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.