LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Marsean Nelson has built Taste Budz from the ground up since 2019. A passion that brought a child of Chicago to the Las Vegas Valley.
“We started catering and delivering, and then we went to a food truck and then we went viral,” Nelson said.
“It’s been an amazing adventure, to say the least.”
The adventure eventually led to a brick-and-mortar restaurant on Decatur Boulevard.
It’s a bustling spot by the weekend, welcoming customers old and new.
“Every time we come to Vegas, we are not leaving until we get some food from Taste Budz,” Ajene Avie said.
“The vibes. I felt like I’m in the right place. The girl at the counter is very helpful for people who have never been here before. She gave really good suggestions,” Ashley Hawkins said.
Avie and Hawkins were both in town for a concert and wanted to get Taste Budz before they went back home.
However, when they made their way to the restaurant, they weren’t taken to Decatur Boulevard.
GPS brought them both to Maryland Parkway, where Taste Budz opened their second location at the beginning of the year.
Unfortunately, they arrived at where the restaurant used to be.
“When we went over there and realized it had burnt down, we said it didn’t even look like the same place we went to,” Avie said.
Taste Budz was one of several businesses lost in a large fire near UNLV Friday morning.
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Nelson, who was out of town when the fire happened and talked to FOX5 about how surreal it was to get the news.
“We just felt helpless at the time. There was nothing that we could do and I told my wife immediately, ‘We’ve got to go back.’ She was like, ‘What are we going back to? It’s nothing that we can do. Literally nothing we could do,’” Nelson said. “You don’t expect it to be you. You don’t expect it to happen to you and then when it happens to you, you’re not even worried about you. You’re safe. You’re saying you’re free. You’re OK. You’re worried about everybody else. We were more concerned about the employees and the employees of the other businesses, as well as the owners of the other businesses.”
Nelson is already looking ahead to rebuilding the restaurant he lost, hopeful that all the businesses destroyed will be restored.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Nelson said. “This definitely isn’t the end of anything that we have set for our plan.”
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