Harely Carbery was born in Victoria, BC. He grew up in his families Dairy Queen slinging burgers and ice cream. After attending Camosun College in Victoria he graduated with a Hotel & Restaurant Management Diploma. Working for Fairmont Hotels & Resorts across Canada for 7 years took him from the Banquet Rooms at the Algonquin in St. Andrews, New Brunswick to the kitchen in Mt. Tremblant, Quebec to Managing The Wildflower and Wine Room Restaurants at the Chateau Whistler. While in Whistler he fell in love with wine and became a Sommelier through the International Sommelier Guild. Now in Las Vegas, after a short stint as F&B Manager at the Ritz Carlton Hotel he made the move to L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon as AGM/Sommelier and finally Wine Director of Joel Robuchon Restaurants, Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino.
Las Vegas is an interesting and amazing city for many reasons, many of which I have already discussed. One of my favorite things about Las Vegas is really how small it is within the hospitality community. Las Vegas is a large city of approximately 2 million people. It is not uncommon to “run into” friends and colleagues all over town, whether it’s at one of the big strip casinos or a small local’s restaurants off the strip. This is even more remarkable considering Las Vegas has over 30 million visitors every year!!
This really surprised me to find after living in much smaller communities like Whistler and Mt. Tremblant. It is quite refreshing after a long day of what seems like a never ending turnstile of guests from all over the world to have an actual community feeling in a place like Las Vegas.
Some people look at you strange and that you might just be a little crazy when you tell them you actually live in Las Vegas. Yes there are many of us that call Las Vegas home and we have built a great network of hospitality professionals. Keep in mind it is still a big city with all of its vices and excitement but you can find a feeling of a small town if you know where to look.
I highly recommend living and working in Las Vegas, you never know who you’ll run into.