Homesick? Get a taste of where you’re from in Vegas

Vegas: It’s filled with people from someplace else. And while Sin City has enough original restaurants to satisfy tourists and transplants alike, sometimes you just want a taste of home. Here are a few Vegas outposts of favorite far-away restaurant chains.

Opening earlier this year with the kind of frenzy surpassing a Tom Jones concert in the ‘70s, Midwest cult-favorite White Castle has already garnered a whole new generation of fervent fans known as the “Craver Nation.” Few can eat just one iconic small slider, so buy in bulk! Get a “sack” of 10 for $9.99, a “suitcase” of 30 for $43 and a “craver crate” filled with 100 burgers for $109.99. Sides include their famous crinkle cut fries and “chicken rings.” Open 24 hours, White Castle was made for Vegas.

If you can’t wait until 2016 for New York favorite Shake Shack to open in L.A., head to Vegas, which boasts the first Shack location to open west of the Mississippi. Making its debut on the Strip last fall, Shake Shack celebrates the city with Vegas-specific items like the Jackpot (vanilla frozen custard, Belgian waffles, strawberry puree, marshmallow sauce and rainbow sprinkles), an expanded beer and wine menu, and goodies from local bakery Gimme Some Sugar. Fan favorites from the flagship location in Madison Square Park include the Shack Attack (chocolate custard, fudge sauce and chocolate truffle cookie dough and the colossal, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink “Shackapalooza.”

Chalishing for the taste of real New York pizza? Salvation is here. Hailed by the New York mayor Bill de Blasio as the best pizza in the city, Brooklyn landmark Di Fara Pizza has a new outpost at the Forum Food Court at Caesars Palace. Find New York cheese, artichoke, four cheese, Big Apple, white truffle and bianca pies made from exactly the same recipes as the New York originals and even using a custom water filtration system to closely match the mineral content of Brooklyn’s water.

Michiganders can get theirs at American Coney Island. Yes, the family that lays claim to inventing the Coney dog in 1917, creating a Midwestern staple, has opened its first stand outside of Detroit in downtown Las Vegas. The Coney hot dog consists of a Dearborn sausage topped with onions, mustard and chili made from a secret recipe. Connoisseurs can smell it a mile away.

-Andrea Kahn, Tribune Content Solutions