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 Lebanese Politics, Middle East, News

Parliament wage hike talks spark shouting match

BEIRUT: Parliament’s joint committees decided to hold further talks next week on a draft law to raise public sector salaries after failing Friday to agree over revenues and proposed taxes that would cover the increases estimated to cost the government over $1.6 billion annually.

The committees’ meeting, attended by 37 lawmakers and chaired by Deputy Speaker Farid Makari, came against the backdrop of a threat of escalatory measures by the Union Coordination Committee if the salary scale bill was not approved soon. The UCC represents public sector employees and teachers.

With the presence of Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil and Education Minister Elias Bou Saab, lawmakers from the March 8 and March 14 parties discussed for more than five hours articles pertaining to finding sources to finance the salary increases, and they are expected to continue Monday.

Khalil said all parliamentary blocs were unanimous in agreeing that the public sector salary scale was a rightful demand that must be met soon.

“We did not hear during the discussions different viewpoints. It was made clear that the salary scale is a right that should be approved as soon as possible,” Khalil told a joint news conference with MP Ibrahim Kanaan after the meeting.

However, Khalil, who belongs to Speaker Nabih Berri’s parliamentary bloc, stressed the need for all parties to search for financial resources to cover the overall cost of the salary scale, which he estimated to be LL2,765 billion ($1.843 billion).

“It’s not a problem of figures, but a case of choices that need to be answered. There was a discussion about sources of financing,” he said.

Kanaan, head of the parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee, said revenues were important to finance the salary scale.

“There were two draft laws: one for the salary scale and the other for financing it,” he said. He added that progress was made in articles pertaining to finding revenues through proposed taxes.

Despite agreement among lawmakers that the salary scale is a right for public sector employees and teachers, sharp differences emerged during the meeting mainly between Khalil and Kanaan over the revenue figures, to the extent that journalists sitting in a nearby room heard shouting in the Parliament hall.

The disagreement erupted when discussion began over the state’s estimated revenues from dues on building licenses. The government’s draft law estimated the revenues at LL700 billion, while a subcommittee headed by Kanaan put it at LL600 billion, and Khalil estimated LL75 billion.

When Kanaan told Khalil that the LL75 billion was not correct, the latter responded: “Am I a liar? You are impolite.”

The spat between Kanaan and Khalil led to shouting and commotion that lasted about half an hour.

At one point, Hezbollah MP Hasan Fadlallah and MP Alan Aoun stepped out of the Parliament hall and met briefly in a room, after which Aoun asked Kanaan to remain calm and avoid a problem with Khalil.

MPs from Berri’s bloc also intervened to pacify the situation, which eventually led to a joint news conference held by Khalil and Kanaan.

Meanwhile, Hanna Gharib, head of the UCC, warned of an open-ended strike should Parliament fail to approve the salary scale proposal.

“Any postponement to approve the salary scale will lead to further escalation, including a strike, a sit-in, even an open-ended strike and a boycott of official exams,” Gharib told reporters after meeting Makari.

Civil servants and teachers staged a general strike Wednesday in protest of Parliament’s delay in passing the salary scale bill.

Source: The Daily Star

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 Business

Staff compensation holding back Standard Chartered sale

BEIRUT: All hurdles except one have been cleared in the pending acquisition of Standard Chartered’s retail operations in Lebanon by Cedrus Invest Bank, a source involved in the negotiations told The Daily Star Friday.

Over three months of negotiations, the two companies have managed to settle terms on price, taxes and hundreds of technical issues, but the fate of Standard Chartered’s employees remains an issue of contention holding back a final deal.

“Standard Chartered is negotiating with their staff on the proper compensation scheme once the retail business is sold to Cedrus,” the source said. “But these talks have lasted longer than expected.”

He added that according to the agreement, it was up to Standard Chartered to compensate any employees who do not want to be part of Cedrus.

London-based Standard Chartered has 100 employees in Lebanon.

Cedrus has expressed interest in keeping some of the Standard Chartered employees, while the rest are to receive a compensation package from London.

The source declined to predict when the talks between Cedrus and Standard would be concluded but stressed that the most difficult parts had been resolved.

Cedrus, which is mainly specialized in management of funds and wealth, is keen to expand its business to commercial banking.

Standard Chartered has decided to sell its retail operations in Lebanon as part of efforts to pull back from emerging markets.

The bank has three branches and a license to open two more. Standard Chartered will keep a representative office in Beirut once the sale of the retail business is complete.

Both sides have refrained from giving details about the talks but sources estimated the deal at around $24 million-$27 million.

Central Bank governor Riad Salameh told The Daily Star earlier that he had no objection to an investment bank acquiring a commercial bank in Lebanon.

The Central Bank must approve any bank merger or acquisition before the concerned parties sign an agreement.

Source: The Daily Star

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 Business

Hajj Hasan: Trade deficit must be reduced, by any means

BEIRUT: Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan said Thursday that Lebanon must reduce its trade deficit, even if doing so requires adopting protectionist policies.

“This method is followed by all countries. The GDP is less than $50 billion. Is it fair to have a five-year trade deficit that is equal to the GDP for one year? How can we build a healthy economy if we continue this path?” Hajj Hasan said.

“If at some point we’re compelled to place protectionist tariffs, then we will do it to preserve our productive institutions and competition capabilities.”

Lebanon’s trade deficit widened by 2.525 percent in 2013 compared with 2012, as exports fell by more than $480 million, according to the Customs Department.

“I have informed the ambassadors I have met with that the ministry will preserve the country’s industry with the continuation of imports. But we should strive in the foreseeable future to increase exports by $1 billion to $2 billion and reduce imports by the same amount,” the minister told industrialists and officials at the HORECA exhibition at BEIL.

Hajj Hasan called on officials to raise these issues during the trade talks with other countries in order to protect the national industries.

The minister called on the agro-food industries to abide by all international standards, warning that he would not tolerate any violations or slackness.

Source: The Daily Star

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 Lebanese Politics, Middle East, News

Conciliatory Geagea enters race for president

MAARAB, Lebanon: The Lebanese Forces nominated its leader Samir Geagea to run for the presidency Friday, in the opening salvo of what is set to be a contentious race.

The announcement came after a one-hour extraordinary meeting of the LF’s leadership in Geagea’s leafy mountain fortress-like residence at Maarab, north of Beirut.

“The executive committee of the Lebanese Forces decided unanimously to nominate the party’s leader Samir Geagea for the Lebanese presidential elections,” LF MP George Adwan announced at a news conference after the meeting.

Geagea, whose followers refer to him as “Al-Hakim,” a word that means both ‘the doctor’ and ‘the wise one,’ is the first political heavyweight to announce his candidacy.

In a speech before the vote, Geagea said that Lebanon was at a crossroads after the “continuous deterioration” of its security and economy.

“Lebanon’s image abroad was hit and confidence in it has been shaken,” Geagea said, addressing dozens of party cadres, MPs and officials.

“Lebanon’s borders are no longer clear due to its widespread penetration by armed groups coming and going to fight in Syria,” he added. “The state’s sovereignty has been widely violated by illegitimate arms in the interior.”

Lebanon has witnessed a spate of security incidents, clashes and attacks linked to the Syrian war. Radical groups that have claimed responsibility for the attacks targeting areas associated with Hezbollah often cite the party’s intervention in Syria as the grounds for their operations.

The LF sought to portray Geagea’s candidacy as a radical step needed to “shock” the country toward recovery. The party also said that Lebanon needed a strong president with a clear position on the key issues facing the country, rather than a bland consensus choice selected by foreign patrons.

Adwan said that previous presidents were often chosen by foreign leaders, were not independent, or lacked “color, smell and opinion.”

“The nomination of Dr. Geagea is to break this model and to say that the time has come for the Lebanese to choose a president made in Lebanon who has clear opinions,” he said.

Geagea’s persistent and vocal criticism of Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria raises questions about his ability to garner enough support from across the aisle to propel him to the presidency.

His announcement also pre-empted the March 14 political bloc’s deliberations on who to back in the presidential race.

President Michel Sleiman’s six-year term ends on May 25. The two-month constitutional period in which Parliament must convene and elect a new president started last month.

Geagea, 62, is a staunch critic of Hezbollah, Iran and the Syrian regime, and is also a key pillar of the Western-backed March 14 coalition.

He hails from the north Lebanon village of Bsharri, and became the head of the Lebanese Forces in 1986, when the group was a militia. He was arrested in 1994 over his suspected involvement in a bomb attack on the Our Lady of Salvation Church the same year.

He was also sentenced to life imprisonment over his alleged involvement in the assassination of Prime Minister Rashid Karami in June 1987 and was not released until July 2005, when Parliament passed an amnesty law.

Karami’s nephew, former minister Faisal Karami, called Geagea’s nomination a “black day” for Lebanon that showed what he described as the country’s “moral decline.”

LF MP Fadi Karam hit back at Karami, claiming he sought to relive the “black days” of Lebanon’s history and condemning his support for the Syrian regime.

Geagea refused to share power with Hezbollah in February in Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s “national interest government” due to the party’s involvement in Syria.

But in a sign of a softer tone toward his rivals, Geagea refrained from naming Hezbollah in his opening speech, and described as a “positive step” the statement by his potential rival, Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, who said he would not run if Geagea was nominated for the presidency.

He also praised Hezbollah Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Fneish after a statement by the latter saying it was Geagea’s right to run for presidency.

“When Hezbollah takes the decision to abide by the Constitution and the laws and build the state, the LF and its leader will meet with them and join hands to build the state,” Adwan told reporters.

But responding to skepticism from reporters who questioned whether Geagea coordinated his announcement with the rest of the March 14 bloc, the LF expressed confidence that their allies would back Geagea.

Adwan said that March 14 leaders had long been aware of Geagea’s candidacy and that he had unrelentingly championed the alliance’s principles.

“It is natural that he would be nominated on behalf of March 14,” Adwan said.

In the first reaction by a March 14 official, Deputy Speaker Farid Makari hailed the nomination of Geagea, describing his chances of winning the support of the rest of the March 14 coalition as “very high.” Speaking from Parliament, he said: “Geagea is certainly a key figure in March 14 and he has all our respect and love.”

But in an indication that Geagea will face additional hurdles before securing the bloc’s nomination, Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb hinted in a TV interview that he may also run for the post.

In an appearance on LBC, Harb said that if he were to run for presidency it would be on a platform of “rebuilding Lebanon,” but insisted that the March 14 alliance should only nominate one candidate.

Earlier in the day, Future MP Ahmad Fatfat also said the bloc had not yet decided on its nominee.

Salam called for a “made in Lebanon” president, saying in an interview that his government would work to create the “right atmosphere” for the presidential election to be held.

“I hope the next president will be purely Lebanese-made as was the national interest Cabinet,” Salam said in an interview with General Security magazine that is set to be published Saturday.

“All regional and international forces that affect Lebanese affairs support electing a new president,” he said, adding that the election would create political stability.

“We are looking forward to this constitutional deadline and we do not want any vacuum in the presidency,” he said.

Source: The Daily Star

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 Middle East, News

U.N. raises awareness about unexploded ordnance

NAQOURA, Lebanon: Mines remain a threat to communities in South Lebanon, according to the U.N., which marked International Day of Mine Awareness Friday.

To mark awareness about the issue, the United Nations Mine Action Support Team used a mock minefield to hold free demining demonstrations for students at three United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon bases, in Naqoura, Shemaa and Marjayoun.

Displays and demonstrations by demining personnel from Belgian, Cambodian, Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish and Sri Lankan contingents were also featured on the day.

In each location, about 70 children from local schools were invited to participate.

Also in attendance was a delegation from the Lebanese Army’s south Litani sector and the regional Mine Action Center, the supervising authority for humanitarian demining activities, as well as representatives of the international community and UNIFIL personnel.

“This day is intended to make local communities aware of the remaining threats from explosive remnants of war in the south of Lebanon, and we would also like to draw attention to the victims and survivors of ERW related incidents and accidents,” said UNMAST Program Manager Leon Louw.

“By involving students, attention can be drawn at the grassroots level to remaining threats, as well as promoting UNIFIL’s efforts to clear areas close to the Blue Line to ease the marking process.”

Louw added that the event also had a commemorative function.

“Today we are … celebrating the survivors, [who are] overcoming their disabilities caused by ERW, and actively joining and contributing in their societies,” he said.

“We want to spread the message throughout UNIFIL’s area of operation and gather a higher number of participants from several communities,” he added.

As of March 1, 2014, UNIFIL peacekeepers completed over 95,000 square meters of mine clearance and over 4.6 million square meters of battle area clearance. During the process, 2,787 anti-personnel mines, 163 anti-tank mines, 92 unexploded bombs, 28,719 cluster bombs and 3,419 other unexploded ordnance objects have been destroyed.

Due to a lack of funding, however, the Lebanese Mine Action Center has fewer than a quarter of the teams it needs to meet its 2020 clearance targets.

UNIFIL has also facilitated the construction of 300 marker barrels along the Blue Line, supporting security in the region in accordance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

The annual International Day of Mine Awareness was established on Dec. 8, 2005, by the United Nations General Assembly.

Source: The Daily Star

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 Lebanese Politics, Middle East, News

Syrian ambassador denies execution of Lebanese captives

BEIRUT: Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali Friday dismissed reports that Lebanese prisoners who were kidnapped during the Civil War were still being held in Syria, suggesting that questions about the allegations would only be settled by “fortune tellers.”

Asked to comment on reports that families and relatives of the alleged Lebanese prisoners had proof that their loved ones were in Syrian jails, Ali said: “Probably, fortune tellers can have the answer.”

He also scoffed at leaked documents claiming that hundreds of Lebanese who were held in Syrian prisons had been executed.

“This talk is ridiculous. It is untrue and baseless in the first place,” he said.

Ali spoke to reporters after meeting Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil to discuss the plight of Syrian refugees, a day after the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees registered the millionth refugee in Lebanon.

An estimated 600 Lebanese were kidnapped during the 1975-90 Civil War and are believed to be held in Syrian prisons. Syria’s army was present in Lebanon from 1976 to 2005.

The families of the prisoners have demonstrated and staged sit-ins in Downtown Beirut in the past, demanding that the government work with the Syrian authorities to determine the fate of their loved ones.

A nongovernmental organization, Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile, has been formed to follow up the case of Lebanese detainees in Syria.

The Syrian regime has long denied holding Lebanese prisoners, after releasing a number of detainees in the past.

Ali said Bassil raised with him the issue of Lebanese detainees in Syria.

“This question has been previously repeated and the Syrian government responded that Syria had cooperated with the Lebanese government and Lebanese national leaders, including General Michel Aoun and all the delegations that visited Syria,” Ali said.

“ Syria has been clear … and does not keep secrets on this issue.”

He claimed that some Lebanese who went missing during the Civil War had been killed by groups in Lebanon, though he did not identify them.

Source: The Daily Star

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 Lifestyle

In with the new at Lebanon’s wineries

BEIRUT: “You want something new? Come,” commanded Habib Karam, the owner of Karam Winery. Rather than answer the question with his own vintage, Karam hauled me through an exhibition of Lebanese wineries to his competitor Chateau Nakad.

Nakad and Karam were two of around a dozen Lebanese winemakers participating in the HORECA hospitality trade show at the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure center since Tuesday. For the biggest gathering of the country’s food and beverage industries, local wineries enticed show-goers with their latest innovations, such as fresh, not-yet-bottled vintages and more adventurous spirits than the quintessential arak.

One such example was Chateau Nakad’s meska liqueur. “Now, this is new,” Karam said, gleaming as if he’d made it himself.

Meska, also known in English as mastic or gum arabic, is an ingredient derived from tree sap and used locally in ice creams and sweets. It’s also often used to thicken jams.

The Greeks use meska to flavor two indigenous spirits under the umbrella name mastichato, which inspired Jalal Nakad – the oenologist and heir of the 90-year-old vineyard – to invent his own meska-infused spirit several weeks ago.

Meska liqueur looks like arak and is served in the same way, with a few ice cubes. But unlike arak, which belies its confectionary appearance with the dry bite of aniseed, Nakad’s meska was as sweet and creamy as it looked, with the deep aroma of the wood from which it was sourced. The spirit is about 30 percent alcohol, from a combination of grain and grape.

“Some like to drink it very slowly as an aperitif,” Nakad said. That seemed the most suitable way to savor the very palatable spirit. He also suggested using it in a mojito-style cocktail, made with ice, mint, sparking water and citrus.

Meska liqueur was the second such dabbling by Nakad. A year ago, the winery launched a citron spirit infused with orange and clementine peel.

Back at Chateau Karam, Habib Karam disclosed his own pet project: a Cognac-style brandy that he has titled Jezzineyac. “We can’t call it Cognac, but if we call it brandy it sounds cheap,” he said. He stole the “yac” from France, as he put it, and added “Jezzine,” the town where Chateau Karam is located.

Karam’s Jezzineyac is triple-distilled, barrel-aged in French oak for two years and then rested in glass bottles for 14 years. To imbue the fortified wine with the terroir of south Lebanon, Karam uses indigenous grape varieties like miksasi, merwahi, hifawi and zawtarani, grown at altitudes as high as 1,400 meters, he said.

Other Lebanese vintners may have tried to distill and age brandy before him, Karam said, “but I’ll say this is the first commercially viable one.”

The Phoenicia Hotel hosted several blind Cognac taste tests, where – up against known French cognacs – Karam’s creation took second place. A classic winter drink, Jezzineyac is best served after dinner, with chestnuts beside a fireplace, Karam said.

After waiting more than a decade and a half, Karam is finally breaking into the vintage – about 3,000 bottles of it – which will go on sale for $105 per bottle in the next two or three weeks.

How to buy it?

“For this you’ll have to call us,” he said.

Some wineries have also turned to indigenous grape varieties, in a break from Lebanon’s French-centric industry.

Chateau St. Thomas’ team at HORECA were showing off their Obeidy wine, a white made entirely from indigenous obeideh grapes. The wine came about as part of an international project to promote the diverse range of wine that is produced in Mediterranean countries, an initiative called the Wine Mosaic Préserver.

Micheline Touma Nassif of Chateau St. Thomas said the Wine Mosaic “are working to save the local wine grapes. The obeideh grapes were taken from different areas of Lebanon.”

Made with 100 percent obeideh grapes, the white has a low alcohol content of 12 percent. Chateau St. Thomas’ newest product, it caught the eye of a wine writer for Harper’s Bazaar U.K. just this week. He described it as an “attractive light-bodied aperitif.”

“It’s also great wine for summer,” Nassif added.

Speaking of summer wines, Adyar launched its light and fruity rose, L’Aube, this weekend. Adyar is a collective of seven wine-producing monasteries that specialize in double-certified organic wine.

Made from mourvedre and syrah grapes, the rose is launching just in time for its summer target, said sales manager Wassim Abi Raad. Adyar’s vinos suggest Thai food or a basket of fresh strawberries as perfect pairings with L’Aube.

If there was one new wine that crowned the four-day show, it was Chateau Qanafar’s yet-to-be-bottled Qanafar 2011, said visiting sommelier Paul Op ten Berg. Op ten Berg, from the Netherlands Gild of Sommeliers, was part of HORECA’s foreign delegation of wine writers.

He said it was the most interesting thing he’d tried on his trip – and that’s after tasting every Lebanese wine on display at HORECA and many more that weren’t.

Qanafar’s founder George Naim explained the Qanafar 2011 was an equal blend of three red grapes: cabernet, merlot and syrah. The result is a spicy, fruity red with notes of red currant, prune and red berries. “It’s the most noble wine we have,”Naim said.

“The complexity is immense.”

Source: The Daily Star

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 Lebanese Politics, News

LF announces Geagea’s candidacy for president

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Forces announced Friday its leader, Samir Geagea, as its candidate for the presidency.

“The Lebanese Forces Executive Body unanimously agreed to nominate party leader Samir Geagea for the presidential elections,” LF MP George Adwan said following a party meeting.

Deputy Parliament Speaker Farid Makari hailed the nomination of Geagea, describing his chances of winning the support of the rest of the March 14 coalition as “very high.”

“I am part of March 14 … and Geagea is certainly a key figure in March 14 and he has all our respect and love,” Makari said from Parliament.

Geagea has pledged to prioritize the controversial issue of Hezbollah’s military involvement in Syria if elected to the post.

Earlier in the day, Geagea said the meeting at the LF headquarters in Maarab, north Beirut, aimed at discussing a decision “that will be a critical juncture in the history of Lebanon, since the situation in Lebanon is constantly deteriorating.”

Geagea also reportedly criticized Hezbollah without naming the party in his opening remarks.

“Lebanon’s borders are no longer clearly defined due to the wide-scale infiltration of armed groups back and forth to fight in Syria,” he said, according to the National News Agency.

The LF leader is a staunch critic of Hezbollah, Iran and the Syrian regime, and is also a key pillar of the Western-backed March 14 coalition.

He refused to join Prime Minister Tammam Salam’s “national interest government” due to Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syria crisis.

Geagea, 62, became the head of the Lebanese Forces militia in 1986. He hails from the north Lebanon village of Bsharri.

He was arrested in 1994 over his suspected involvement in a bomb attack on the Our Lady of Salvation Church the same year. He was also sentenced to life imprisonment over his alleged involvement in political assassinations during the Civil War and was not released until July 2005, when Parliament passed an amnesty law.

Geagea says he was the target of an attempted assassination in 2012 in his Maarab residence, and has accused the Syrian regime and its allies in Lebanon of being behind the killings of political figures in the country.

Source: The Daily Star

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 Lebanese Politics, Middle East, News

Central Bank governor not seeking presidency

BEIRUT – Lebanon’s Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh said that he would not run for president, although his name was being circulated in the media for the presidency.

“Having one’s name suggested for the presidency is different than running for president, because the latter means that the person is seeking the post,” Salameh told An-Nahar newspaper in remarks published Friday.

However, Salameh said electing him as president would not require any amendment to the constitution.

He also noted that he would prefer staying outside the limelight in order to “keep the Central Bank away from politics and political exploitation.”

The Central Bank governor said that extending President Michel Suleiman’s term would cause economic losses to the country.

“Based on previous experiences, the extension of the president’s term in general causes a big economic and financial cost.”

 

Source: Lebanon Now

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 Tourism

Simple treats in garish Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS: You might not expect to find farm-to-table dining in Las Vegas. But that’s exactly why tourists are lining up at a rundown corner a few blocks near the old casinos in the town’s seedy core.

It takes visitors arriving by cab a few minutes to locate the nouveau diner Eat on the ground floor of a motel-style apartment complex that rents rooms by the month and looks like a place where a down-on-his-luck crime-caper hero might live.

But this is Las Vegas’ first neighborhood restaurant with an emphasis on freshness and locally sourced ingredients. Eat has been a favorite among locals since it opened two years ago, when more than 100 people lined up to get their first taste. Chef and owner Natalie Young temporarily closed the restaurant that first night to regroup.

She conceived the restaurant as an antidote to the caviar-drenched, truffle-infused upscale restaurants most commonly associated with Sin City. She spent more than a decade working at some of the Strip’s fanciest venues, including the restaurant at the top of the ersatz Eiffel Tower. At Eat, she’s kept the linen napkins, but chucked the overheated menu descriptions and steep prices.

“There’s enough Vegas in Vegas,” she said, raising her voice a little to be heard above the buzz of a typically packed morning at Eat.

The menu is small, with a Southern accent, and it’s closed for dinner. Breakfast offerings include buttery cinnamon biscuits served with berries piled on top, free-range eggs any way you like and pillowy beignets with seasonal jam and mascarpone. For lunch, there are salads, sandwiches on thick toasted bread, shrimp and grits and the best grilled cheese in town. There can be a two-hour wait for a table on weekends – though it’s more like 15 minutes on weekdays.

The place tends to be noisy, and that’s by design. The ceilings are high, the tables are spread out and there is no Wi-Fi, to encourage diners to interact with each other.

For locals, there’s another major appeal: You can walk there. Other cities take for granted the ability to stroll from lunch to a store to a cafe, but until recently in Las Vegas, residents have had to choose between driving to strip malls or braving the sprawling indoor mall that is a modern casino.

Now, however, downtown Vegas is starting to cohere into the city’s first traditional neighborhood. Within the past 12 months, a critical mass of boutique restaurants has moved downtown, a novelty in an area long dominated by the Heart Attack Grill, where people who weigh over 160 kilograms eat free.

Visitors wary of the wait at Young’s restaurant can walk a few blocks south to MTO, which serves fresh comfort food in a brightly lit space. Or they can amble north toward the touristy Fremont Street, where the Rat Pack once gambled, and check out Wild, a whimsical gluten-free pizza and salad place that is much more delectable than you might think. A block away, Le Thai offers addictive, spicy Thai food in a tiny space.

Wild and Eat were both funded by the Downtown Project, which is remaking the once-derelict heart of Las Vegas with funding from Zappo’s CEO Tony Hsieh.

The project also is responsible for a new park built out of shipping containers opposite Eat. One of the containers is home to Pinches Tacos, arguably the city’s best Mexican food. But no matter where you eat, the Container Park is an appealing after-meal destination. It offers beer, wine and giant twirling slides for adults as well as kids. This is still Vegas, after all.

Source: Associated Press

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