(FORTUNE Small Business) – On its surface Las Vegas seems to offer a lot of variety. Within a few blocks you can be in New York City, Paris, Cairo, or Venice. Yet most of the big hotels are owned by a decreasing number of corporations, and the consolidation is only getting worse. MGM Mirage just bought Mandalay Resort Group, and Harrah's Entertainment is acquiring Caesars. In this market the new $2.7 billion Wynn Las Vegas hotel, at 2,700 rooms, looks like a boutique.

But off the Strip there is a strong undercurrent of entrepreneurship. If you're in town for business (the Women's Business Enterprise National Council convention runs June 28-30) and you want a break from the neon, try something independently owned and a little more authentic. Here are a couple of options.

Escape for a meal: Rosemary's. The location is underwhelming, but everything else about Rosemary's stands out. Consistently rated one of the best Las Vegas restaurants over its six-year history, Rosemary's is in a strip mall ten miles west of the main hotels, near a nail salon and a Wiggin' Out Wigs. If you weren't looking for it, you'd never find it.

Inside, chef-owner Michael Jordan (no relation), 39, prepares dishes such as panko-crusted crab boulettes or pork chops with Hoppin' John (black-eyed peas and rice) and a creole mustard reduction sauce. Note the New Orleans influence--after studying at the Culinary Institute of America, Jordan trained with Emeril Lagasse in the Crescent City. In 1998 he came west to launch Emeril's New Orleans Fish House at the MGM Grand; 18 months later he and his wife, Wendy, opened Rosemary's, which is named for Jordan's mom.

The restaurant gets its share of tourists making pilgrimages from the Strip, but they're outnumbered by city residents. "Our main thing is to be a local Las Vegas restaurant for a local Las Vegas crowd," Jordan says. That extends to his suppliers too. When he set up the kitchen, Jordan passed on a walk-in refrigerator. "I didn't want that case of lettuce sitting around for two weeks," he says. Instead he buys fresh produce daily from nearby vendors, goes through everything he has that day, and starts over the next morning. The wine list is also noteworthy--in 2004, Wine Spectator named it the best in Las Vegas.

» Entrées $21-$36; 8125 W. Sahara Boulevard; 702-869-2251

Escape for a night: Mount Charleston Lodge. Drive 35 minutes northwest from Vegas and you're not in the desert--you're in the mountains. Mount Charleston, 11,919 feet high and anchoring a national forest, feels more like Colorado than Nevada. Two-thirds of the way up sits Mount Charleston Lodge, a cluster of cabins offering some decidedly un-Vegas amenities, namely peace and seclusion. All 24 cabins--800 square feet for families, 500 square feet for couples--have an indoor Jacuzzi and private balcony with views of Kyle Canyon. Significantly, none of them has air conditioning, which you don't miss: Temperatures on the mountain run 30 degrees cooler than in Las Vegas.

The lodge dates back to 1950, when it was built as a weekend retreat for the owners of the Hacienda Hotel (precursor to Mandalay Bay). Current owners Barbara and Collie Orcutt, originally real estate agents in Boca Raton, came to Las Vegas in 1973 for a convention and fell in love with the six-acre property.

The cabins all have parquet floors, wood paneling, and lots of details that skate on the border between rustic and kitschy. The region is laced with hiking trails reachable by foot from the lodge--short loops or more ambitious eight-mile treks that require most of an afternoon. The lodge offers a bar (with video poker, the only hint of Las Vegas glitz) and a restaurant that makes claims to fine dining, though I'd rate the experience a few notches below that. A better option: Spend a night in one of the cabins, take a long hike to build up your appetite, then drive back to Rosemary's for dinner.

» Cabins $125-$220; 1200 Old Park Road; 702-872-5408