Las Vegas Dining: Craftsteak

Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak
MGM Grand Hotel and Casino
Las Vegas, NV

Web Site: MGM Grand Hotel and Casino (Craftsteak)

Vegas. I’m not sure what possessed me to go on vacation in a city that I generally can’t stand. Don’t get me wrong, I love going to the shows, I love the desert flora and fauna, but I hate going through casinos filled with smokers and the constant blaring sounds of the slot machines. It just isn’t my kind of scene.

And while the signature hotel restaurants are by definition excellent (and indeed very expensive) I don’t generally like to dine at them. After all, I live in the New York City metro area and I have access to some of the best restaurants on the entire planet, many of which are the original concepts of which the Vegas restaurants are actually based on.

I had planned to take advantage of the nice 70-80 degree weather that week by chilling out at our timeshare’s pool and spa, and keep our costs down by hitting inexpensive casual restaurants away from the activity of the Strip.

But then my buddy Matt Seeber got a hold of me on FaceBook.

Matt, who earned his toque in New York’s Fiamma Osteria (may it rest in peace) and the short-lived but excellent BID, left the East Coast a number of years ago and headed west to Vegas, where he re-united with his former boss Tom Colicchio, from Danny Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern years before.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, we all know how Colicchio’s star soared from there. He’s been a very busy and successful guy, opening up 15 restaurants all over the country. And he’s on like this TV show and … stuff.

With Collichio’s blessing, Seeber  took the reigns as Executive Chef of Craftsteak, the anchor steakhouse at the MGM Grand Hotel.

“Dude, you gotta come on over and see what we’re doing over here, man. Seriously, you’ll have a good time.”

Ok, so as much as I hate Vegas, there was no way I was going to pass that invitation up.

I have to apologize in advance for the quality of the photographs. Craftsteak has very muted lighting, and as I was on vacation, I only brought a simple CASIO Exilim point-and-shoot  instead of my usual overkill SLR and prime lens rig, so I had to toss a lot of material on the cutting room floor, particularly the restaurant interiors.

There’s plenty of of good photos of the interiors on MGM’s Craftsteak website, so you should really go check those out.

Still I think that you’ll get a very good feeling about the cuisine and the experience at the restaurant from the photos below.

Bar/single dining area at Craftsteak

Ready for a serious, Vegas-style steakhouse experience? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

NJ Dining: Honey

Honey Mediterranean Gourmet & Market
1150 Teaneck Road, Teaneck NJ
(201) 530-5083

Restaurants sometimes have good reasons for calling themselves something they are not. In the case of Honey in Teaneck, it’s because that marketing is often more effective than full-monty disclosure. Which is very, very sad, because I think Honey is one of the most interesting ethnic restaurants to open in our area in a very long time.

Why the deception? Honey’s cuisine is Persian — which originates from the country that in the modern day is called Iran.

While the restaurant bills itself as Mediterranean, modern day Iran is nowhere near the Mediterranean Sea. Iran borders the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf, and cuisine-wise bears only a passing resemblance to most Mediterranean food.

Sure, Persia once controlled the territory which is now modern day Turkey, which does border the Mediterranean, but that was between 550 and 330 BCE , when the Achaemenid Empire controlled most of the civilized world.

The history of Persia is complex and one of the most fascinating in ancient history. Its cuisine is unique, delicious, and exotic. And in this part of Northern New Jersey we’ve had the unfortunate situation of previous Persian restaurants failing, such as Shiraz in Edgewater.

Up until Honey’s opening, we’ve only had access to Afghani food at the very excellent  Teaneck Kebab House,  Pamir in Morristown and Kabab Paradise in Lake Hiawatha. While sharing a similar cultural history as well as a similar language with Iran, Afghan food is very different in terms of their cuisine. Aside from Honey, Negeen in Summit is one of the few other legit Persian restaurants in the area.

[Editor's Note: Shahrzad in Edgewater, which took over Shiraz's space, also opened in June of 2010, after this post was originally written]

Like other Muslims residing in this country Iranian-Americans are often the unfortunate recipients of bad behavior and harassment from ignorant people who vandalize restaurants and businesses as a result of misdirected anger and hatred.

Because of this Persian cuisine in this part of the country frequently goes unappreciated. Los Angeles by comparison has a thriving Persian community, but in New Jersey not so much.

Teaneck just got its Persian on. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

The Joy of Passover Rolls

The Passover Roll, as seen above accompanying matzo ball soup, is a bit of a culinary enigma. Prior to having seders with my wife’s family, I had never encountered them before. My family (admittedly reform Jews) on both sides traditionally would have matzohs during seder, and the kugels, and of course the matzo ball soup. But the idea of having ersatz bread or rolls during Passover was a bit alien to me, and questionably pesadich. I mean, the whole point is that you are not supposed to eat bread during Passover, right? You’re supposed to want for it.

Indeed, Pesadich rolls are made with matzo meal, but they have the consistency, taste and physical properties of a cream puff — making them ideally suited for stuffing with tuna fish, cold cuts, egg salad, PB&J, cream cheese and smoked salmon, or even whipped cream or custard. My favorite way to eat them, however, is dunked in the savory broth and broken up into matzo ball soup, where it sucks up the liquid like a sponge.

You too can make Pesadich Rolls. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link for more.

NY/NJ Dining: Johnny’s Smokehouse

Johnny’s Smokehouse
50 East Central Avenue
Pearl River, NY 10965-2307

As with sports, art, literature and music, there are tragic figures in the culinary world.

There is one such man who is known among foodie folks in the Northern New Jersey area whose very name conjures up joyful memories.

A man who is a veritable Jedi Master of Barbecue, a rogue samurai chef who had to shut down his beloved River Edge, New Jersey restaurant for the sake of his personal health and well-being.

A man who returned with his talents to two other barbecue restaurants, only to have to move on yet again.

And for three years, he dropped off the face of the earth. We do not know where he went. All we know is that he is… BACK.

Who is this mysterious barbecue man? And where has he re-appeared? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Ribs Within: The Taste of Victory

For the past year, I’ve have had the privilege of being able to photo-document the inner workings of Ribs Within, a New Jersey-based BBQ team run by my good friends Doug and Laura Keiles.

Last weekend, Doug and Laura achieved something they have wanted for a very long time. They won the Grand Championship at Grillin’ on the Bay, a Brooklyn-based grilling contest.

Also Read: Ribs Within Wins “Grillin’ on the Bay”, March 26 2011. (RibsWithin.com)

Also Read: Grillin’ on the Bay 2010 (Off The Broiler)

Nineteen teams competed on a bitter cold, 25-degree day in five separate categories.

While I was not able to attend this year’s contest as I did last year, I did attend the practice session at Doug and Laura’s home in Hillsborough the weekend before. As to not tip off the competition as to the team’s winning strategy, I did not post the photos here until now.

Here you’ll see all the winning dishes, as well as a few that were possible candidates for entry but didn’t make it.

Ribs, which won first place at the contest. Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.