Category: Openings

SETTEBELLO Opens In New Location – The Food World Rejoices

It was only closed for a little more than a week, but by the time Halloween rolled around ELV had a serious jones for the best pizza in town. The new digs are more restaurant-like, a little bigger, but just as cozy and welcoming as the old. The pizza oven is the same one owner Brad Otton had shipped from Naples over two years ago, and the pizzaiolos still turned out thin-crusted, smoky-charred beauties that have been known to bring tears to ELV’s eyes.

Just as satisfying (and more than a little surprising) was discovering seven artisanal, unique beers and ales on the menu. We say surprising because Otton, for all his good sense and good taste, doesn’t partake of alcoholic beverages (even chestnut-flavored, coriander-spiced, or triple-fermented sour ales….pity). But for the time being, he’s offering some of the most interesting suds of Italy. They’re not cheap — some run $35/750 ml bottle, but are a must-try if you’re a connoiseur of such things.

Here are some excerpts from the Vera Pizza Napoletana Charter (to show you how seriously the Italians take this stuff), and here are some tasty snaps.

SETTEBELLO’s New Digs:

140 S. Green Valley Pkwy.

Henderson, NV 89012

702.222.3556

www.settebello.net

Two Lunches – MIMMO FERRARO’S and MESA GRILL

Sometimes you’re just in the mood for something basic and uncomplicated, wouldn’t you agree? No fancy plate stylings or exotic garnishes, just a bowl of good old spaghetti and clams (aka pasta alle vongole),

and boy can Mimmo Ferraro’s fill that bill. This may be the best version of this Italian-American classic we’ve had since we visited Umberto’s Clam House in NYC’s Little Italy years ago, to see where Crazy Joey Gallo bought the farm.

As we were double-booked for lunch (a common occurrence for ELV), we then hightailed in to Caesars to Mesa Grill to chow down on a Bobby Flay Cuban burger — that was tastier than anything we’ve had there in a long time. Equally surprising: good grilled mahi-mahi tacos, a quesadilla more agressively spiced than we remember the food being here, and a cornbread pudding dessert that had three grown men fighting for the last bite.

To hear how tough I’ve been on Mesa Grill in the past, click here. And to read Frank Bruni’s review in the NYTimes (echoing my thoughts of three years earlier), click here.

To hear a past review of Ferraro’s, click here.

Ferraro’s Italian Restaurant

5900 West Flamingo Rd.

Las Vegas, NV 89103

702.364.5300

Mesa Grill

In Caesars Palace

3570 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

877.346.4642

www.mesagrill.com/lasvegas/

SETTEBELLO Plywood Report

Taking a cue from our friends at www.EaterLA.com (who sometimes seem more obesessed with building materials than munchies), here are some pre-opening snaps of the construction progress going on at Las Vegas’s best pizzeria. Settebello is scheduled to open any day now (in its new digs at The District II in Monochrome Valley), and Eating Las Vegas, for one, couldn’t be more excited.