hash house a go go.

By now people in and out of Las Vegas are aware of Hash House A Go Go, it's "twisted farm food" concept and giganto portions. (There's one in San Diego, too.) My favorite things about this busy, casual restaurant on West Sahara are the bar and the fact that it's the best hangover brunch in town. How can I make this claim? Is there another eatery in Vegas that actually lists on the menu anything as specific as the "O'Hare of the Dog," 24 ounces of Budweiser and a side of bacon? No. No there isn't.

It's open for lunch and dinner as well, but mornings (late mornings) are when the menu shines brightest. There are some interesting "hash" options on the menu, such as roasted chicken with asparagus and rosemary, smoked salmon with with cream cheese and scallions, and homemade meatloaf with smoked mozzarella. All the varieties I've sampled are delicious and beyond filling, but be warned: I use the quotey marks because it's not a purists' hash; it's actually chunks of crispy potatoes, eggs, and whatever else you like. Still good, just not really hash.

Another brunch favorite is the chicken and waffles (pictured), a monstrous plate of crispy fried bird atop equally crispy, buttery waffles, which are floating on a pile of burned onion stalks and sweet maple reduction. Scrambles, like the hash only with the taters on the side, will get you, too, especially the one with bacon, avocado, onion and Swiss cheese. I'm sure the regular waffles, French toast and pancakes are good, but it's too hard to avoid the more savory options, such as the pork tenderloin eggs Benedict. Everything comes with a really good, really fresh biscuit on the side and strawberry jam.

Until I try the infamous make-your-own bar at Kerry Simon's Palms Place brunch, Hash House is the home for my favorite Bloody Mary. Peppery beyond belief, tasty enough not to need anything better than well vodka, it comes with a couple jalapeno-stuffed olives, a baby pickle and a lonely green bean. If it doesn't cure you, go for the beer and bacon.

first food and bar.

For now, let's ignore the history and development of First Food and Bar in the Palazzo and just concentrate on how it was to have lunch there last week, before the place was officially open. First is in a weird spot behind Barney's, actually squished in between Palazzo and Venetian. It's a large, almost industrial space, clearly designed to accommodate a noisy and rowdy crowd. To the left, a raised bar sports a lot of wood and leather, kind of a city-cowboy hybrid decor. To the right is an exposed kitchen, where, as I walked in, I noticed a chef rolling up what looked like baby waffle cones. A large portion of the dining room has a pretty nifty view of Las Vegas Boulevard, TI across the street and the big Palazzo marquee video screen.

Since it wasn't quite open, things were happening. The service was strong and enthusiastic. Our server was polite and happily replaced an odd tasting cocktail with a different one, and several other restaurant workers, management, perhaps, stopped by to make sure we were happy and apologize for moving tables about in preparation for that evening's opening festivities. But the best thing about First is the menu; think upscale bar food with plenty of unconventional, tasty twists. The only thing we sampled that wasn't completely delicious was the largest BLT ever assembled (pictured), and even that was pretty damn good, served on long, crispy toast and topped with avocado and onion rings.

Two salads were particularly impressive: the chopped salad, which is pretty much a Mediterranean salad, was served in three cute lettuce cups and fortified by falafel "croutons." This salad was well balanced and light, even if we couldn't decide to fork away or pick it up, lettuce-wrap style. The one mistake our server made was bringing a salad of mixed greens, balsamic and strawberries with duck confit instead of what we ordered, one of First's crazy Caesar salad renditions with the confit. But it was a great mistake as the strawberry salad was bigger and outstanding, and the duck was a meal by itself. We also received two warm pretzels with three different mustard dipping sauces to start our lunch, and also tried out one of the menu's "crazy little taco" selections, crispy things filled with prime rib and topped with salty cheese.

First is going to be written about and discussed a lot; it's obvious. But this menu deserves further exploration.

m resort.

The M Resort is something entirely new for Las Vegas, mainly because it's barely in Las Vegas.

It's on Las Vegas Boulevard at Southern Highlands Parkway, the last exit on your way to L.A. But despite a great view of the lights, the feeling inside M is a world away from the Strip. Anthony Marnell has built the city's first neighborhood casino that doesn't feel like one. Don't get me wrong ... Station Casinos' Red Rock Resort is still my favorite and one of the most beautiful properties on or off the Strip. But you still feel like you're in a Station there; it maintains the vibe, however upscaled, and the familiar amenities (food court, movie theater, bowling alley, standard restaurant lineup) you'll see in the company's sibling resorts. Not the case at M, which looks and feels like a real desert resort, the kind rich people escape to for overpriced bullshit massages, wine tastings and elaborate dinners.

Kind of plain and all blue glass on the outside, the inside is separated into two parts: the casino space and the area surrounding the expansive pool. The casino has all the prerequisites and feels a little smaller than it is. There are restaurants scattered around it: Red Cup Cafe, Marinelli's fancy Italian, the Studio B buffet and culinary showspace (where Top Chef likely was headquartered) and Vig Deli. There's also a traditional casino showroom, something you don't see much of anymore, called Ravello Lounge. The rest of the resort, the part we like because of its relaxing anti-Vegasness, contains the Hostile Grape wine cellar and bar, Baby Cakes bakery, Terzetto seafood and steakhouse, and Veloce Cibo, an upper-floor, all-over-the-place restaurant and nightclub thingy. We'll have to check on this one.

Overlooking the pool, which has its own bar and outdoor amphitheatre, is the hotel's lobby bar, sleek and modern and everything a cool hotel bar should be. It's the epitome of the M because it sits right between the casino space and this extra resort space. Take your pick.

Rich dark wood tones, golds and creams all over the M say simplicity, luxury and comfort. Clearly locals feel cozy at the M; it's been doing pretty well since its opening on March 1 despite the economy. It's a great place, and there's no reason it can't hang on after the newness fades. I just wonder ... the southern tip of Vegas has been hit particularly hard by the housing crisis, and a lot of rich people who were sprawling away from the city have sprawled somewhere else. It's pretty far away. Who is supposed to come here?

INTERVIEW: Guy Fieri

Guy Fieri is a UNLV graduate, chef and owner of Johnny Garlic's and Tex Wasabi's restaurants in California, and best known for hosting several popular shows on TV's Food Network.

When you won the second season of The Next Food Network Star, did you ever think it would lead to this?
Guy Fieri: Man, the spectrum is about as wide as it is between the Wright brothers flying for the first time to landing on the moon. That's how crazy this has been. I thought I'd go on this show, have some fun, get to meet Bobby Flay and Emeril and Mario Batali, get to cook in the cool network kitchens, but I won't win. There are a lot of great chefs out there. But you know, I've been cooking all my life, I went to UNLV and got my degree, and I thought it would be a great opportunity. It has really blossomed and flourished.


Is it difficult to balance your own restaurants with the TV gigs?
Oh yeah. That's the thing I say to everybody, is that it always appears greener to someone else. I've really started taking into consideration all these big mega-stars and all the things they have going on, and then I look at my situation and I think, wow, mine's wild, but I can't even fathom what they're going through. But it's just a great opportunity. And hey, you gotta play while the sun's shining.


Have your experiences on television and traveling around influenced the direction you want to take with your own restaurants?
Yeah, it has made some impact. Everything makes an impact, especially in food. An artist may go through a transition and paint different styles of paintings, and cooking is the same way. New York has blown my mind. Vegas has blown my mind. I went to college in Vegas when it was known for buffets. Now it's recognized for fantastic restaurants in every casino and the surrounding areas, too. There is some pretty unique food around Vegas. I’m in a realm now where if I ever get a chance to do more concepts -- and the ones we're doing now have a lot of life in them, a lot of ability to grow in different areas -- but if it ever slows down and I get a chance to jump in, I got some ideas. There have been influences from around the country. I mean, we've shot at over 300 locations, and that doesn’t count the ones I've been to personally. I'm always thinking, I could bring this to this area. Real dynamite Mexican food has an opening across the country. Southern food, too.


On that note, do you think there's something Vegas is lacking? Or something you'd like to bring?
It's not really lacking anything. But do I think I have a spot in Vegas? Without question. Without question! I’m a big fan of Wynn. I was just in Vegas last week staying at Wynn and I got a chance to interact with few people there. I just got an award from UNLV a while back with George Maloof, and got to interact with him. I'm in Vegas every other month. I would love to bring a concept in that falls in line with my style. It could be Johnny Garlic's, which is California Italian. I'm not a real high end kind of guy. I don’t like stuffiness, I don’t like quiet, no communication, no smile. It's just not my style. Those restaurants are great and they have their place. Man, I had dinner at Guy Savoy there and had a fantastic time. But my style is loud, fun, and eclectic, in my way. Like a Southern barbecue and sushi joint. That's wild. We're working on another concept called Guy’s Big Bite and Bar, with food that's larger than life, but not portion-wise. Yeah, I love Vegas, and I'd love to be there.


How did you end up at UNLV?
I wanted to own restaurants. Being a chef was not enough for me. I didn’t want to just do that. I wanted to have a business and be in charge of my entire space shuttle. I knew I had to have a real strong business foundation, and UNLV is the premier place for that. When you have that many hotels surrounding you, supporting you, just harvesting students, there's no question where to go. I had some fantastic mentors, I was a proud ATO frat member, I had all that stuff going for me. When I graduated, I was going to take two yeas and go to culinary school, but my dad said to get out there and "see if you need it." In hindsight, sometimes there are a lot of things I wish I had gone to school and learned. I didn’t get classically trained, which is a good and bad thing. But in the end, bro, there is nothing I would really change. I am completely satisfied with who I am.


What do you think about how the Vegas restaurant landscape has changed since your college years?
I am more than happy with what I’ve seen. People on vacation want to enjoy all the luxuries of that vacation, from the pool to the spa to the shopping, and the restaurants didn’t always seem to get there. But you have to remember, my perception from back then was as a college student. The restaurants I’ve visited have been just off the charts now. At Wynn, I was thrilled. I mean, the seafood house? Bartolotta? Come on! They have a program where they're bringing fish to the table? I expect that in New England. It was awesome! Vegas has got a good thing going. People need to continue to support these restaurants, of course. It doesn’t all work off gaming anymore. But I talk to Bobby all the time, and he really enjoys it in Vegas. We’ve had a couple talks (about projects), but then the recession hit and everybody is just watching. When it's the right time, and the right deal, absolutely we're coming. Vegas is ever changing and ever growing, and when you got that kinda money and events going on, everybody's always looking for what's next. Any place where they'll tear down a perfectly good building and start over is my kinda place.


Diners, Drive-ins and Dives is one the most popular shows on cable. Why do people love it so much?
I don’t know, bro, but it is the number one show and I don’t take credit for it. I look at it as I’m the quarterback of the team and you can’t throw a touchdown pass to yourself. It takes about 50 great people to make that show happen. Why do people dig it? I think people just get the impression or feel a connection with me, that I'm just some dude who lives across the street from them, he's a little crazy, and he takes them on this tour. I'm just like you. I’m a food junkie. I’m having as much fun as anybody on this show. I mean, really, I get to eat all this stuff, then we're gonna talk about it, and I'm going to drive a Camaro. Tell me what part of that sucks. I think people watch it and think, "I wanna go, too!"


And how do you survive sampling all those burgers and bar food?
I’m very aware of what’s going on and how much I can eat. You wouldn't believe it, man, but I’m a very light eater. I love to eat and have small portions of a lot of things. I take two bites of this and that. You know, you never want to go into a food coma. And that wouldn't be being a very good host, huh? That’s about it. I mean, everybody has their French fry indulgence. But except for being on the show, I probably haven’t had an onion ring in two years. Then again, it's not like I'm a complete organics guy. I’m a man of all foods. It's funny, though ... sometimes people see me say I’m not as fat as I am on tv. I'm like, what are you saying?

craftsteak.

On TV, Tom Colicchio comes off stern, maybe a little mean, but always very serious as the head judge on the popular Top Chef competition reality show. In the restaurant world, he’s known as a serious chef and a champion of pure simplicity. You will understand that approach when dining at his Las Vegas outpost, Craftsteak, one of the premier steakhouses in the city.

Craftsteak opened in the MGM Grand in 2002, and although every resort on the Strip is doing and re-doing its version of the classic steakhouse, Colicchio’s remains among the best and most busy. From the entrance, it appears subdued, stuck in the middle of the long stretch of restaurants toward the back of the casino. But inside you’ll find warm, dark surroundings, everything you imagine a traditional steakhouse should be. The bar is comfortable and cool and offers one of the best whisky selections around. The dining room is much bigger than you think, done in shades of brown and gold with slight leather and metal accents. The Craft restaurant empire was born in New York and this restaurant maintains that metropolitan feel.

The service at Craftsteak is exquisite, among the very best we’ve ever encountered, and it really raised the experience to another level. Of course, beef is the thing here. Your best bet is to utilize one of the chef’s Wagyu sampling menus, choosing domestic or Japanese A5 and allowing the kitchen to thrill you. Wagyu is known for its intense marbling and the taste of this cow cannot be compared to the typical domestic restaurant steak you may be used to. We recently tried a 12-ounce Kobe-style Wagyu skirt steak, and when it arrived, cooked perfectly, it seemed like a lot more than 12 ounces. The rich, buttery taste – less beefy – was mind blowing, especially since there was no strange texture. It was hard to believe there was no butter involved in the preparation, but it’s true; remember, at Craftsteak, simplicity is the key.

You don’t have to go exotic here. Two sizes of filet, T-bone, porterhouse, flat iron, ribeye, sirloin strip … they’re all here, roasted or grilled, foreign or domestic. Deliciously salty braised shortribs, prime rib, and seafood options like lobster, prawns or diver sea scallops round out the entrée selection. Consistency is a given on this menu. The Caesar salad has anchovies. Charcuterie or fresh shellfish are first course options. The side dishes really impress, particularly the garlic and leek potato gratin.

There will never be a shortage of swanky steakhouses competing for your dollar on the Las Vegas Strip; it should be the official cuisine of Sin City. But no matter who lasts the longest or opens the newest joint, remember you’ll never be let down at Craftsteak.

INTERVIEW: Kerry Simon

Kerry Simon is executive chef at Simon at Palms Place. He previously operated Simon Kitchen and Bar at the Hard Rock Las Vegas.

You've made some serious moves lately. How do new developments keep things fresh for you as a chef and restaurateur?
Kerry Simon: Change is always good, and finding home is also good. It's nice to be moving around a bit, finding the right people to do things with. There have been really big changes in Vegas in general. It’s a breath of fresh air to be working with the Maloofs (at the Palms). George really built me out a great restaurant, and to be so involved in it is spectacular.

How different did you want the Palms restaurant to be from Simon at the Hard Rock?
I just thought it was the next stop. I spent a lot of time looking at plans over and over. I really wanted a green restaurant, but also something that if you look at it, you can see it’s a Kerry Simon restaurant. It has a sushi bar, a fireplace, the pool area, and a lot of stone behind the bar. I couldn’t ask for anything better.

When you're starting over, do you feel pressure to please the following you've built at other restaurants?
I am in a business that is already very challenging. Working with the Maloofs and with all the promotion they do, it’s pretty incredible. But I'm always challenging myself. I can take nothing for granted, and that goes for the client as well. With this restaurant, we wanted to do what Simon was but make it new and improved. In a way, it was like growing up.

As far as the menu, is it tough to pull off the balance of presenting what your audience is calling for while bringing in something new?
Yes. As soon as I pull something off the menu that’s been around for a while, they order it. They complain. But we're ready to do anything. If I take the sea trout tandoori off, I’m still prepared to make it. We have this California pizza with tuna, crab, a wasabi base on it, and it's not on the menu now but people order it so we’re ready for it. At the end of the day, it's not how the menu is. The food has to be great, and we have to be ready to please people.

Your Sunday brunch is developing quite a following and has an attitude all its own. What is the genesis of bringing back such an old tradition?
Well I really thought Vegas needed a brunch, I felt like in all major cities there’s places that do brunch, and what a place for it: in front of the beautiful pool. But it had to be reinvented. We had to figure out how to do it in a unique and interesting way. So we get everybody together and have meetings, really intense meetings, trying to figure out the whole thing. What are the stations? What’s the marketing going to be? We get it perfect and then it's unleashed. People are coming in pajamas, there are nurse's outfit, girls in lingerie, and the bloody mary bar. Now everybody is doing a bloody mary bar. Every time I pick up the paper I see an ad for a new brunch with bloody marys, mimosas. I didn’t invent it. But what we did do is create something fun, an escape for you and your friends. It just clicked. But we didn't just do it. It's busy now, but that's a process, a long process to figure it out and then do all the hard work.

CatHouse is an entirely different experience. How would you describe that scene?
Cathouse started out as more European and it's gone through zillions of changes. It's really just a constant growth there. It's just different, a different kind of mindset. We fooled around with different stuff to see what works and what doesn’t, and at the end of the day it's a lot of steak and potatoes.

You've had multiple experiences on and just off the Strip. Is there a big difference running a restaurant from a place like Luxor to a place like the Palms?
Who is the operator? That's really the question you’re asking. When you work with Steve Wynn, he has this thing in his head already. He has visualized it differently than other people and he knows what he wants. It's much different than what you step into when you're doing your own thing. You have to create a vision for a restaurant that, really, it could be anywhere, but it has to say this is us. What’s the feeling of that? It's me ripping things out of magazines for a bunch of years, gathering all this info then trying to decipher what we’re gonna do with it.

You've been in Vegas long enough to appreciate the unique problems the city and restaurants here are facing today. How do you think the economy will affect the development of Vegas as a great dining destination?
I think it's gonna be pretty solid. First off, it feels like things are springing back a little bit. Casinos can withstand certain things. Certain restaurants will never have a hard time. There are so many talented chefs to continue. Restaurants which are not taken seriously may fall to the wayside. I think people are looking for ... not a deal, but what they’re getting for their money. It seems what they eat and drink tends to be a little more average priced.

Can you predict what the restaurant scene will look like in the next few years?
It's a tricky question. Pricing has changed. Two weeks ago the Palms had one of highest room prices in Vegas. It's hard to predict what will happen next. I'm open to going back to what Vegas was, more approachable for everybody, because it seemed like it was getting up there. Vegas should be more approachable. That’s where I’m at already. I want to be able to have people come and enjoy themselves. That's what it's all about. I never wanted to be in any way in that (higher) price range. But if you buy prime meat in my restaurant, you're still paying for it. Meat is expensive. But I think it's bouncing back. This is going to turn into a positive. Eventually it will stabilize and all move forward. Vegas is the same attraction it always was.