OK, so maybe Las Vegas is in critical need of a cultural overhaul. This week’s CityLife cover story is a reader-polled Best of the Las Vegas Valley compilation. I’ve been looking forward to this issue since I first heard about it soon after I moved here in September. Boy, am I disappointed.

Let’s start at the bottom, shall we? I almost drove into a telephone pole when I was told the winner for Best Italian Restaurant: The Olive Garden. At least the editors weren’t happy about it either:

OK, we were willing to let you slide on P.F. Chang’s, but the freaking Olive Garden?! Are you kidding us? Yeah, we know, when you’re there you’re family, and you love those darn breadsticks. But in a town with more than its share of authentic Italian chefs slaving away in restaurant kitchens, if the best Italian food you can find is at the Olive Garden, you really ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Get off your asses and do some exploring, will you, or you won’t be allowed to play this game again next year.

Culture that I don’t cotton to is one thing, but no local culture at all is something I can’t tolerate. By choosing a restaurant or a coffee shop (Best Coffee House: Starbucks) that can be found in virtually any city, you might as well be saying that Vegas has nothing to offer outside of the Strip – and I know this isn’t true. In fact, Vegas has all sorts of creative establishments that could’ve been highlighted here, but either its citizens are too lazy to go find them or the people who frequent them didn’t bother to send in their selections to CityLife. To be fair, they did pick the best Mexican restaurant I’ve been to so far (Lindo Michoacan) and there are other selections that intrigue me.

I think CityLife shoulders a little of the blame here. How come they didn’t offer the “CityLife Pick” for each category? It would’ve added an alternative viewpoint to the mix, something that was sorely lacking in the article. And of course I’m to blame a little myself for not participating in the voting. But as a new resident, I think it’s excusable for me to wait until next year, when I promise I’ll send in an entry.