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Having now met Ryan Hardy twice in the same week — here and in New York (where he was one of the nominees for a Best Chef Southwest award) — we at ELV thought you’d like to see some tasty snaps from our meal last week at Le Cirque in the Bellagio (that most New York of all Vegas restaurants), where Hardy cooked a special dinner based upon the superb ingredients he sources at The Little Nell in Aspen (Colorado, not Alabama).
Hardy flew in many provisions for this meal for about fifty lucky souls, including his house-made charcuterie that (we had to admit) was as good or better than anything we’ve had from Salumi or Fra’ Mani. Our staff now considers it the quintessence of cured meat. Just as good were his marinated sardines, dappled with a Rendevous salad of organic root vegetables and herbs, and an odd-looking but phenomenal octopus risotto, dressed with a lemon confit and paper thin shavings of octopus carpaccio.
The capper was a Four Story Hill Farm veal loin alongside a crispy squab breast, sharing space with some fine-grained Anson Mills grits and fresh morels and fava beans. ELV generally hates fava beans (and all chefs inexplicably love them), but even we were forced to agree that they brought a lot to the party on this plate.
Along with a bevy of beautiful wines personally chosen by Little Nell Master Sommelier Jonathan Pullis, the meal was enough to inspire us to venture to that land of the rich white people — to see what else Hardy and crew are capable of cooking up.
MONTAGNA @ The Little Nell
675 Durant Ave.
Aspen, CO 81611
970.920.4600
http://www.thelittlenell.com/TLN/restaurants/montagna-restaurant.aspx
LE CIRQUE
In the Bellagio Hotel and Casino
3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
702.693.7223
The farther you get off the ground, the old saying goes, the worse the food gets, with airplanes being the prime example. As someone who suffered through the revolving-restaurant craze of the late 1970s (and more than a few horrendous airline meals), I can attest to the accuracy of this maxim. And as someone who had dined at Top of the World several times after its opening in April 1996, I always thought it stood out as Exhibit A among earthbound examples.