The cooler weather we’ve been experiencing lately seems to bring out the cooks among us, so let’s see if we can find some of the items sought by Taste of the Town readers:
Heidi Knapp Rinella
RJ food critic Heidi Rinella takes you inside your favorite Vegas eateries and let's you know what's worth the bite. Hungry for more? Head to bestoflasvegas.com for all of your foodie needs
Unless you’re an Emeril Lagasse die-hard — Would that be an Emhead or maybe a Gasbag? — you probably remember the chef most from his salad days on the Food Network, where he was occupied not with salad but with bamming and kicking things up a notch and spreading the gospel of his updated version of the best of New Orleans’ Cajun/Creole cuisine. And then maybe you tasted the fruits of his labors at one of his restaurants in New Orleans or at Emeril’s New Orleans Fish House at the MGM Grand right here in Our Fair City.
The good news: We may have solved the mystery of the whereabouts of hot dog buns like Woolworth’s used to serve, which are being sought by Sandra Ashenmil. Mike O’Brien noted that they were the New England-style split-top buns so many readers are searching for, “grilled on both sides and then the hot dog was served in it.”
Talking with a chef about food trends recently, he confirmed what I’ve been seeing: exponential growth toward the casual-but-upscale in restaurants across the board, whether they’re celebrity-chef-driven, chain links or mom-and-pop ethnics.
No barbecue is complete without baked beans, and with our nearly year-round barbecue season in the valley, it’s fortunate there’s a ready source of Heinz Vegetarian Baked Beans for Sandra Gersh.
Here’s the thing that surprises me most about Brio Tuscan Grille: People are so impressed by the scale of the building, the very grandeur of the place — soaring ceilings and vaults, cozy passages — that they tend to assume it’s a one-off, a stand-alone restaurant raised in Town Square by the scion of a Tuscan winemaking family.
I finally have good news for all of the readers out there — and believe me, there are lots of you — who are looking for whole-belly clams.
Some might quail at the idea of eating quail (sorry!) but it’s a delectable little bird, and one that reader Bob Matzke is trying to find, either fresh or frozen.
In the poker bar of old, decor was sparse to nonexistent, if you didn’t count the dark corners. The prevailing scents were stale beer and staler cigarette smoke, the prevailing sounds coins banging into the trays of the slot machines and occasional verbal outbursts either cursing or praising the fates. The food? Usually whatever could be kept in the freezer and thrown into the fryer.
The Olympics have many of us feeling pretty patriotic these days, so it’s only appropriate that we offer reader suggestions for David Simms, who’s looking for apple pie — specifically, apple pie “that you don’t need a hammer and chisel to cut through.”
So here’s a restaurant with very good food, served in a most pleasant (but not stuffy) atmosphere, and the prices are reasonable. What’s wrong with this picture?
Here’s some good news for Ruth Steffen, other readers looking for fresh-baked hamburger and hot-dog buns and anyone looking for fresh baked goods on the east side of the valley: John Bisci Sr. e-mailed that Great Buns Bakery, which burned a few years ago, has reopened at 3270 E. Tropicana Ave.
It seems hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalks these days — I wonder if that would work with nonstick cooking spray? — so it’s appropriate that today, we have eggs in the news.
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