When you think of old-school Las Vegas—the kind of Vegas where the croon of Frank Sinatra and the jingle of slot machines echoed through the streets—you likely picture a world of bone-dry martinis, plump leather booths and lounge singers belting out torch songs in smoky rooms. Today, the city’s iconic charm may have been buried under a polished layer of luxury resorts, but there’s one place that hasn’t forgotten what made this town legendary: The Bootlegger Italian Bistro.
For 75 years, this Italian restaurant, lounge, and live music haunt has stood as a time capsule of Old Vegas, nodding to the city’s roots even as the Strip continually reinvents itself. And at the heart of the Bootlegger is a local family whose own story is as intertwined with the city’s history as the food they’ve been serving for decades.
On a busy Monday night, the bistro is in full swing. The sound of a grand piano fills the air in the main dining room, as the soft notes blend with the deep rhythm of a double bass. The room pulses with the urgency of the waitstaff, sharply attired in tuxedos and rushing to accommodate an eager crowd.
As my dinner companion and I are led to our table, I feel a sense of belonging. This is the kind of place where regulars are treated like family and where newcomers are welcomed as old friends.
Earlier in the day, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Lorraine Hunt-Bono, former Clark County commissioner and Nevada lieutenant governor, and the woman at the helm of this iconic institution. Over plates of warm garlic bread, sausage-stuffed mushrooms and ravioli fritti, I settled in to hear about the family’s journey—one that starts in a small Niagara Falls boarding house and winds its way through the streets of an ever-changing Vegas.
FROM NIAGARA FALLS TO FREMONT STREET
It all started with Maria and Luigi Zoia, Hunt-Bono’s grandparents, who emigrated from Italy to Niagara Falls in 1907 and ran a small boarding house there. In 1926, Maria, Hunt-Bono’s mother—“Mama Maria,” as she was known—moved in and cooked for the boarders, and it didn’t take long for the house to become a de facto restaurant.
Live music in the Bootlegger’s dining room.
“Now keep in mind, the foods that mama made and learned from my grandma were sauces,” Hunt-Bono recalls. “I mean real, red, white, pink sauces … rabbit sauce, sausage sauce, all different combinations that we still have here today. My mother changed some of grandma’s recipes, so now all of grandma’s originals have become Maria’s that she’d been implementing since we had our first restaurant.”
In 1943, Hunt-Bono’s father Albert Perry moved Maria and the rest of the family to Las Vegas in search of a drier climate to alleviate his health issues, specifically rheumatic fever and arthritis. They both began working in the hospitality industry, Maria as an Italian chef and Albert as a bartender and restaurant host. After working under chef Domenic Piscatelli, who recognized Mama Maria’s knack for cooking, Piscatelli and the Perrys eventually went on to open an Italian restaurant together in 1949 and ran it for some time before going their own ways.
“Now, my dad’s looking for a piece of land to build a restaurant for my mother and family. He finds a lease—Fremont Street,” Hunt-Bono says.
A FAMILY AFFAIR
In 1955, the Perrys opened the Venetian Pizzeria with Maria’s sister Angie and her husband Lou Ruvo on Fremont Street. (If that latter name seems familiar, it’s because Angie and Lou’s son Larry would later found the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.)
Hunt-Bono herself would eventually come back to Vegas after a year in Hollywood. “I went to Westlake College of Music for one year, and then I came back that summer … at that time, I was 19,” she says. “[The musicians working at the Riviera] were looking for a girl singer … sure enough, I got the job and never went back to Westlake.”
Santa Fe and The Fat City Horns in The Bootlegger’s Copa Room
Her singing career took off. She went on to open the Landmark Hotel and Casino, sang backup vocals for Elvis and even had her own girl group called The Lauri Perry Four. But despite her career as a vocalist, she stayed close to the family business.
By 1966, as the Rat Pack on the Strip caused a stir, the family’s restaurant enterprise expanded to the Venetian Ristorante on West Sahara.
“Well, they sold the Venetian to some guys from Chicago. … As life would have it, my mother couldn’t stand it,” Hunt-Bono recalls. “I’m taking her to sign the escrow papers and she’s there crying, ‘Christ, I’m too young to retire!’”
She laughs, remembering the moment. “We’re getting close to the title company and I said, ‘I’m building you another restaurant,’ … and she immediately started to look to the future.”
THE BOOTLEGGER DEBUTS
In 1973, the Bootlegger opened its doors on Tropicana and Eastern on a parcel of land Hunt-Bono had secured with earnings from her showbiz career. It was an immediate success.
“You take care of your locals, my mom and dad always said that. … Don’t ever forget your locals, because they’re your base,” Hunt-Bono says.
The family has always kept that adage at the front of its mind. They built the Bootlegger for the people who made Vegas Vegas—the ones who stuck around long after the tourists were gone and the lights dimmed. But the city, as always, was changing fast. The Strip was growing, and the family business needed to grow with it.
Seafood Fra Diavolo, lasagna, Venetian Spritz (left) and Bella Maria cocktail.
Hunt-Bono, who had a nose for both business and survival, realized something that a lot of other people missed. “I became a strong small business advocate,” she says. “In Nevada, even though we always think about the big hotels and conglomerates, the reality is most of the businesses in Nevada are small businesses.”
It’s the small places that really make the city hum. The ones who aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but rather just keep the thing spinning. So, the family made the call to expand. In 2001, they sold the original property and opened the Bootlegger 2.0 on South Las Vegas Boulevard.
“We could see the Mandalay Bay,” Hunt-Bono says, remembering standing on the corner with her father, looking out at their undeveloped piece of desert land. “And Dad’s standing there and saying, ‘The Strip is going to keep going. It’s not going to stop.’”
CONTINUING THE LEGACY
By 2003, the family business had firmly passed from one generation to the next. Hunt-Bono’s son, Ron Mancuso, took the reins as CEO of the Bootlegger, moving his New York-based recording studio Studio77 next door to the restaurant. In 2006, Lorraine married entertainer Dennis Bono, who brought his musical connections to the family enterprise.
The next generation of the family joined in, like clockwork. In 2011, Ron’s son Roman stepped up as vice president and manager—marking the fourth generation in the family businesses.
After 75 years, the Bootlegger still feels like home to its dedicated regulars, and it’s a refreshing spot for visitors looking for a taste of a bygone era. Santa Fe and the Fat City Horns blast the roof off of the property’s music venue, the Copa Room, while in the main dining room, you can catch everything from gifted vocalists to master harpists captivating diners.
The menu? Still classic, unpretentious Italian comfort food.
The Bootlegger has survived and thrived in a city that’s more notorious for reinventing itself through implosions than for anything that lasts. But there it is, one of the rare spots in town that’s still as durable and true as the family who built it.
”A family restaurant has to be a family-run restaurant,” says Hunt-Bono. “The family has to pay the mortgage, pay the taxes, pay their employees, and the family has to have their heart and soul in it.”
That’s the recipe, one that’s never gone out of style.
THE BOOTLEGGER 7700 Las Vegas Blvd. South, 702-736-4939, bootleggerlasvegas.com. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday & Saturday, 11 a.m.-midnight.
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