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IN THIS ISSUE
VEGAS IS BACK!
By John A. Curtas

CELEBRITY WATCHING IS
WAY BETTER UPTOWN
By John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER
Via Quadronno and Marta
By John Mariani

 

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VEGAS IS BACK!
By John A. Curtas

    Yee ha! Vegas is back, baby, with a vengeance, and the doldrums of 2009-2014 are now as forgotten as last night’s losing streak at the craps table. You can see it in the faces of waiters; you can feel it in the upbeat attitudes of the staffs in hotels all around town. Dining rooms are full, check averages are up, and bargains are getting tougher to find than a loose slot machine. Las Vegas Restaurant Revolution 3.0 (the first two versions rolled out in 1998 and 2005) may be a bit more modest in scope, but it’s just as tasty, with big-hitter chefs expanding their repertoires without diluting their brands. Here are the big three, all opened within the past nine months.  

BARDOT BRASSERIE
Aria Hotel and Casino
3730 Las Vegas Blvd. South
702-590-8611
aria.com/dining/restaurants/bardot-brasserie

    French bistros and brasseries are about as hip as a dickey, but in the hands of Michael Mina (below) and Chef de Cuisine Joshua Smith the classic and time-worn suddenly seems as fresh and effervescent as the rosé champagne you will be offered here to begin your meal. Bardot Brasserie is resolutely a copy of a Parisian brasserie, with lots of traditional-yet-modernized bistro recipes thrown in for good measure. No matter what you call it, Mina and Smith’s cooking has had this place packed from day one.
       All bistro cooking is based on classics like omelet aux fines herbes, steak frites and croque Monsieur or Madame. Here, each of these (along with a superb soup à l’oignon gratinée and steak tartare) are done with top-shelf ingredients and attention to detail you usually don’t find with this type of cooking. The croque Madame starts with good brioche toast, upon which lightly cured, not-too-thinly-sliced French ham is placed, along with some Gruyere that melts into that soft, eggy bread, the whole then bathed in a proper Mornay sauce that emits the subtle creamy-silky tang of a cheesy béchamel. Screw up any one of these ingredients and you have a lousy ham and cheese sandwich; pay close attention to each and you have a thing of beauty.
    Smith’s frisée aux lardons salade is nothing short of textbook perfect, and entrees – from skate wing to roast chicken – remind you, with every bite, why this food has again become so popular. Dishes like foie gras parfait, Parisian gnocchi and moules marinières, duck wings Maltaise, and escargots Bardot (encased in puff pastry with Chartreuse butter) are as much a “must-try” as a show-stopping lobster Thermidor, bathed in a brandy cream and topped with an ethereally rich Béarnaise sauce – a dish at once a throwback and emblematic of Vegas’s regained, Bacchanalian swagger.
    The dining room also hits all the right notes, carried through the glass, wood and polished metal theme as if it were lifted straight from the Left Bank. There are the obligatory cocktails ($12) and a special list of four rosé wines by the glass that go perfectly with this food.
    More than a few friends have asked me how BB compares with db Brasserie, the other relatively new French restaurant in Vegas with a similar concept. Summoning my most diplomatic demeanor (something at odds with my personality, generally), all I can say is Daniel Boulud’s brasserie feels like a corporate calculation, made to feature the “best hits” of his other restaurants. As such, it’s always lacked a theme and suffers for it. (He should’ve had the guts to go full-offal, à la Bar Boulud in NYC, and feature his panoply of sausages and cured meats, but the bean counters said otherwise.) Mina, on the other hand, made the commitment to go balls-to-the-wall bistro here, and make these cuisine classique recipes sing with their own special tweaks and twists, and, because of it, the passion behind these plates is palpable.

Hors d’oeuvres $14-$27 (for the charcuterie platter), with soups and salads $12-$18, and mains $24-$48 (for the lobster Thermidor).

BAZAAR MEAT
SLS Hotel
2535 Las Vegas Boulevard South
855-761-7757
sbe.com/restaurants/locations/bazaar-meat

    Calling Bazaar Meat a good steakhouse is like calling Liz Taylor just another pretty face. What it is is a meat emporium, pure and simple, featuring the best meat on the hoof money can buy. Las Vegas may not be the steakhouse capital of the world, but it runs a close second to the Big Apple, and with José Andrés’ entry into the fray (this is his third Las Vegas restaurant) things have gotten a lot beefier, with an equal amount of pulchritudinous pig thrown in to get your heart beating faster.
      Everyone begins with Jamón Iberico de Bellota (below), the creamy, gamey and dense Spanish ham that is truly the ham all hams want to be. That is probably the easiest decision you’re going to make as you tackle the two-sided plastic board of the dauntingly large menu – one side comprised of  appetizers, small bites, carpaccios and other beginnings, while the other is all about the big-ticket items. But it’s no understatement to say you could comprise an entire feast from the giant pork skin chicharron, croquetas de pollo (chicken-béchamel fritters that come stuffed in a little shoe), tiny Reuben sandwiches encased in micro-thin, crispy “air bread,” and a couple of tartares: the table-side tossed classic, and the beefsteak tomato, which is a triumph of trompe l’oeil ingenuity. In fact, the tomato tartare might be the most jaw-dropping thing on the menu; it resembles raw chopped meat, but surprises the palate with a burst of sweet and acidic tomato ripeness – the perfect expression of summer eating.
      But sticking to the first side of the menu means you’d miss out on half the fun, such as bison carpaccio or the giant spiral of butifarra Catalan-style sausage – too much for two, but just the right nibble for a table of hungry fressers. The conceit of this menu is you can go big or small, raw or cooked, large-format or tiny tapas, depending on your mood and/or the size of your party. It’s really quite ingenious on Andrés’ part to re-invent the American steakhouse as a Spanish food hall, but as huge as the enterprise is (360 seats), there’s an intimacy to the space (and a softness to the lighting) that blunts any sense you’re in a head-em-up-and-move-em-out corporate cattle call.
     Another stroke of brilliance is packing a meat-obsessed menu with all sorts of top-notch vegetarian and seafood items. Whether it’s a roasted Padron pepper or a cauliflower “steak” with pine nuts and preserved lemon, or drop-your-fork-delicious Brussels sprouts “petals” with “lemon air,” you’ll find plenty of antioxidants to applaud without getting close to any dead animal flesh.
    Pescatarians won’t complain either, since the raw bar here puts out the sweetest clams this side of Nantucket – these bathed in leche de tigre (tiger milk) – as well as top-shelf oysters, either raw, grilled or smoked.
    Now, for the show stoppers.  As good as the oak-grilled, bone-in, rib eye steaks are (and the priced-by-the-pound Washugyu Ranch wagyu/Angus and the Harris Ranch Angus are all you could want in a piece of beef), it is the suckling pig that elicits the most huzzahs as it is paraded through the dining room. A whole one (around ten pounds) will set you back $520, but is more than enough for a table of 6-8. The good news is $125 will bring a quarter of one of these beauties to your two-top, and will have both of you swooning over the meat-candy quality of the crispy-sweet skin, and the melt-in-your-mouth quality of the flesh.
    Andrés’ chateaubriand is old school meat eating at its best, as he reinvigorates this warhorse by pairing it with a classic Périgord sauce that would pass muster in any high-falutin’ frog pond. No self-respecting steakhouse is without its Japanese wagyu/Kobe options these days, and the Hyogo Prefecture Eye of the Rib is requisitely fatty and rich, which you will have to be to afford it ($100 for four ounces).
    There’s always braised lamb neck with fried oysters and oyster “catsup,” and a Tortilla Sacromonte egg omelet with kidneys, sweetbreads, and marrow, which may be the last word in offal edibles.
    After all that, desserts may seem like overkill, but you really shouldn’t miss the sinful things this kitchen does with foie gras – putting it between two house-made graham crackers in “José’s s’mores,” or serving a soupçon of sweet and savory foie gras soup with corn espuma (foam), or  yet another espuma of succulent duck organ, paired with peanut butter and honey in something called “Foieffle” – none of which is listed as a dessert, but all of which should be. If you still have a hankering for something sweet after all that, then you’re a better man than I am.

Starter courses and small bites $8-$32. Steaks from $38 to $80/lb. for the Wagyu/Angus cuts, with sides and vegetables all in the $10-$15 range.

LAGO BY JULIAN SERRANO
Bellagio Hotel and Casino
3600 Las Vegas Boulevard South
866-259-7111
bellagio.com/restaurants

    Julian Serrano (below) may not be a Las Vegas native, but after seventeen years here, we pretty much claim him as our own, since he is, by far, our best and most successful local chef. He is also one of the very few name chefs who actually live and work in the city full-time.  His Picasso continues to dazzle as much as it did on opening night in 1998, and his namesake restaurant – Julian Serrano in the Aria Hotel – brings forth the flavors of his homeland and shows his range as both a chef and restaurateur. It certainly qualifies as one of the best Spanish restaurants in America, and can go toe to toe with Jaleo down the street for the best traditional or modern tapas in town.  Serrano – unlike many lesser chefs and most famous ones, which would include both Michael Mina and Jose Andrés – is a constant presence in both restaurants, and he toggles between them every night they’re open, checking on the kitchen and guests without breaking a sweat.
    With the opening of Lago by Julian Serrano, he has decided to leave Spanish and high-toned French-Mediterranean cooking behind to bring forth Italian small plates, done family-style, in a modernist, cutting-edge setting, which tries to simultaneously please the purists and appeal to the party-as-a-verb crowd.
    Whether you like the room or not will pretty much depend on your age. The décor is as far away from the defunct Circo (in whose spot it sits at the Bellagio) as the Jersey Shore is from the Amalfi Coast. “Cutting edge” is the kindest way to describe the overbright, overwhite, aggressively casual-chic décor, although “cruise ship moderne” and “all-night drug store waiting room” may impolitely creep into your assessment if you’re not feeling charitable.
          If all that illuminated whiteness interferes with the enjoyment of your meal, take solace in knowing that restaurants these days are not built with an eye towards maximizing enjoyment of food. That rather quaint notion – that upscale eateries are there to soothe your fevered brow and quell your appetite – is so 2005. In the dystopian restaurant universe of 2015, it seems, it’s far better to catch the eye than provoke the palate. Gastronomic bliss takes a back seat to building buzz these days, and Vegas’s best restaurants, with a few exceptions, are as much about feeding (and feeding off of) the nightclubs as they are about what they are actually feeding you. Thus does Lago perfectly fit the zeitgeist of our current age – built to grab your attention, cause a stir, and capture those clubbers, coming and going.
    This is not to say that one cannot dine well here. Rather, only that the food, good as it is, plays second billing to the scene. Whether you’re tying one on or not, the small pizzette are a good way to start. Unlike the focaccine, their crusts are thin and crackly, designed to highlight the cheeses – smoked provolone, house-made mozzarella, bufala ricotta – not overwhelm them with dough. Just as satisfying are the toasted crostini: the n'duja (a fine, almost pureed spread of spicy pork sausage and Gorgonzola) and the chicken liver with capers and pepperoncino will get your salivary juices properly flowing.
    Everyone seems to get good fish in Vegas these days (thank you Fed Ex), and Serrano’s pesce – be it in crudo (raw) form or a baked whole orata (sea bream) – are as good as you’ll find this far from an ocean. There’s no faulting them, or most of the pastas (although the veggie “ragù” with the pappardelle really doesn’t bring much to the party). The standouts are the risottos: alla trippa e funghi (tripe and mushrooms) or with red wine and burrata. Both are done al dente (somewhat firm, as opposed to soupy), and both are so vivid with their primary flavors you will forget, for a moment, that you’re in an American restaurant run by a Spanish chef that looks like a Caribbean cruise ship.
    If you peer into the open kitchen, you’ll see the reason why these risottos, and most of the pastas, sing as they do. Serrano had the good sense to employ Nico Chessa as his chef de cuisine. Chessa is a veteran of Piero Selvaggio’s Valentino group, and he delivers solid renditions of osso buco, veal piccata and grilled lamb chops scottadito, as well as a potato gnocchi with lobster knuckles that will have you fighting for the last bite. About the only dish that I could fault was the vitello tonnato (chilled, thin slices of veal with tuna caper dressing), only because there was not enough sauce. Of course, there is never enough sauce for me. I can never get enough of a great sauce, unlike the décor here, of which you will quickly get too much.

Small plates of pizzas, soups, salads, fish, meat and pastas are priced between $10 and $20; main courses $28-$60.

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CELEBRITY WATCHING IS WAY BETTER UPTOWN
By John Mariani

      The media’s coverage of celebrity sightings is as old as when Napoleon dined with Josephine at Le Grand Véfour, and in the late 19^th century NYC’s social columnists dutifully reported on who dined at Delmonico’s, Louis Sherry’s, and Rector’s.  Later on, with Hollywood in full swing, The Brown Derby, Café Trocadero, and Chasen’s always had photogs outside, and the rest of the world caught on with the rise of the paparazzi of Rome, who flash-bulb shot every star on the Via Veneto.
         Celebs have always had their favorite spots, usually places where they feel most cosseted—from Spago in L.A. to The Pump Room in Chicago—and nowhere is this more true than in NYC, where, if the local paparazzi are not quite as viciously intrusive as those of Hollywood and London, they can still be a repulsive nuisance.  For this reason, if you happen to be a celebrity idolater who wants to eat where your favorite actor or actress eats, you might as well stay clear of the city’s trendiest restaurants of the moment, because the stars overwhelmingly avoid them.
     Why would, say, Brad Pitt want to eat at a 20-seat storefront on the Lower East Side or Jennifer Aniston trek out to a gastro-pub Brooklyn when they can have a far more relaxed meal with colleagues who long ago found places uptown far less likely to cause them discomfort?
         It is hardly surprising, then, that celebs rarely venture south of midtown—unless it’s a Brian McNally restaurant like Balthazar or Minetta Tavern, where their names are on the V.V.V.I.P. lists.  To prove my point, take a look at two listicles that came out this week, one, in New York Magazine’s Grub Street about celeb sightings (many culled from the New York Post’s Page Six) this past week: Stephen Colbert at Isabella’s (Columbus Ave. & 77^th St.); Bon Jovi at Beautique (West 58^th St.); Jennifer Lopez at Good Enough to Eat (Columbus & 85^th.); David Spade at Hunt & Fish Club (44^th & 7^th Ave.); Michael Moore at Swifty’s (Lexington & 73^rd). The only cited celebs found south of 42^nd Street were Bill Murray and Bryan Cranston at Cookshop in the Meat Packing District.  
                                      James Stewart and Ginger Rodgers at Café Trocadero
        
    Now look at Zagat’s list of the “Hottest” restaurants in NYC:  The Clocktower;  O Ya; Fuku sandwich shop; Oiji; Dirty Candy; Lupulo; Streetbird, and others, almost all way down town, in Brooklyn or up in  Harlem.  Only Ralph Lauren’s tony midtown Polo Club, which is rich in nightly celebs, made the list.
           I’m sure some stars do occasionally slum and bring their glamour to a hot new eatery serving chicken wings and kabobs, but you’re much more likely to see them in old standbys with their colleagues or in places right around the corner from where they work, like ABC and CBS on the Upper West Side, NBC at Rock Center, the theater luminaries on Broadway, the artists and actors at Lincoln Center, etc.  God knows where Anna Wintour of Vogue and Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair are entertaining fashionistas and cover models out of the new Condé-Nast headquarters down at One World Trade Center building.  It’s hard to imagine Katy Perry or Caitlyn Jenner chowing down with Ann and Graydon at Adrienne’s Pizza Bar or Mad Dog & Beans.
         Celebs are as susceptible to kindly hosts and comfort food as any of us, which is why the wall at Patsy’s Restaurant in the Theater District are hung with scores of star photos, including Michael Bublé, Al Pacino, Placido Domingo, Alec Baldwin, Tom Hanks, Madonna, David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, Keanu Reeves, Robert DeNiro, Don Rickles, Liza Minnelli, and Chevy Chase.  Recently George Clooney and his wife Amahl came by for dinner.

  Tony Bennett with Joe and Sal Scognamillo, owners of Patsy's Restaurant

         So, if you are dying to gaze across a dining room at your favorite stars, here are your best bets in NYC. They’re not necessarily the best restaurants in the city—though many are—but they are rife with stars.

Polo Club; Beautique; Minetta Tavern; Balthazar; Da Silvano; `21’ Club; Mr. Chow; Harry Cipriani; Le Cirque; Swifty’s; Bobby Van’s; Fresco by Scotto; Elio’s; Nomad; Waverly Inn; Patsy’s; Sardi’s; Orso; Marea; The Modern; Nobu; Il Gattopardo; Michael’s; Russian Tea Room; Porter House.

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NEXT UP, BEETLEJUICE?

The Nordic Food Lab and Cambridge Distillery, has created “Anty Gin”: gin made with ants. Each $310 bottle of Anty Gin contains the essence 62 ants, mixing them with ethanol, juniper berries, botanicals, and nettle. "The result is a spectacular, one-of-a-kind gin that is being very well received worldwide,” creator Miles Irving, a professional forager, said. “People are astounded at how good it tastes. It's expensive because it's so labor intensive — Anty Gin was almost a year in the making."