Regular readers know I value restaurants with menus that change — but not too much. Seeing the same menu all the time gets boring, but we all hate to see a favorite dish vanish. Restaurants with staying power usually know how to walk that fine line.
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“Are you familiar with Indian food?” asked our server at Urban Turban. Sure, it’s one of our favorite cuisines. But then again, it didn’t really matter, since Urban Turban isn’t your average Indian restaurant.
Over the years, I’ve watched as a lot of local restaurants have met with some success and opened a second, third or even fourth location — and, in a whole lot of cases, ended up scaling back or disappearing altogether. I wondered what would be the case with Lola’s, a downtown spot that specializes in New Orleans cuisine and has more than five years under its sequined belt. And, after visiting the new(ish) Summerlin location, I have high hopes.
Despite what you may have heard, locals do go to the Strip, and they do go downtown. I know because they email me all the time to tell me about their dining experiences in both places, good and bad (though mostly good). And one of the places I hear about most often is Cafe Cortez at the El Cortez.
I’ve been to the Tap House quite a few times over the years for newsroom departures: Tradition is that you get a dice clock and a send-off at the Tap House. What’s the attraction? That was never clear to me because there aren’t that many of us Browns fans on staff, so I guess it’s just something that nobody’s been moved to change.