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| - A late sixties year old woman struggled to light a cigarette sitting on a bench below the Carluccio's Tivoli Gardens neon sign high above her. "I hate having to come out side to smoke," she mumbled pulling her light sweater over her shoulders. Our party bus pulled into the parking lot and drove past the Liberace Museum and neon grand piano and stopped in front of the smoking Carluccio's regular. We all streamed out of the bus as she reviewed and evaluated each one of us. "I bet most of these kids don't even know who Liberace was," she mused. I opened the wood carved door to the Liberace design restaurant and the team entered into a world hip and cool 35 years ago that is now hip and cheeky in 2007.
I travel to Las Vegas at least two times a year for various trade shows for eBay or for various social events. Like many of my friends, I get tired of the big casino hotspots that we all read about in the hotel room "Las Vegas" magazines. Thankfully, my friend Jennifer found Carluccio's through her parents that live in the area and decided to host our team party there. Carluccio's was probably THE place to be for Las Vegas hip in the 70s and is now a refreshing escape for those of us looking for something different...yet sill Las Vegas.
Apparently Carluccio's was designed by Liberace and it shows. Each room is a different style from a dark lounge with vinyl booths to an Italian sculpture garden to the all-mirrored back room replete with a bar shaped like a piano and twinkling lights on the ceiling. Our group from eBay found our way to the mirrored back room where we enjoyed hearty Italian food. Bottles of Chianti housed in the traditional whicker baskets greeted us and were free flowing, accompanied by mozzarella and tomato and fried calamari hors d'oeuvres. Due to our group (21) size, Carlucci's served a fixed menu including veal parmesan, chicken picatta and Lasagna. The food was great for the basic Italian fare and the portions are HUGE. Most of the group only ate half of what was served. I'd recommend even ordering one entre and splitting it. I had the veal which was a little tough and smothered in sauce and cheese. That should tell connoisseurs of Italian food that it's not top-line quality. However, Henry had the chicken parmesan which he said was good and Beth had the lasagna which she seemed to enjoy.
We were entertained by a great piano bar duet, Gus and Kathy. Gus is a stage name for C.J. who is a full time plumber in Las Vegas. Kathy is a long time friend of 30 years who sings with Gus in his "Off-The Strip" appearances. Gus, with is long gray pony tail and grey bushy mustache tickled out basic Sinatra tunes and 70s hits like "Easy Like Sunday Morning." Kathy chimed-in with "do-waps" and chorus versus when appropriate. My friend Beth requested for me "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees, hoping to elicit a performance reminiscent of Marty and Elaine from "Swingers." However, Gus did not have that song on his laptop that sat on top of his piano serving as his sheet music. Beth was able to get "More Than A Woman" played for those of us with a Barry Gibb craving.
After Gus and Kathy's final number, we cleared out of the back room shaking hands with the musical duo and thanking Carlucci's manager for a great experience. Overall, the food was good...not great. However, the AMBIANCE and the old-school Las Vegas experience is OFF THE CHARTS. I HIGHLY recommend taking the $10 cab ride off the strip to experience this restaurant. I get the feeling most frequent Vegas travelers are not aware of this hidden vinyl and polyester gem.
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