415: All in on Las Vegas Food with Gina Marinelli Cooking Italian Her Way

0:28This episode is brought to you by Resi and American Express. It's exciting. You know, I mean, like I said, we opened the doors here. I had a panic attack, you know, not knowing what to expect. But it's really great that people are hearing about us in New York or in San Francisco. That is such an honor for us. I mean, we're next to a dentist office. To be making those kind of waves, it pushes us every day. This is Taste, all in on Las Vegas food, presented by Las Vegas. I'm your host, Matt Rodbard. Gina Marinelli is the chef partner of La Strega, a coastal Italian restaurant in Las Vegas' Summerlin neighborhood.

1:05She's worked in Vegas Kitchen since 2006 for chefs like Michael Mina at Knob Hill Tavern and Scott Conant at DOCG Inoteca. And now she's doing Italian food her way. Also on the show, to wrap up our marathon of eating and drinking Las Vegas, it's a very special Three Things Las Vegas edition.

1:32Gina Marinelli, this is Taste. Thank you for coming on the podcast. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having us in your beautiful, quiet restaurant before service starts for the day. I feel like we're peeking behind the curtain a little bit. A little bit, yes. I guess to start, I'm wondering if you could tell me a little bit about the inspiration behind Lestrega. You know, I worked for Scott Conant for a lot of years and fell in love with Italian food. I especially spent some time in Italy. So when I had the opportunity to go off the strip, I wanted to do a love letter back to Italy, my version of it, and make something a little bit more feminine, I think, in the approach and the stylistic of the food, the way the restaurant looks, and really kind of celebrate that coastal, I love seafood, that coastal Italian and bring it to the neighborhood.

2:12Lestrega, the name means the witch, right? Correct. What's the idea there? So, I mean, obviously in America, we always think of the witch as, you know, this horrible, demonic kind of figure. And in Italy, they are the ones that take care of the neighborhood. And you know the children's book, La Strega Nonna? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I loved the idea of this, of we are here to take care of Summerlin. We are here to take care of Vegas and we're cooking for them. Yeah, I love that sentiment. And in terms of coming off of the strip, I think this is the farthest off of the strip. We've been in Vegas so far.

2:41How did you land on this location? I actually was fortunate to meet with some partners, and we took over a restaurant that was existing here before La Strega. It was a pizza place, and I thought, okay, you know what? We're going to try to work through this. It flooded during the middle of the night. I think they think I came down here and opened all the pipes. Yeah, the witch came in. The witch came in. But it was really great because it gave me a lot of time to really design something from scratch on our own, and that's how La Strega came to be. Yeah. Did you think at all about what it meant to be coming into a neighborhood that had an Italian place here before, but probably like a different kind of Italian place.

3:17Oh, yeah. And something about Italian food, people are very particular about what is Italian, what is authentic. So we were a little nervous and we were taking a shot, bringing a lot of seafood out here too as well. Yeah, I think when most people think about Italian food in Vegas, there's a lot of that kind of red sauce, mozz, sensibility. What are you trying to do differently here? You know, I still always want to, you know, love the red sauce, love having the Pomodoro, but there's so many parts of Italy. It reminds me of the United States. You know, you're in one area and then you travel about 20 minutes north and they do something completely different.

3:47So we want to bring in absolutely always seasonality, but more showing the coast, showing simplicity, you know, using more things than just mozzarella and red sauce. Definitely. And I know you said it was inspired by some of your travels. Were there any like special meals or places that you experienced while traveling that kind of brought ideas back here? I mean, one of my favorites, we were in Sorrento and we went out on a fishing boat and caught squid and we went back in and just the way, just on the grill, olive oil, salt and pepper and lemon. And I was eating it and I was like, this is what eating like an Italian is.

4:21It's fresh. It's pure. There is no ego. You let the ingredients really speak for themselves. Yeah. And talking about ingredients and seafood, we're obviously here in Vegas, which doesn't have a seat right here. Where are you sourcing from and how does that kind of fit into the overall experience of eating here? I mean, it was kind of funny how I met our seafood company. I was at a local Greek restaurant. I loved their seafood. They gave me a guy's card. I had to do an event before this restaurant opened. I needed 500 sardines. Whoa. So I called them up and we've just built this relationship over the past five years.

4:53We get a lot of stuff imported from Philadelphia. But like I was just in Portugal, I called this guy. Hey, I need you to find me blue lops or brown crab. We come back barnacles we had here. so they know I'm trying to be as creative and push and it pushes them to be better sources for us. Yeah. Okay. Well, you said barnacles. Tell me more about that. Because I had barnacles when I was in Portugal. I can't remember the name of them right now. I always just called them barnacles. What else were they called? It's all right. What were you doing with the barnacles? So literally, because I was eating them in Portugal and I just thought, I want my team to see something like this.

5:27These young poor dishwashers that will never be able to travel overseas or my guests that come in every Friday. So we were able to get them in. And literally, we just boiled them, served them with a little bit of aioli on the side if they wanted them. I was walking around. I look like a barnacle dealer. Like I was walking around the restaurant with a tray. But how fun. Like I still have people that come in here like, next time you get barnacles, let me know. Yeah. Were they called Persebis? Does that really spell to you? Yes, that's what it is. Okay, thank you. You were at Cerveceria Ramiro? Yes, exactly.

5:56That's exactly where I happened to. But it was, I mean, how cool was that? Yeah, well, I had this experience where we ordered them and then we had three different people eating at tables around us approach the table and ask us if they could try one because they were too scared to order them themselves. But they saw us eating them and wanted to try them, which I think really speaks to what you're saying about how bringing in different kinds of seafood can be that kind of light bulb moment for somebody. Exactly. I like that. That's so fun. That's funny. Yeah, that and a little glass of chocolate and you're like, I'm back in Lisbon.

6:27Yeah, back in Lisbon. So you mentioned working for Scott Conant and you've been working in Vegas in restaurants since I believe 2006, right? What did you learn about like what it means to be doing Vegas dining, working in these other kitchens before you did your own? You know, especially on the strip, I think it's a lot more, you feel a lot of pressure. Like every weekend can feel like New Year's Eve with the amount of celebrities and how busy it can be. So we were able to really understand volume, doing volume and as well as keeping your integrity and your quality really high. and then just it was like chaos organized chaos all the time um but in a way it felt like groundhog's day because you never had the same people coming back um so it kind of lost that that's why coming out to the neighborhood that made it so much more special for me to come out here because i got to see people all the time the same people um but yeah i'm so grateful to work with chef scott and chef michael mina i mean it was explosive and it was a big push for you as a cook as a sous chef and as an executive chef.

7:24Yeah, I imagine you can learn a lot and then think about what you want to do yourself after that. I mean, when you're in the casino, you have the casino support to do everything. You have people come unclog your toilets and come fix this. When you're out here by yourself, you're doing all that stuff by yourself. So it's a really big change, but it's exciting as well. Yeah, something I've been kind of questioning a lot is like what the idea of seasonality means here in Vegas, because I mean, I'm sure you could say that it gets hotter or colder at different times, but the seasonal expression is maybe a little bit different.

7:54So how do you approach seasonality in the restaurant? I mean, out here we have our own forager, Carrie Clasby. So we get everything from California. So we basically base our seasons on what California is growing. So we get a lot of stuff from Ojai. She goes up and down the coast, brings it out here. We order it two to three times a week from her. I mean, she's a blessing to all these restaurants. What kind of stuff is she bringing in for you? Right now, everything that's in spring. So English peas, asparagus, pea tendrils, fava beans, you know, all the staples, watermelon radishes. All the greens.

8:24All the greens, rhubarb. It's beautiful. I've been at, for my 40th birthday, I spent it on her farm. You know, it was so, it was beautiful. But yeah, so obviously getting ready for summer. We'll start sitting down with her and going through this. So I judge what California is growing as the best way to do our menus out here. Definitely. And do you have any kind of staples of the menu that are always appearing here? Or is it all kind of rotating in and out? You know, it's funny. Every time we do a menu change, we gain a staple, which is like a compliment to us. But I think the ones that stayed on here, mostly our pasta program, we rotate about two pastas per season.

8:57Everybody comes here for our stracci. We do a proven based scallop. But going into the warmer months, we're going to be doing tomatoes, squash blossoms, you know, all the usual suspects. Yeah, I feel like you must be extra excited to get good tomatoes in here. Yes. And that's, I think, summertime is the real highlight of an Italian menu for sure. Yeah. And you spoke a little bit about how it's been nice to be able to have kind of locals or more of a community coming into the restaurant. But I'm curious what it means for you as a chef to be making a dining destination off of the strip. It's exciting.

9:26You know, I mean, like I said, we opened the doors here. I had a panic attack, you know, not knowing what to expect. But, you know, it's really great that people are hearing about us in New York or in San Francisco. That is such an honor for us. I mean, we're next to a dentist office, you know, so to be making those kind of waves, it's it pushes us every day. to just keep bringing great ideas, bringing great hospitality, and shaping Vegas to be this really cool local dining destination spot. Definitely. And in your time working in restaurants here in Vegas, how have you seen the dining scene evolve?

9:57It's maturing rapidly. You're seeing more chefs kind of depart from the strip as well, taking that risk, really being creative, and creating a scene where we want to go dine at, you know, and kind of not playing it safe. And that's really fun for all of us to watch. Yeah. What does not playing it safe mean to you besides maybe geography of where the restaurant is? I definitely think, you know, doing food that people don't expect. You know, I want people to come into this restaurant. And yeah, of course, I'm going to have a great Pomodoro margarita pizza. But seeing all these chefs go out and just really cook from their soul and not saying we have to do this and this list to bring these people in.

10:30We want to we want to tell our story. We want to write the letter. We want everybody to experience what we've been honing our craft day in and day out. So that's what I like about not playing it safe. Yeah, definitely. And I think also as chefs are making those risks, maybe the diners themselves are trusting chefs a bit more that you don't need to come in with one specific item in mind that they can trust you to serve things that they're going to enjoy. Absolutely. I mean, the trust is definitely here. And also social media. I mean, people look up stuff all the time. Our diners are a lot more knowledgeable now than they were 10, 15 years ago.

11:04So they push us just as much as we're trying to push them to. Yeah, and I feel like the handmade beautiful pastas are probably performing well on social media too. Absolutely. And people love that. I mean, we're going to do a pasta making class and just tying everything together. Who's going to be teaching the pasta making class? Oh, I will be. Wow. Okay, what kind of pasta are you going to teach? I don't know. We're going to see the talent that shows up that day, but we'll probably just do spaghetti that day. But just let them feel and touch dough, learn some shapes, and mostly the guests are just going to drink wine and I'll be cooking them lunch.

11:33Yeah, that sounds like a nice way to do it. And I feel like a class for pasta is cool because there are things you can read in a book, but knowing like the right texture, what the dough needs to be. The touch, everything. Yeah, being like in the kitchen with the Nona or with the Strega, I guess in this case. Yep, I'm the Nona. I'm a 42-year-old Nona. I guess to close today, I'm wondering if you could tell me about some of your favorite places to eat in Vegas, both on and off the Strip. Absolutely. Off the Strip, there's a place called Ilia. I talk about it all the time. It's a Greek restaurant.

12:00The boys are from Athens. My wife and I go there once a week. We just love the Bronzino. We love their octopus. It's the same. It's great hospitality. On the strip, I love Vetri at the Palms. I think having Chef Mark Vetri in the city is so powerful for us. We also really enjoy Cipriani's, Haleo. I love Jose Andreas. And then, honestly, Lotus of Siam, where you went today, is another one of my favorites. And Le Mai in Spring Mountain, another great Thai restaurant. Wow. Well, I feel like I have a lot more eating to do here in Vegas. So thank you for the ideas and for taking the time to chat with me.

12:32Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it.

12:43So we're here at the Fontainebleau. It's been open for a couple months now. And I'm monologuing right now. I rarely do this on the show, but I feel like this is an opportunity. And Eliza's meeting me back here. We're going to visit nowhere. But I wanted to do a vibe check because right now the Fountain Blue is probably the buzziest hotel and casino on the Strip. It's been open a few months, as I mentioned. But this is really the vibe here. We are not in Vegas, Vegas. We're in the Miami version of Vegas, L.A. version of Vegas, and the New York version of Vegas. You can hear the din. I'm above the casino floor.

13:22I'm watching some$100 blackjack hands being played. But I'm not here to talk about gaming. I'm here to talk about the food options at the food court. Now, I'm about to have dinner, so I'm kind of just doing a vibe check because I think I will maybe come back later with a few ideas about the food quality, about what I'm tasting. But honestly, this Miami Slices has me thinking that it's got the greatest pizza name anywhere in America, Miami Slices. But what is Miami Slice doing in Vegas? I will find out later. I really want to check out Josh Capen's burger place. Josh Capen of Burger and Barrow and famous the New York Wine and Food Festival and South Beach Food and Wine Festival burger champion.

14:08Josh is here with one of his new burger spots. I've heard good reviews so far about that. and also the sushi Ito in a box to me is they're doing sugar fish three rolls for 35 don't really talk about price a lot in Vegas because you shouldn't you should you should worry about that later when you get home but I think it's a pretty cool option so really this food court here it represents a lot of like thought going into honestly the the food and beverage program here at found blue um i i gotta say it doesn't feel like vegas at all it feels like something very different i'm really curious about how it'll be received over the coming months and years that this will be what become one of the the go-to hotels on the strip um but for now that's the vibe check here i'm gonna come back later after trying a few things and give you my take on some of these food items.

15:09The line at Miami Slice, I have to say, is probably 50 deep. So I'm going to let that cool a little bit. I'm going to try the burger, perhaps. We'll see. We're having dinner now, as I mentioned. So we'll see how full we get. But we're doing this for the reporting. Stay tuned.

15:28OK, so we are now back. We just saw the Mallet Man. Or Mallet Man, maybe there's an article in front of it. Incredible, incredible. performance at Nowhere, a bar here at Fontainebleau. But we had to get some food before and after, and here's the take. And I'm going solo here. Eliza is not on the mic, so she's sitting next to me. You can hear her laughing. So really, really like this place. Many reasons. I was kind of skeptical because food courts aren't really my jam. A lot of people have issues with food courts. You know, it's not the highest quality of food. It's too expensive. Fumblue really delivered on all fronts.

16:11I'll start with Capon, Josh Capon's burger joint. Open till 4 a.m. along with Miami Slice and some of the other places around here. It's only 11 and it's kind of mild now, but I think it gets a little rowdy. The burger is what you expect. He's won Burger Bash a few years. He's really one of the skilled burger masters of America. And I had the classic. It's kind of like an In-N-Out style. Really, really like saucy and, you know, griddled. It's a smash burger grilled to medium, but really terrific. It was only$13, which is amazing in Las Vegas or anywhere, to be honest. It could be in the middle of America and it's$13 burger.

16:50It's kind of really going to be the baseline. So really excellent. Had some great gelato, had a pistachio gelato. So Capon was definitely a hit. Miami Slice, I'm going to give it a pass. I didn't have the best slice, but not every slice is going to be equal. And I think people were lined up and loving it. I think, again, another affordable option. And really, to me, getting a slice at 4 a.m., sometimes the quality doesn't doesn't always matter. So I'm going to leave it at that. I think maybe it was an off night. On to Bar Ito. Really, really a big hit. I love what they're doing there. Three hand rolls for $35.

17:34Had three spicy tuna, yellowtail, and toro all in like a nice package, a box. Again, this place, the promenade level at Fonbleu to me is really hitting on all cylinders right now. It's only been open since January. And I'm really pleasantly surprised with the food options here at the hotel. So really, I'm stoked. I'm probably going to go downtown. It's 11, 15, 11, 16 p.m. And the four of us, our crew are heading downtown. Don't know where we're going to end this, but yeah, great stuff.

18:20Eliza, we're at the end of our journey. Las Vegas week has been a real blast. What do you think about Las Vegas week? I don't even have the words. I came to Vegas basically having never been here before, certainly not as an adult, not knowing what to expect. And I think I'm leaving with just an overstimulation of all of the senses. And certainly more than three things to talk about, but we can keep it to three. We will talk about our three things. But in general, what a great time. We had such an amazing experience going on and off the strip. We're eating Chinese food. We went to Spago. And I got to say, it's been really fun getting to know Vegas much better.

18:54And really, I have to say, it's not just a world-class culinary destination. It's all about the pageantry. You come here to expect a show. And you can literally go to shows in most of the casinos. There's more shows here than most cities per capita. But really, the food translates as well. And it's more of a spectacle when you're here and you're dining and you're getting all that great service. And you're getting it catered to you in cool ways. You're eating in these unique spaces that, you know, I haven't been to so many restaurants that have like 30 to 50 foot ceilings. Like it's like I'm so used to New York where it's like one story restaurants and we're in tight spaces.

19:26Vegas is quite the opposite. Yeah. I also think something that I really like about the city is the balance between the kind of traditional historic old Vegas that you would think about. Golden Steer Steakhouse, some of the older casinos that we went to. And then also the spirit of innovation and that there's new restaurants that are opening. There are new locations that are opening. There are whole new hotels that are opening. It really does feel like you can do old Vegas and new Vegas and it all just comes together to be one city. I love that sentiment. I'll just say the talent here is incredible.

19:57Like there's chefs from all over the world cooking the food they want to cook. Obviously, it's being served to a different community. If say you're coming from Philadelphia, it's a very different audience than Las Vegas. But really, you see these menus. We experience the food and it's really top tier. and it lets these chefs show creativity, which I think is part of a chef's ambition is always to not just do the standard play the hits. It's like literally, how can we innovate? How can we use this great produce coming from California and beyond? How can we use seafood from Japan? How can we use incredible flour that's milled here on site?

20:36I mean, there's like every form of food innovation is happening here in Las Vegas. Okay, we're going to three things. Let's do that. well I would just I just talked about how you know this creativity and innovation how no one's playing the hits but literally my first one is a chef playing the hits and it's a Wolfgang Puck at Spago at the Bellagio I got to experience salmon pizza that is legendary and I say it really delivered in so many ways so this pizza the dough is like really fermented it's sourdough and there's a layer of creme fraiche with dill kind of at the base, and it's layered with smoked salmon, and it has a dollop of caviar because why not?

21:15And, you know, theoretically this shouldn't work. It's like why am I eating basically a lox and bagel on a pizza? But, yes, it works. The dough was so fermented and flavorful. Got to eat the Wolfgang Puck Spago in the Bellagio. It's one of our first nights here. We got to do it up there. And, really, that was a real highlight. Eliza, what's your first thing? Well, I just want to say about the pizza also that that's like one of the most legendary Wolfgang dishes. It is like eating a pizza bagel kind of situation. And actually the history of the dish story goes is that he invented this when the legendary actress Joan Collins ordered smoked salmon on brioche and the restaurant was out of bread.

21:54So he put it on a pizza. And if you're listening, you think like this might just sound like a pizza version of a bagel, which it is, but it doesn't feel like it's just trying to be something else. It kind of works really well in that pizza format. And I was surprised by how much I liked it. Well said. Thanks, Eliza. What's the next one? My first thing is that we went to Nowhere Bar at the Fountain Blue for drinks and a show last night. And I think that might be one of my favorite bars to hang out in, certainly on the strip that we've been to so far. They bill it as hanging out in like an eccentric rich person's living room.

22:25And that is the vibe. I would say it's worth going to check out the pool table alone, which is this really beautiful kind of brown marble inset with a dark red felt. Certainly the drinks are special as well. I had a Mezcal Paloma, which is one of my go-to drinks. And we were there to see Mallet Man. Mallet Man. Oh, my gosh. Mallet Man. He has a residency there. I checked on the schedule. What an incredible vibraphone player. I just thought as an intimate cocktail experience, getting a jazz combo to play really, really great hits. Played some, you know, Remember the Time of Michael Jackson. Played lots of standards.

23:00He did the jazz standards. He did some of his originals as well. And it really is about the performance, the way that he's kind of throwing these mallets around and dancing and lifting his leg up. Like it has that Vegas showmanship that really comes from an ease of just being a professional, which I think no matter where you are in Vegas, you get to see that. So that's my first thing. I love that. And zooming out, the Fontainebleau, it's been only open since January. And really, I felt like that place is operating, you know, at the top of its game, at least in its first few months of opening. There's a lot more to come.