Carluccio’s serves helping of history

Las Vegas has two mob museums now, but if you can taste the history in either one of them, it's metaphoric.

But at Carluccio's Italian Restaurant, 9821 S. Eastern Ave., the calamari appetizer is "straight from Tony Spilotro," owner John Hosier says of the mobster who (for those who need a museum refresher course) was portrayed by Joe Pesci in "Casino."

"He showed the original owner, Helen, how to clean it, and he made a suggestion of how to make the actual breading, what to add to it."

The calamari is part of a menu carefully preserved at the restaurant dating back to 1983. "All of us can make it with our eyes closed," Hosier says. "Nobody decides, 'Well I think you should add a little more of this.' Absolutely nothing's changed."

Well, maybe one little detail: the location.

The restaurant adjacent to -- and nearly synonymous with -- the Liberace Museum since 1988 finally threw in the towel last summer after the double punch of the recession followed by the museum closure. So closely was the restaurant associated with the museum, "people thought we were closed," Hosier says.

During a five-month transitional move to another location that didn't work out, the proprietor of Doc Holiday's Saloon invited Hosier to take a look out Silverado Ranch way. "I was nervous about moving from this big, beautiful historic building to inside a bar," he says. "Then I realized that Freed's bakery was right outside the front door. I thought, 'There's something about that,' " because both businesses started out as neighbors in 1983.

The new restaurant still includes a Liberace piano, as well as wall hangings, tables and booths from the old location.

"I was nervous about not seeing certain people anymore. We have customers who were with us (since 1983), and they make the comment, 'John, nothing has changed since the '80s.' "

That is, except for the old location's famous backroom. Hosier says that as recently as 2007, the FBI came in to ask questions about a group that had dined there.

Appetizers: baked clams casino, $8.99; deep fried calamari with marinara sauce, $6.99

Entrees: chicken Marsala, $14.99; veal Parmigiana, $17.99; crab-stuffed shrimp, $17.99; chicken livers tarragon, $15.99

Desserts: cannoli, $4.89; tiramisu, $5.49

Information: 431-5485

By MIKE WEATHERFORD