rosemary's.

Update: Rosemary's has closed.

Rosemary's has been tagged with that condescending Best Restaurant Off the Strip label forever, and chefs Michael and Wendy Jordan (pic'd) are fine with that because they are really nice people. Rosemary's actually is one of the best restaurants in Vegas no matter the location. I hadn't been there for probably a couple years until a few nights ago, when we stopped for an impromptu dinner at the bar.

The service from our somewhat hyper bartender was fine, and the food and drink was terrific. We guzzled a few Duvels, smart considering Rosemary's has an outstanding selection of beers and the menu even lists pairings for each dish with beer and wine. Potato rolls and honey-glazed, white chocolate bread greeted us up front, along with an amuse bouche of whitefish salad on a crisp little cracker. The wifey couldn't decide what to eat so she picked an interesting assortment of small plates (parmesan risotto cakes and mozzarella stuffed eggplant), a wilted spinach salad with a monstrous goat cheese cake and a side of (oh baby) white cheddar grits. She loved the grits the most. The risotto cakes were pleasing, reminiscent of deep fried mac and cheese, while the eggplant was a little undercooked and overkilled with the smoky mozzarella cheese.

I stuck with my standard appetizer order here, Hugo's Texas BBQ Shrimp with Maytag blue cheese slaw. This has been one of my all-time favorite dishes in Vegas, but it was off a little this time. The shrimp seemed smaller than I remember, and the barbecue sauce -- in my mind a rich, almost mole-ish substance, a little sweet, a little spicy -- wasn't barbecuey at all. It was more peanut-chocolate, a little thick and syrupy, not really sweet or hot. Weird. It was still a great dish, just tuned differently. Any skittering feeling of disappointment was washed away by a perfectly moist roasted tomato and bacon-crusted swordfish, served atop mushroom and wax bean salad. The tang of the tomato rode the fish well; it was a completely new taste. Also, those grits are really, really good. More restaurants need to serve grits.

Dessert: espresso, a tiny espresso cup full of creme brulee, and an unordered gift from the kitchen -- bourbon balls, peanut butter buckeyes, and lemon squares. Awesome across the board, as things go at Rosemary's.