INTERVIEW: Mimmo Ferraro

Mimmo Ferraro is executive chef at the long-popular Ferraro's Italian restaurant.

You're a young chef but you've already logged quite a bit of experience. What was it like growing up in a Vegas restaurant like Ferraro's?
Mimmo Ferraro: I've always enjoyed this business, and it's always been a big part of my life and my family. But Ferraro's didn't start out as a high-end Italian restaurant. The first business was a deli and pizzeria, so it was a lot different. And I've been working since I was just a little boy. Back then it was like, "Go price those tomatoes!" And running around playing cops and robbers in the deli. But I've always loved cooking and I started cooking at a very young age, too. I think I started making pasta when I was six or seven years old.

Did you always know you'd be following in the family business and becoming a chef and restaurateur?
There was a time when I wanted to be an architect for a while, but ultimately I knew I'd always be in this business. It's not an easy business to be in, but I really enjoy it and it's just the thing for me. Some people say you are born with a gift. I really enjoy what I do, and my food is good.

When you finished your education, you spent some time in Italy, mostly Tuscany, before returning to Las Vegas to take over the kitchen at Ferraro's. Was it difficult to step into your father's footsteps? Did you want to make a lot of immediate changes at Ferraro's?
It wasn't easy. Even though we're an off-the-Strip restaurant, still about 90 percent of our business is from tourists and convention business. We have regular tourists. They come into town from wherever and no matter what they're in Vegas to do, they're going to visit us. It's the same faces. And they're used to coming to Ferraro's and getting what they've been getting for the last 20 years. My style of cooking is very different from my father's. He's from the south. My father was born in Calabria, and they cook a certain way there. It's heavier. It's those deep red sauces, the eggplant, the great sausages. Mine is a little bit lighter. We've always thrived on using the best products available, but when I came in we started making everything in-house, not just all our sauces which we make every day, but even the sausage, the pasta, the ravioli. Everything is made fresh daily. We'll come in and make the pasta fresh for that day, and we might run out if we're very busy. But that's how we make sure we giving the best product we can serve. That's something that's never going to change.

Was it hard to bring your own style to the kitchen without alienating people who expect certain things?
Well the biggest fight was with my father. "It's my way because it's my restaurant." Really, we always saw eye-to-eye about things, we just had different opinions sometimes. He's very much an Old World Italian. But to me, we have the best combination possible. It's the Old World with the new.

Besides all the growth, how have you seen the world of dining in Las Vegas change over the years?
Las Vegas wasn't always considered the way it is now. What, are we the number two or number three culinary city? I think Vegas has become more sophisticated. People understand quality, and they're not scared to pay for what they're getting. Every year it gets busier and the prices have to adapt. You know, we're a $20 cab ride both ways from the Strip. So that means we have to offer something as good or better just to get them to come back. We have to adapt to that environment as well.

What is your approach to pleasing locals?
We do a lot of different things for locals. We have a great happy hour all week with half-price appetizers and buy-one-get-one drinks. We have an extensive wine list with over 1,200 wines, and we do half-off the wine list for locals on the last Sunday. We're a different kind of restaurant here. People come here because we're one of the last true family establishments left, and I think that's something locals and out-of-town people appreciate. You know, my mother is here, my father is here, my nephew is running around in the kitchen. We get to know our customers, and I think they appreciate and recognize that difference. People
don't feel like they're in Vegas when they come to Ferraro's for dinner.

What's next for you and Ferraro's? Any expansion plans or new projects in the works?
We're making changes every day, even if it's something small. My father's going to Italy a few times a year and coming back with great additions to our wine list, stuff you can't get anywhere else. And as far as something new, I'm getting into the tavern business. I have a partner and we're going to open a new place called Wiseguys, which is going to be a tavern that serves classic Italian food, and it's going to be in the North Las Vegas area of town. Maybe we'll be expanding it later, but that's a new venture for me and it's exciting. Of course, you won't be able to come into the tavern and get the osso bucco like at Ferraro's.