Kerry’s Crowning Achievement

ELV note: As proud as we are of this recently published article in VEGAS magazine, our happiness is muted by the fact that Kerry Simon was recently admitted to a local hospital because of pneumonia. To anyone suffering from multiple system atrophy, as Simon is, such an illness is a very serious condition, and does not portend any kind of healthy recovery. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Simon and his family.

 

Rainbow cauliflower, from Carson Kitchen’s farm-fresh menu. (Rainbow cauliflower, from Carson Kitchen’s farm fresh menu.)

If someone had told me a year ago that Kerry Simon’s Carson Kitchen would be both a raging success and the spark of a restaurant renaissance, I would have looked at them with the same bemusement I usually reserve for conspiracy theorists and Chicago Cubs fans. A year ago (or three, 10, or 20 years ago), Downtown Las Vegas was a restaurant wasteland. The idea that young couples, suburbanites, professionals, and entire families would come here to eat seemed as far-fetched as having a mob lawyer for a mayor.

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ANDRE’S Again

http://www.montecarlo.com/images/restaurants/main/andres.jpg

When André Rochat closed his namesake restaurant downtown in 2009, it’s safe to say that nary a tear was shed around the ELV offices.

The story of the cheesecloth-skinned chef tossing me from Alize (one of three restaurants he once owned) in 2002 is pretty well known in our humble burg, and we never tire of showing the (mostly) rave review/profile we wrote about him (in April 1999) that inexplicably set him off and led to our banishment. (Yes, we didn’t care for a few items, and felt some wine bottles were massively overpriced, but on the whole, we sang his praises left and right.)

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Going Gaga For the Good Stuff at GELATOLOGY

Great gelato is harder to find than an oenophile with a healthy liver, or a gambler with a solvent bank account.

Finding mediocre gelato is easy. It’s everywhere you see the word “gelato.” It’s in malls, it’s in shopping centers, it’s in restaurants. Gelato is everywhere these days, and everywhere you see gelato you can bet dollars to doughnuts it came from a box, a mix, or a factory.

How can you spot industrial gelato? Easy. Just look for wild and exotic flavoring gee gaws:

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….and/or swirling syrups:

GelatoA

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