there are things you need to eat at julian serrano.

When I recorded my first impressions of Julian Serrano, just days after the restaurant and its host resort, Aria, opened, I noted the "vast majority" of the menu's offerings consisted of "small plates we have seen before at local restaurants." That may not have been so true, and it certainly isn't the case now. The menu has adjusted considerably after a year, and the Serrano kitchen is flexing mightily.

What I'm saying is, the best Spanish restaurant in the city is getting better. Okay, fine, I have not yet dined at Jaleo next door in The Cosmpolitan. But I've heard mixed reviews from trusted associates, and bottom line is Serrano is the standard bearer. Anybody, even José Andrés, has some work to do to catch this pitch-perfect tapas factory.

With its ever-widening array of deliciousness -- soups, salads, modern and classic Spanish tapas, ceviches, tiraditos, more seafood, cheese, charcuterie, richly flavored vegetarian options, paella, and larger plates featuring lobster, Iberico pork, chicken, lamb and beef -- the Serrano menu provides endless opportunities for new experience within the same restaurant. On our most recent visit, we were wowed by a few relatively simple dishes that were new to us, but not to the menu. Among them, the luscious plate of Pata Negra ham, served with grilled bread and a garden-fresh garlic tomato jam, and the utterly lovable Huevos Estrellados, perfect crispy fries topped with fried eggs and Spanish pork chorizo. It's so good it's stupid. Wifey: "This is what you're making me for breakfast every Sunday starting now." I could try forever, and never make such sublime frites, and never fry eggs to this point of rich, yolky supremacy.

Julian Serrano is one of our best restaurants, and while everyone's all jazzed up about new baby Cosmo, let's not forget Aria and CityCenter have some terrific food. The combination of the two newest resorts is probably powerful enough, food-wise, to pull me away from my former favorite Strip crawl of Wynn/Encore/Palazzo/Venetian. I'll keep you posted.

our spanish dynasty.

(Update: Firefly has closed its downtown location.)

Is it completely unnecessary to write about one of the most popular restaurants in Las Vegas? Yes, probably. But perhaps the continuing development of Firefly, which opened its third location in the Summerlin area in October, is more significant than it seems.

Actually, it seems like a pretty big deal. The new restaurant, on West Sahara Avenue in a building formerly occupied by the Tex-Mex chain Z-Tejas, has been packed from the moment the doors were unlocked. Why? Because those of us that live out in the westside suburbs have been making the trip to the original Firefly on Paradise (pic top) for years. Until now, there have been no Spanish tapas restaurants in the well-populated and hungry Summerlin neighborhoods. When chef/owner John Simmons and his crew opened a second location in the Plaza downtown last year, it could have been a risky move. But it wasn't, because Vegas' small but loyal population of downtown hipsters was already in love with the original Paradise location for its tasty and cheap small bites and refreshing sangria. Consider the fact that the struggling Plaza temporarily shuttered its hotel operations earlier this year, and yet Firefly continues to draw patrons to the west end of Fremont Street, and you can see the powerful pull this food has on Vegas.

What's most impressive about Firefly's success is its humble origins. Today, this cuisine is one of the major trends in American eating. There are maybe a dozen Spanish tapas joints around town, and many, many more that use the shared small plate concept as the foundation for experimentation. Julian Serrano in Aria is easily one of the most popular restaurants in CityCenter and even earned a shout-out in Esquire's annual best new restaurant piece, and it's a matter of weeks before superfamous chef Jose Andres opens the Vegas version of his award-winning Jaleo tapas bar in the new Cosmopolitan. And while those two probably will be the best in town, Firefly's three spots will be tied for third. I have eaten at all three Fireflys and from restaurant to restaurant, the consistency is uncanny. Those perfect, crispy chicken croquetas and addictive bacon-wrapped dates are as good as you want them to be, whether you're gazing through the glass bubble downtown or laughing at the drunken cougars in Summerlin.

There are only a handful of Vegas restaurants -- ones actually born in this city and not imported -- as universally beloved as Firefly. One of them is Lotus of Siam, the much-hyped Thai eatery which also expanded recently -- to New York City. If you never thought you'd see the day Las Vegas -- transient, cultureless, dying Las Vegas, they say -- would send some culinary representation to the greatest restaurant city in the world, you're not alone. But it has happened, even if it seemed like a longshot. When Simmons opened his original Firefly in 2003 near the Hard Rock Hotel, nobody in Vegas had ever heard of tapas. Now we can't get enough. That seemed like a longshot, too, but turns out Firefly was ahead of its time. Aren't you glad we caught up?

julian serrano.

Not counting cafes and buffets and generally uninteresting things, there are 11 new restaurants inside Aria, the centerpiece of CityCenter. Some are truly new in that they represent the debut Las Vegas appearance of some high-profile chefs, but many are new offerings from chefs and restaurateurs who already have a strong presence on the Strip. Julian Serrano is one of those chefs, but his eponymous restaurant just a few feet away from Aria's lobby check-in is something else. Why? Because he is Spanish, and here at Aria he is serving Spanish food, a comfortable menu of hot and cold tapas, paella and more. These other familiar faces and dishes (Michael Mina doing fish, Jean-Georges Vongerichten doing steak) are just that -- familiar. Serrano's other Vegas restaurant is the acclaimed Picasso at Bellagio, where classic French is the focus. So now you know why there would be such excitement when a powerfully talented and proven chef gets to work on his native eats, not to mention the fact that Vegas has few Spanish restaurants.

Julian Serrano the restaurant is a lively, colorful, upscale space, highlighted by a rainbow mosaic of tile behind the bar and several cozy nooks throughout the dining room perfect for a group meal. The menu is two pages but the wine and cocktail list is a novel, full of what is likely the best selection of Spanish wine in the city. We sampled four different, brilliant drinks during our first meal and each was deliciously unique, including a spicy, sweet and fresh-tasting bloody mary, and red sangria with a complex cinnamon aftertaste. 

  

The vast majority of the menu are the small plates we have seen before at local restaurants like Firefly and Cafe Ba Ba Reeba. But they are executed with much more sophistication at Serrano. The stuffed date, everyone's favorite, is fried with a crunchy coating we could do without but full of smoky bacon flavor. Chicken croquetas, also fried crispy, are rich and cheesy, and the simple Patatas Bravas, fried diced potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce, don't seem all that simple anymore. All flavors are magnified at Serrano; this is tapas on a level Vegas hasn't seen. This is most evident in the most modest accompaniment to our meal, a small glass filled with a sweet and savory red pepper puree. It was the first thing I tasted and I couldn't decide whether to down it like a shot of vodka or pour it on everything else I'd be eating. It was a blast of pure, clean, vegetably wonder.

Elsewhere, a tenderloin of beef on toasted bread is topped with a melting slab of Brie and a nutty, caramel sauce. Sweet, roasted piquillo peppers are stuffed with creamy cheese and given a generous dose of that spicy tomato sauce. A single seared scallop floats on a rich island of garlicky romesco. When was the last time you wanted to order everything on the menu? There truly is no going wrong here.

Whether or not Aria and the rest of CityCenter will save our city, this resort is a terrific restaurant destination, and the urban/artsy theme is an enjoyable complement to these fresh culinary experiences. Everyone was wondering what CityCenter would feel and taste like, and the early impressions are nothing but positive. It's going to take that much longer to try all these new restaurants, because it will be difficult to choose any of them over the food at Julian Serrano.

firefly. bradley ogden.

It's a tough job, when you're me, to settle on a location for an afternoon of eating and drinking somewhere in Vegas. I want to try new stuff. I want to get not-so-new stuff that I haven't been able to get yet. I also have a hard time not going for something reliably awesome. So we combined two of those factors on Saturday, going for a late lunch of tapas and cocktails at Firefly and then wandering around the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace before getting another drink and snack at Bradley Ogden.

Firefly has got to be one of the most beloved restaurants in Vegas. Tourists love it and eat there when they're hungover. Locals will tell you it's the best spot for tapas. It's kind of a hipster joint, which can lead to some douchey surroundings at times, but the food and drink are worth putting up with such a minor annoyance. Mojitos and sangria are mandatory, as are one of the tastiest bites I've ever had: the stuffed dates. It's a smoked almond crammed inside a date, wrapped with bacon and served with a red wine reduction and crumbles of bleu cheese. It's as good as it sounds. On this visit, we also sampled perfect portions of gazpacho, boquerones (white anchovies on baby toasts), a veggie empanada with a great tang from herb cream cheese, stuffed red peppers and ham and manchego cheese croquetas. As usual, everything was great, complemented by a table on the patio and perfect weather. It got me to thinking: is this the best Spanish restaurant in Vegas? And are there Spanish restaurants in Vegas that aren't all about the tapas? (Firefly does serve paella, although I've never tried it.) When Julian Serrano opens his at CityCenter next year, I'm sure that will answer questions like those.

Meanwhile, at Caesars, everybody is wandering around the Forum and not buying anything, and we are no different. After planning to grab a drink at either Joe's Stone Crab or Boa Steakhouse, I instead opted for Bradley Ogden's bar. This place is in my top 5 when it comes to Not New Restaurants I Still Haven't Eaten At. If I wasn't still partially full from lunch, I would have tried what many have hailed as the best burger in Vegas, the ground steak burger served at this bar. But instead, we munched a tasty plate of hummus and grilled flatbread and sipped two slightly disappointing cocktails: a Dirty Laundry, an extremely olivey vodka martini, and a Drunken Tortuga, basically a glass of gin with cilantro floating in it. I'm all for ordering expensive "signature" cocktails at expensive restaurant bars, but more often than not I regret it and wish I'd gone for some whiskey or a plain old gin and tonic. These drinks were not so great, but the hummus was. Still, it was nice to finally step foot in this restaurant and I look forward to returning for that burger.