Small Plates: It’s all made to order

DINING OUT

MTO, 500 S. Main St.

MTO — for Made To Order — opened in October at 500 S. Main St., on the ground floor of the city parking garage, across from City Hall. The 65-seat restaurant with an industrial vibe serves breakfast and lunch daily and brunch on weekends. Dishes such as sandwiches span the gamut from healthful to indulgent; the Celery Sucker has collard greens, quinoa, tzatziki and baba ghanoush in a tomato-basil wrap, while the Fat Elvis is french toast with bacon, banana, peanut butter, strawberries and Nutella. There also is a nod to the farm-to-table movement in the vegetables from the Downtown 3rd Farmers Market offered as a side at lunch. Here’s a sample of the menu:

Breakfast: MTO Breakfast (three eggs, chicken sausage, turkey bacon, Spam or bacon, toast and mashed-potato-stuffed hash browns), $14; Chicken In a Waffle, $14; citrus house-cured Scuna Bay salmon with cream cheese, chive or dill, as a wrap, omelet or skillet, $12; bacon pancake dippers with peppercorn maple syrup, $11; lemon poppy seed pancakes with blueberry-ginger compote, $12; vegan carrot and coconut pancakes, $11

Soups and salads: tomato-basil with grilled cheddar toast, $7; french onion, $7; Hale Caesar, $12; Strawberry Fields, $12

Burgers, wraps and sandwiches: Fat Elvis, $13; Celery Sucker, $12; Nut n Honey (local honey and toasted walnuts on brioche), $11; corned-buffalo Rueben, $13; Hangover Burger (Angus beef with bacon-wrapped bacon, fried egg, Tillamook cheddar, lettuce and special sauce), $14; Thanksgiving Burger (open-faced with truffle bread pudding and orange-cranberry sauce), $14.

Hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekends. Call 702-380-8229 or visit www.MTOCafe.com.

NEW BOOKS FOR COOKS

TUNA AND AVOCADO

8 ounces sashimi-grade tuna

1 lemon

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

Flaked sea salt

1 ripe Hass avocado, pitted, peeled and diced

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives

Microgreens

Chill serving plates.

Cut the tuna into medium dice and put it in a medium bowl. Using a rasp-style grater, finely zest half of the lemon, letting the zest fall into the bowl. Add the olive oil and a pinch of salt and gently toss with the tuna. Fill a slightly larger bowl with ice and place the bowl of tuna in it for 1 to 2 minutes to chill it.

Very gently toss the avocado and the chives with the tuna. Divide among serving plates; drizzle with a little extra-virgin olive oil and top with a few microgreens. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

— Recipe from “The Scarpetta Cookbook” by Scott Conant (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $35)

— Heidi Knapp Rinella