Ready to Steak Their Claim

When it's fully operational, Palazzo will have three -- count 'em, three -- steakhouses. What's up with that?

"That's what I asked Rob Goldstein," said Mario Batali, referring to the president of the Palazzo and The Venetian. "He said don't worry about it."

Three steakhouses at one property might sound a little excessive even in this beef-hungry city, but Batali, chef/owner of the Palazzo's Carnevino (with partner Joe Bastianich), which had a soft opening last week, said he thinks all three -- the others are Cut, from Wolfgang Puck (expected to open in mid-February), and Morels French Steakhouse & Bistro, from the Market City Caffe Hospitality Group (which opened last week) -- will survive.

"We're betting on my brand working well for that," said the Food Network star known as "Molto Mario," who already has two restaurants -- B&B and Enoteca San Marco -- at Palazzo's sister property, The Venetian. "I know Wolfgang's bringing all guns blazing." Batali said Puck's Cut in Los Angeles was "spectacular right out of the box. They do a lot of Japanese beef. We're stressing American beef."

And Eric Bauer, executive chef at Morels, doesn't sound particularly worried, either.

"Morels, to the owners and myself," he said, "is a restaurant that needs to be very approachable pricewise to people in Vegas, both locals and tourists, but doing the same kind of food that all these other big names are doing in the area."

"Mario's got his whole Italian steakhouse," Bauer said. "We're definitely more French."

Morels serves A-5 Wagyu beef imported from Japan, as well as wet-aged and dry-aged Midwestern beef. But he said the first thing people see when they walk in the door is the display of iced seafood. And crossing the threshold into the lounge will provide a view of the 33 small-farm artisan cheeses -- a selection Bauer calls the largest in a local restaurant. There also is imported charcuterie, homemade duck rillettes and soon, Bauer said, cart-style service including tableside romaine salad, cote de boeuf for two and a French macaroon cart with housemade marmalades and preserves.

"The whole service side of Morels is going to blow people away as much as the food," Bauer said.

As for Batali, he does indeed call his restaurant an Italian steakhouse, while acknowledging that "the Italians don't have any steakhouses; we wouldn't go to a restaurant and order only one course, unless it was a pizzeria." So maybe it would be more accurate to call Carnevino a steakhouse Batali-style, with the best components of antipasto and pasta, and adding an emphasis on meat.

But why a steakhouse? Because, Batali said, with a pizzeria and an Italian restaurant in the adjacent property, doing something different just made sense.

Charlie Trotter will be doing something different, as well, in his Restaurant Charlie, which he expects to open by mid-February. The new spot, Trotter said, won't be a remake of Charlie Trotter, his 20-year-old landmark in Chicago, which is a "very formal, sit-down, 31/2-hour, 14-course, very over-the-top experience."

At Restaurant Charlie, he said, serving will be a la carte, with an emphasis on seafood; 19 seafood purveyors are involved in the project.

Which is not to say that he, too, won't be serving beef; "even in a party of six, there's always going to be a red-meat-eater in there." One way he'll meet that desire is with a "Japanese steak that nobody can get in America except us," which will sell for $250 per person, and is so well marbled that when it's raw, it looks almost white.

The adjacent Bar Charlie, Trotter said, will be a tiny spot serving about 50 percent traditional sushi and sashimi and 50 percent "our interpretation of things ... east-meets-west ideas" such as a warm crab salad or steamed hamachi with red-wine reduction.

Trotter is known in foodie circles as the only celebrity chef to have opened a restaurant in Las Vegas and left, but he said his departure wasn't a failure. When he opened his restaurant in the MGM Grand in 1994, he said, "we were ahead of the deluge" of big-name toques. His restaurant was initially to be a comp-only operation, but a management change and shift in mission prompted him to exercise his option to depart.

"We've been looking for the right opportunity to return," Trotter said. "The Palazzo is just a brilliant space."

And Batali's B&B and Enoteca San Marco aren't the only Venetian restaurants to have a sister in the Palazzo. Canyon Ranch Grill, which is scheduled to open at Palazzo in early March, will be associated with Canyon Ranch Cafe at The Venetian.

James Boyer, food and beverage director and executive chef of both Canyon Ranch restaurants, said the grill will serve dinner, in addition to the breakfast and lunch served at the cafe.

"Breakfast and lunch will be fairly similar in their feel -- kinda casual; you can come in your robe if you want to, or between your (spa) services." It will be at the entrance to the Palazzo's spa, and he expects the increased visibility over The Venetian cafe will bring the percentage of customers who are spa guests from the cafe's 75 to 80 percent to about 65 percent.

Dinner will be less casual, but still not formal. And like the cafe, it will be health-oriented spa cuisine, with "exactly the same parameters" as the cafe, he said -- with one major exception: "a beverage program for the first time in the history of the company." That would be "beverages" as in "alcoholic beverages," until now verboten in Canyon Ranch properties. Boyer said the beers and spirits will be organic (with mixed drinks about 95 percent organic, prepared with housemade liqueurs from organic cane juice) plus housemade soft drinks and about 75 wines (12 to 13 by the glass) that are all either organic, biodynamic or sustainable.

Other Palazzo restaurants are:

• 40/40 Club, an "ultra sports bar" that serves entree-size appetizers.

• Grand Luxe Cafe, a sister to the Grand Luxe in The Venetian (and from the creators of the Cheesecake Factory).

• Jade, with noodle dishes and dim sum.

• Dos Caminos, a Mexican restaurant, expected to open later this month.

• Mainland, a French-Vietnamese restaurant, expected to open in late February.

• Woo, from the Woo family (owners of the now-closed Mayflower Cuisinier), expected to open in March.

• Table 10, with coastal Creole cuisine from Emeril Lagasse, opening date to be determined.

• Sushisamba, a Japanese/Brazilian restaurant, opening date to be determined.

• Dal Toro Ristorante, updated traditional Italian cuisine, opening date to be determined.

Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0474.