Dinner at PARMA…or was it PASTAVINO?

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No one loves to bag on bad Italian like ELV.

For twenty years we’ve maintained that you can throw anything on a noodle, smother it with cheap tomato sauce and cheese, and the world (or Americans at least) will beat a path to your door.

With a few exceptions, we avoid neighborhood Italian restaurants like Demi Moore does sobriety tests.

One of those exceptions is Parma by Chef Marc, a restaurant that, to these taste buds, just keeps getting better and better.

Pastas have always been its strong suit, but it was Marc’s lobster bisque that made us sit up and take notice last week. It was intensity in a cup. Full of lobster-ness without heaviness, classic in style and supremely slurp-worthy.

If you scroll through the pictures, you’ll also see a pristine red snapper over squid ink-infused polenta, a spaghetti cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper), and a skirt steak — all properly seasoned and cooked to a “t”.

From the looks of things last Tuesday night, we’re not the only ones who’s noticed how tasty this joint has become. The joint was jumpin’ (how many restaurants can say that on a Tuesday night?), as the pastas were flying out of the kitchen and Marc worked the room (and touched every table) like an old pro who knows how to keep his customers happy.

From the prices (everything priced in the teens to low 20s — i.e. a serious bargain) to the wine list (limited but also quite reasonable), everything about this place is designed to keep you happy. Except the name.

Yes, it seems Chef Marc, charming, hard-working guy that he is, loves to confuse people*….especially when it comes to what things are named…including him. The sign on the door (and the menu) says “Parma by Chef Marc”. Marc’s last name used to be Sgrizzi, then it was Ritz. Now it’s back to Sgrizzi. If you google “Parma Las Vegas” you get a website that says “Chef Marc’s Pastavino & Deli,” which also happens to be the sign you see from the road as you drive down Buffalo, yet the website address www.parmabychefmarc.com. Urbanspoon lists him under Chef Marc Parma, while Yelp calls it Chef Marc’s Pastavino.

Schizophrenic? A little. Perplexing? Yes. Forgivable? Absolutely…especially when a chef’s knack with gutsy Italian food (and certain soups) renders such imprecise nomenclature irrelevant to the enjoyment at hand.

ELV’s dinner for one, that was more like a dinner for three, came to $40 since Chef Sgrizzi or Ritz or Sgrizzi or whatever he’s calling himself these days didn’t charge for several items.

CHEF MARC’S PASTAVINO & DELI (we think)

7591 West Washington #110

Las Vegas, NV 89128-4342

702.233.6272

www.parmabychefmarc.com

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* What we have got here is what the Captain might call a “failure to communicate.”

10 thoughts on “Dinner at PARMA…or was it PASTAVINO?

  1. Well, I’m a little irritated that more people will know about Marc’s. Hand’s down my favorite place for Italian food. Your post reminded me to call and make reservations for my birthday!

  2. I love Italian food; for me the best food in the world; I feel that you can eat it every day a be very very happy.
    I like the fact that it simple and all based on great ingredients
    Or at least it is in Italy
    I had the fortune to live and work in Italy and discover that Italian food is quite different then what is served here.
    Here we eat “Italo American” that for me is crap and has no tie to Italy at all.
    I went to Parma ( or what ever it’s called) for lunch once because of your other good comments, and again a usual ItaloAmerican Menu. Food very average

    I spoke with Italian Chefs that work here in LV and they tell me that that they can’t really cook Italian because the clientele dose not want nor understand it. They are always asked to cook the same American Standards (fried calamari, linguini with clams,fettuccine alfredo, chicken parmigiana..) so at the end they also loose passion and send out food that they would never ever serve in Italy. It’s almost like hiring an American Chef to work in Italy and have him cook Hotdogs because Italians think American Food is hotdogs and hamburgers.

    So my question is: would Las Vegas understand a real Italian restaurant? There are quite a few in San Francisco also many that are specialized in various Italian regions (Liguria, Lazio, Piemonte, Sardenia).
    Or the market only wants what we have.

    I’m not surprised that you, Elv, avoid “Italian” restaurants, but sometimes I’m surprised by your reviews, like this one or Bacio at Tropicana, that are the same average ItaloAmerican…..crap?..

  3. ELV responds: Like @Tom, we LOVE Italian food, especially in Italy. In America (generally), all of the subtlety and nuance gets buried in a heap of “gravy,” cheese and other crude approximations of the real thing.

    But this doesn’t mean it’s all “crap,” only that certain restaurants must be judged on their own terms. Regarding Parma, it seems to us that Marc is trying to lighten things up a bit, and substitute “ingredient-forward” cooking for “sauce-forward” creations. (Perhaps we should have put this in the body of our article.) That is the reason we think it is worth a trip, although in no way does it compete with the finer Italian places on the Strip.

    Like Tom, we’ve heard many an Italian (or American) chef bemoan how the public just wears them down in its relentless quest for those “standards” that are done to death. Irene Virbila of the LATimes discussed this at length with Max and me on KNPR two years ago. Americans don’t want authentic Italian anymore than they want authentic Japanese or real, rustic French…and the Las Vegas (read: local) market really doesn’t want anything more than the same old crappy sauces and cheese that Maggiano’s and Buca di Beppo churn out.

    Bottom line: If you want great Italian food, go to Italy; if you want good facsimiles of the real deal, go to Valentino, B & B or Circo; and if you want something better than the same old franchised, Sysco slop, give Parma/Pastavino a whirl.

  4. Both John & Tom make excellent points. The constancy with which restaurant patrons demand dishes that persist in their memories must be disheartening for a chef with even a smidgen of imagination.
    I’ve trod the boards of several suburban Italian (style) eateries and a few inner city bistros and restaurants serving more authentic, regional dishes; I think the differences, while at times significant, must really be assessed between true home cooking and restaurant food. Cherished heirloom dishes vary in preparation and presentation depending on who cooks them, how they interpret or in what ways they improvise. How much is lost or gained in translation? The best compliment a restaurant can receive is if its creations are described as homemade.

  5. Thanks for all the comments. I travel all through Italy and love to come back here and recreate some of the best dishes I experienced there. however that being said the people I serve are a mixed bunch of great people that like traditional old school americanized Italian and some who like the real European Italian. I try to bring both and do it very well. And I do it in a closet of a kitchen, not the huge new kitchens and all the equipment the chefs get on the strip. If you have had my chef table then you know I can and love to do true Italian fare, not American style while still every day I get people that want chicken parmesan or lasagnea and i must have these pedestrian entrees or else the landlord will not get paid. so anyone out there that feels that I cannot cook like the chefs on the strip, I ask only that you make a reservation for the chef table and then tell me about Italian food. I can go very deep and seldom get the chance on a daily basis.

  6. Thanks for all the comments. I travel all through Italy and love to come back here and recreate some of the best dishes I experienced there. however that being said the people I serve are a mixed bunch of great people that like traditional old school americanized Italian and some who like the real European Italian. I try to bring both and do it very well. And I do it in a closet of a kitchen, not the huge new kitchens and all the equipment the chefs get on the strip. If you have had my chef table then you know I can and love to do true Italian fare, not American style while still every day I get people that want chicken parmesan or lasagnea and i must have these pedestrian entrees or else the landlord will not get paid. so anyone out there that feels that I cannot cook like the chefs on the strip, I ask only that you make a reservation for the chef table and then tell me about Italian food. I can go very deep and seldom get the chance on a daily basis. and if you come here for lunch it is a Deli and retail Italian store for meats and cheeses, if you want the chefs food it becomes that at night after five oclock.

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