Author: John Curtas

You Should be Goan to NAMASTE

An average Italian restaurant gets more customers in a week than a good Indian restaurant gets in a month. – Calvin Trillin

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What can we say about Namaste?

When it opened two years ago, we spent hours writing and crowing about it — everywhere from this website to the Las Vegas Weekly to KNPR  to Channel 8’s Dishing and Dining.

Within a few short months of receiving all that praise, the head chef (the one we wrote was taking it to a whole new level of Indian food) left. Then it went through another ownership change (or two – these things can be hazy when you speak with foreign nationals), was closed down twice by the Health Department, and wound up in one Melque Rodrigues’ lap six months ago. Most intriguing of all: Melque (pronounced MEL-kee) is a trained vocalist, with major chops in the fragrance-selling and singing fields, but none in the food biz.

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Depressed? Drink These Now – Sodas at JEAN GEORGES STEAKHOUSE

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ELV has been getting depressed lately about a lot of things, including, but not limited to:

> The heat,

> The humidity,

> The fact that a one-hit, derivative, emo wonder like Kings of Leon rates front page news because its strung out frontman is suffering from “exhaustion” (read: an excess of booze and drugs*),

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Oscar Goodman – Ex-Mayor, Gin Shill, Restaurateur?

Soon to be either the best or worst idea in the history of downtown dining.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you OSCAR’S:

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Hope springs eternal.

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ELV postscript: Four years ago, we approached hizzoner and a City Councilperson about downtown Las Vegas’ food and dining potential.  At the time, we had recently met with representatives of the mayor of Lyon, France who were fascinated by all of the French food/chefs in Vegas, and wanted to explore a sister city relationship. (Las Vegas-Lyon: think of the marketing possibilities!) After several conversations, we realized we might as well have been talking to a brick wall(s). Oh, how the worm turns.

Of course, putting fine French food in front of Oscar Goodman would be like playing opera to Al Mancini…so it’s probably all for the best.