Big Week

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This is shaping up like a big week. Or maybe just a Big Night.

But you need to be paying attention, especially if you’re a chef or restaurant owner.

Because through timing, sheer luck and/or mere coincidence, both the newest edition of EATING LAS VEGAS – The 50 Essential Restaurants and the 2016 Desert Companion Restaurant Awards are set to hit the newsstands sometime in the next few days.

Needless to say, there are a few surprises in store. From who’s in to who’s out, to who made the Top 10 to who rates the top toque as Chef of the Year, these are our highly vetted, contumaciously chosen, carefully conceived categorical champions.

We at ELV are sworn to secrecy until they officially get published, so until that happens, we intend to maintain radio silence.

That is all.

 

The Best Day of the Year

http://sassydove.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Happy-Thanksgiving-1950s-woman-on-turkey.jpg(Not my mom)
Some people think Christmas Eve is the most exciting day of the year. Others prefer the Fourth of July, their birthday, or a day with religious significance. But for me, the most exciting day of the year has always been Thanksgiving Eve – the one day of the year when everyone in America is pretty much looking forward to the same thing: a day-long feast of food, friends and family.
 
And cooking. If you love to cook, or love people who love to cook, Thanksgiving is pretty much Christmas, Easter and your birthday all rolled into one.Even as a child I remember getting excited on the day before Thanksgiving. My mother (more of a 50s-60s convenient home cook than anything else) did her motherly duty every Thanksgiving week without complaint, and even though I’m not sure she ever enjoyed the fruits of her labors, she did a damn fine job of roasting a big-ass turkey (with Pepperidge Farm stuffing!), mushing potatoes into a silky, milky mash, and slicing that canned, jellied cranberry sauce with the best of them. And by the time she started baking those Mrs. Smith’s frozen pumpkin pies, everyone in the house was giddy with anticipation.
 
I think it was always seeing those extra groceries piled up in the kitchen (and that big-ass turkey) that first got my gastric juices flowing, and by the time it filled our house with roasting smells, and was finally taken out of the oven, everyone was fighting for a piece of crispy skin or the drumstick. But it was the day before the feast that always fascinated me: the shopping, the provisions strewn about the kitchen, my mom arranging everything to be made in the world’s most modest mise en place. Raw potatoes piled high, big bowls everywhere, a pressure cooker on the stove, that scary Sunbeam mixer, poised to whip those potatoes with its whirring, slightly scary, interlocking steel blades — all of it told me something special was about to happen in our house and it all had to do with FOOD!

It also had to do with anticipation. And in my world, anticipation in more than half the battle. Then and now, I consider looking forward to something to be almost as enjoyable as doing it. (You should see me when I’m planning a vacation.) It’s the secret to life, really – always having something to look forward to. It’s what gets us out of bed in the morning and what motivates a thinking person’s every step. And on those cool, Thanksgiving eves of so many decades ago, what I could look forward to was being with the six of us, sitting around the table, thinking about nothing more than how good everything tasted.

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The List

(Because meatballs, at Standard & Pour)

As we’re about to go full throttle through this holiday season, we at ELV thought you’d like to know where we’ve been eating, and where you should take those pesky relatives when they’re looking for something to do. As usual, all places come highly recommended unless otherwise noted.

THE LIST

Gordon Ramsay Steak – Face it, the best cheeseburgers spring forth from superb steakhouses. This is one of the best in the business. The cheeseburger and the steakhouse:

Twist by Pierre Gagnaire – Gagnaire’s food never fails to astonish. Top toque Frédéric Don is doing his master proud. The only thing that ruined my meal here on Election Night was the results…of the election, not the meal. ;-)

CUT – Industry veteran Nicole Erle turns out the tastiest desserts of any steakhouse in town (which is really saying something).

OhLaLa French Bistro – Opened barely a month, not even the mighty ELV can get a table here — that’s how good (and small) it is. Our steak tartare was a properly seasoned slab of Gay* Paree. In fact, it was a dead ringer (in taste and texture) for one we enjoyed at Le Train Bleu eight years ago (although a quarter the size) The fries are out of this world:

….and we can’t wait to try the rest of the menu.

Bardot Brasserie – Can a Vegas brunch be any better? No it can’t:

Carson Kitchen – I wish the restaurant was bigger; I wish the menu was bigger. On the other hand, everything here is always perfect, so maybe I don’t.

Marche Bacchus – Go for brunch; get the crab Benedict:

Yuzu Japanese Kitchen – Just go. Now. And try to remember that you’re not in Tokyo:

Standard & Pour – I love this place almost as much as I hate Green Valley.

Strip Steak – I love the food here almost as much as I hate the decor.

B&B Ristorante – Expect a major renovation after the first of the year. The food needs none. Except that friggin’ garbanzo bean amuse bouche. They’ve even toned the music down a skosh, so bravo all around to Brett Uniss and Nicole Brisson!

Raku –Izakayas don’t get any better in America.

Eggslut – The best thing about this place is the name. Are the overloaded egg sandwiches good? Yes. Are they worth waiting in line for? No.

Ocha Thai – Family-run Thai since 1989. Recently facelifted. Go a couple of times and they’ll treat you like one of the family:

Delices Gourmands French Bakery & Cafe – Best. Bread. Period. The pastries are no slouches, either.

Magal Korean BBQ – Love the food; hate the noise level. Koreans must enjoy screaming at each other over their haejangguk. Or something:

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Cornish Pasty Co. – I don’t get pasties. I don’t get them and I don’t like them. Too one-dimensional and doughy for me. That being said, if you like these cousins-of-a-pierogi-empanada, you’ll be in hog heaven, and if you don’t, there’s lots of great beers on tap to console you.

 Border Grill – The Too Hot Tamales never miss a salsa beat.

Turmeric Flavors of India – I want this place to be a huge success. The food is updated, interesting Indian. Those two things might not be compatible:

Izakaya Go – I’ve had my last bad meal here. The menu is too long, the food too uneven, and the fish too flabby.

Le Pho – If I ate every meal here, instead of indulging at most of the other delicious joints on this page, my cholesterol would be cut in half and the Food Gal® would quit nagging me.

PublicUs – New chef (Justin Bannon), new head barista (Marilou Galindo), same old toothsome bread, sandwiches, and concupiscent coffee.

Libertine Social – These “modern fried” eggs aren’t fried at all, but they’re fantastic, as is everything about this joint:

LS is a tough place to leave from sober (that’s how good the cocktails are), and this double-double burger is a perfect way to help you avoid a hangover:

 Evel Pie – A slice of the Big Apple streets comes to downtown. I was prepared to hate this place, but one bite in took me straight back to deck oven heaven in lower Manhattan (New York, not Kansas):

EATT Healthy Food – Because everything tastes better under a pistachio dome:

Don’t you agree?

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*as in joyful, frolicsome, and full of whimsy.