Cafe Martorano

Cafe Martorano, in the Rio in Las Vegas
Restaurant/nightclub with an owner who's a personality and the best Italian food this side of south Philly. Seriously.

We really owe this discovery to Joe Posnanski, who wrote about the Fort Lauderdale location without mentioning it by name, and to the commenter on his blog who named the restaurant and mentioned the Vegas location. Once we got to Vegas, we saw signs for it all over the place, but as it's at the Rio, it's doubtful we would've made the trip or the reservation without the initial recommendation. But boy oh boy, are we glad we did.

We'd never been to the Rio before, even though Penn and Teller and the famed Voodoo Lounge are there. It's an interesting casino, very obviously directed at the mid-twenties crowd: things stay open a little later, it's got that trashy carnival atmosphere, and there's a lot of bustling activity, kind of like a younger TI or a more flashy Excalibur. Cafe Martorano is located on the second floor of the main concourse, facing onto the enormous floating head that is the centerpiece of a regular show (which we did not, alas, see).

We'd gotten there a little early (I built in an allowance for a late arrival by our flight, which miraculously did not happen), so we checked in at the hostess stand and browsed the pictures of the owner with various celebrities while waiting for our table. I should add that both the woman who took the reservation over the phone and the hostess, upon learning that it was our first time, made special note to tell us how good the food was. Restaurant employees don't often brag about that, in my experience, so it felt genuine to us.

In fact, the staff all around were not only extremely friendly and helpful, they were all very proud of their restaurant and their food. Our waiter, Ken, helped us settle on the "South Philly style" calamari for our appetizer, several times using the phrase "out of this world" to describe the dishes. He also told us about the owner, Steve Martorano, who has his image on t-shirts (one hanging right near our table) and his imprint on the simple menu with an instruction at the bottom: "No substitutions. This is how I cook. Please enjoy and don't break balls." It doesn't get more South Philly than that.

"Is he a nice guy?" our waiter asked us, rhetorically. "No. But he's a great guy and a great personality." He wasn't in attendance at the Rio location, but was expected back for the wrap-up of the WSOP. Our waiter was also very proud of the famous people who were dining there that night, among them a rap star/actor and a professional football player.

But the food was, believe it or not, the main attraction. For the rest of our dinner, we picked a side of spaghetti, because in a new Italian place you want to see how they handle the basics, and the special: sea bass with jumbo lump crab and shrimp, spring pea and cheese risotto, and sauteed spinach with chilis.

Spaghetti in the United States has become a comfort food, any old pasta with tomato sauce thrown over it, maybe with meatballs or sausage or (if you're in the midwest) chopped-up hot dogs added. I tell you, this spaghetti we had at Cafe Martorano was to regular American spaghetti what champagne is to Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Juice. You can see the relationship, but wow, this was just in another league entirely. Thick, rich spaghetti sauce made from olive oil and San Marzano tomatoes, pasta cooked perfectly al dente, with garlic and wine to season it. It was just spaghetti, but sometimes when you get a simple food done to perfection, it's better than anything fancy. A couple months after our meal there, the spaghetti is what I remember the most. It's the one dish I would say we have to get again.

Not to say the rest of the food was bad. The sea bass was marvelously light and flaky, the shrimp and crab topping a nice accent to it. The smooth, creamy risotto matched it well, and the sauteed spinach had good texture and taste (that is, not slimy), except when one bit into a chili by accident. We didn't think we'd be able to eat light at a traditional Italian place, but it worked well and we had room for...

Tiramisu. This was really just good, not terrific, not overwhelming. It was the perfect size portion, though. We enjoyed the thick, not-too-sweet cream and the strong coffee taste (yes, even Tim the non-coffee-drinker).

We'd go back to Cafe Martorano again just for the food. The atmosphere and stellar service was the crab on the sea bass, so to speak. We're already planning our next dinner for our next trip to Vegas.

La Strada

La Strada, Palo Alto
Fine Italian cuisine on University Avenue's restaurant strip

We've tried a lot of the restaurants in Palo Alto, and walked past a lot more. At any given time, there are probably five or six on our "must try" list. La Strada had actually been recommended to us by some people we met at a party who were fellow foodies, so it rose on our list until we finally got the chance to go there.

It's a narrow space, confined and hard to navigate, at least for the customers. The staff weave their way through it with practiced ease, and they do seem to be constantly in motion. The kitchen is a long area to one side of the restaurant separated by a counter, so you can always see when food comes up and the kitchen smells fill the small area. The bar is a small section of the counter that bends around at the front of the restaurant, and on University Ave., there's a small patio of eight or nine tables.

We were seated inside, almost in the middle of the restaurant. Our server and the was not just attentive, but friendly, making suggestions and asking us what we liked, clearly interested in making our dinner better. When he came to ask how everything was, he really meant it (or else he really sold it). The atmosphere inside was very communal, bustling and well-lit. With the understated wood and plaster interior, it felt like a neighborhood joint.

We all tried different things, sampling the specials for that evening as well as some of the standard menu items. It was hard to decide, because everything looked so good, and the warm, fresh bread they brought out, almost ciabatta-like, made us hungry for more. We settled on...

The buffalo mozzarella salad. I like fresh mozzarella, but this stuff was amazing. I mean, it could've just rolled down the street from the Stanford pastures. I am not a fan of raw tomatoes (though learning to eat them now), but the ones included here were small and sweet, the kind I do like, and the fresh basil over thin cucumber slices complemented the light lemon-flavored dressing. You can always improve a salad with good bread, and the crisp, thin, salty flatbread went well with this salad. High marks for freshness and flavor out of such a simple dish.

Another appetizer, the terrina al forno, was more complicated: clams, mussels, and shrimp baked over red rice. The rice was almost undercooked, but we decided it went well with this dish; had it been softer and stickier, it would have really changed the consistency and not necessarily been better. It also might have soaked up more of the flavorful broth, which we enjoyed slurping. The shrimp, oddly, had heads but no tail shells. All in all, though, the seafood was all cooked well, the flavors blending together very nicely, almost like a "paella lite" (with red rice rather than saffron rice).

For main courses, we got a house-made black olive pasta with lamb cheeks, accompanied by spring peas and fava beans. The wine sauce, smooth and rich, didn't overwhelm the subtle olive flavor in the pasta, nor the flavor of the tender lamb cheeks. The peas and fava beans were similar to the veggies included with the other main course in the "veggie round," and were just as crisp and well-done.

The "veggie round" was a molded round pile of veggies that came with Mark's rib-eye steak. The broccoli and peppers accompanying the peas and beans had the same great flavor and crisp tenderness. The steak itself (I'm told) was a little tough, as would be expected from the cut, but was probably marinated in something like the balsamic vinegar that was drizzled over it, to rave reviews.

Although we were pretty full, we couldn't turn down the dessert that came with the special dinner menu: an apple tart in the European style, flat and round, accompanied by a scoop of vanilla bean gelato. In the gelato stood a flat, dried slice of apple, and to top it all off, candied walnuts and a rich, buttery caramel sauce that was better than it sounds. It wasn't too thick of a dessert, especially for three to share, but it was a perfect end to a wonderful meal.

We've tried a lot of the restaurants on and around University Ave. in Palo Alto. At any given time, there are a select few on our "must go back to list." That list now includes La Strada.

La Scala, Burlingame

La Scala
Traditional Southern Italian food done right

The problem with a lot of would-be Southern Italian food is the weak tomato sauce. I rarely get overdone or underdone pasta (to my unrefined palate), but a good, hearty tomato sauce with the right amount of seasoning (and by "seasoning," I mean "garlic") is hard to come by. Buca's marinara is a good one. La Scala, happily, makes another.

It's in a nice, hip part of Burlingame, near a train station and high school (not on Broadway). We walked around investigating the area and were in the mood for Italian, so we settled in. The waitstaff are nice and the restaurant has a good southern Italian ambiance that I think works better in the day. Still, it was nice, with wide front windows and pretty wood beams, and though it was small and a little crowded, we had a good table near the window from which to watch the street.

The menu is traditional Italian (with "Insalate" and "Primi Piatti" headings, for example). We tried the "La Scala" salad, which was quite tasty, a nice mix of sweet pears, crunchy greens and nuts, and tangy cheese and dressing. Then we split a pair of penne dishes: the Penne Alla Norma (with eggplant, spinach and ricotta), and the Penne Salsiccie E Pollo (sausage and chicken). Both came quickly, nice and hot. The ingredients in both were fresh, and as I've mentioned, the marinara sauce was full-bodied enough on both. I liked the Penne Alla Norma a little better, but both were good and we'd have no hesitation ordering from them again.

La Scala joins a small, select group of quality Southern Italian restaurants. If it weren't in Burlingame, halfway up the peninsula from us, we'd go there more often for sure.