Tag: Reviews

Reno 911!

If ever a town was in the throes of a restaurant emergency, Reno is it. And if only the food in Reno were half as good as that show is funny, all would be forgiven….Unfortunately, however, what you find in The Biggest Little City In The World are hotels and casinos so outdated and shopworn, that they make Fremont Street in Vegas look like the Champs-Elysee.

If I were forced to find sustenance in this culinary backwater (and lately, I’ve been forced to a lot), I’d steer clear of the hotels-unless you’re fond of restaurants that haven’t changed their menus since 1979. La Strada in the El Dorado* has serviceable Italian food, and believe it or not The Men’s Club (a “gentlemen’s club”**.. a block from Virginia Street-the main drag) does some fine things with seafood, sushi and steaks. That is, if you don’t mind slurping decent oysters and savoring salmon skin rolls among a bunch of pink tacos.

Both restaurants have garnered Awards of Excellence from the Wine Spectator for their wine lists; although neither will give the Wine Directors of Aureole (Bill Scherrer) or ALEX (Paolo Barbieri), any palpitations.

What will cause palpitations (and, perhaps, slight nausea, or, at the very least, visceral confusion) is the sight of gorgeous young things gamely gyrating on patrons’ crotches whilst they pretend to play with their own. Yours truly doesn’t like to mix his pleasures or his perversions, so I begged off–the stripper not the steak.

My two best meals were at Louis’ Basque Corner-a place that’s been serving garlic-laden, family-style Basque food forever-and the relatively new (5+ years) Beaujolais-a classic bistro with superb renditions of French classics.

Eating at Beaujolais made me wistful for everything the Las Vegas restaurant doesn’t have. A neighborhood restaurant, it is located in an old building (just blocks from downtown), has around 50 seats, a four seat bar, and a decent (and surprisingly large) wine list. The menu lists 9 apps and 8 mains, and a couple of desserts. That’s it. My roulade of pig’s trotters couldn’t have been more gelatinous or more perfect, and the gamey and sweet braised rabbit actually tasted of rabbit-not the bland just-like-chicken meat you might expect. Chef/owner Bill Gilbert keeps things simple and precise, and I can only dream of the day some Las Vegas chef takes a cue from such an operation.

* Owned by Don Carano of Ferrari-Carano winemaking fame….And by the way, a member of the Nevada State Bar, i.e. an attorney who’s a legitimate wino, and, unlike some of my bretheren, respected for it.

** Although the number of “gentlemen” in these types of places is highly debatable.

BEAUJOLAIS BISTRO

130 West Street

Reno, NV 89501

775.323.2227

www.beaujolais.com

Louis’ Basque Corner is just a good plate of honest grub, albeit with enough garlic on the meat to make a Sicilian rethink his catechism. Strangely though, we suffered very few digestive consequences from this onslaught. The drill is you sit down at a communal table, are told of the 4 or 5 main courses offered that day, pick one, and then are served a parade of soup, salad and side dishes for the table. Just like the Greeks, they criminally overcook their lamb, but the chicken Basquaise and cabbage soup are winners. Lunch for two ran $25 with a small carafe of chilled red wine (take that, you snooty sommeliers!)

p.s. The Santa Fe Hotel has similar Basque family dinners, and is only a couple of blocks away.

LOUIS’ BASQUE CORNER

301 East 4th Street

Reno, NV 89512

775.323.7203

Here is my meager Reno travelogue, befitting a town with so little photograph-able food.

KLAS TV Channel 8 (CBS) Restaurant(s) of the Week, LOUIS’s and LOUIS’s Fish Camp

LOUIS’s

LOUIS’s Fish Camp

6599 Las Vegas Blvd.

Building P Suite 210

Las Vegas, NV 89119

702.202.2400

www.louislasvegas.com

We’ve already sung the praises of Louis Osteen’s low country cooking on these pages….but now you can watch us do so on this week’s Channel 8 Restaurant of the Week segment, seen every Friday on the KLAS TV Morning News, with my good buddies Denise Valdez and Dave McCann.

Listen for Dave’s revulsion at the very mention of a crab cake, and please know that it is my sworn and solemn duty to someday, somehow get the McCann Man to actually taste a piece of seafood on the air, and say that he likes it.

Encore….Revealed!

That’s how my good buddy Lesley Balla Editor of Eaterla.com posts the news of openings and closings and what’s hot and what’s not of restaurants in L.A. that seems to fascinate Los Angelenos more than the food.

Except I ain’t revealing any construction photos or sneak peeks… just facts. Or things that might be facts if they turn out to be true.

Encore, the sister property to the Wynn Hotel and Casino, is going up before our very eyes (right beside the Wynn) and is slated to open at the end of this year.

We have it on good authority (in other words: straight from the rumor mill and mouths of people who know people who like to play Deep Throat to my Bob Woodward, except that we like to meet in well lit restaurants and drink good Burgundies when they’re telling me these things and they’re not old white guys who work for the CIA), that Tableau will be closed to make room for Larry Forgione to open another An American Place tucked into its ritzy corner of the Wynn. FYI: I ate at the original numerous times in the ’80’s and ’90’s, and at the re-born AAP in St. Louis earlier this year, and all meals were fabulous. Forgione (who’s son is Executive Chef at BLT Prime in NYC), is truly one of the godfathers of regional American cooking, so this is great news….but I digress.

Tableau’s chef, the ultra-talented Mark LoRusso (KNPR and KLAS TV’s Chef of the Year for 2007), is getting his own restaurant at Encore (no doubt directly as a result of those ultra-prestigious MAJOR AWARDS being given to him), to be called Botero, after the Columbian sculptor of oversized bronzed booties that have fascinated me fo….now I’m really digressing.

Click here to hear my review of Tableau on News 88.9 FM KNPR-Nevada Public Radio.

Moving along; the ultra high-end joint at Encore is tenatively slated to be called VIP 5 (dumb name that…we’re guessing it’s a working title), and will be Italian and small-sorta like Del Posto without the size and the tackiness(!), and blessedly, without Batali. Chef to be named later.

Finally, Encore looks to mark the return of Sam DeMarco! Those who remember the Bellagio opening of Oct. 1998, may recall Sam’s American Grill-a cool and casual spot that featured his avant-garde take on classic American grub, served in what looked like a Flinstone’s cave.

For some reason known then only to the odious folks running the Bellagio F&B (Food and Beverage-all are gone now), DeMarco’s way-cool food was sent packing after only a year or so. FIX now occupies the space. His main man at Encore will be Billy DeMarco (no relation, no kidding). I have it on good authority (the same ones who told me Big Brown didn’t have what it takes in the Derby), that this joint will be called The Garden Cafe(!?)-is that the lamest name in the history of restaurants or what? Again, we’re guessing/hoping it’s a working title.

Let’s also hope someone wakes up and smells the arabica before the signs are hung on these places….’cuz the kitchen talent deserves better.

Now if anyone doubts the veracity of any or all of this report, I hereby give my special Easterbrook Guarantee*- all predictions true or your money back!

*invented by the tastefully named Gregg Easterbrook-a Brookings Institution Fellow and part-time NFL columnist for ESPN.com