AS I WALK THROUGH the Rainbow Club, the movie
Doc Hollywood plays in my mind. That is the early 1990s (classic?) starring Michael J Fox as hotshot doctor Ben Stone, who is on his way to Beverly Hills when he gets stuck in small Grady, South Carolina, and has to adapt to its laid-back Southern lifestyle.
Certainly, the Strip is closer to Water Street in old Henderson than to Grady, but in some ways it feels just as far away. Follow me here: Our Doc Hollywood is Chef Scott Pajak. The 43-year-old culinary expert was a veteran of the Strip for 18 years, namely with the Emeril Lagasse brigade, where he worked his way up from line cook to sous chef at Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House at the MGM Grand before ascending to executive chef of Lagasse’s Stadium at The Palazzo.