Quick Bites – ECHO & RIG Meat

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ELV is constantly hearing tips and rumors about what’s going on in Vegas’s food and restaurant world. He wishes he had a dollar for every time someone tells him some restaurant is “about to close,” or some chef “just quit,” or vendors “aren’t being paid” and everyone is “deserting a sinking ship.”

Sometimes these rumors turn out to be extremely true, e.g., Nora’s Wine Bar, Poshburger, et al., but most are just the jealous suppositions of rivals in the food biz.  (In its first couple of years, we heard from countless authorities that Estiatorio Milos in The Cosmo was soon to be kaput. One famous local restaurant consultant/restaurateur was “absolutely certain” that EM would be closing its doors within the month – we’re talking two years ago here – because “everyone knows they serve bad fish.” (Translation: They didn’t hire me so now no rumor is too small or too vicious not to spread.))

Recent case in point: the meat store at Echo & Rig. A friend of the Food Gal® went out of her way to let us know that the butcher shop at E & R had closed because “no one was buying it.”

So we went (about a week ago), and we bought.

What we found was a butcher shop that was extremely open, with personal (if slow) service, a great selection, and some worthy cuts.

The rib eye we took home was top drawer (for “choice” meat) and cooked up into one serious steak for $23:

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The New York strip we tried was nicely trimmed and tasty as well, but the sausages we took home (both the spicy pork and fennel breakfast) were godawful gristle-fests…and under-seasoned to the point of amateur blandness. (ELV makes that last statement with apologies to all amateur sausage makers — none of whom could concoct a less-spicy “spicy sausage” if they tried.)

So, if you’re in the mood for meat, and like to see the carcasses your steaks come from, you can do a lot worse than E & S.

And so far anyway, we see no signs of butcher abatement….unless they keep grinding away.

P.s. The bacon sucks even worse than the sausage.

ECHO & RIG

In Tivoli Village

440 South Rampart Blvd.

Las Vegas, NV 89145

http://echoandrig.com/

7 thoughts on “Quick Bites – ECHO & RIG Meat

  1. I had also heard that rumour so the last time I was there I asked the GM about it and she said they have no plans to close it. So unless her word is like that of a sports agent denying trade rumour’s the butcher shop should be there for awhile.

  2. Wow, all I see is a man obsessed with the hottest new restaurant/butcher shop in town, for someone who was so appalled last time, YOU KEEP GOING BACK!! Don’t try to hide behind the sausage & bacon to feed your ego, admit it, the place is FANTASTIC!!!

  3. Went there with the wife a couple of weeks ago, best thing we had was a bottle of wine. Everthing else sucked, Halibut came out cold, and the wifes steak was charred on one side and barely cooked on the other, and it was warm. Sent back the rockstar butchered meat for more heat. It was sent back charred even more on the already overcooked and charred side. Was offered a sundae to make up the for the grill masters mistake.

  4. ELV responds: “Sauté” means either to “shake the pan” or frying in a small amount of butter or fat. We did the latter not the former.

  5. The bills are coming in. Even money has it, they will close. Great concept for dining. However, no good vibe in the joint. Would of worked better in a Smith’s grocery store.

  6. The bills are coming in. Even money has it, they will close. Great concept for dining. However, no good vibe in the joint. Would of worked better in a Smith’s grocery store. Really!

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