Settebello, the Green Valley pizzeria that pioneered authentic Neapolitan thin-crust pie in the Las Vegas Valley, is set to open its second local store on Friday, October 18, at 11 a.m. in the Village Square center at West Sahara and Fort Apache. The new 4,000-square-foot restaurant will continue to serve its handmade pizzas cooked in a wood-burning oven from Naples, Italy, and the second spot will offer an expanded wine menu and draft beer selection along with a hand-crafted cocktail menu. Settebello west, at 9350 W. Sahara Ave. #170, will be open Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
It will be a big weekend for pizza in Las Vegas as Pizza Rock is set to debut in Downtown Las Vegas on Saturday, October 19. Located at 201 N. Third St., adjacent to the soon-to-open Downtown Grand hotel and casino, 11-time World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani's newest outlet is also famous for its Napoletana pizza, and will also offer nine other styles of pie including Roman, California, New York, Sicilian and Chicago. Pizza Rock will operate Sunday through Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to midnight and Friday and Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 4 a.m.
In other pizza news, Wynn's classic Italian restaurant Allegro has unveiled a new pizza bar happy hour, available from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Specialty wood-fired pizzas—margherita, spicy pepperoni or bianca with mozzarella, prosciutto, arugula and parmesan— are priced between $18 and $21, and bottomless Stella Artois or Blue Moon draft beers go for $25.
Two outstanding CityCenter restaurants have made serious changes to their menus. Twist at Mandarin Oriental has a new format featuring a three-course prix fixe for $95. Entree options within that menu include steak au poivre, red mullet terrine or saffron risotto. It's the first time the restaurant from legendary chef Pierre Gagnaire has offered an under-$100 menu, and Twist also recently brought back its a la carte menu while maintaining its grand tasting menus, which change completely four times a year. At the neighboring Aria, chef Michael Mina's American Fish has simplified, doing away with its four different seafood preparations and focusing on regional fish favorites such as San Francisco cioppino, cornmeal-crusted rainbow trout and mustard-marinated black cod to complement appetizers, soups, salads and steaks. American Fish is still serving a variety of wood-grilled fresh market seafood.
Fleming's steakhouse is preparing to open its second Valley location at Town Square in January, but in the meantime its original spot at 8721 W. Charleston Boulevard will offer a 35-ounce tomahawk steak dinner for two for $99, from October 21 through November 15. The meal includes French onion soup or a wedge salad, followed by the decadent and enormous steak with sides of gorgonzola and mascarpone brulee, sweet onion bacon jam and cabernet mustard.
Celeb chef Scott Conant will be in town to sign The Scarpetta Cookbook on Thursday, October 24 at 5 p.m. in the Cosmopolitan's Queue Bar before heading upstairs to Scarpetta for a cocktail benefit to raise funds for Keep Memory Alive. Tickets for the evening event are $150 and available at keepmemoryalive.org.
Finally, the Daily Meal recently announced its annual list of the 101 Best Hotel Restaurants Around the World. At last, a foodie list Las Vegas should dominate, and we did, snagging three of the top 10 spots including the No. 1 overall é by José Andrés at the Cosmopolitan. Guy Savoy at Caesars Palace was No. 3, Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand ranked 8th and Michael Mina Bellagio 16th. Andrés' The Bazaar at the SLS in LA was No. 23 and Hakkasan of Miami Beach No. 52; maybe the Vegas versions will make the list next time?
