When Sinatra burped in Las Vegas, people went dining
Pabst claimed it had the beer that made Milwaukee famous.
Then there's Frank Sinatra's famous burp: It turned a mobbed-up Las Vegas restaurant into a destination sensation.
This was 1982. Sinatra had just left Villa d'Este, his favorite restaurant, to do his second show at Caesars Palace.
A few hours later, David Alenik was finishing his shift at Villa d'Este when the telephones "started jumping off the hook."
"In the middle of his show he had to stop his performance for what we call in Italian agita," Alenik said. "He had a little burp."
Sinatra apologized to the audience and explained he had just had some of the best food in town.
According to Alenik, Sinatra gave Joe Pignatello's Villa d'Este his stamp of approval, saying, "I go there every time I'm in town."
Alenik said: "For the next week standing room only because Sinatra had a little belch on stage, and he attributed that burp, that agita, to Villa d'Este."
Pignatello, who previously worked as Sinatra's bodyguard and driver, was Sinatra's personal Las Vegas-based chef.
"Joe also took care of Sam Giancana, who ran Chicago (for the mob)," Alenik said. "Giancana built the Villa d'Este for Joe in 1963 and said, 'This will be our place.' A multimillion-dollar restaurant."
In the late '80s, Villa d'Este later became Piero's Italian Cuisine, after chef Piero Broglia, who had teamed up with Fred Glusman. After a falling-out, Glusman kept the name in the settlement.
Pignatello hired Alenik, then in his early 20s, as head line cook. "Joe taught me how to take care of Sinatra," he said. That VIP treatment started with a bottle of Jack Daniels at the table, Alenik said.
His relationship with Sinatra led to Alenik being hired by Steve Wynn as Sinatra's personal chef during the legendary crooner's headliner residency at the Golden Nugget. Six years later, Alenik followed Sinatra to Bally's for a year.
In 1989, Alenik decided to go on his own and opened The Pasta Shop on East Tropicana. Five years ago, he moved The Pasta Shop to Henderson.
Alenik's menu includes Sinatra's favorite meat sauce over pasta.
Sinatra's other favorites, Alenik said, included pasta and bean soup, a very thin veal cutlet, and a thin-crust pizza with light cheese and a light sauce.
"He ate simple peasant food," Alenik said, "like his mother made for him in Hoboken."
"Sinatra 100 — An All-Star Grammy Concert," a two-hour star-studded CBS special, will be taped Wednesday at the Encore Theater inside Wynn Las Vegas. It will air on Dec. 12, on what would have been Sinatra's birthday.
The scene and heard
Ron Futrell is returning to local TV sports broadcasting, starting in December. "It's part-time anchoring and reporting," Futrell confirmed via email. "I'm still working my full-time job with AviSight — a Las Vegas-based drone company that is developing this industry for news, public safety, utilities and other business lines." He will be working with Chris Maathuis of KLAS-TV, Channel 8. Futrell was sports anchor at KTNV-TV, Channel 13, for most of his 25 years at the station. He was a morning news anchor for five years before his departure in 2008.
On this day
Nov. 29, 2007: Wayne Newton tells CNN's Larry King that years before, he invaded Johnny Carson's office to confront the talk show legend about years of jokes implying that Newton was gay. He said he told Carson the jokes had to "stop now or I will kick your ass."
Sightings
Comedy and film legend Jerry Lewis, in the crowd Friday at "Absinthe" at Caesars Palace. He went backstage and met with cast members. ... Grammy winner John Mayer, spending his Thanksgiving dinner with friends at Jose Andres' Bazaar Meat at SLS.
The punch line
"A new poll found that 54 percent of Americans say it's too early to be playing Christmas music. I couldn't agree more. Now let's talk about the 2016 presidential race." — Seth Meyers
— Norm Clarke's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find more online at www.normclarke.com. On Twitter: @Norm_Clarke.
