Every neighborhood needs a cozy Italian restaurant to call its own, and Green Valley has a handful of favorite haunts where the regulars are loyal and the food is hearty. Annie’s Gourmet Italian Bistro, which reopened earlier this year after moving from its location of five years on Horizon Ridge Parkway to a higher-profile retail center just off the Beltway, is one of those favorites. But cozy got a lot cozier at the new restaurant, thanks to the addition of a fully enclosed, pet-friendly patio—named for owner Annie Payton’s yellow lab Ookie—and the “Lost Weekend” bar, where specialty cocktails and draft beer change up the expected glass of red or white with dinner.
You have to order the stuffed mushrooms.
The place is warmer than ever, and the food hasn’t changed. No one eats at Annie’s without starting with the stuffed mushrooms ($12.95) filled with sweet sausage, spinach and Parmesan cheese. Classic shrimp scampi ($16.95) is another wise selection, served with warm bread for sopping up every drop of its garlic butter-white wine sauce. Payton, a graduate of Bonanza High School and UNLV, says her favorite is her mom’s recipe for eggplant parmigiana ($18.95). But the most popular plate at Annie’s has to be the tender, rich veal Marsala ($22.95), smothered in mushrooms in slightly sweet wine sauce over a bed of angel hair. Annie’s imports its organic veal from the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, so it comes a long way to end up as your favorite.
Annie's Gourmet Italian Bistro 75 S. Valle Verde Drive #160, 702-254-3663. Tuesday-Thursday, 4-9:30 p.m.; Friday & Saturday, 4-10 p.m.; Sunday, 4-9 p.m.
