The blocks east of the Fremont Street Experience between 6th and 9th. Carson Kitchen, Atomic Liquors, PublicUs and Mothership Coffee anchor the post-2012 downtown reset.
Carson Kitchen in Las Vegas is Cory Harwell and the late Kerry Simon's downtown Fremont East dining room since 2014, the last restaurant the Rock 'n' Roll Chef opened.
Signature: Bacon jam, Devil's eggs, Glazed donut bread pudding
Order: The bacon jam with baked brie and grilled bread; on the menu since opening day.
Tip: The rooftop patio runs an abbreviated menu and reservations are easier than the main room.
Carson Kitchen in Las Vegas is Cory Harwell and the late Kerry Simon's downtown Fremont East dining room since 2014, the last room the Rock 'n' Roll Chef opened.
Signature: Bacon jam, Devil's eggs, Glazed donut bread pudding
Order: Bacon jam with baked brie and grilled bread.
Tip: Rooftop patio runs an abbreviated menu and is easier to walk in than the dining room.
Pizza Rock in downtown Las Vegas is Tony Gemignani's 13-time World Pizza Cup outpost at Downtown Grand, with a walk-up window doing slices in six different dough styles.
Try: Slice-window pizza by Tony Gemignani, six dough styles
Tip: The walk-up window does single slices; the Neapolitan and Roman get the best of the four ovens, the Sicilian travels well.
Doña Maria Tamales in downtown Las Vegas is the Martinez family's tamale-counter-turned-restaurant since 1980, holding the Charleston and Las Vegas Boulevard corner with red pork and green chicken steamers.
Try: Red pork, green chicken, and sweet corn tamales
Tip: Tamales sell by the dozen for takeaway and ship overnight; on the menu, ask for them smothered in red chile and topped with an egg for breakfast.
Tenaya Creek Brewery in Las Vegas is one of the city's first craft brewers, open since 1999 and pouring 28 taps in a smoke-free Bonanza Road taproom with rotating food trucks.
Tip: The Bonanza Brown Ale is the long-running flagship; nightly food trucks park outside and rotate Mexican, Korean and barbecue most weeks.
Downtown Container Park on Fremont East in Las Vegas is the open-air market built from 43 shipping containers, with 38 boutique tenants and food vendors under the praying-mantis flame sculpture.
Tip: Eat at Bin 702 (craft beer and grilled sandwiches), grab gelato at Waffelato, finish with cocktails next door at Oak and Ivy; the mantis fires its flame antennae after dark.
Lip Smacking Foodie Tours' Downtown route in Las Vegas walks Carson Kitchen, Le Thai and 7th and Carson with a cocktail or mocktail at the bonus stop, three hours of chef-driven Fremont East.
Tip: Afternoon 13:30 tour is all-ages, evening 17:00 is 21-plus; sit at Carson Kitchen's bar for the bacon jam crostini.
Secret Food Tours' Historic Downtown Las Vegas tour walks eight stops from the Plaza Hotel with shrimp cocktail, Hawaiian musubi, NY-style pizza and a Secret Bite finale.
Tip: Look for the orange umbrella outside the Plaza; departures daily at 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00, water and one margarita included, drink upgrade available.
Great Vegas Festival of Beer in downtown Las Vegas is Nevada's largest craft beer festival, 200,000 sq ft of Fremont closures with 100-plus breweries, 500 brews and food trucks each March.
Tip: Early Entry tickets buy an hour from 14:00 with rare beers; the Motley Disco VIP tier covers gratuities and the food spread.
Dream Asia Food Fest in downtown Las Vegas is the three-day winter festival at the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center, 80-plus pan-Asian vendors plus Lion Dance, Taiko and K-pop sets.
Tip: Saturday is the busiest day; the anime merchandise market runs all three days, and the K-pop dance performances cluster in afternoon time slots.
Las Vegas Indian Food and Cultural Festival (Mela) at Clark County Government Center Amphitheater is the Vaisakhi Mela revival, pani puri, samosas and Bollywood dance with 6,000-plus attendees.
Tip: Tickets are $14.41 for 9-plus, under-8 free; cash for the food stalls is faster than the QR-pay queues, henna artists run all afternoon.
Doña Maria Tamales on South Las Vegas Boulevard is the 1980 family tamale counter, three tamales with rice and beans for $11 to $14 in a no-frills room two blocks from the Strat.
Try: Red pork tamale plate with rice and beans $11-14
Tip: Tamales sell by the dozen for takeaway; smothered in red chile and topped with an egg is the breakfast plate locals order.
Babystacks Cafe on South Main in downtown Las Vegas is the Filipino-American brunch counter that runs ube crepes, matcha pancakes and red-velvet stacks across five valley locations.
Order: Ube crepes; matcha or red-velvet pancake stack.
Tip: Order the ube crepe roll and the half-stack of matcha pancakes; the line moves faster at the downtown branch than at Summerlin.
Atomic Liquors on Fremont East in Las Vegas is the city's oldest freestanding bar since 1952, with Atomic Kitchen alongside doing burgers, wings and bar plates until 02:00 nightly.
Try: Elevated bar burgers, wings, atomic mac
Tip: The Atomic Kitchen menu runs the same late hours as the bar; order the smash burger and an Old Fashioned on the Fremont patio.
Carson Kitchen on 6th Street in downtown Las Vegas is Cory Harwell's small-plates room (co-founded with the late Kerry Simon in 2014), with bacon jam, devil's eggs and a late-running bar bites menu until 23:00 weekends.
Try: Bacon jam, devil's eggs, bacon burger
Tip: Sit at the bar after 21:30 for the small-plates list; bacon jam with havarti on toasted baguette and the bacon burger are the standing order.