So you think you know Las Vegas?
Shaunda Necole is a Las Vegas-based author, podcaster, soul food blogger, and lifestyle influencer. After two decades of traveling the gorgeous city of Las Vegas, she has officially made the city of diverse culture, food, and famous hot spots her home. Necole’s new book, 100 Things to Do in Las Vegas Before You Die, showcases the true, “Sin City,” many have come to adore after visiting. From savory food and drinks at restaurants you’ll be begging to try again to world-famous music, entertainment, sports and recreation, diverse culture and history, or shopping and fashion, Necole takes the Las Vegas you might think you know and transforms it into fabulous calls to action for all to explore!
The 100 Things to Do in Las Vegas Before You Die author first began her professional career in the corporate sector as an executive for a Fortune 500 company. After a career transition, Necole next found success as a self-made business owner of a cheerleading retail store, and eventually as a soul food blogger and lifestyle influencer. Necole made her Instagram debut thanks to her daughter, who helped create an account for her mother to enter a MacKenzie-Childs‘ brand contest. After her Instagram account exponentially sky-rocketed, Necole’s social media presence today has included lifestyle content, food, traveling, amongst many others topics.
Ideas in 100 Things to Do in Las Vegas Before You Die are drawn directly from Necole’s own experiences as a Vegas traveler officially turned local. The book additionally includes tips on the best restaurants, night-life spots, and local gems you to help you in navigating and enjoy the experience of the city. As a long-time traveler herself, Necole offers insight into Las Vegas from an fresh, energizing perspective.
Shaunda Necole explores the inspiration behind her book and some memorable moments in, “Sin City,” in an interview with Just N Life.
Just N Life: You mention a bit in your preface that Southern Nevada is a place you call home. With that in mind, out of all the places in the world, what made Las Vegas a must-visit for you?
Shaunda Necole: I think Las Vegas is definitely in my veins. I come from a family of creators and entertainers, like my grandparents who were musicians, and that was how they had met. My dad was a musician, my great-grandmother was a caterer; she was the inspiration for my food and recipe blog. My husband and I love music— we collect concerts, we love to go out and eat, like fine dining and so, Las Vegas encompasses all of that. In a week we might see three concerts, and it is so easy to do. Everybody comes to town: our favorite entertainers from comedy shows to music concerts. and we have the best restaurants with pop-ups that always change. We were travelling here for a couple of decades and probably halfway through we decided, ‘We could probably just live here since we come here so much.’ So, we for sure made Las Vegas our home and I’m so glad that we did.
JNL: There are many amazing soul food restaurants and dessert places you outline for readers. From Lo-Lo’s Chicken and Waffles to Lappert’s Ice Cream, what was your most memorable Las Vegas dine-in or take out experience that makes you want to go back?
SN: Memorable always comes with the experience, and that is something Las Vegas never loses sight of. We are a town of experiences. So when you go to a restaurant, you never just go to a restaurant and eat— there’s always something more that comes with it. When you mention Lo-Lo’s, it’s an incredible place because the food is delicious, and it is down-home Southern cooking, but even besides that, it’s just an energy in there. When you sit down, there’s a DJ spinning, there’s a bartender with a big open bar behind you. It’s a whole experience and a vibe: the waiters and waitresses stop behind you to dance when it’s someone’s birthday. It’s just an amazing presentation and you can just feel the love and energy in there. And there are so many places like that.
I’m going to say, the one that stands out the most to me right now, and this is everchanging because Vegas, we get so many new experiences, is one of our oldest restaurants, and it’s so nostalgic and so beautiful and pristine inside, and it is Golden Steer. It’s very hard to get into there because they book out two to three months in advance, because they’re just so good! When you get there, it’s old-school, classic dining, and it’s just beautiful. The seating area are red and shiny booths, that are tucked in and really luxurious. I think the Golden Steer has been open since the 50’s, so they take incredible care. You could be sitting down in the Rat Pack’s booth, and they dedicated these booths to the entertainers that used to frequent the restaurants, and put Las Vegas on the map. [A couple of friends and I] are going in a couple of weeks and I’m so excited to be back!
JNL: What are some essentials or tips you can give to first timers wanting to walk the entire Las Vegas Strip?
SN: Well first I would say go for it! You’re in Vegas, so why not? I kind of give people a checklist for essentials when they come to town, and this would help also if you’re choosing to walk the Vegas strip. First of all, you never know how long it’s going to take. It could take you all day, but if you can avoid distractions somehow, it may take you about three to four hours. There’s just so much to see and do along the way. The first tip is you’re going to want to wear comfortable shoes! The second tip would be to find trams that run in between some of the hotels that can get you from one part a little bit faster than actually stepping it the whole way. Also, no matter what time of year, you’re going to want to have sunscreen. The Vegas sun is a real deal here. We get full sun all throughout the year, so hats, sunscreen, and sunglasses— you want to be protected when you’re out there when you’re making that trek from one end of the strip to the other. My last tip, which is like a pro-tip, is when you do get from the South end to the North end or vice versa, have your phone ready, just call an Uber and Uber back the other way.
JNL: In the book, you have a section dedicated to Las Vegas’ Music and Entertainment. What about the music scene in Vegas is different than other places you’ve visited, such as Chicago, for example?
SN: Vegas is just built for music and entertainment. We are a city of firsts, so we’re always pushing the boundary on how we can razzle-dazzle and entertain you here. And music is a huge part of entertainment. So for one, we get star-studded, legend artists in residency here like Adele. I never thought I’d see her in my life, because she doesn’t like the tour, and I love her so much, but, I was able to see her twice because she had a residency here. We also have dynamic venues for entertainment like Spear. No one’s ever in the world done anything like it. It’s still the first of its kind, and it is just amazing. We are one of the select few of a few thousand people that got to see Lenny Kravitz, who does not have a residency, but he performed at Spear during the Consumer Electronics Show this year, and that was incredible.
Vegas is always pushing the boundaries, and they definitely showed up and showed out with Spear. We also have places like the Smith Center, which is a place where you want to go see an artist, a symphony, or a play. It’s an incredible place to really take in music and they really built that center to make sure the vocals are really heard: it’s state of the art technology. Almost every hotel on the strip has a theater inside, so we are just really built for entertaining.
JNL: What inspired you to write 100 Things to Do in Las Vegas Before You Die?
SN: I wrote this book so that you can easily explore the many attractions and make the most of your time when you come to our amazing city. Las Vegas can definitely be overwhelming when you come here, and you may not know where to start or what to do first. I mean, as soon as you land, you can see the strip, and when you actually make your way to it, it’s just so much to take in. And again, you don’t know necessarily where to start. You could spend a whole day in one hotel just exploring, because each hotel may have a casino, a shopping mall, a theater, you know, tons of restaurants, a spa. There’s a lot to do, even in just one singular place. So I wrote the book as a guide, as a travel companion, so that you can take the worry off of you while trying to figure out how to navigate this amazing city.
The really fun thing about it is the strip is just half the story. There’s so much more in store in Las Vegas. I love the outdoors and summertime, and I actually like heat, which is why live here. Summer is my favorite season, and there are just so many beautiful attractions off of the strip. And I say attractions more like natural wonders. Our mountains are just gorgeous. We are home to Red Rock Canyon. It’s a beautiful place, and it’s only 15 to 20 minutes away from the Strip. We have tons of different National State Parks that people aren’t aware of. We’re home to a lot of museums: from museums like the Rock Museum to the Neon Museum, where retired signs in the city go to kind of live the rest of their days and still be in glory, because everyone walks through to see them and remember the history of Las Vegas.
The book is sectioned out into categories like Sports and Recreation, Entertainment, or Food and Dining, so that it’s easy for you to find what it is that you’re looking for, and even in the back, we break it down by things like Family Things To Do or Seasonal Things To Do. No matter what time of year that you come here, I wanted to make sure that it was easy for you to find the things that tourists often miss, and that you really can uncover the real majesty of the city.
JNL: A big and beautiful point you encourage others to do is making life easier and more soulful. As an author, blogger, and lifestyle influencer, what are your pointers to making life easier and more soulful?
SN: To live curiously, to wonder, to travel, and live in community. Las Vegas is a big metropolitan city— I’ve never lived in a place like this before. I am the one who’s forever amazed by the number of people, how large the city is, the number of towns that exist within the city itself. With all of that said, coming from a small suburban area in Virginia Beach, Virginia, I’ve never felt more community than I have living in Las Vegas. I feel like I found my tribe of people here, and it wasn’t hard to come across. There’s such diversity here and people and cultures. Cultures are celebrated here in food and experiences.
I also just love traveling this the state and let alone the city. But I’m always curious. One of my mottos is to “always take the meeting.” When someone asks if I want to do a new experience, or if I ask myself if I want to try something new, I’m not afraid to do it alone and I’m not afraid to do it in community, either. I like to have the experience, because I think that it really opens your eyes to different perspectives and allows that humility, humbleness, appreciation for people who are different than you, and new ways of doing things different than you to stay there. I feel like this city is made up of all of that curiosity, wonder, and diversity. It’s just an incredible place to be explored and to lead with such appreciation of things that you never thought could exist, would exist, or that you would do, but still want to come back and do it again.
JNL: Who or what has inspired you to make life easier and more soulful?
SN: My husband’s a big inspiration: the book is actually dedicated to him. He’s my partner in life, and I say my partner in paradise, because many people don’t know that the Las Vegas Strip is actually in a town. Most of the strip lies in the town called Paradise, Nevada, but I say what’s the difference? He is an incredible human being. He’s an entrepreneur, and he’s really good at thinking so differently about things. Whereas, I’ll see things one way, his vision is turned around the other way, and I always appreciate that perspective, because it helps build my mind and idea muscle and always thinking of pushing boundaries. So again, I try not to lose sight of, like I said, that I’m just a southern girl who fell in love with Las Vegas, and here I am, kind of a travel ambassador for the city and writing a whole book about it. That in itself, is a big boundary push. I didn’t even grow up here, but I made it my business to know a lot about what goes on here, because I just have such passion and loyalty for it.
Then also the city itself and the people: the entrepreneurs, the people who are creative, whether they’re here or not here, that inspires me all the time. It keeps that curiosity going where I want to get out, I want to meet the people—which was a fun thing I got to do with the book, to go behind the scenes, where certain businesses would open their doors to me, hear their stories of why they are doing what they’re doing, why they’re cooking this dish, why they decided to open this museum, how this all came together, or how the city helped them do this. Stories of other individuals definitely inspire me.
I have a food blog, The Soul Food Pot, and we married that with a podcast, The Soul Food Pod. In the intro for The Soul Food Pod, I talk about my great grandma, Florence, who was a one-woman catering queen in the South during a very rough time as a black women, running her own catering business. I always think of women like her: my mom, my grandma, my great grandma, and the opportunities that I have today. I really do feel and embrace that, and want to share that because I think we all can do that. We’re in a time where you actually can have a business from your smartphone: you can run a whole multi million dollar business literally from a phone. My great grandma didn’t have that opportunity, so I hold that in high regard. I feel a sense of responsibility and inspiration from them to keep pushing the boundaries and pushing forward to get women, minority women, and human beings, just to keep pushing things further every generation and honestly everyday.
JNL: What are a few takeaways you hope readers will keep with themselves after reading?
SN: Well, I say in the book that Las Vegas is a city that should be experienced, reveled in and explored. I guess the big thing is that experiences, in my opinion, are what life is all about. I feel like this city just gives so many dynamic experiences that you could come here even three times in a year, and you’d never get tired, because there’s always going to be something that you didn’t do. That’s from natural wonders to the glitz and the glamor of the strip, to the different residencies that we have here, to our beaches. And yes, we have beaches in the desert. They’re all man made, but they exist. Vegas inspires me in the sense that it’s a city that is built on pushing boundaries.
Again, we are a land of a lot of desert, there’s no coastal water available here to us, but we have built lakes and reservoirs and beaches, and that’s just incredible. Now we’re putting a baseball arena on the Las Vegas Strip. They close down the strip each year now for the F1 Grand Prix Race. That’s something that was probably unheard of, like you’re gonna let cars race down the busy Las Vegas Strip? Yes, we do it every year now, and so that is inspirational in itself. So I’d love for readers to see the city the way that I see it, that we’re not just a party town, even though we do party and we know how to throw the biggest and best ones, but we’re more so much more than that.
Some of the best spas are here in Las Vegas. My birthday is next week, and the biggest decision that I have is which spot I’m going to go to for my birthday? I want readers really to see Las Vegas as such an incredible, dynamic city that’s a hub for culture and arts and any type of interest that you have, we have it here. My tagline with the book is “There’s the Vegas that you think you know, and then there’s this.” That’s really what I hope readers take away from it: that Las Vegas has so much in store for everybody, whether it’s a family visit or solo trip. We’ve got it all here waiting for you.
You can find 100 Things to Do in Las Vegas Before You Die at ShaundaNecole.com, Shaunda Necole’s very own lifestyle blog!
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