Las Vegas is a city of steakhouses — and with good reason. The business model is practically bulletproof in a place like the Strip, where tourists congregate with their wallets at the ready. Inside, meat and red wine are offered freely in dim corners and deep booths, giving customers a sense of importance and celebration, before being rolled back out the front door to the casino floor. Like the Rock in a cashmere sweater, Vegas steakhouses offer excess, beef and a thin veneer of luxury.
Lately, though, Las Vegas has begun to embrace a new kind of cow. Less sizzle, more smoke. The city’s barbecue scene, while still young by Texas, Kansas City and even California standards, has grown significantly in the past half decade.
“Vegas has a melting pot of barbecue,” said Dusty Ardoin from a long wooden table inside Rollin Smoke Barbeque, the Highland Drive joint he co-owns with his brother and father. “You can go to one stop,” he said, referring to the city at large, “and get a bunch of different styles. And that’s very unique for barbecue in America.”…