Eat This Now – Old New York Slice at METRO PIZZA

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If you’ve ever have a hankerin’ for a slice of old New York pizza — and let’s face it who hasn’t? — then only one pie in Las Vegas really fills that bill: the Old New York Pizza at Metro Pizza. Owners John and Sam Arena take understandable pride in their array of styles and techniques, and take great pains to duplicate the tastes of their youth…back when they were two yutes.

The slices above reminded ELV of one of his early New York pizza memories — at the original Ray’s, before it became famous for being Ray’s, before it even became famous, and before it then became Famous Ray’s and/or the Original Ray’s Famous and then became the subject of lawsuits anytime someone named Ray was either eating or selling a pizza anywhere within a hundred mile radius of midtown Manhattan.

With its fresh tomato sauce, thin, squishy crust, accent of herbs and good mozz (all in correct proportion), it also put us in mind of Patsy’s in Harlem. In other words, it was/is perfect for those needing a New York pizza fix 2,500 miles from there.

A small one costs $12.70 at any one of the six Metro pizza locations in town. No litigation necessary.

Just thought you’d like to know.

Eat This Now – Lunch at COUNTRY CLUB GRILL

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To where does one repair for lunch after drinking extremely rare, vintage champagnes all morning? Why, to a table for one at the very same Country Club Grill where he started quaffing the over-the-top wines at 10:00 am, of course!

There, Chef Carlos Guia soothed our buzz with a Creole-crusted slices of yellowfin tuna with shaved vegetables over a sesame-ginger emulsion, followed by one of Vegas’ most definitive crab cakes served with a sauce ravigote (the name means “invigorate”), that is sort of like a remoulade with more serious intentions. Accompanying everything was what remains one of Vegas’ best bread baskets. Chefs may come and go at the Wynn/Encore, but the in-house bakery here still puts out some mighty toothsome carbohydrates.

FYI: Guia is one of the coordinating chefs of this years TASTE OF THE NATION event being held next Thursday at the Rain Nightclub in the Palms Casino Resort. Tickets are $75, and the lineup of restaurants — from American Fish to Wazuzu — is plenty impressive and a mighty tasty way to fill your belly and assuage your conscience, while you’re helping fight the hunger that continues to grip our nation.

“No Kid Hungry” is TOTN’s slogan, and by buying a ticket, you’ll be doing your small part to make sure some child in Nevada has enough to eat.

Be there or be Three Square!

COUNTRY CLUB GRILL

At the Wynn Hotel and Casino

3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.770.3317

www.wynnlasvegas.com

Grand Tasting Tasty Snaps

As ELV leaves the snug, cozy, gastronomic confines of Las Vegas for Reno,* he thought a few tasty and personal iPhone snaps from last Friday’s Vegas Uncork’s Grand Tasting might be in order:

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As our day job is calling, we haven’t the time to label each of the 28 pictures, but we will do so upon our return, as well as do another posting or two of some of the other extraordinary food we experienced over those three fun-and-fat-filled-days. (ELV estimates he added another pound or two to his already bulging, size 44 frame.

Bon appetit indeed!

* Or, as attorney John A. Curtas, Lawyer-at-Law likes to refer to it: The Shittiest Little City In The World.