ANDRE’S Again

http://www.montecarlo.com/images/restaurants/main/andres.jpg

When André Rochat closed his namesake restaurant downtown in 2009, it’s safe to say that nary a tear was shed around the ELV offices.

The story of the cheesecloth-skinned chef tossing me from Alize (one of three restaurants he once owned) in 2002 is pretty well known in our humble burg, and we never tire of showing the (mostly) rave review/profile we wrote about him (in April 1999) that inexplicably set him off and led to our banishment. (Yes, we didn’t care for a few items, and felt some wine bottles were massively overpriced, but on the whole, we sang his praises left and right.)

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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 Perhaps Rochat just doesn’t know what to make of his cuisine, since Englehardt doesn’t cook French food that was outdated twenty years ago.

Closings

At the Jean Louis Palladin Foundation dinner at Andre’s Sunday night, it was formally announced (by Rochat himself) that upon the re-opening of Andre’s at the Monte Carlo that Andre’s Downtown would officially be closing. Andre stated that after years of serving guests 24/7 it was finally time for him to “go fishing”…

ELV has also been informed that Joseph Keller’s Bistro Zinc  at Lake Las Vegas has closed, and that Louis Osteen has thrown in the towel and closed Louis’ at Town Square.

ELV fears this is the start of some major downsizing in our restaurant industry….and therefore shall refrain from sniping sarcastiscally, snarkily or sardonically, or shoveling the satirical sagaciousness for which he is known.