Congratulations to Saipin Chutima and Picasso, and its Master Sommelier Robert Smith, for being nominated as finalists for the 2011 James Beard Awards.
Chutima is nominated for the third year in a row (if memory serves) in the Best Chef Southwest category, while this is at least the third time Smith and Picasso have reached the final round. (Continue after the jump for the complete list of finalists in all categories.)
Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien. (The best is the enemy of the good.) – Voltaire
There are passion restaurants and there are money restaurants. ALEX — the jewel in the supposed crown of the Wynn hotel — was supposed to be both, but was unceremoniously shut down on short (ten days) notice, despite being the very embodiment of the former, but (apparently) failing as the latter. What really went on behind the scenes leading up to its untimely demise will probably never be known, but the shudder has been felt by the entire Vegas food world (that now extends around the globe), and provides the perfect catalyst to review, and speculate about, what has happened to dining in restaurants, in Las Vegas, over the past seventeen years.