CARNEVINO: Grandmaster of Meat

After a meal at Carnevino and having one of their amazing 90-120 day aged cuts of meat, I’m going to have to totally agree with Mr. Curtas’ classification of them as one of the best steakhouses in the country (his repeated, vitriolic endorsement certainly motivated me).

It’s like if the cold-war era wasn’t fought over nuclear stockpiles, patrolling bombers, and space travel, but rather steaks.  And while the Kremlin was trying to cross breed a Holstein with a Pachyderm, or putting the first person to stop clapping for Stalin in an abattoir, we were perfecting Carnevino.  Behind the facade of a giant Italian castle’s dining halls, there is a well-oiled (with artisanal olive oil, of course) machine working in back and off-site to turn cows into gold.

The Head Honcho, Exec Chef Nicole Brisson is a true Gangsta for real.  I was quite pleased to find that she was doing a couple items with ramps, an east-coast seasonal foraged green, that I was interested in trying.  In fact, I ended up trying quite a few things.  I would even go so far to say, just weighing in on food alone, Carnevino could stand as a wonderfully unique and creative restaurant even if there were NO STEAKS on the menu.

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Pea-ness Perfection

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Many years ago, on KNPR-Nevada Public Radio, the pre-moniker ELV described a meal by quoting the great James Beard: “Great cooking should reflect and exalt the essence and the uniqueness of the ingredients,” Beard said. “A lobster dish should possess  lobster-ness; a great steak: steak-ness.”

We went on to say that we didn’t know anything about those dishes at the place we were reviewing, but we did have the pea soup, and it certainly contained the requisite…well, it was pretty darn good too.

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