TASTE: Panevino Comes Into Its Own

New chef has Italian eatery headed in right direction

Max Jacobson

It's an azure, late-summer evening at Panevino, the Tuscan-hued Italian eatery on the stretch of Sunset Road facing the runways at McCarran, and the automatic curtains that shield the dining room from the blistering sun are just rolling up toward the ceiling.


Even without the high-tech touches, this restaurant is one of the more impressive feats of architecture in the city, but the kitchen never really hit its stride.


Now it has, thanks to the steady hand of its chef, Sergio Santoro. It's always been fun to eat in the attached deli, a sunny room featuring Venetian-glass chandeliers and abundant stonework. One section in here sells a number of good Italian cold-cuts and cheeses. Another features a steam table stocked with pasta e fagioli soup, homemade meatballs and other goodies. There's even a pastry case.


But the main attraction is the hangar-like restaurant, which in terms of design, pays homage to the Italian genius architect, Renzo Piano. Owner Tony Marnell, who built the Rio, owns the industrial park on which the restaurant sits. In fact, it's named for him, so he must be happy that this has become such an accomplished place to dine. I know I am.


You open the giant glass doors and pass through a dramatic wine area fronting the bar until you approach the front podium, where you are greeted by charming Maitre d' Santino Perelli, late of Commander's Palace in the Desert Passage Mall.


Those are real violets on your table, which is dressed in high-quality white linen, and those are Italian designer chairs you are sitting on, unless you happen to secure one of the swell, high-fashion booths, swathed in a green fabric that would look at home in Milan or Paris.


Both the menu and wine list are leather-bound in the grand, old-Vegas manner, and are quite extensive. The wine list, in particular, is heavy with boutique Italian reds, just what you want to go with many of Santoro's dishes. As a bonus, the staff is quick to decant the better wines—and though many don't require it, the younger wines, too—so it can be easier to impress your date.


It is de rigueur at our better Italian restaurants for someone to come by with a basket of focaccia and ciabatta, Italian rural white bread, then pour olive oil and balsamic vinegar into a dish for dipping. Me, I prefer butter, but the show must go on.


Antipasti are mostly delicious, such as the fritto misto, in this case, fried calamari, with shrimp thrown in for good measure; and the Italian-in-name-only polpettine di granchi: fat Maryland crab cakes that I'd eat over and over again for their crisp crusts.


Miestre, or soups, mean a garden-variety minestrone with a dab of pesto, or the Roma tomato and bread soup called pappa di pomodoro, which has rough chunks of tomato and whole croutons in the broth, as opposed to the slow-cooked Tuscan version, which has the texture of baby food (which I find more comforting). Anyway, this version is good, too.


You can actually order pizza from the dinner menu, and it's not a bad idea, especially if you like the thin-crusted, Roman trattoria style. We had one with arugula and proscuitto. I could have eaten two.


But Santoro wants you to try the headier stuff, especially anything from the daily specials menu. One evening, that meant Northern halibut in pesto sauce. Another, it was a terrific branzino, a kind of seabass, prepared alla Livornese, with Kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes and capers. Bravo, Sergio.


The regular menu has a few can't-miss entries, as well. My favorite pasta is pappardelle di agnello: flat, wide noodles smothered in a toothsome lamb ragu laced with porcini. The gnocchi—potato dumplings Italians usually eat with cheesy tomato sauce or even more simply, with sage butter—is served al pesto.


Risottos are fine, the grains of Arborio rice discrete and chewy. Among the three choices, I like pollo e aspargi, rice simmered with chicken breast, asparagus, saffron and Parmesan cheese. There is also a vegetarian risotto, and a third with sausage and porcini mushrooms.


Pass on the insipid, farm-raised Atlantic salmon in favor of the catch of the day, which the chef will prepare in a number of ways upon request. Two meat dishes not to miss are the osso buco, the marrow-filled veal shank (where's the marrow spoon?); and scottadino di agnello—firm, gamy lamb chops from the grill, redolent of a lusty marinade.


At dessert, there are gelati and a few sweets, the best two being hazelnut chocolate bomba—a dome-shaped thing covering up a creamy, sweet mousse—and a classic lemon-meringue tart. The wine list has several Italian dessert wines and the espresso is flawless. Remember, a true Italian doesn't drink cappuccino after 11 in the morning.

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