VEGAS DINING NEWS: Wiping the Flores with His Competition — the Newfound Celebrity of a Non-Celebrity Chef

Posted on: February 15, 2025, 01:45h. 

Last updated on: February 15, 2025, 02:34h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

Of the six Las Vegas eateries making this year’s Yelp List of Top 100 US Restaurants, the highest-ranked — for the second consecutive year — was not a celebrity-chef joint on the world-famous Strip but a modest cafe opened six miles southwest by a chef who never hosted his own Food Network show.

DJ Flores was born and raised in Las Vegas to parents originally from Puebla, Mexico. He began working in the food industry at age 16, manning a Kmart pizza counter. (Image: Instagram/@milpa_lv)

Milpa was opened in 2021 by chef DJ Flores, the former executive sous chef at Chica at The Venetian. Last year, the Latin-American eatery — located in an unassuming Strip Mall at 4226 S. Durango Drive in the unincorporated suburb of Spring Valley — bested all other Vegas restaurants in Yelp’s US ranking at No. 22.

An assortment of Flores’ Milpa specialties. (Image: milpalv.com)

This year, it inched up to No. 19.

To be fair, Yelp’s Top 100 US restaurant list rarely includes celebrity chef-owned or Strip-located establishments. However, in January, Flores also earned his second consecutive semifinalist nod for Best Chef Southwest in the James Beard Awards.

And those are the Oscars of fine dining.

So how has a non-celebrity chef been able to win over not only the masses but America’s pickiest foodies, restaurant critics and other culinary experts?

Masa Appeal

Milpa is celebrated for grinding its tortillas from masa (corn dough) made from fresh imported heirloom corn using a 600-year-old Mesoamerican technique. (Milpa is Spanish for cornfield.)

Flores molds the house-ground heirloom corn masa at Milpa. (Image: Kyria Media)

Flores — born and raised in Las Vegas to parents originally from Puebla, Mexico — worked his way through the world of Las Vegas Latin-American cuisine, cooking for respected names including José Andrés, Lorena Garcia and Aitor Zabala.

In 2013, when he was 30, he then decided it was time to get to learn the cuisine of his ancestors firsthand.

He moved to Mexico City to take a stagiaire, or internship, under acclaimed restaurateur Jorge Vallejo at Quintonil.

“I wanted to get myself in the headspace there and get to know the ingredients, know the techniques and know the culture,” he told “Good Morning America” in October. “It was my first experience of a good corn tortilla.

“I was brought up with store-bought tortillas, but to them, [fresh tortillas are] what they eat every day.”

Here are the other five top-ranked Vegas restaurants for 2025:

  • 43: Toasted Gastrobrunch at 9516 W. Flamingo Road
  • 67: Hachi, the Japanese restaurant at 3410 S. Jones Blvd.
  • 77: Slater’s 50/50, the behemoth-burger joint at 467 E. Silverado Ranch Blvd.
  • 83: Top Sushi & Oyster 2 at 9830 Las Vegas Blvd. South
  • 88: Prime 141, a steakhouse at 10670 Southern Highlands Parkway

Dining Ins & Outs

A rendering of Nocturno. (Image: Envliven Interiors)

Speaking of chef Flores, he will open a cocktail bar next month in the Arts District downtown. Nocturno — helmed by Wakuda mixologist Lu Lopez — will open at 3555 S. Las Vegas Blvd. That’s the space formerly occupied by former gay bar The Garden.

The bar will be the first project from Nivel Hospitality Group, the company Flores and Lupez formed last year with fellow restaurant veteran Arron Cappello. Its second project will be Cosecha, a sister Latin American restaurant to Milpa that Flores plans to open in the Arts District later this year.

Unclean Bills of Health

888 BBQ at 4801 Spring Mountain Road in Chinatown, was closed by the Southern Nevada Health District during a routine Feb. 12 inspection for 31 demerits. Similarly, Mexicali Tacos & More at 2987 N. Las Vegas Blvd. in North Las Vegas was closed during a routine Feb. 11 inspection for 30 demerits.