Robert Morris

Sorry but Rosemary's closed its doors a few months ago. One of our fatalities. The others are okay. A venerable favorite in Thai food is Lotus of Siam on Sahara but I actually prefer the much smaller scale King and I at Maryland Parkway and Tropicana in the Vons strip mall. Nora's for Italian on Flamingo and Jones is an old favorite of locals. We are losing some good ones to the economy. For breakfast the Original Pancake House on Charleston but I drove by the other day and it looked like it was closed. Too bad.

I know the husband and wife chef team, the Jordans, fairly well. After living in Las Vegas for 26 years, a founding member of Slow Food Las Vegas, an active participant in the local food producer movement in Las Vegas and creator of the university producer to chef program, I found this loss to be jaw-dropping. This restaurant was THE restaurant, over the last decade plus, to take your wife or sweetheart for Valentine’s or birthday off the strip. The food was spectacular, service was impeccable and truly a night to remember. This is a terrible loss for the Las Vegas dining scene and in particular for locals. On another loss not mentioned here was Nora’s Wine Bar’s closing the same week, probably my favorite place to drop in when chef/owner Giovanni was cooking. Giovanni was also a cofounder of Slow Food Las Vegas and its first president. All I had to do was sit down and ask Giovanni to just cook whatever he thought was good. Not only was the food spectacular and the service great but the food was sequenced in such a way to surprise and delight your senses. I feel like I’m writing an obituary. What a loss!

As a local who appreciates some of the restaurants that have either emerged or have been discovered off the Strip I would recommend three that come to mind. One is Rosemary's with chef-owners Michael and Wendy Jordan, Marche Bacchus with chef Jean Paul Labadie and Nora's Winebar with chef-owner Giovanni Mauro. If you do elect to go off the Strip then I would highly recommend that you let the chefs cook for you and not order off of the menu. I do this when I go and make sure the chef is there that evening. They love to perform when they know they have an appreciative diner and very very seldom fails to please.

I am in Las Vegas and work closely with Slow Food here and in the newly emerging locally grown food movement. I would highly recommend that you go to Nora's Winebar at Rampart and Charleston if you haven’t. Make sure that you go at a time when the owner/chef, Giovanni Mauro, is there. Make a reservation for that day and contact him when you arrive. Let him be creative and turn over the reins and let him cook for you. He will and it will be fabulous. They have a fabulous wine selection and, unless you see a real favorite, let the sommelier make wine suggestions for your meal. If you can take a couple of good friends with you plan to spend a few hours talking, laughing and having a great time. That is what food is all about.

I would like to reply to ulterior epicure. I can vouch for the dry aging process. The dry aging facility is located near Blue Diamond and Dean Martin Drive in Las Vegas. Yes, I can understand the disbelief that beef can or possibly even should be dry aged this long but they do it. Basically controlled breakdown of the meat. Alhough I am not an employee or even work for Molto Vegas I am at that facility every Thursday for the chefs farmers market hosted by Molto Vegas and now open to the public. I have had lengthy discussions with Chefs from Mario Batali's restaurants there including Exec. Chefs Shirley and Zack as well as Doug Taylor regarding the process. It is very, very interesting. As far as the reason for the rosemary, not my area of expertise. I am on the food production side of this experience and a Board member of Slow Food Las Vegas. I might add that there is some wonderful natural beef available from a northern Nevada rancher near Fallon out of Smith Valley, Nevada. Small scale producer finishing only about 30 head a year. You might also enjoy Bar 10 Ranch beef, Red Devon cattle which is a rare breed, pastured in the winter on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Fifth generation cattle ranchers.