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Jennifer Garner and Jessica Alba in "Valentine's Day" (2010)

Happy Saint Valentine's Day!

THIS WEEK

NEW YORK CORNER
VAI
by John Mariani

    As you'd expect for a city with so much moolah sloshing around, Las Vegas is home to some of the best and most expensive restaurants in the world. If you've won big at the tables or need a way to restore your spirit, these are the places to go.

Restaurant Guy Savoy
Caesar's Palace

    The most fundamentally French restaurant in town, Guy Savoy's food is rarely less than perfect. His wine list is probably the city's best, both in breadth and depth, and it's filled with trophy bottles from Savoy's cellar in Paris, as well as a large selection of reasonably priced New World producers. No matter what you choose, you can depend on Savoy's food being spot-on renditions of the dishes that earned his restaurant three Michelin stars in Paris, such as oysters en gelée (Kumamotos atop oyster cream topped with oyster jelly) and poulet en cocotte,  and the creamiest, whitest veal chop on the planet. Savoy features no beef in his Parisian original, but he's proud of his tournedos here, as well as the American veal  plated and served by the top-notch staff.  Main courses $80-$175, 10-course tasting menu $298. Open Tue-Fri. for dinner only.  

Bar Masa
Aria Hotel

    This is only place to go in Las Vegas for sushi and sashimi--when someone else is paying. The quality of the raw ingredients (most flown in from Japan) is an immediate education in the subtleties that comprise a superior Japanese dining experience. The size of your pocket and your sensibilities will determine whether you think paying $15 apiece for toro tuna, or $10 apiece for akamutsu (deep-sea snapper), or $34 for a kegani hairy-crab salad is worth it. Ignore the gymnasium feel of the place and be dazzled by the dancing shrimp, whitefish sampling platter, yari ika (squid) or the kanpachi with jalapeño sotomaki,  each one more ethereal than the last.  Average main courses $26-$38, sushi from $6 per piece, early-evening set menu $49. Open Wed-Sun. for dinner only.  

CUT
Palazzo Hotel

    Is this the best of scores of high-end steakhouses in Vegas? Wolfgang Puck's offshoot from the Beverly Hills original certainly serves up the most inventive non-steak dishes. Everything from the pristine oxtail broth to the bone-marrow flan to the hot potato knishes to the lamb chops with a mint-cucumber raita to the thyme-lavender roasted duck to the classic Dover sole are the equal of the prime grass- and corn-fed beef on offer. In fact, some tables skip the steaks entirely and make a meal from the stunning small plates, appetizers and sides. The wine list, under sommelier Lindsey Whipple, has vastly improved in the past two years, both in selection and price. Starters from $17, steaks from $51; open daily for dinner only.

Carnevino
Palazzo Hotel

     While CUT may be the best overall steakhouse in town, Carnevino probably has the best steaks in the country. Celeb restaurateur Mario Batali and partner Joe Bastianich (right) have created an aging program for their beef like no other, featuring hand-selected steaks dry-aged in a giant meat locker, which turns out beauties ranging from 60 days to six months old.  The super-aged strips and porterhouses are designated "riservas" on the menu and have to be ordered several days in advance--some are almost a year old, having attained a ham-like texture and a blue cheese funk that's for aficionados only. Main courses $33-$61, beef tasting menu $120. Open daily for lunch and dinner.

 

Estiatorio Milos
Cosmopolitan Hotel

    Chef/owner Costas Spiliadis seems to be on the premises for a remarkable amount of the time for a man who has restaurants on two continents. This offshoot of the Montreal original (others reside in New York and Athens) has a serene elegance that strikes you as soon as you enter the low-ceilinged, softly lit space and is detected in every refined, discriminating ingredient placed before you. The two-page menu has 11 appetizers on the left side, five salads and vegetables on the right, and a single heading that says simply From The Sea, leading you to the huge fish/seafood/vegetable counter against the far wall, where the day's catch is displayed for you to peruse and choose from. Main courses $40-75. Open daily  for lunch and dinner.

 

Joël Robuchon
MGM Grand Hotel

    Paris doesn't have one. Neither does London or New York. Only Vegas has the eponymous dining salon named after and run by "The Chef of the Century" (well, according to Gault-Millau back in 1990). As stale as the accolade might be, there is nothing tired about the food being turned out at this exquisite, relentlessly French jewel box in the bowels of the MGM Hotel. Bring money and an appetite, because you'll need both to support the ornate, precise, and highly decorative food being turned out by Joël's chief lieutenant, Claude Le Tohic. Between them, they create seasonal menus of impeccable provenance. Whether it's Australian spiny lobster in a Thai herb broth, or "chaud-froid" (hot-cold) sea urchin on a fennel/potato puree flecked with anise-spiked orange, this is over-the-top cooking that makes no apologies for its extravagance. Two-course menu $120, three-course menu $160, 16-course tasting menu $425. Open nightly for dinner.

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon
MGM Grand Hotel

    Begin at the sleek counter  with crisp langoustine fritters served with a smudge of basil pesto. From there the possibilities range from good prosciutto served with toasted tomato bread, ethereal poached Kumamoto oysters sitting in their shells in a warm bath of salted butter, to a beautiful piece of sautéed duck liver atop a tiny minced-citrus gratin. L'Atelier is hands-down the favorite "everyday" casual restaurant of every chef and foodie in Vegas. It's expensive (though far less expensive than its big brother next door), but almost flawless. Every dish highlights what perfectionist chefs--in this case executive chef Steve Benjamin and pastry chef Kamel Guechida--can do with the best ingredients money can buy. Main courses from $59, seasonal discovery tasting menu $155. Open nightly for dinner.

 

Le Cirque
Bellagio Hotel

    Executive chef Gregory Pugin took the helm here early in 2011, bringing a modern, lighter sensibility to Le Cirque's food that was long overdue. You can still get classics like blanquette de lapin and Le Cirque lobster salad, but one bite of his langoustines with caviar, passion fruit, apples and vodka gelée will bring tears to the eyes of even the most jaded gourmets. The service staff is virtually unchanged in 12 years, sommelier Freddy Montandon still charms the ladies while convincing the captains of American industry to order something other than a boring old California cab, and the whole place buzzes with an intimacy that is without peer in Sin City. Save room for Philippe Angibeau's drop-dead desserts. Main courses $39-$65, seven-course tasting menu $125. Open Tues-Sun. for dinner only.

Picasso
Bellagio Hotel

    Perhaps the only restaurant in the world where the art detracts from the food and where you routinely see diners walking around the room and treating it like a mini-museum of the master's works. (Yes, they are all originals.) In the kitchen, Julian Serrano (right) serves up Cal-Ital-Mediterranean cooking has earned him a devoted following of foodies, who rave about the sweetest Nantucket scallops you'll ever taste and his various masterful treatments of foie gras. The wine list, overseen by Master Sommelier Robert Smith, is rich with the varietals of Spain and other Mediterranean climes. For food, wine, and décor of this caliber, the tariff--$113 for four courses, $123 for five--plus an amuse-bouche here and a pre-dessert there--is remarkably reasonable. Open Wed-Mon. for dinner. 

 

Twist by Pierre Gagnaire
Mandarin Oriental Hotel

    If Robuchon is the most elaborate and Savoy the most elegant of Vegas's great restaurants, Gagnaire matches them for the creativity of its cuisine, which is often as baffling as it is exhilarating. One look at his scallop carpaccio with Campari or mushroom broth tells you that you're in the hands of the enfant terrible (right) of French cooking. The years haven't dimmed Gagnaire's incessant search for astounding edibles and his Nebraska sirloin with escargot sauce and venison ice-cream provides a window into the intellectual curiosity that drives his talent. Main courses $44-98, three-course menu $105, six-course tasting menu $189. Open nightly for dinner. 

John Curtas is a Vegas-based restaurant critic and food writer.  This article originally appeared in different form in The Guardian.

 

NEW YORK CORNER
by John Mariani

VAI
429 Amsterdam
212-362-4500
www.vairestaurant.com

     There is a Vai in Soho that I have not been to, so I can't compare it with the new version on the Upper West Side, where Chef/owner/wine director/pastry chef,' etc, etc, etc, Vincent Chirico  is doing a splendid job bringing a version of his Italian/Mediterranean cuisine to a modest-looking, brick-walled trattoria in  need of one this good, this imaginative, and so reasonably priced.
    Chirico's culinary résumé includes stints at Aquavit, Jean Georges, and Daniel, and there is clear finesse in every dish at the new Vai, which is casual and warmhearted, with a horseshoe butcher block bar, where they serve brunch and signature cocktails, pretty glass hanging lighting and sconces, leather banquettes, and chiffon curtains that balance out the hard brick textures. Small in size, it is loud when full, so there's no reason to add background music to the mix. But they do.
    The raw crudo items at the top of the menu are a pleasant surprise and offer some of the best eating here, from hamachi and yellowfin tuna perkily set atop sweet avocado with a preserved ginger sauce  (left) that provides a subtle tingle to the pure taste of the fish; jumbo fluke ceviche with sweet onion, jalapeño and mint chili arbol has some snap too.  Move on to appetizers like charred but tender octopus with a jalapeño pesto and crisp potatoes, another example of how to add zest without overpowering anything on the plate.  Sautéed Gulf shrimp of considerable heft came with chorizo and a nicely seasoned soffrito.
    We tried three pastas that included a perfectly al dente tagliatelle with a rich veal ragù, shards of ricotta salata, a touch or oregano and oven-roasted tomato, this last adding sweetness to the already complex ragù. Ravioli was plumped up with soft-centered burrata cheese then lavished with truffle cream and parmigiano--as magnificent and munificent dish as I've had all year. Spaghettini came with briny New Zealand cockles and the true Mediterranean taste of preserved lemon and a jolt of Calabrian chili-garlic.  Everything on Vai's menu--which changes about 25 percent each week--has notes and counter-notes of flavors and textures.
     Being so Mediterranean, Vai's main courses are dominated by the sea, and we thoroughly enjoyed sautùed filet of Maryland jumbo black bass with a buttery leek puree and tasty Niçoise olive tapenade.  (Butter plays a key role in his fish cookery, underpinning the other flavors.) Branzino was roasted whole, served with preserved lemon, chervil and a beurre noisette, while fat sea scallops (right) were very gently pan-roasted and came with an elegant, mousseline of parsnips and a dash of Sicilian capers.
    Desserts are not just an afterthought: though few in number they are well wrought, like Vai's light, lovely semi-freddo. There is also a judicious cheese selection.  Vai's wine list is well thought through for the Mediterranean flavors here, and very decently priced.
    If you're on the Upper West Side around 5:30 PM, maybe after a visit to the Museum of Natural History or New York Historical Society nearby, or you want to eat small dishes before theater or after, Vai is ideal, with an early evening menu at $29.  It's even better if you take your time over dinner, and well worth a trip from midtown; Soho has its own Vai to take care of the rest of the population.

Vai is open  daily for dinner;  Crudo and appetizers $9-$15, pastas $15-$17, main courses $18-$29; 5-Course Chef’s Menu $59, with wine $89; Mon. night prix fixe menu with wine $39.

 
NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

         Margaux, in terms of reputation, can fairly be compared to Chanel, Steven Spielberg, and Ferrari. All four of them, after all, possess a cachet so instantly recognizable that even people who have never experienced them first-hand recognize their quality and importance. Their reputations, in other words, have lifted them above and beyond the confines of their specific categories: A Chanel dress is more than an item in a woman’s wardrobe, just as a film by Spielberg is (usually) more than a pleasant way to spend a few hours in the dark and a Ferrari is so much more than a really fast car.
         And so it is with Margaux. Much of this reputation among the non-wine-drinking public, I think, is built on the back of Château Margaux, the venerated First Growth whose iconic château is as emblematic of “wine” and “prestige” in general as anything in the world of the vine. But fans of this great Left Bank commune know that there’s much more to it than that.
         Margaux, after all, is home to some of the finest, most justifiably venerated wines on the planet: Châteaux Lascombes, Brane-Cantenac, Palmer, and more have sunk their roots here and turned the resulting juice into the wine equivalent of gold.
         Earlier this month, the Wine Media Guild hosted John Kolasa of Château Rauzan-Ségla (below, left) and Emmanuel Cruse of Château d’Issan (below) for a multi-vintage tasting and lunch featuring their remarkable wines.
         The benefits of a tasting like this are impossible to overstate, and for a number of reasons. From an academic standpoint, it provides the opportunity to see how a particular property expresses itself across a range of vintages, making it easier to understand what sets it apart from its neighbors. The same is true in terms of vintage expression: Tasting two different wines from the same year helps to contextualize how the weather impacted wines in a particular part of the world, and deepens your understanding even of other wines from that vintage not included in the tasting.
         Perhaps most important, however, is the fact that the wines at these Wine Media Guild tastings are not tasted in a vacuum. Rather, once the tasting notes have been compiled and the critical judgments rendered, they are enjoyed at lunch, alongside the food they were made to accompany in the first place.
         First-time visitors to Bordeaux itself are often surprised by how beautifully these wines work at the table, and how freely they are poured. Indeed, for all the talk of iconic bottles and skyrocketing prices and collectors who invest in wines to either show them off or flip them for profit as they would a piece of real estate, the great wines of Bordeaux, in my experience, are food wines beyond all else. Show me a well-prepared duck, and I’ll show you a bird that would be even better with a great bottle of classed-growth Bordeaux sipped alongside it.
         These tasting notes, however, were taken before the food was served, the better to preserve my palate and provide an identical framework within which they each were initially experienced. Overall, I was not just impressed with the wines, as expected, but also with the consistency of them. All the vintages manifested themselves in unique ways, of course, but despite these differences, and despite the occasionally difficult circumstances that each particular year’s weather presented, they all showed how careful fruit selection and technically conscientious winemaking allow the pedigree of a great château’s land to stand out and make itself known with all the gusto and idiosyncrasy it deserves to.
         Château d’Issan 2008 ($55) showed currant and pine needle notes on a nose that led to a tightly-wound, tannic palate that still needs several years to open up--or at least a solid stint in the decanter. There’s very good potential here, but it’s playing it all quite close to the vest right now. The 2006 ($66) was far more giving, with a lovely cedar and sandalwood perfume. I’d still hold onto it for another four years, but it’s starting to come into its own nicely. The 2005 ($98), however, was a standout, as expected for this great vintage. Classic notes of sage and green pepper combined with blackberry, black and red raspberry, cedar, and mineral, all of it backed up by sweet, caressing tannins. The pedigree of the vintage at this château is on brilliant display in this bottle. Buy lots of it if you can.
         Château d’Issan 2004 ($68) was also a real success, and demonstrated why this underappreciated vintage has always deserved more love and affection that it gets; like a middle child, it’s unfortunately sandwiched between two highly lauded ones, the ’03 and ’05. It was feminine and filigréed, with grilled sage, cherry pipe tobacco, and 2004’s telltale cigar-like notes. Lovely. The 2001 ($84)was a creamier wine, more seductive with its menthol and eucalyptus hints, and the 2000 ($111), like the 2005, lived up to its reputation with ease and exuberance, its aromatically beautiful nose and sexy, chocolatey tannins framing a concentrated, deep palate of spiced plum, currants, leather, and exotic spices.
         The 1999 ($84), at nearly 13 years old, was a spicier wine, with cocoa powder, graphite, lots of red fruit, and dusty tannins than still promise quite a few years of evolution. Finally, the 1995 ($222), from magnum, demonstrated exactly what you want from mature Bordeaux, its licorice and gravel-hinting character freshened up by a bracing hit of green pepper.
         Among the bottles from Rauzan-Ségla, the 2009 ($120), despite the extraordinary nature of the vintage, was my least favorite of the tasting, too sweet, too reliant on its plum cake, vanilla, and crème brûlée notes right now. The 2008 ($73), with its greener, more minerally character, and blackberry and black currant fruit, was a better food wine, though slightly hollow in the middle.
         And then I came to the 2005 ($152), which was one of the highlights of the day, a concentrated, detailed beauty whose descriptors run the gamut from tobacco and scorched earth to aromatically complex spice and fig cobbler. It was warm, comforting, and utterly engaging, and promises to evolve for another 20+ years, easily. If you can find this wine, but as much as you can.
         I’ve never been a great lover of 2003 ($84) in general, but Rauzan-Ségla’s wine that year was excellent, a gripping, sappy red of ample cherry, chocolate, and humidor character, as well as a sense of balance that I occasionally find missing in the vintage. By contrast, the 2001($95) was more mysterious, a smoky, sage- and red-currant-flecked wine more feminine than either of the preceding two vintages. I particularly liked the toasted fennel note at the end of this one.
         A magnum of 1999 ($81 for 750 ml bottle)  proved to be warm and toasty, with cherry creme, licorice, birch bark, and an intriguing sense of savoriness. The minty 1995 ($106) was intriguingly complicated by spiced plum, red cherry, and Indian and North African spices. Finally, the 1986 ($232), despite its more than quarter-century of age, still showed an almost amazing freshness, its delicate eucalyptus aromatics presaging flavors of flowers, dried fig, and cherry, all of it perfectly balanced, all of it given excellent posture by a seam of still-linear tannins. Drink this now, and make a night of it.
         As is so often the case with Bordeaux, these wines showed the breeding and overall reliability of the region as a whole, as well as the remarkably appealing character of Margaux itself. Its reputation as a source of world-class wines was made long ago; fortunately for all of us, it continues to prove itself even now, as exemplified by these two remarkable châteaux.

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I consider this the best and savviest blog of its kind on the  web. Potter is a columnist for USA Weekend, Diversion, Laptop and Luxury  Spa Finder, a contributing editor for Ski and  a frequent contributor to National  Geographic Traveler, ForbesTraveler.com  and Elle Decor. "I’ve designed this site is for people who take their  travel seriously," says Potter. "For travelers who want to learn about special  places but don’t necessarily want to pay through the nose for the privilege of  staying there. Because at the end of the day, it’s not so much about five-star  places as five-star experiences."  THIS WEEK: MOHONK HOUSE, NYS; CLOUD NINE IN ASPEN.

Eating Las Vegas is the new on-line site for Virtual Gourmet contributor John A. Curtas., who since 1995 has been commenting on the Las Vegas food scene and reviewing restaurants for Nevada Public Radio.  He is also the restaurant critic for KLAS TV, Channel 8 in Las Vegas, and his past reviews can be accessed at KNPR.org. Click on the logo below to go directly to his site.

www.EatingLV.com

                     

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