Desert Companion Archives

The 2024 Restaurant Awards are back! Our critics weigh in on the local chefs, spots, and dishes that defined a year in dining. Plus, the bar awards, a look at the state of Vegas' sporting culture, and more.

The Fall Culture Guide: Catch the latest works from Southern Nevada's painters and sculptors, writers and directors, singers, dancers actors and more. Plus, ones to watch, the latest and greatest from local bands and more.

It's Best of the City! Who to know, where to go, and what to do for an extra Las Vegas experience. Plus, top doctors, the mysterious ichthyosaur and much more.

Has it really been a year since the last Focus on Nevada Photo Contest? Plus, for this year’s look at nightlife in Nevada’s biggest city, we decided to turn the lens on those communities that are big enough to sway markets, but too small to be mainstream — LGBTQ+ individuals, seniors, those under 21 and other non-drinkers.

Hit the road, Desert Companion readers! And while you're at it, have a look around. This issue invites you to not only escape to the outdoors, but also to think about the environmental issues affecting our pursuits and our world.

Welcome to Desert Companion's first-ever (and we hope not last!) love issue! Inside, find stories about Nevada's history as a marriage — and divorce — mecca, chocolatiers making the best sweets for your Valentine's sweetheart, and more.

Back for a second year, Desert Companion's 2023 dining issue encompasses our annual Restaurant Awards along with our special Street Eats section, honoring both the aspirational and the everyday. And this year's Street Eats has its own theme: Around the World in Vegas, a special project identifying national dishes that are available locally. Happy eating!

Southern Nevada may not have foliage tours and apple-picking excursions, but autumn here brings a full calendar of arts and culture to keep us busy. Find a guide to this year’s season here, along with book reviews, interviews, profiles, and a true-crime tale from the annals of punk rock.

Our annual Best of the City gets the hyper-local treatment this year with neighborhood-by-neighborhood pics for top places to eat, drink, play, and shop. And speaking of bests, we've got Top Doctors here, too!

In the summer issue of Desert Companion, readers can enjoy the winners, runners-up, and honorable mentions of our 2023 Focus on Nevada Photo Contest. In addition, we present our first-ever nightlife guide, the best locals spots for dancing, laughing, lounging, and rocking in the country’s most entertaining city.

This issue of Desert Companion includes a travel guide to mountain towns — where to stay, eat, and play, and what to see in five high-elevation, low-stress destinations within a day’s drive (or less!) of Las Vegas. Bonus: an adapted excerpt from the forthcoming book Chasing Giants: In Search of the World’s Largest Freshwater Fish.

In this issue of Desert Companion, science writer Alec Pridgeon takes a sweeping historical look at Southern Nevada’s many precious Indigenous rock writing sites, with an eye toward the threat posed to them by increased outdoor recreation, as well as vandalism. Also: Six local thought leaders in healthcare share what they’d do to improve healthcare if they were in charge; and 2023 Writer in Residence Meg Bernhard kicks off her six-part series of reported essays on people and climate change.