Dining Features
The New Dinner Party
As the dining and nightlife scenes continue to converge, vibe dining and supper clubs boldly take dinner where it hasn’t gone before—to the dance floor
December 20th, 2012
Studio 54’s VIP section routinely featured a room-service cart of sandwich and cookie platters back in 2002, the thought being, I guess, that if you fed us we would stay. (It worked.) Of course, there are much finer things on offer today for pre- and post-party dining on the Strip—First Food & Bar in the Palazzo, Rattlecan in the Venetian, Allegro in Wynn and Society Café in Encore. Read more »
A Savory Soiree
The supper club influx continues apace with Bagatelle, the OneGroup’s latest vibe-dining effort
December 13th, 2012
We are in Bagatelle Restaurant & Supper Club, the luxurious new supper club/nightclub/destination brunch hot spot opened last month in the Tropicana by the OneGroup, and there isn’t a single other table occupied at the start of dinner service on a Wednesday evening. The club is a major investment for the group that brought us STK at the Cosmo—$6 million, rumor has it—and it certainly looks the part. But no one looks worried. I’m told the club, which has to be a good 200 feet across, was jam-packed on a recent Saturday night. Read more »
Shake, Rattle and GO!
Sammy D does it again, and gets himself into a [rather tasty] pickle
December 6th, 2012
First Food & Bar’s Sam DeMarco, a.k.a. Sammy D, virtually launched the small-plate concept in New York, and he might have the most creative mind of any chef on the Strip. Read more »
Dining
Have a Ball
Town Square’s hot new meating place keeps it simple but satisfying
November 29th, 2012
Opening the right concept in the right place at the right time won’t ensure success in the restaurant business. Add a talented, passionate chef the likes of Carla Pellegrino—who owns Bratalian in Henderson and recently got a divorce from Bacio at the Tropicana—and your chances suddenly go from very good to excellent. Read more »
Spago at 20
Our food critic happily goes back to the ’90s to sample Puck’s special throwback menu
November 22nd, 2012
Say what you like about Wolfgang Puck, but the über-celebrity chef—whom I have known since he first came west 36 years ago—is a game-changer. Twenty years ago, on Dec. 11, 1992, Puck made a bold move, opening a branch of his successful Hollywood restaurant, Spago, in the Forum Shops at Caesars. I came later that month, and the restaurant was empty. Read more »
How Sweet It Is
A dynamic power-foodie couple revives a beloved corner of Las Vegas neighborhood dining with Honey Salt
November 15th, 2012
The past decade has brought Las Vegas a flood of ethnic dining, and wonderful high-end restaurants where the check average soars to well above $100. Fine dining for less than $50 per person remains a challenge, though, a niche begging to be filled. Read more »
Unreasonably Expensive, Stunningly Mediocre
Javier’s serves up delicious eye candy, but can you live on that alone?
November 8th, 2012
Gazing at the sweeping white-brick Moorish archways and 3,000 pounds of chainsaw art, with panels depicting the Mayan creation story and figures in the style of El Dia de los Muertos (Mexico’s Day of the Dead), one cannot be less than impressed with Javier’s, the newest member of the restaurant family at Aria. If you stay to eat, though, you’ll likely leave with a very different impression. Read more »
Dining
Three Cheers!
Chris Herrin goes beyond Bread & Butter to answer the age-old question of what’s for dinner. (Hint: It’s not just beef.)
November 1st, 2012
Chris Herrin is a serious baker and restaurant owner, but if you ask him, he’ll tell you he mostly just wants to have fun. This ruddy, cheerful man, who looks as if he stepped right off a Pillsbury box, has already secured a coterie of friends who assemble almost daily at Bread & Butter, his Henderson bakery and informal breakfast/lunch stop. Read more »
Breakaway Thai
In his first solo act, Bank Atcharawan takes us home to southern Thailand
October 25th, 2012
Could that be Florence & The Machine playing in the background here at Chada Thai & Wine, the new small-plates Thai restaurant in the Jones Boulevard mall already home to HK Star, China MaMa and Asian BBQ & Noodle? Yes. That’s just the first sign that this isn’t your typical Thai restaurant. Read more »
The Pit Master
Trust Big Paul to up your meat game with ’cue to queue for
October 18th, 2012
“What you really want to ask me is, where is the accent from?” said Paul Nwuli, as he stood behind the counter at his modest barbecue joint, Big Paul’s BBQ. After I’d incorrectly guessed Jamaica and the Bahamas, he told me that he had been born in Houston, but had grown up in Ghana and other West African countries. His mom, it seems, had a long career working for various United States embassies. Read more »
