. 

In June of 2021 I resigned my position as a food and beverage reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, frustrated that it rarely allowed me to tell the stories I felt were important in ways they deserved to be told.

That, of course, begs the question of what kinds of stories I want to tell. And honestly, my only hard-and-fast rule is that I want to tell stories that put the right diners in the right restaurants, make their meals more enjoyable, and support the local community. But I want to take the time and space required to tell each story correctly, rather than shoehorn it into the space some editor has available. On the flip side -- if I get breaking news that I think needs to be posted ASAP, I want the freedom to make that happen. And I don’t ever again want to write about a topic simply because a lot of people are Googling it on a particular day. (While we’re at it – I’d prefer my stories never again be locked behind a paywall.)

As any working journalist knows, there aren’t a lot of gigs that allow us to decide what stories are important, and how to tell them. So rather than look for another job that would piss me off, I decided to create my own outlets – with an emphasis on the plural, because no single medium could ever be perfect for everything I want to say about the local F&B scene. 

In mid-June I launched my first podcast, Food and Loathing. In mid-July, I began work on what I hope will be a new type of restaurant guide aimed at a new generation of foodies – with my eye on an early 2022 launch. (The working title on that one is Neon Feast, but that could change.) I'm pondering a couple of video series: one featuring cooking demos from top local chefs, and another featuring cocktail demos from star mixologists and bartenders. And today, after a few short delays, I bring you The Neon Mohawk.

As I stated, this is a blog. I realize that’s very 1999 (and not in a Prince party way). But a good old-fashioned blog seems like the best wat to keep loyal readers and serious foodies up to date on the day-to-day Las Vegas dining news, while allowing me to occasionally develop more in-depth stories and essays. 

While I will occasionally write for other publications, this will be my primary avenue for breaking news, tidbits, gossip, “reviews” and all the things I believe serious Las Vegas diners need to know. There will be no “front page” or any other prioritization of what is “important.” Instead, new entries will be at the top, pushing older entries down the page. And while I expect to post individual stories to social media, I hope that most of my readers will just bookmark this page and come back once a week (or more) to scroll through and see what’s new. 

You won’t find any clickbait here – no “stories” about “trending” topics that rehash things you already know without adding anything new to the conversation. I will focus on being accurate rather than being first. And I’ll let complex stories percolate in my head for as long as it takes for me to find the right angle. There may be ten entries in one week, and only one entry another week. Some entries will be a single paragraph, while others may be longer than anything I every wrote at my last job. And I will use this platform to cross-promote all of my other projects.

As I try to wrap up this entry, I already miss having an editor to rein me in when I start babbling. At the same time, I’m excited to offer you the first of my unfiltered thoughts. Thanks for reading them. I hope you return for more.