Former Mayor Oscar Goodman has been hosting a series of dinner events at his namesake steakhouse at Downtown’s Plaza, mostly featuring colorful stories of Vegas past served as a tasty side dish. The next such event has him particularly excited.
“When we got here in 1964 our social lives revolved around two places, and one of those was the Venetian,” Goodman says. “Our family probably went once a week, and we saw everyone in town there, from reputed mobsters to elected politicians. I guess there’s some similarity between those two.”
He’s not talking about the megaresort on the Strip. The Venetian Italian restaurant was opened in 1955 by Angie and Lou Ruvo. Eleven years later, it moved to the West Sahara Avenue spot where Herbs & Rye stands today. “The food was great, the prices were reasonable, and the people were the best,” Goodman recalls. “It was just a wonderful place.”
The Venetian will be celebrated and discussed at the next Oscar’s dinner, set for December 11. In attendance—besides Hizzoner—will be Angie Ruvo, whose cooking made fans out of Frank Sinatra, Robert De Niro, and many other Vegas fixtures and locals, and Larry Ruvo, who was a busboy.
Larry Ruvo as a child with his parents, father, Lou and mother, Angie.
“Larry’s station in life has changed vastly from mopping up the tables,” jokes Goodman, “but I’m gonna ask him to bus tables again.” The son of Lou and Angie, Larry Ruvo, of course, is one of the people who makes Las Vegas go. He was one of the creators of Southern Wine & Spirits and also founded the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, which is the beneficiary of the upcoming dinner event.
The highlight of the menu at Oscar’s that night will very likely be Angie Ruvo’s legendary neckbones dish. How legendary is it? Let’s let Oscar explain:
“I don’t eat pork but the aroma of these pork neckbones would carry through the entire restaurant, and everyone would want it. One of my clients was Nick Civella, supposedly the boss of the outfit in Kansas City. He came to town and had these neckbones and fell in love, and he wanted to return not to gamble but just to have the neckbones.
“Well, Sheriff Ralph Lamb didn’t really want Civella around. He’d meet him at the airport and tell him to turn around and leave. Civella was upset about this. He wanted me to file a lawsuit against the sheriff. I was just a young lawyer then, but I called the sheriff for a meeting and had him over to my office on Bridger right over a flower shop. He walked right into my office and started fiddling around behind my desk, and when I asked him what he was doing, he said, ‘I want to make sure you’re not bugged.’
“So I told him about this potential lawsuit, and that all Civella wanted was Angie’s neckbones, and he gave in. He said it was okay, and so I averted the suit, but I kind of believe the sheriff had probably had those neckbones himself, on more than one occasion.”
The Ruvo family sold the Venetian in 1996 after 43 years of ownership. Though there are still a handful of classic restaurants sprinkled around the Vegas Valley—and Oscar’s Steakhouse at the Plaza re-creates that vibe a bit, too—Goodman says there’s nothing like his family’s favorite Italian restaurant. “It’s a lost thing. There are a couple places around town where you know you might bump into somebody, but you just can’t count on that anymore, and that was a big part of the charm of going out to dinner.”
Venetian Restaurant Dinner December 11, 6 p.m., $250. Oscar’s Steakhouse at the Plaza, 702-701-7894.
