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| - I'm not a Las Vegas local, and on my trip there last night, a well-meaning acquaintance sent me out to Summerlin to find an old bookshop manned by geezers. I couldn't find the place (erroneous address, incomplete directions), and I ended up somewhat lost, a little cold, and very, very hungry. So I fired up the heater in the rental car, Yelped nearby businesses with my smartphone, and ended up deciding to hit Rosati's pizza. After all, the rating was a solid 4 stars.
Rosati's is located on what seems to be a major road through Summerlin, and its clientele are pleasingly non-threatening family types of a few different colors who have the air of regulars. The girl behind the counter was friendly, nice, & helpful. The restaurant is clean, and even the cooks had pretty immaculate aprons. I wasn't scared that I was risking any sort of injury or illness or cockroach sightings by being there (which is more than I can say for my sojourn @ the Excalibur Hotel on the Strip, but I digress). Further, it seems to have won a reader's poll for Best Pizza in Las Vegas Weekly. So, I ordered pizza, right? Nope. I ordered a calzone, which is basically a pizza folded in half with toppings as stuffings.
And when I write "a pizza folded in half with toppings as stuffings," that's exactly what I mean. After ordering a Spinach Calzone and only finishing a little less than half of it, I the counter girl told me that at Rosati's their calzones are made with a MEDIUM-SIZED PIZZA DOUGH and stuffed accordingly. I write this not to criticize, but to warn you that you're not going to be getting what I expected, which was a sanely-portioned calzone that would satisfy one person who wasn't entering an eating competition. It arrived huger than my plate, with pizza sauce on the side as a garnish, and was probably stuffed with at least three pounds of cheese. I am not joking. I really do think it was three pounds of cheese.
As far as taste, I'd have to rate the calzone as way too salty to be truly enjoyable. My favorite part of it was the closure part of the dough, which was the only part that didn't go from salty crust into salty cheese and (how the heck did this happen?) salty spinach. I'm a huge fan of doughy things, which most calzones supply very well, but this one only featured in the cute, braided-looking closure.
But did that stop me from eating half of the monstrously-sized calzone? No, it did not. Yes, I ate a pound and a half of cheese, some dough, and some saline spinach. And I enjoyed the cheese and the dough--the spinach threw me with its brackishness. The aggressively salted dough plus the (salty) cheese needed a some sort of plain foil to neutralize their pungency. The pizza sauce didn't help matters. Though a little sweet, of course it was also salty too, and, rather unfortunately reminded me of something from a jar from before grocery stores offered pasta & pizza sauces that were actually something you'd want on your pizza or pasta.
If I'm making this sound awful, it really wasn't. I wouldn't have eaten so much, plus taken the rest home and eaten a large part of the remnants for breakfast. Plus, somehow I remain convinced that, if I'd gotten this combo on a pizza, and not in a calzone, it would have tasted better. For one thing, much less surface of the dough looking like it needs seasoning, since most of a pizza crust is covered in sauce and toppings. I almost wonder if the cooks thought "Well, it looks so bare. What do we have? Salt! That tastes good with everything!"
[And I came home today and got what I thought would be a taco but turned out to be a glorified quesadilla from a local Mexican place that I'll also be giving a definite 2 stars. Oy. I don't know if I ever want to eat cheese again!]
I wish I could give this place 3 stars for the friendly service and nice ambiance, but the saline spinach knocked it down at least a half point. And there're no 2 1/2-star ratings on Yelp. But, if I'm ever lost & hungry in Summerlin again, I might go there, and try the pizza, just to see if I'm right about my hunch, and if I agree with the palates of the readers of Las Vegas Weekly.
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