Dining In Vegas

I spent a week in Vegas recently to attend a three-day Spanish Wine Educators conference. I studied hard, and am now a certified Spanish Wine Educator. But equally as important, I had several excellent meals, including one that ranks as one of my best dinners ever. Here’s the scoop:


Mesa Grill

This is Food Network star Bobby Flay’s place, inside Caesars Palace. It’s upscale Southwest Fusion, or something. I’m not sure what to call it, but it was fantastic.

The restaurant is large, bright, and brimming with literally hundreds of diners. A spotless demonstration kitchen shows off a small army of white-coated cooks, and servers scurry everywhere. If the wait staff was just a bit over-friendly, it’s probably because everyone wants to talk about Bobby Flay and the restaurant.

We sampled a wide variety of dishes, and everything was good. Duck confit quesadillas with blue corn tortillas was an imaginative starter, with the shrimp tamale with corn and a spicy / sweet chili cream sauce was sublime. All the dishes were Southwestern or Mexican standards, but updated and dosed with some Flay-vor (I just made that up).

Since I was dining with Spaniards, ordering some beef was unavoidable. The menu promises 28-day, dry aged prime beef: A real treat! Prime beef is highly marbled, and exceptionally tender. Dry aged beef tends to become very beefy tasting, and begins to decompose just a bit, until it’s literally falling apart.

That’s why I was confused by the steak that actually arrived. It was firm, even toothsome, with a freshly-cut appearance and very little marbling. In fact, it was so lean that I’m convinced it was grass-fed beef. Those cows tend to have a harder time putting on fat, and it is virtually impossible to find a true “prime” grade grass-fed steak. My queries to the waiter were met with the answer that “it’s that way because our cooks choose only the finest steaks from the cow,” or essentially no answer at all. We at the steak anyway, because is was tasty and had a terrific spice rub, but it was not 28-day, dry-aged Prime beef.

Our wine selections were Oregon pinots, provided by your’s truly for my Spanish guests.

Minor gripes aside, however, Mesa Grill is a fine Vegas dining establishment with creative, savory fare and some celebrity cachet. After two meals there, I recommend it.


B & B Ristorante

Another celebrity chef joint! This one is part of the Mario Batali empire. He’s got books, shows, is one of the Iron Chefs of Iron Chef America (along with Flay) and he also has a string of restaurants. This one is located inside a new addition to the Venetian Hotel.

At first glance, this fairly small eatery is almost like a shopping mall storefront. In fact, it’s one of a series of restaurants along a shopping promenade inside the hotel / casino, with big windows that look out on the common areas; as you dine, you can watch the great unwashed casino crowd trundle by, along with occasional smart-dressed beautiful people who might actually be celebrities.

The menu was interesting, with an eclectic array of fairly high-end dishes that seemed in no way to give ground to hordes of burger-eaters just out side the doors. My starter of crispy trotter was as fine an example of braised pig hoof as I’ve ever eaten. A house-made stinging nettle pasta with braised lamb shoulder ragu was simply stellar. The pasta was fresh, silky, flawlessly cooked and nearly evaporated in my mouth. The meat was good, too.

The wine list is legit, and particularly deep in Piedmont, my favorite Italian wine region. I drank a ’97 Giacosa Barolo Falletto that was in perfect condition – a real treat, since I long ago consumed both cases of that wine that were once in my cellar.

You’ll pay for your pleasure at B & B, and it seems unlikely that Mario will ever put in an appearance (Flay reportedly spends real time at Mesa Grill). But for modern, high-end Italian fare with some flair and a very good Italian wine selection, this is a way-above-average choice.


Aureole

This gorgeous, classy restaurant was the site of one of the finest meals I’ve ever had, and excelled in every category: Setting, food, wine, and service. While nothing on the menu was challenging in its originality, it didn’t matter. What came to my table was impeccably prepared, and was provided with the most gracious service I have ever experienced. Aureole is a temple of essentially flawless, high-end, fine dining comfort food. It has my highest recommendation.

Special note must be made of the superb wine list. Comprised of more than 1,600 selections, the wine collection is stored in a multi-story glass tower at the edge of the dining room. “Wine angels” with harnesses are hauled up and down the tower to find particular bottles. The wine list is delivered to the table with a touch-screen tablet PC that allows the drinker to search and sort with amazing ease. My choice of a 1999 Arlaud Romanee St. Vivant was even reasonably priced for that Grand Cru (and delicious to boot).

I was dining alone at Aureole, and indicated my desire to pace the meal over a reasonable span of time – say, at least three hours; the request was easily accommodated. Fresh bacon-raisin bread and an amuse of lobster bisque kicked off the meal. Pasta and meat courses followed. During dinner, a small army of deferential waiters in very, very nice suits kept my glasses full, my table crumb-free, and whisked away the empty dishes within seconds of having taken the last bite.

The crowd was also notable. Rather than the bus-tour side show viewed from the strip mall setting of B & B, Aureole was crowded with well-dressed people who knew what they wanted, and were willing to pay for it. With all due respect to the young man on a date at the next table who ordered an amazing dessert wine with his chicken entrée most diners seemed to relish the wine list as much as I did. (“The sweeter the better,” the fellow requested. After the Sommelier attempted to redirect the misguided lad and was rebuffed, the wine was quickly provided and poured. I’m sure his date thought he was quite the wine expert.) I even had one brief glimpse of a minor celebrity with a show in Vegas that week.

The only hitch in the giddy-up was during the cheese course. Promised three blue cheeses, I was delivered two blues and a Morbier, which has a streak of blue-ish vegetable ash down the middle. It may look like a blue streak, but it’s not blue cheese. The staff literally went into paroxysms of apology, which was a bit overboard. The offending junior waiter held his head low for the remainder of my stay. I ate the cheese.

The cheese incident led to a kitchen visit to greet the chef, about which I cannot complain. The kitchen appeared to be approximately three acres in size, and gleamed with a cleanliness that would impress even Gordon Ramsey on a made-for-TV rampage.

After the coffee, cheeses with sauterne, cognac and everything else, I waddled out of the restaurant having spent more than 4 hours enjoying the meal. That’s dining, folks. Make no mistake: the weight I gained from dinner was offset by my much-lighter wallet. But next time I’m in Vegas, I’m going back to do it again. I strongly suggest you do the same.