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| - Lunch is a forgotten meal in Vegas. Endless crowds queue up and drop benjamins on brunch and dinner -- but nobody gives a damn about lunch anymore.
While I mourn the decline of lunch, I also take full advantage of it. That means finding the best lunch specials available -- and the lunch special at Five50 Pizza Bar is a perfect example.
I normally wouldn't go out of my way for a place like Five50, since similar concepts are a dime a dozen in San Diego. What San Diego doesn't have, though, is an excellent pizza-centric lunch special, consisting of soup and personal pizza for a mere $18. (San Diego also doesn't have a restaurant with Shawn McClain's name behind it.)
When I dropped by at around 11:30am on a Friday, the crowd was evenly split between twentysomethings nursing hangovers with take-out, business travelers and solo diners at the bar, and larger families and groups in the dining room. Five50 is actually very easy on the eyes, with retro-style murals on one wall and cool interlocking wooden brick latticework on another. Since Five50 is tucked in the very back of the Aria casino, thru-traffic is minimal, making it a surprisingly quiet and subdued place to grab a meal.
Like I mentioned, it's really all about the lunch special here. The soup of the day was minestrone, which was absolutely perfect -- warm, hearty, comforting, and healthy to boot. For the pie, I tried the truffle pizza, which comes with salami, potato, and creamy bechamel. While the flavor of the pizza was good, it was also a total greasebomb. I also wish the potatoes hadn't been so hard and undercooked.
Service is fine in that stand-offish, I-have-no-reason-to-friendly-to-you-since-you're-a-tourist-who'll-never-come-back-here sort of way, which is typical of the Strip.
That said, I'll still probably come back next time I'm in town, if for no other reason than that lunch special. Join me in my crusade to make lunch the new brunch!
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