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Does anyone but ELV remember Nicky Blair’s? Ole Nicky was quite the SoCal restaurateur — known for catering to the celebs and high-rollers in LaLa land — when he brought his cheesy vibe to Paradise Road in the mid-90’s. For a couple of years the place was hopping with every nouveau riche, Gucci-clad developer, conventioneer and big shot wannabe in town.

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The renovations took two months longer than expected, and the wine bar won’t be fully operational for another two weeks, but here is your first look at the new, improved and expanded Lotus of Siam.

It will be, by far, the classiest digs in all of Commercial Center, but Saipin Chutima assures us not a darn thing’s gonna change on the menu…and America’s best German wine list promises to just keep getting better and better.

Expect the wine bar to be packed with industry and non-industry oenophiles from the day it opens.

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The Tuscany Kitchen isn’t a restaurant per se. What it is is a conference room at the very ends of the earth within the Bellagio, that management has outfitted with an exhibition kitchen and enough tables and frippery to make a reasonable facsimile of one.

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Eating Las Vegas first encountered Josko Gravner’s “Breg” white wine in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome (Italy, not Georgia) some six years ago. It was at Sabatini, a notable seafood ristorante on a charming square not far from where Hugh Alexander Curtas (The Official Number Two Son Of ELV) was attending a semester abroad.

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We at ELV know most of you have better things to do on a Friday morning (play video poker, nurse a hangover, contemplate great architecture, etc…) than to sit glued to a radio listening to intellectual-and-digestively-stimulating banter about food and restaurants. Therefore, as a public service, we provide this link to yesterday’s State Of Nevada program on KNPR.

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Ask and ye shall receive Mr. Mariani.

Are you, like uber-critic John Mariani, wondering what a contemporary wine list in one Aria’s hot new restaurants looks like? (more…)

What Will Happen in the Wine World in 2010?
by John Mariani

Not since that Millennium 2000 folly have I seen so much frenzy in the global wine market. Back then, with the stock markets booming, auction houses setting records for wines, and Champagne producers warning there would not be enough product for the celebration, everything in the wine world seemed upbeat and getting pricier by the month.
What a difference a decade makes. With high unemployment, shaky markets, pared-down expense accounts, and just too much wine being produced, it’s a very different world, one that plays into the buyers’ heart and pocketbook with lower prices, more choice, and less pretension. Those 99-point ratings don’t seem quite so requisite any more to buying good wine.
So what do I see happening in the wine market in 2010?

1.Prices will continue to drop across the board, from the priciest of Bordeaux and Burgundy to cult California wines that were once available only by subscription. This goes, too, for those Italian, Spanish, and Chilean wine producers who thought that they could easily get the same kind of money those age-old French and small estate California wines used to get.

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Shawn McClain’s Sage may be the most significant restaurant to open in Las Vegas in the past three years. As good as Twist by Pierre Gagnaire is, it is, in the end, a restaurant that challenges the diner. Sage serves up cuisine that is every bit as hyper-delicious and creative, but with a Midwestern sensibility that makes it more approachable for non-foodies as well as curious and demanding gourmands.

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Memo to all waitrons:

If you seat people in tight quarters.

And insist on decanting wine that doesn’t need it.

And demand to do so right under their noses.

With your hands quite close to their face.

And charge them $350 for lunch.

Try keeping your fingernails clean.

We’d really appreciate it.