Sinskey, who hawk their wares and raise everyone’s wine IQ. Cheese tastings (paired with the wines of the day) also figure in, ensuring everyone “Cantal” a Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk from a Bellwether Farms San Andreas. In “Kase” you didn’t know, trading cheesy puns with Howald’s wife Kristin is thrown in for free, making these tastings as “Gouda” as it gets. (Ouch!) — J.C. 770 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway, 341-8191, www. valleycheeseandwine.com
Vegan dish that even carnivores will enjoy
Wine and cheeses from Valley Cheese and Wine (puns not included)
Broadway Pizzeria that chap my critic’s conscience. They’ve never met a noodle they couldn’t cook to death; clams from a can seem mandatory; and cheese (sometimes of questionable quality) gets poured over everything but the spumoni. But, for 16 years now, it gets my everyday pizza, pasta and wings business whenever a craving hits. Because there are many things to like about this neighborhood joint. The meatball hero is a thing of beauty. Ditto the sausage and peppers, which, like their house-made garlic knots, will have you eating much more of these carbobombs than are good for you. Their marinara sauce won’t send Scott Conant back to his cookbooks, but it’s plenty serviceable, thick and chunky. And while almost every pizza is overloaded with just about every ingredient
imaginable, and every order of wings is a crap shoot over how overcooked they’ll be, there’s something refreshingly old school about how cheesy, doughy and caloric everything is. Because of those calories, Broadway Pizzeria is also very special to me for a very un-Vegasy reason: I can walk to it. — John Curtas 840 S. Rancho Drive, 259-9002
Wine-tasting event From a global pinot noir sniff-and-swirl, to an allAustralian day, to a panoply of summer wines — all paired with superior cheeses and charcuterie — Valley Cheese and Wine’s wine tastings are the city’s best. Led by uberwine guy/owner Bob Howald, the weekly event (Fridays 4-7 p.m., Saturdays, noon7 p.m.) attracts such wino celebs as Randall Graham from Bonny Doon or Robert
You want to see yours truly head for the hills faster than you can say “wheat grass with bean sprouts”? Then mention anything vegan or vegetarian as a dining option. That is, until Steve Wynn recently put vegan offerings on all of the Wynn/Encore menus. Until he put his chefs to the test, most dishes of this ilk were made by people with “fear of food.” Now, such innovative chefs as Alex Stratta, Paul Bartolotta, David Spero and David Walzog are putting their considerable talents behind entire tasting menus of everything from lip-smacking truffled arancini to Tuscan vegetable soup to sautéed seasonal mushrooms. Of all of the offerings I’ve tried, it is Walzog’s orange-braised fennel with celery root puree and pea vines at Lakeside Grill that made me drop my fork in appreciation. Sweet, earthy and orangey, it is the apotheosis of fennel. And it’s so good you’ll forget that it’s good for you. — J.C. Inside Wynn Las Vegas, 3131 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 248-3463, www.wynnlasvegas.com
Dessert There’s something about the crisp, caramelized exterior
of canneles that gives way to the soft, subtly sweet custard within that is both haunting and addictive. Top it off with some dense, housemade gelato and a caramel tuile, and something magical happens with every bite — a confluence of almost-burnt crunch yielding to a warm, interior richness being bathed in melting cream. That’s the very definition of a dessert’s whole being greater than the
KNow-it-all
Local produce
Fresh, healthy and clean — not the usual words you’d use to describe a road trip to Pahrump. However, that drive leads you to the mothership of tomatoes and to the greenhouse of Hy-Desert Produce. And it really looks like a mother ship: Hy-Desert’s enclosed dome can produce 20,000 pounds of tomatoes and cucumbers in the middle of a no-man’s land. Hy Desert’s father-son duo use a pesticide-free approach and grounded sensibilities to ripen the flavorful produce and to diligently perfect the heirloom varieties preferred by chefs. The two most popular varieties, the Clarence and Tradiro, offer big, sharp and memorable flavors. No road trip necessary: Select your own mouth-watering tomatoes every Thursday at the Molto Vegas Farmers Market (www.betonthefarm.com), a hotbed for honest food. — Gina Gavan 1650 Jarvis Road, Pahrump, (775) 751-6688 She should know: Gina Gavan is founder of Project Dinner Table, a monthly dinner gathering that promotes community, philanthropy and local food.
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