A Tale of Three Italians…  Beloni’s  Zeffirino, Batali’s Enoteca San Marco and Bamparola’s Canaletto Restorante Veneto: Slugging It out in Las Vegas.

As every meeting goer and red-blooded, fun loving, American knows Las Vegas is now a Foodie Paradise as well as an entertainment and gambling mecca.  In the past several years celebrity chef after celebrity chef has decided that it is essential to their reputation to put in a restaurant.   These restaurants are usually very visible, gaudy and hyper-expensive and are located at the cross roads of the Western Entertainment Roads in the desert, Las Vegas.  Some of these folks have even opened more than one… is that because they are so good? Is it because there is so much money floating around that town?  Or, is it because their toque sizes have swelled so grandly?  Now a days the mega-hotels of Las Vegas look like an outlet for The Food Channel Network or a living breathing section of your local Barns and Noble cookbook section.  While I am willing to lay you three-to-one odds (with only a modest skim for my-house) that Vegas has the highest concentration per square mile of celebrity chef eateries it isn’t of course the only place in the US where you can find name brand cuisine.  But the question is does this name brand cuisine “reign supreme” to borrow a phrase from The Iron Chef series, in these places?  Is the food, and the service, worth your dollars and the effort?  It is a tough job but somebody has to do it but The Crabby Old Guy, with some encouragement from my spouse and partner in travel, The Savvy Old Lady, has decided to do a series of comparative reviews of some Celebrity Eateries.

Recently I traveled out to Las Vegas, one of my favorite people watching spots, and decided to try out three restaurants by three different celebrity chefs all at the fabulous Venetian Hotel and Casino’s Grand Canal complex.  I had dinner at Zeffirino (a place I have frequented over the years), owned by the son of the originator of this fine group of restaurants, Maestro de Cucina Gian Paulo “Zeffirino” Beloin, at Canaletto, brainchild of Luigi Bamparolo and Enoteca San Marco, one of two new eateries recently opened there by Molto Mario Batali.  An amazing breadth and depth of Italian culinary experience in one place! There’s almost as many there as in my first home town, New York City. 

First, Zeffirino.  I like this place. I like it a lot. The heritage of this fine and handsome restaurant is Genoa, so naturally it bills itself as specializing in seafood.  The Executive Chef is the talented Francesco Schintu, who trained and worked under Maestro Beloni himself in Genoa.  I have eaten there several times over the years.  It has been consistently good and the service is usually very attentive and professional with a touch or real Italian flair.   Only once do I recall the service being a bit distanced.  That was during Rodeo Week out there and I think that the cultural challenges the Italian staff was having while coping with Cowboys who refused to take their western hats off during dinner was just making them aggettivo, that is nutso.  This time out I dined with a good Southern gentleman colleague and friend who had never been there before but who also is a foodie.   The service was excellent, attentively efficient and non-intrusive.  My guest started with a Caesar Salad.  Ok, so who can ruin that?  Plenty of restaurants, particularly those who cater to tourists often do.  This was well done in the classic style.  He also had the Filetto de Branzini alla Catalana. This lovely white fish was prepared with white wine a touch of lobster and a very light tomato based sauce.  It was the focus of the dish and it was served with some braised leaks and lightly seasoned sautéed potatoes.   I had the Fritto de Calamari e Zucchine. This is a rather large portioned dish so I split it with my friend; it made a great accompaniment to his salad.  The Calamari and zucchini combination is quite nice.  There seemed to be an over abundance of tentacles in my portion but other than that it was well prepared, served hot and crispy.  The dipping sauce was fine but nothing to write home about; the real star is the lightness of the fried items themselves.  As an entrée I had one of my very favorites there the Costoletta di Vitelo alla Valdostana.  This is a lovely and thick cut veal chop lightly breaded and then stuffed with fontina cheese.  The dish is finished with a rich Borolo wine sauce and served with a small portion of a hearty polenta, also with a bit of fontina.  The heavy sauce goes well with the veal, which was cooked to perfection.  It is a rather large portion so if you choose this entrée save room. Another wonderful dish at Zeffirino that I have had in the past is their Aragosta Diavolo.  A very traditional preparation of lobster, shrimp, mussels, clams and scallops.  The lobster is advertised as a “one pound” portion however, when I went to dinner there I forgot my food scale so I had to eyeball it and it seemed to be a small, one-pound tail, but maybe that was the weight before shelling, deveining and cooking (sort of the way they weigh the burgers at Mickey  D’s).  At any rate the portion for this dish is also substantial and the shellfish are very well prepared.  The sauce was quite good too but I did need a few extra pepper flakes to get the devil in the dish out there for me.  My one complaint about the dish was not the dish but resided with the server.  Being of Sicilian extraction, I often like to have grated cheese with my pasta dishes.  Now, many chefs and food purists would thumb up their nose at the thought of putting cheese on a fish dish; they claim it detracts from the delicate nature of the fish tastes.  But wait a minute there Bucko!  This type of dish has garlic, and lots of it, hot pepper flakes and wine.  Now, just how is some cheese going to interfere with anything here?  There is nothing subtle about a diavolo preparation; so get off it food-snobs.  When I asked the waiter for cheese, he looked aghast and, as only a real Italian can, made a great, and not so subtle point, about how he will accommodate me but that he would not tell the chef (sure, like he actually has conversations with the chef about this sort of thing) as he would be very offended.  Give me a break.  First off, this is a diavolo preparation, second off, I’m paying for it and third-off, I added more pepper flakes to counter balance the intrusion of the cheese.    Yes, this is a pricy place but, unfortunately, in the new Las Vegas the celebrity chef category restaurants are all a bit stratospheric in price.  Does it matter?  From a business standpoint I guess not since seats are almost always filled at the top tier restaurants.  It is a shame but the phrase, “Price what the market will bear” was made for Las Vegas.   Zeffirino is, in my humble opinion, one of the places in Vegas where the price is worth it.  The entire experience was most satisfying for me as a repeat patron and for my guest who agreed that it was worth it and would certainly go back again.

Then there was Batali’s Enoteca San Marco in the heart of the Grand Canal scene. A perfect spot for lunch or dinner and some big time people watching if you eat ’outside’ or at the stylish bar-counter. It is a bit quieter ‘inside’ but just as stylishly decorated.  But after having eaten there all I can say is: Mario, Mario, Mario; what are you doing?  Have you actually eaten in this place?  Oh, I suppose if you did the experience would be quite different then mine was, but maybe you should send a “secret eater” or something here every now and then.  This place was awful.   Even worse it could be grand if some caring was showered on the patrons.  The servers were rather yuppie (to the point where I thought I was at third tier LA restaurant), very inexperienced and seemed to care about managing table-turns more than making sure that the patrons were happy, well tended to and relaxed during the meal. I wanted to eat light so I ordered the Bitter Broccoli with Spicy Lemon Oil as an appetizer and the Linguine with Spicy Tuna as the entree. I did not want wine with the meal. Savvy has put me on a diet and if I am going to consume mega calories in the line of duty I do not want to use them up on an alcoholic beverage.  When I only asked for water you would have thought I asked for Kool Aid.  I suppose the server was much happier to serve the rather interesting couple across the way from me a lovely bottle of pink Champaign (an elegant choice with Italian food) then me my water. I always ask for water without ice or lemon.  You would be amazed how hard it is to just get water prepared this way.  At Enoteca San Marco I asked for my usual “water-no ice, no fruit” and I got it adulterated with ice and lemon.  It took about 10 minutes to get it replaced, no kidding.  There was some very nice looking bread and olive oil served, but the bread was not crisped.  Ok, serving bread at room temperature is just fine but this bread took about 15 minutes to come up to room temperature; what a shame.  The Bitter Broccoli, actually broccoli rabbi, was on the menu as a vegetable dish so the server made it a point of telling me that this was a cold dish. So, when the dish came I expected it to be cold, but the darn thing was so cold that the spicy lemon oil was congealed on the top of it.  The lovely fragrance and taste mix of the lemon oil which should have lit up my palate was totally blunted by serving the dish right out of the deepest recesses of the commercial grade refrigerator.  It took about half of the time I was there eating my two entrees (more on this in a moment) for this dish to come to what I would consider a proper room temperature and finally be enjoyed. To compliment my rabbi I first ordered the Linguine with Spicy Tuna.  It was not at all good.   The dish was brought at best lukewarm, the spicy sauce was lacked any depth of taste and not at all spicy and the stuff in there that was presumably the tuna had the palate appeal of those lovely white (or pink) packing peanuts.  The tuna was totally inedible. I was very dissatisfied with this dish after just a few bites and when I finally was able to flag down the manger, who was gracious enough about my dissatisfaction,  I had this entrée changed to the Cavatappi with Lamb Ragu, mint and pecorino. This was a very lovely preparation.  Batali’s style is known for crisp and clear tastes and presentation that stars the food rather than some sauce or side dish; such was the case with this lovely dish.  I was even pleasantly surprised that the mint used in the sauce (an herb Mario seems to be unusually fond of) added an interesting harmonic to the palate.  It was thoroughly satisfying – but it was apparent that it was made to order to satisfy a displeased customer.  My server was no gem.  I had a hard time finding her during the meal not because I could not see her but because she so quickly flew around her service area that in order to get her attention I would have had to get off my chair and tackle her NFL-style.  Getting my water(neat or not) refilled was a bit of a chore.  Even after it was quite apparent that I was not pleased with the entrée I still could not fine the young lady.  She was, unfortunately for Mr. Batali’s reputation, not the only unimpressive person working here.  The young man working behind the bar was prepping some fruit and was cleaning up the service area at the same time.  Unfortunately, as he shifted from cleaning to prepping no food service gloves were used and as far as I could tell there was no hand washing either between cleaning the counter and slicing the fruit, yuck.  I also curiously observed two other yuppie-like servers conspicuously arguing in the middle of the bar area over something or other. This tiff seemed to extend for a bit of time as the looks-to-kill between them were rather obvious the whole time I was trying to dine and if I was not mistaken a bit of shoving also ensued.  The price at Enoteca San Marco would have been more than reasonable if the food and service were up to par but under the circumstances I certainly got my money’s worth of material for this review.  Too bad it was not positive material rather than my monies worth of a pleasant dining experience.  This is not a place I would recommend  unless these service lapses are corrected and the staff in the kitchen and in the dining area learn that they are not there just to turn tables but to create a wonderful dining experience and enhance Chef Batali’s reputation not sully it.  Maybe my comments will actually get through to Chef Batali and he can save his and his partner’s reputation.  Chef Batali has another higher end restaurant at the Venetian but, unfortunately, my experience here does not inspire me to go there!   

Last but not least, was the Venetian inspired Canaletto Restorante Veneto. The noteworthy owner celebrity chef is Senor Luigi Bomparola and the chef at this restaurant is Chef Gianpaolo Putzu.  This is another beautifully designed restaurant with lovely hardwoods and colors. I have eaten here a couple of times in the past, mostly because it has reliable food and is convenient but not because of anything particularly special about the food, the presentation or the service.  The most memorable foodie event here was that one corporate dinner a while back when a few friends of mine and I decided that we needed to have an impromptu grappa tasting session.  Grappa, for those of you who have not had the pleasure, is highly volatile liquor with a linage that I believe could be considered the equivalent of Italian moonshine. My Grandpa Papale use to make this stuff (in legal quantities only mind you) with the remnants of the grapes that he used to make his home made wine.  The basic ingredient for grappa, you see, is the virtually totally expended squeezing from wine grapes.  The juice, if you can really call it that, comes from this second, or third pressing of grape skins, and sometimes seeds and stems, which is fermented to a high alcoholic content (sometimes approaching 80% alcohol, or 160 proof) and left to rest. Sort of like a brandy.  It may sound like rather ruff-stuff (which many types are) but well made grappa is a wonderful thing. At any rate, at that one rather pleasant evening at Canaletto’s we had a tasting of grappa…about 5 different types if I remember correctly. It is unusual for a restaurant these days to carry any grappa let alone several different types.  I honestly did not look at the menu for this treat when at the restaurant this time so if they still have this available, and you don’t mind missing much of your memory for that evening, you might too try a grappa tasting.  

At any rate, back to the food experience at Canaletto this time around. I ordered the Calamaretti Frittoi as an appetizer, just to give me some comparison to that which I had at Zeffirino a couple of nights earlier.  It was perfectly fine. Not particularly crisp but well prepared and a good, not huge, portion. It was every bit as good as you can get anywhere.  The dipping sauce, a marinara based sauce, is nice.  Not overwhelming to the taste of the calamari. It was served with a tasting-size portion of nicely prepared polenta.  Next, I ordered the Linguine ala Brunella. This was a well prepared and nicely seasoned combination of shellfish, mussels, prawns, scallops and clams in a wonderful terabbiano wine sauce.  Trebbiano wine is a crisp white that by itself goes very nicely with the traditional cuisine of Northern Italy, particularly with fish dishes.  Its addition here, while the subtlety of the wine itself was a bit lost in the dish, it was a nice touch.  Canaletto, is what I would call a moderately expensive place to eat.  So, if you are not looking for a particularly ambitious menu or flashy surroundings, but pleasant and non-surprising Northern Italian food this is a good place.  For example this is the kind of safe bet place for those business dinners where the guests may have refined but not adventuresome tastes – or even worse - you are in the mood for good Italian but don’t know about your guests tastes or sophistication – and you just happen to be hanging around the Venetian hotel…then this is the place for you. 

Since I am doing a comparison piece here I suppose it is fair to compare these three.  Canaletto teaches that to be a celebrity chef does not always mean that the food has to be very novel or exceptional…but sometimes having good food that appeals to the average taste and is consistently well structured, presented and prepared can make you a celebrity.  Zeffirino, even at its knock-your-socks-off, get-out-the-Platinum-card, prices has never disappointed and the celebrity here is grand food in a grand setting…at a grand price.  Unfortunately the lesson Enoteca San Marco gives is that celebrity is fragile.  All the right elements for success and high expectations that come from celebrity as a renowned and talented chef can be subverted very easily by a poorly managed kitchen and service staff.   

Have A Good Day Fellow Foodies!
The Crabby Old Guy