Category: Wake

Things Are Tough All Over

High end restaurants from New York to Los Angeles are hurting…

This article in the Wall Street Journal explains how even such a strong operator as Stephen Hanson’s B.R. Guest group has not been able to halt the receding tide of customers in the biz. He’s just closed multiple restaurants in the Big Apple and the Windy City, including the mega-famous Ruby Foo’s and the highly regarded Fiamma — helmed by uber-chef Fabio Trabocchi to 3-star status over the past two years. (So much for the power of restaurant critics.)

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Au Revoir ANDRE’S

Now that Andre’s has officially closed, we at ELV thought this might be a good time to post the review I wrote of it for (the now defunct) Las Vegas Life magazine in April, 1999 that resulted in me being thrown out of Alize by the cheesecloth-skinned chef a couple of years later: French Persistence (1.8MB pdf — new window)

Judge for yourself just how “bad” a review it is, and perhaps you’ll see why we now designate all puerile pirouettes of petulance and pique (by chefs) a “FULL ANDRE.”

FYI: We tried to gain admission into Andre’s late last year (through the entreaties of one of its regular customers), but were told to expect a repeat performance — which indicates how much confidence Rochat must have in the quality of his food. (A shame really, since we think Chef Greg Englehardt is a very talented guy.) Perhaps Rochat just doesn’t know what to make of his cuisine, since Englehardt doesn’t cook French food that was outdated twenty years ago.

A Not-So-Happy New Year For Restaurants

ELV POSTS CORRECTION: We mistakenly reported that Woo in The Palazzo had closed. We discovered last night that reports of its death had been greatly exaggerated. All bets are off, however, on its chances for survival. ELV blames his staff and regrets the error.

Now, back to reality.

The headline in Nation’s Restaurant News in June said: “Vegas refuses to fold as economy craps out.” By late September that same banner read: “Hard luck befalls Las Vegas following U.S. housing bust.”

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