Last weekend, Valley Cheese and Wine celebrated its second anniversary. Quite a feat for a store tucked into a back corner of an obscure shopping center at the far edge of town. Maybe its success has to do with the fact that it has the best selection of cheese, salumi, charcuterie, specialty foods and obscure-yet-bargain-priced wines in town. That, and it also has Bob Howald and Kristin Sande as owners — famous fromagerie folks who are always on Forme, have a great Tomme de Savoie together, and don’t ever lait down in their quest to fromage-i-fy the world. The Brindamour between them is so palpable, they may brie the cheesiest couple in town.
ARIA Hotel Announces Celebrity Chef Lineup
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST……
Undaunted by the latest….er…uh… economic downturn, CityCenter, the joint venture between MGM-Mirage and a bunch of really rich dudes from Dubai, has announced the first lineup of chefs and restaurants to go into ARIA — the largest of the uber-swanky hotels being constructed there. ARIA will have over 4,000 rooms on 61 floors, and plans to have the following lineup of super swanky chefs and restaurants in its environs (these are, for the most part, as interesting a lineup as we could hope for in our already celebrity-drenched food scene):
Making his Las Vegas debut, Chef Masayoshi Takayama, Chef/owner of Masa and Bar Masa in New York, and a chef who has set the standard for greatness in Japanese cuisine (at least in America), will open Bar Masa, a restaurant divided into two different spaces offering different styles of service and cuisine. In the more casual space, guests will be invited to order from an a la carte menu featuring Chef Masa’s style of modern Japanese cuisine, much like Bar Masa in the Time Warner Center in New York — the only Masa that ELV and mere mortals can afford. The second space, Shaboo, will provide guests with an exclusive (read: much more expensive) dining experience. In spite of the expense, and in spite of the fact that Chef Masa is now franchising himself, ELV is most excited about his coming to the High Mojave Desert.
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LOS TACOS
There is more than one Mexican restaurant in town named Los Tacos, but this one (on East Charleston near Eastern Ave.) is the real enchilada. The menu is short — basically just a list of the meats they lay into the double-layered, soft corn tortillas, a few seafood cocktails (at $7.50 the mixed cocteles de mariscos of oysters, octopus and shrimp is a steal) and a few other items. You order at the register, take a number, and wait for it to be called out in Spanish and (sometimes) English. Since the only double digit number ELV knows in Spanish is ocho cinco, we can usually be spotted standing in the middle of the room with a stupid expression on our face as we wait to have pity taken upon us by the genial staff. One of these days, when our number is 85, maybe we won’t feel like such a gringo. Until that happens, we’ll have to content ourselves with eating the best tacos in town….bar none.
LOS TACOS
1710 East Charleston Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89119
702.471.7447