We’re gonna let Sam DeMarco and his troops get their footing before launching into a full review of his food at FIRST FOOD AND BAR. But for the time being, here are some tasty snaps of the menu — brought to you by the guy who practically invented the notion of gourmet bar food.
If any of you remember Sam’s American in the Jordan Mosher-designed space in the Bellagio back in 1998-2000 (where FIX now resides), you’ll know how Sammy D. can make mundane recipes sing with a fusion tweak here (mojito lamb chops anyone?) or a crazy and compelling presentation there (a nice vertical stack of fresh fried doughnuts, straight from the oil).
FIRST is located down a hallway, beside the Barney’s Department Store, at the end of the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian where the gondolas pick up and drop off people outside of the Godiva Chocolate Shop.
In other words, finding it can be challenging.
Let’s hope enough people do so we can avoid losing Sammy D. a second time.
All that being said, we must tell you that Claire (D.O.B. 1-12-95, The Official Daughter Of Tom and Stephanie — he, The Official Best Friend Of ELV since 1965) really enjoyed her chocolate chip ice cream cookies.
FIRST FOOD & BAR
In The Palazzo or in The Venetian or in the Grand Canal Shoppes sorta between The Palazzo and The Venetian
3327 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
702.607.3478
I believe it’s directly under what will be the St. Regis residences, no?
Looks like an interesting menu. But why waste all those peppercorns just as a bed for the crispy oysters? That’s enough peppercorns to last weeks in my home kitchen.
I know Sam personally and had the pleasure of his fine art of food making in NY at Firsdie Restaurant. He is a master at food making. I know that you guys won’t be disappointed. I will visit the new restaurant as soon as time permits.
We went there for lunch today. I know it’s early in the restaurant’s life, so it’s hard to be overly critical on one visit, but today was pretty bad. The service was spotty and the food was ok at its best and bland at its worst. There was also a hair in my not-so-crispy crispy oysters, though when I pointed it out to our server he assured me that after a visit to the kitchen, they told him it wasn’t a hair. I’ve had plenty of food with hair it in it, it happens, but don’t make matters worse by trying to convince me it was something else. Instead of an apology, I received 50% off the dish, with the server telling me the kitchen decided to do that even though it wasn’t really a hair but some other mystery ingredient that he never named.
The complimentary pretzel bread is a nice touch though today’s wasn’t particularly good (it lacked the crispy-chewy bite that good pretzel bread has). The three mustard-based dipping sauces including honey mustard, mustard vinaigrette and mustard butter were all good however. The watermelon and arugula salad sounded interesting on the menu but what was delivered was an uninspired dish consisting of a square block of watermelon surrounded by baby arugula, olives, pine nuts and feta. The truffled mac and cheese was ok, but like the salad before it won’t score high marks in any originality contests, though I’m not sure it needs to. The seafood chili tacos were interesting, and with a little more seasoning could be a very nice dish, but today’s were bland and without a good portion of the sauce-on-the-side (a sweet/spicy concoction) would have been tasteless. The stack of donuts for dessert were also ok (though a little soggy), but the dipping sauces were so cold when delivered that two of the three were too hard to still be called sauces. I’m guessing they have these pre-portioned and waiting in the ‘fridge before service which is an easy fix.
I’ll go back again in a few weeks with the hope that today was just an off day for both the front and back of house teams.
worked with sam’s hasher a$$ at bellagio, what a loser, he hated vegas then and did everything to sabotage the place so he could get out of his contract, now all of the sudden realizing this is the town where you can make money he comes back??????? ELV-why arent you slamming him for that, oh thats right your meal is probably free and his people make you feel important
FYI: our meal for three at FIRST cost ELV $137.
Sam will make it happen.
He thinks out of the box.
Good Luck Sam……..