Hot Kitchen Watch – SCARPETTA

[imagebrowser id=930]

With (from l to r) Dan Rossi, Vita Shanley, and Scott Conant in the kitchen (and Antonello Paganuzzi running the front of the house), how could things get much hotter (or better) at Scarpetta?

ELV and his staff don’t think they can…and also think this place will quickly take its position the popular pantheon of pedigreed pasta perfection posited amongst our pactolian pantisocracy.

Or something like that.

FYI: Rossi formerly was top toque at David Burke; Shanley last dazzled us at SW Steakhouse before departing for colder climes, and Paganuzzi was the front of the house master who opened Le Cirque and Circo in the Bellagio way back when. A stronger team — who know the Vegas market as well as any operators in The Cosmopolitan — would be hard to find.

SCARPETTA

In The Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino

3708 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.698.7960

NNPK (No Name Pizza Kitchen) – Nice Slices

No name, no address, no signage, and some seriously nice slices.

[nggallery id=924]

We at ELV thought we’d ease in to telling you all about the fabolous restaurants sitting cheek to jowl on The Cosmopolitan’s Gourmet Food Court From Heaven by first focusing on the most modest (and least expensive and toughest to find) eatery on the third floor of this soon-to-be-world-famous-place.

It has no name, nor does it have any signage. To find it, look for a long hallway in between Jaleo and Blue Ribbon where you find the walls lined with cheesy old album covers. (Jerry Vale anyone? Anyone?) At the end of the hall, an old (and functioning) pinball machine will get your attention. As will a cool, lifesize b/w street photo/graphic on one wall, and a classic Galaga video game (straight from 1981) on the other. To your right will be a wall with three employees, four pizza ovens and five or six of the best pies in town…all begging for you to try a slice.

We only had one — the white, all-cheese pizza — but it was a marvel. Thin (but not too thin) crispy crust, charred and blistered just so, topped by good ingredients in proper proportion. Like all New York-style pies, it folded in half perfectly and made for a tasty treat on the go. (“On the go” is this sense meant as we were going out the door after having had lunch at Comme Ça and dinner at D.O.C.G.)

Pizzaiolo Nico seemed to have enough pizza enthusiasm for a whole chain of Domino’s, and his partner in pizza making, while shyer, was no less seriously into his work.

We were so taken with this place we think NNPK makes for a mandatory stop by any galloping gourmand, whether coming to or from one of the eight superstar restaurants here.

Slices are priced between $3-$5. Ours was so good we forgot how much we paid.

NNPK (No Name Pizza Kitchen)

In The Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino

3708 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

No Phone

No website

No Signage

Nice Slices