Grace Bascos

The Venetian turned 20 this year, and Delmonico Steakhouse chef de cuisine Ronnie Rainwater celebrated along with it. Rainwater has witnessed the ebbs and flows that have washed over the Las Vegas dining scene, and he and Delmonico have stood strong through it all. Part of the restaurant’s opening team in 1999, Rainwater was named executive sous chef in 2007 and four years later took the helm in the kitchen.

From stiff martinis to free-flowing bottle-service vodka to popping champagne over an extravagant dinner, you’ll never go thirsty in Las Vegas. Now you can add banana whiskey to the mix thanks to Ambros founder Jeff Tomastik, who had the crazy idea to infuse the tropical fruit into the brown spirit.

The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace is more than a luxury retail emporium. It’s a shopping spectacle that also happens to have an impressive array of restaurants, a 50,000-gallon aquarium, talking Greek statues that detail the fall of Atlantis, and an indoor sky that changes color. Still, it’s not exactly easy to quantify the impact Maureen Crampton has made on the Las Vegas shopping experience.