Las Vegas Weekly

September 5, 2008 · 1 PM

Hot off the grill: Star chef anniversary, new restaurant opens, Italian tasting treat

By Robin Leach

21st anniversary celebration

Photo: Courtesy photo

* Top celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck has decreed his nine-year hit Postrio restaurant at the Venetian needs a facelift. So come Sept. 14 he’ll oversee its multi-million dollar, three-week makeover, which will bring the bar right out of the restaurant into the outdoor St. Mark’s Square café, which will remain open while the main dining rooms are briefly closed. In December, Wolf will do a similar makeover at his hot Trattoria del Lupo Restaurant restaurant in Mandalay Bay.

* Parisian Raymond Visan, who owns the Little Buddha Bar at George Maloof’s Palms resort casino, has just opened a new Buddha Bar in my old hometown of London, plus three new restaurant brands in the French capital city: Barrio Latino, Barlotti Italian and Bound Sushi. Vegas fans already are familiar with them because of all the same-name titled CD albums that he has produced that are played in nightclubs around the world. Buddha Bar restaurants also have just been opened in Moscow and Dubai -- so his Asian-inspired cuisines are globetrotting the world in a high-speed expansion.

* The Asian chefs from Steve Wynn’s Okada restaurant are raving about their colleague, American chef Eric Swanson’s new Raku Japanese restaurant he has just opened with his wife off-Strip at Spring Mountain and Decatur. It’s the current hot whispered tip amongst foodies here.

* Chef Geno Bernardo has been serving up a special tasting menu from all the different regions of Italy during the summer. He’s created dishes from Sardinia to Sicily, and tonight for the next week it's all the taste treats of Tuscany. Next week it’s the menus of Marche and ends the following week with Umbria. He and his grandmother plot out the menu items and recipes each Sunday and spend the week cooking and testing everything before she's "satisfied and signs off" for all seven days of tastings!

* Celebrity chef Charlie Trotter, who is winning raves for his new dual restaurants at the Palazzo, welcomed super chefs Patrick O'Connell, Norman Van Aken, Gary Danko, Master Sommelier Larry Stone, and winemaker Jim Clendenen, of Au Bon Climat, to the 21st Anniversary of the original Charlie Trotter's Restaurant in Chicago. The legendary American chefs also honored Chef O'Connell on the 30th anniversary of his Inn at Little Washington. The three-day celebration took place at multiple locations around Chicago, including a festive kick-off dining experience at Michael Carlson's Schwa, a book signing and wine tasting at Trotter's To Go and a celebration in Charlie’s home featuring the cuisines of Mindy Segal, Michael Taus and Maneet Chauhan. The cuisines included specialty cocktails from Restaurant Charlie at the Palazzo, including the "1908," which acknowledges the 100th anniversary of the buildings that are home to Charlie Trotter's Restaurant all capped off with a grand dining event featuring a 12-course menu created by Chef Trotter, Chef O'Connell, Chef Van Aken and Chef Danko, featuring the glorious Au Bon Climat wines.

* The new hip Palazzo restaurant SushiSamba pays homage to its culinary heritage by hosting a celebration to mark Brazil's Independence Day this Sunday. Brilliant chefs there serve inventive fare uniting bold Brazilian flavors, precise Japanese techniques and traditional Peruvian culinary traditions. The celebration will be a spectacular evening of samba and capoeira (a 400-year-old Brazilian dance incorporating martial arts) dancers and Brazilian drummers in live shows. Brazil became an independent country on Sept. 7, 1822, following three centuries of Portuguese rule. Owner Matt Johnson told me that Brazil comes alive with parades, dancing and singing as Brazilians gather in the streets waving balloons, the national flag, streamers and banners to inaugurate the holiday -- and he intends to make it an annual party at the Palazzo. The signature cocktail for the evening will be the Bandeira, which consists of 2 ounces of Pinot Grigio white wine, 1 ounce cachaca, 1/2 ounce pineapple juice, one lime wedge, one lemon wedge, one orange slice, three kiwi slices, diced kiwi, diced pineapple and one bar spoon sugar. In a glass shaker, muddle orange, lime and lemon with sugar. Add wine, cachaca and pineapple juice. Shake with ice to chill. In a wine glass, line the inside with three kiwi rings. Add ice. Strain into wine glass. Top with diced kiwi and pineapple. Enjoy and yell “Independence or Death” -- the national rallying cry!

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