Restaurant Rants & Raves. And more exploration into ethnic food variety.

I have to tell you that you must read this all the way through because there are gems throughout. This week’s entry is (in my not so humble opinion) something special.

Let’s start with the rants.

I had already decided to do a New Year rant regarding my usual beefs about restaurants when my wine club had an interesting experience at Envy, the Steakhouse. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. Envy did something that was off of my usual radar, and they did it with panache and pure stupidity.

The great thing about Vegas is that there are many restaurants here that offer world-class food and service. The bad thing is that these restaurants do way too well because of the fact that over 30,000,000 people come through here annually, and they don’t have to worry about taking care of locals. This week’s wine dinner was a perfect example of company policy taking precedence over customer service.

Envy advertised their half-price on wine dinner, and my group took advantage of it on Wednesday evening. Perfect. Day after New Year's. The food was great, the service exemplary, and wine list and wines were extraordinary. So what happened that made the entire group decide not to patronize Envy ever again?

It came down the check.

Half price is supposed to be half price, right? Not if Envy is doing fuzzy figuring. With only seven people in the party, *technically* the restaurant was not supposed to add on 20% gratuity. I believe that eight diners is the standard number. But they did. And they added it on the entire balance, and took off the price of the wine after the fee had been assessed. In addition, they somehow neglected to deduct the $50.00 gift certificate. So the group ended up spending 31% gratuity on the meal instead of 20% because of "company policy." The result? Seven angry people who spent $100+ each who will never frequent the restaurant again. With the numbers of people coming through Las Vegas, I'm pretty certain that Envy doesn't care that a group of locals got annoyed. Because this isn't the first time I've heard about Envy's money-grubbing policies, I've decided to forego visiting them at any time.

And now for something much more pleasant! I wanted to talk about one of my now favorite restaurants.

STEAK is located on the far end of Henderson on 76 W. Horizon Ridge near the Horizon Ridge exit of the 95S. Or it may be 515 at that point. At any rate, I had decided that I needed to have dinner there so that I could put a link (or not) on the Blog so that people could find another place to eat.

David Dror is the owner, and he has a wonderful establishment there.

Every Saturday afternoon there's a wine tasting. Extraordinary wines, great tasting. This week's tasting was Four Vines. And nearly all of their portfolio was there. 2006 Naked Chardonnay, Maverick, the Sophisticate, Heretic, Anarchy, Dusi, and a new one for me, the Peasant, which is a Rhône blend of Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache, Counnoise, and Tannat. What's Tannat? Apparently it has characteristics similar to Cabernet. It all adds up to delicious.

Michael decided to join me for dinner, and were we ever in for a treat! Wow!

The bread appetizer came with Olive Purée, Red Pepper Purée, and Olive Oil/Balsamic dip. It was beautifully presented. The appetizer was beef tartare with an unusual seasoning that hinted of lime.

I had a "Baseball" steak along with grilled asparagus and sautéed mushrooms. Michael had the 18oz NY Strip with steamed veggies (still crunchy!) and the mushrooms.

Dessert was a Chocolate Mousse cake that was almost ethereal. How good was all of this food? There was nothing left over. We were good kids who cleaned our plates! We chose the Peasant as the wine, and it was a perfect match not only with the beef, but there was enough left over to show that it also paired quite well with the chocolate!

The restaurant itself was a surprise. There's a view that will rival Panevino, which is world-famous for its fabulous view. Since it's in Henderson, its view is not as close up and personal, but it's still breathtaking. I will be posting some pictures in the VegasPics section of the website. Take a look, and be sure to stop by one Saturday to enjoy the wines and stay for a great dinner and beautiful view!

Oh. And one more very important thing. David has the same philosophy as Marché Bacchus: Regular retail price for wine and only $10.00 corkage. That alone will have me visiting again and again as my budget allows. No restaurant wine price ripoffs here!

And now for more rants!

Things that restaurants do that irritate me to no end:

• When I pay my bill, don't ask me if I want or need any change back. Hell yeah I want my change back! If I give you a $50.00 bill for a $12.00 check, you can be SURE that I want my change back. Don't even ask. Just bring it.
• With that being said, I want ALL of my change back! Whoever came up with the annoying (and larcenous) practice of giving me only my bills and keeping the coin? Pisses me off and that is reflected in the tip I leave. Or not.
• Don't give me a bunch of singles! Sheesh! Give me my change in large bills. As far as I'm concerned, if you left me a ton of one dollar bills, then you aren't expecting much. Instead of the $5.00 I was going to leave, I guess I'll just leave three.
• While I appreciate wine service, somebody has to learn how to pour wine into a glass correctly. I prefer a tasting or short pour -- about two to four ounces -- because I'm a swirl fiend. Can't do it with the wine halfway (or more) up the glass.
  

And, yes, I do have rants about us customers.

• Leave a tip. If you had good service, then leave a good tip! This is assuming that you aren't being gouged as the Envy incident above indicates.
• Ask the sommelier for help, and for goodness sake, don't drink Chardonnay with your steak or lamb! Retch.
  
• Learn how to use chopsticks!! Nothing says *I'm ignorant* more than using a fork in an Asian restaurant. Chopsticks are easy, and the first awkward attempts are appreciated more than insisting on using a fork no matter what.
  

I have more somewhere in the transoms of my mind, but I didn't want to use all the space in rant time.

And now for my fun adventures in exploring cuisines of other cultures. If you've been following my food adventures, you know that I have little shyness about trying new cuisines. Well, I've discovered Vietnamese food. More accurately, I've discovered Pho, a Vietnamese staple that is broth-based. It is a wonderful soup, and the broth is so fragrant that you can't help but to drool. I found a little restaurant along Spring Mountain just east of Jones called Pho Sai Gon 8, which is Vietnamese. Is it good? I've been there a couple of times and it's been packed with Vietnamese! I think you can't find a better compliment than that of any ethnic restaurant!

Pho consists of fragrant broth and rice noodles. You can then add just about anything you want and it is a filling, long-lasting meal. Because in another life I was related to Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods, I went all out and had the Pho Chín Nąm Gâu Gân Sách, which along with the broth and noodles, also contains lean meat, flank, brisket, soft tendon and tripe. It also comes with fresh basil, finely chopped green onlons, bean sprouts, hot peppers, hot sauce (house-made, I believe), and fresh limes. Because I did takeout, I was in for quite a surprise, because all of the ingredients are separate from the broth. Once home, I found a big bowl, put in all of the ingredients (except for the spicy items), and then poured the broth over. Incredibly good, filling, and so satisfying as to last for hours. Delicious. I am now addicted to this wonderful soup and will be there regularly! Fresh ingredients, tasty food, all for about $7.00. Can't get better than that.

Have a great week! We'll be talking about classes, Wine Down Wednesday, and Paso next time!

Swirl Envy Lite, Restaurant Prices, Wine Bigotry, Calendaring!

Woo Hoo (and an attagirl to me) on the Combatting Swirl Envy – Lite! class! The October 9 class is going to be a lot of fun as we learn how to Pop Pour Store wines and get a basic grounding in corkology. We will also tentatively address the Spit or Dump problem. Don’t forget to sign up!

One of my favorite email wine publications is 30-Second Wine Advisor which sends out pithy articles and musings on everything wine. A couple of recent articles caught my eye and I thought I’d share them with you.

The first article was about the prices of wine in restaurants. As you all know, this is a particular pet peeve of mine. When I went into a particular restaurant some months ago (that I named once and won’t give them publicity any more) that had an $11.00 bottle of Nobilo (a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc) on their wine list for $46.00, I went ballistic. We’re not talking about a carefully stored wine that may have earned a higher price because the restaurant ensured its providence, but we’re talking about a wine that is under screwcap and can be stored in a cooler somewhere. A good wine (delicious, as a matter of fact), but certainly not worth *that* kind of markup! There was not that kind of perceived added value.

Restaurants routinely mark up the prices of wine three to four times the wholesale price that they pay, therefore making quite a tidy little sum on each bottle. While I am the last person to deny anyone a decent profit and love the free-market system in which we live, I feel that this is unjust and does not help the restaurants.

At any rate, 30-Second Wine Advisor printed the following, which is an excerpt from the email:

Restaurants justify this practice on the basis of cost: Wine inventory, storage, glassware and service all add legitimate costs, and it's fair to recover that…

Still, a $25 price tag on a $5 bottle seems to be pushing it ... yet it's not uncommon. It's no wonder that wine lovers enthusiastically embrace BYO where the law allows; and that many more elect to pass on wine in favor of beer or a non-alcoholic beverage when dining out.

Accordingly, I'm watching with considerable interest as a local restaurant rolls out a cheeky challenge to wine-list practice. Louisville's Bristol Bar & Grille, celebrating its 30th anniversary, announced that effective immediately it will offer its entire wine list at twice each wine's wholesale price, effectively matching full-retail wine shop prices.

As a practical matter, this means that the Bristol's bottle price for Heidsieck Champagne will drop from $57 a bottle to about $33. Trevor Jones "Virgin" Australian Chardonnay, $31 on the old list, now sells for $19. The sought-after Cakebread Chardonnay, which sells around $70 at many Louisville eateries, now goes on the Bristol's list at $38.

I think this will be fabulous for the restaurant *and* the consumer, and I’ll tell you why.

First, I admire the guts it took to tackle the problem head-on. Second, if a person knows that he or she is going to pay something close to retail, that person is likely to buy an entire bottle, or, if in a group, won’t hesitate to try multiple bottles if the event calls for it. Let’s see. Customers buying more stuff. More wines may mean more food. That means a larger check total, customers that feel satisfied and not ripped off, and everybody is happy. Customers are less likely to bring in a bottle and pay corkage because they know that the prices on the restaurant’s wine list are fair.

I would rather pay $25.00 corkage for my bottle of Williams Selyem than pay $200.00 for a bottle I paid $60.00 for. Do the math. That’s a “Duh!” moment. I have opted to only buy one bottle of wine at a restaurant and have gone home to open up something else to share with my guests later. Drinking the wine in the restaurant in a celebratory fashion is much better, more fun, and far more festive! I will do my best to continue to track this story to see what the impact is on that local area’s restaurant wine prices.

The next article by 30-Second Wine Advisor was on, in my personal words, wine racism. In other words, how people love a particular color of wine and may not necessarily appreciate the finer points of other colors of wine. I know people, for instance, who love white wines but hate wines of color. Very sad. Very limiting.

Now, lest you think that I have a pure, unbiased view of wine colors, I have to correct that assumption. I prefer red wines. Deep and rich, they offer full-bodied complexity. Not unlike myself. Their dark fruits and earthy character enthrall me and reds will always be my favorite.

However, I the last few years have seen me approaching white wines with cautious enthusiasm. I spent years (literally) looking for a repeat of my first major Chardonnay experience. The insipid, overly sweet, lemonade-tasting things could not approach my memory of a wine that exploded with tropical fruit, vanilla, melon, and spice, and which fit my tongue like a glove. I finally found it again the higher end (of course, dammit) California Chardonnays. However, once that was accomplished, I was wooed by New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs which, of course, sent me around the corner to Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé. The discovery of Viognier was quite an experience. For the first time, I understood the nuances of fragrance on wine as I inhaled flowers.

The upshot is this: Don’t be a wine bigot. Try different wines. Read up on stuff about wine and wine pairings. Understand that some wines will go better with some foods (Chenin Blanc and Steak = Bad. Chenin Blanc and fresh Oysters = Yum).

Calendaring! Do you have a Wine or Vegas event that you want local folks to know about? I’ll be more than happy to put on my calendar which appears on the website and on the My Space page.

Speaking of My Space, I’ve learned to love it! I have lots of “friends” which include Hug Cellars and Vihuela Winery of Paso Robles! I’m currently waiting for Clautiere to add me on their list. Don’t forget to send pics to my gmail account at vegasrenie@gmail.com so that I can post them in My Space. If you’re member, look me up at www.MySpace.com/vegaswineaux .

Until next time!

A Rosé by Any Other Name and Wine in Vegas. And Neophyte to Wine Snob Stuff

The wonderful tasting for the Tex and Fritz’s Wine Club Thing on Saturday night turned out much better than I could have hoped. We were a small group, but with the plans made ahead of time, there were just enough folks to fill up the space around the table and to enjoy the wonderful Rosés that I had purchased for our enjoyment.

There were only seven members due to several last-minute cancellations. As always, I had a fun time hosting, selecting the Rosé wines, and preparing the tasting notes and voting sheets. Because I had to “know” the wines in order to make sure that they were in the right sequence and not diminish the wines that were poured first, I did not actively participate in the blind tasting. I poured the wines and supplied enough glasses so that the members could compare each wine with the other. What a lovely sight! The Rosés were beautiful and reflected the colors of the Rosé rainbow, from a pale salmon pink to bright candy pink to a sheer garnet. The refreshments included appetizers of fresh fruits (strawberries, raspberries, watermelon, and dried cherries because these aromas are characteristically found in Rosé wines), Fontina and Gruyere cheeses, two different Pasolivo olive oils, dipping bread, homemade salsas, and a smoked beef brisket. For dessert there was watermelon "pizza" and vanilla ice cream.

Thanks so much to Tex and Gidget for the following compliment: The last time Irene prepared her delicious dry rub beef brisket was @ Michael Breyer's tasting and it disappeared very quickly. This time there were fewer people attending & Irene prepared more brisket, but the result was the same: no leftovers for her to eat later!!

I apologize for the delay in getting this tasting report out to you, but my camera died and according to the “service” contract that I had purchased when I bought the camera a few months ago, it had to go out for “service.” I figured that the Rosés wouldn’t last that long so here I am. And, yes, I feel like I’m getting “serviced,” particularly since this is the second camera in less than ten months that has gone belly up. Pardon my rant.

Check the end of this entry for details on the wines for the tasting.

The first Neophyte to Wine Snob Experience classes will be held at Valley Cheese and Wine during the third week of September. I will have complete information in next week’s update, and should have information on upcoming Paso Robles tours.

One of the questions I am always asked is in regards to the relevance of wine in Las Vegas. After all, it’s “only” Las Vegas. Not “Wine Central” by anybody’s estimation. We’re known for casinos, showgirls, the mob, and lots and lots of glitz. I can understand this perception because wine is largely available to the tourists at the tourists’ restaurants on The Strip, often at wildly inflated, breathtaking prices, usually triple or more of retail. Too many local restaurants have tried to do The Strip “thing” and mark up their wines to extortion levels as well, hoping that people are too ignorant to notice or too absorbed or embarrassed to say anything.

Too bad. Because we’re up to our nostrils in wine, and can kick anyone’s butt on the prices and the quality at our local joints. As many of you know, Marché Bacchus is my favorite with wine list QPRs (Quality/Price Ratio) that are hard to beat. Others may cost a little more, but are far from the abusive prices of the tourist areas. Jimmy’s Café, King’s, and Bleu Gourmet are great examples of establishments that provide wonderful food and the ability to purchase wine at great restaurant-reasonable prices.

Even as people get more and more savvy about wine, there will come a time (I predict) when people will start to question the exploitation prices on many restaurants’ wine lists, and will let their dollars speak for them by patronizing those places that offer wines at sensible prices. People eat out more and are beginning to realize that McDonald’s does not offer an ethereal dining experience. And people like my youngest son are learning that beer doesn’t offer much to a romantic candlelight dinner. (There’s a story there, by the way). Newspapers, articles, magazines, and online reports laud the health benefits of wine, and obscure grapes that make fabulous wines are being rescued from the brink of extinction. Many of these wines go for a song and a prayer at the local retail shops, and the sticker shock on the restaurant wine list may be moderated as people realize that wine is a food. After all, even children receive it around the family tables in Europe. Except for Antarctica, grapes are grown on every continent, and wine is enjoyed by most truly civilized countries. Unbelievably, wine grapes are grown in every state in the United States.

So when you find a restaurant that offers good food, great ambiance, and sensible wine prices, raise your glass in salute and drink up! And visit them often. As consumers, it’s a good thing to show your support and help with their success. (Did I sound like Martha Stewart or what?!?)

When you come to the blog and read the updates, be sure to read the Wine Quote of the Week. Many of those quotes go back to antiquity and reflect the relationship that civilized man has had with wine since the dawn of time. For those of you who are biblically inclined, Noah knew what he was doing!

There are wine tastings every day in Las Vegas. Every day. The tastings may range from the weekly free pourings at some of our favorite retail shops, such as Khoury’s, Valley Cheese and Wine, Las Vegas Wine Company, Steak, and Marché Bacchus to special dinners, discounts, and tastings for wine club members such as the Grape Beginnings club at Jimmy’s Café or the wine club at Roy’s. Lee’s Discount Liquor not only has weekend tastings, but also sponsors big wine events during the course of the year. If you’re looking for a wine tasting in Las Vegas and can’t find it, then you’re not looking hard enough!

Heads up on an upcoming event! The Second Annual HenderZIN Festival will be held on October 13 in the parking lot of Khoury’s on Eastern. I went last year, spent a LOT of money on phenomenal Zinfandels, and loved every moment of it. At $50.00 a head, it’s a bargain! Go to their website for contact information.

Next week: Time for the Neophyte to Wine Snob Experience


And here are the wines! Thanks to Tex for supplying the very detailed tasting notes:

Wine #1 was pale pink in color with a tinge of salmon, aromas & flavors of watermelon, strawberries & minerals with additional flavors of cherries, mint, herbs & pepper. This was the 2006 Domaine de Souviou Rosé (a blend of 60% Cinsault, 30% Grenache & 10% Mourvedre), Bandol, France -- 90 pts Wine Enthusiast -- 13% alcohol -- $27.

Wine #2 was pink in color with an orange-brown tinge, aromas & flavors of watermelon & strawberries, more intense in flavor than the first wine, with additional flavors of raspberries, mild tannins & a long finish. This was the 2005 Casa Mireles "Romanze" Rosé (a blend of 97% Syrah & 3% Pinot Noir), San Luis Obispo, CA -- 14.2% -- $17.

Wine #3 was raspberry in color with earthy aromas of currants; creamy flavors of currants, raspberries & strawberries with licorice on the finish. This was the 2005 L'Uvaggio di Giacomo Il Gufo Barbera Rosato (100% Barbera), Lodi, CA -- 12.5% -- $9.

Wine #4 was raspberry in color with aromas of red currants, cherries & roses; flavors of red currants, red apples & watermelon. This was the 2006 Artero Rosado J. Tempranillo (100% Tempranillo), La Mancha, Spain -- 12.5% -- $13.

Wine #5 was light cherry red in color with an oxidized nose reminiscent of Madera, bread dough, apples & vanilla with some tannins. This was the 2005 Palm Cellars "The Bearded Poodle" Rosé (60% Syrah, 30% Grenache & 10% Zinfandel), Paso Robles, CA -- 14.1% -- $13 ONLY @ Khoury's (only a few bottles left). This was the favorite Rosé of the night. (Irene’s note – if there’s any left, it’s only at the Khoury’s on Eastern)

Mike Frankel treated the group to a 2006 L'Aventure Rosé (72% Syrah & 28% Cabernet Sauvignon), Paso Robles, CA -- 14.8%. Thanks, Mike, for providing this delightful Rosé.