Carluccio’s maintains traditional Italian menu despite location change

You know the old saying about lemons and lemonade? Yeah, well, life threw tomatoes at Carluccio's, and Carluccio's made marinara.

Carluccio's has been in business in Las Vegas since 1984. In the restaurant business, that qualifies it for landmark status; in Las Vegas, it might even make it an icon.

The restaurant used to be on East Tropicana Avenue, adjacent to the Liberace Museum. It was a location that once had been operated by Mr. Showmanship himself (there were even rumors that he haunted the building - wooo-ooo-ooo), and the camp factor, the vintage and the clientele all contributed to the restaurant's old-school status.

Then the recession hit, the bulk of Liberace's fans went on to admire rhinestones in the sky, and the rumors of Carluccio's related demise were more than any restaurant could survive. And so it decamped, down Eastern Avenue to a Doc Holliday's in the suburbs on the fringe of Henderson.

Much is different in the new location. The interior is a lot brighter, for one thing, which is a positive for, say, a burger joint, less so for a venerable Italian spot. There's no wine list, either, because the liquor license is held by Doc Holliday's. But there was very pleasant live music on the evening of our visit ­- a female singer and a guy playing saxophone and clarinet ­- and that added much to the atmosphere.

The old-school menu lives on - in the form of such dishes as Chicken Angelo ($17.99). It was quite a nice preparation, the pieces of chicken breast gently sauteed and served in a white wine-based sauce with artichokes and black olives. Pasta on the side was graced with a marinara with a respectable depth of flavor.

And how old school is this? Chicken Livers Tarragon ($15.99). We hardly every see chicken livers - or pretty much, any kind of liver - on a menu anymore, unless they're Southern fried at a soul-food place. These were from another era, floured and carefully sauteed and served in great profusion, along with sauteed sliced mushrooms, over a tangle of linguine tossed with a buttery white-wine sauce. This was one rich dish.

A starter of baked mushrooms ($6.49) was a winner, too, the mushrooms soft and cheesy and served in a light white sauce.

Other dishes, though, were less successful. Our other starter, fried mozzarella ($5.99), suffered from the fact that it was rather thinly sliced and rather thickly coated with breadcrumbs, then fried long enough that it was far more crunchy than soft and cheesy. It was somewhat salvaged by that nice marinara.

The course that engendered the least enthusiasm, though, was the soup/salad one between the starters and the entrees.

The Caesar salad had a dressing that was distinguished more by its creaminess than any depth of flavor, and it too generously coated torn romaine leaves that had an oddly water-filled texture, as though they had been, or still were, slightly frozen. The minestrone soup was just lackluster, with no spark of flavor.

An entree of veal Parmesan ($17.99) also benefited from a well-flavored tomato-based sauce, and the mozzarella on top was an effective counterpoint. But while the menu promised milk-fed veal, and it was very tender, it was also sort of squishy, which we couldn't figure out.

Service throughout was quite good, with a team approach ensuring that dishes were brought and cleared efficiently.

So there are a few minefields on Carluccio's menu, particularly among the soups and salads.

But this is a very extensive menu, and with the presence of well-prepared old-school favorites, it's a positive that the restaurant survived the tomatoes.

Las Vegas Review-Journal restaurant reviews are done anonymously at Review-Journal expense. Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at 383-0474 or email her at hrinella@ reviewjournal.com.