| rev:text
| - Eating a plate of pasta in the Venetian may not be the equivalent of a trip to Italy, but damned if I didn't enjoy my lunch at Enoteca San Marco. The cute cheesy setting with its fake sky and numerous indoor street performers was entertaining, and I don't believe I've ever met a Mario Batali joint I didn't love.
I came for a leisurely lunch with my family and a few family friends, and we sat on the pseudo-patio. Men in full make-up and stilts traipsed by, and tourists looked on amused. For our direct appreciation, Enoteca San Marco provided paper placemats that taught us how to pick up a stranger at a Vegas club and make obscene hand signs, both in Italian. Service was accordingly casual and friendly.
We were provided with breadsticks and a spongey herb focaccia when we sat down. Our table then shared the caprese with burrata as well as the "verdure grande" for starters. The caprese was excellent, composed of oozy cheese and bright refreshing tomatoes, topped with pine nuts and a light green dressing. The verdure grande consisted of seven vegetable dishes in circular yellow jars for $28 - if you've ever been to Otto in New York, you've had them before. The vegetables rotate, but on our visit we got lentils "alla Toscana," roasted beets with saba, corn and tomatoes, radish in bagna cauda, marinated zucchine, eggplant caponata, and farro with pine nuts and feta. Not every dish was spectacular, but all were decent, and I loved the lentils, beets, and corn. The variety and freshness of the ingredients made the verdure grande worth getting.
For my entree, I couldn't pass up the cavatappi with lamb ragu, mint, and tomato. The al dente corkscrew pasta was great, and the lamb ragu was on point, tender, well-seasoned, and meaty. The tomato sauce was hearty and the mint added an accent of coolness that enhanced the warm flavors. My mom's linguine con le cozze, a linguini with mussels, saffron, and marjoram, was another winning pasta. It was very salty, but in a good way. The pasta ended up being flavorful with minimal embellishment, and the saffron was pleasantly pronounced. My brother's spaghettini with mushrooms, thyme, and garlic was also quite flavorful, lightly sauced but with a richness that came from the robust fragrant mushrooms. Also good were my dad's veal and ricotta meatballs. I love carbs, but it's hard to argue with lush, soft, juicy meatballs paired with nothing more than herbs and tomato sauce. The only entree I didn't adore was my little brother's pizza with sausage and red peppers. Even this was good, with zesty flavors and a thin crust, but the last time I had had Batali's pizza was at Mozza - the man sets his own bar.
For dessert, our table split two copettas, a fancy word for sundaes. The espresso copetta came with espresso gelato, blackberry sorbetto, and fresh blackberries. I wouldn't have thought to pair coffee and blackberries but this sundae was fantastic. The flavors worked, and I liked that the espresso gelato had a bit of a coffee bean crunch. The olive oil copetta was even better, boasting olive oil gelato with melon sorbetto and melon salad. The sweet melon and the mellow salty olive oil were perfect together. The melon salad added more ripe sugar as well as toothsome texture, and I doubt that the sundae could have been better.
I rolled out of Enoteca San Marco in the early afternoon and didn't have another full meal until the next morning. I gambled like a fiend all night and didn't feel particularly hungry. I love Mario for enabling both my gluttony and my extended hours spent at poker tables. Viva Las Vegas, I say.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)