Restaurant News

   

    Diners do not ordinarily associate Brazilian barbecue with exquisite wine for good reason.  Most restaurants featuring barbecue usually rely on cold beer, liquor or at best some mediocre wines to quaff diners’ thirsts.  However, Texas de Brazil escapes this dichotomy with grace and style by offering an excellent wine list featuring a multitude of wines from around the world, with many affordably priced.   More details about the available wines later…The wine list is only one of many pleasant surprises awaiting guests at this restaurant.  


    Step inside the rather austere fort-like building, and the diner is greeted by a large open dining room featuring colorful flower arrangements, soaring ceilings, bright décor, and mirrors.  It all combines to provide an ambience perhaps best described as relaxed tropical eloquence.


   Bistro Divino…in English it means “Devine Bistro” and its regular customers would swear by the appropriateness of the name.  This restaurant makes a trip to the old downtown area of Las Vegas worthwhile. Located in the Holsum Design Center at 241 West Charleston Boulevard, this place has a warm and cozy ambience difficult to find on the Las Vegas Strip.  The Bistro has both indoor and alfresco dining, plus a very small bar area. The interior features soft lighting and changing décor.  Currently, the walls showcase a display of art by a local artist.  


    The menu specializes in northern Italian cuisine, which in turn concentrates on rich sauces and hearty dishes.  Bistro Divino’s signature dishes feature a vodka pasta with pink sauce, a Toscano panini sandwich, and grilled chicken with vegetables.  Other more traditional house favorites include a choice of any pasta with Marinara, Bolognese, Norma, or Four Cheese sauce, meatballs and meat or vegetable lasagna. I have tried both the vodka pasta and grilled chicken with vegetables and both turned out great.  



                                  

Bistro Divino...

Texas de Brazil...

The new Texas de Brazil restaurant offers traditional roasted meats and an impressive wine list...

One of the dining areas with the wine locker behind glass to the left...

  The Las Vegas location represents the 14th franchise of this growing chain of restaurants.  Texas de Brazil takes its inspiration from the cattle country of southern Brazil, known as the Rio Grande do Sol (that’s Portuguese).  Here, country families traditionally celebrated special events by slow roasting meats over an open fire.


    Texas de Brazil has adopted that method of preparing its meats, with impressive results.  I recently dined there on a Tuesday night, and had to wait 20 minutes for a table.  From the scuttlebutt I heard around the room, most people seemed very content with their meals and service.


   Regarding that long wine list, it contains wines in every price range from every major wine-producing region in the world.  The list includes 13 red wines and 8 whites by the glass.  A glass of wine ranges in price between $7.00-$18.00.   They also have a nice selection of half-bottles, and some larger formatted bottles for group dining.  Full bottles begin at $45.00 and range up to $2,580.00 for the 1996 Chateau Latour.  The restaurant carries a fair number of highly esteemed bottles from California, France and Italy. 


    The cost of the full dinner including meats runs $45.00.  A buffet diner only, without the meat dishes, costs $30.00.  Bring a big appetite to this place, because if you love meat you will want to sample every dish available.   Sampling all the meat dishes gives one a truly high quality feast.


    Located at 6533 Las Vegas Boulevard in the new Town Square shopping mall, Texas de Brazil rests in a separate building at the north end of the mall.  With its current popularity, I suggest making reservations by calling (702)614-0080 before arriving.  Check out this latest restaurant to splash onto the Las Vegas fine dining scene to enjoy a novel evening out on the town.    



Bistro Divino offers great Northern Italian food and lots of cozy charm...

Tasty cuisine and Italian wines await customers at Bistro Divino...

Flower arrangements and sensual colors ad to the ambience of the dining room...

    To accommodate customers waiting for seating, the restaurant also features a roomy and stylish bar.  It has ample seating at the bar, and also sedan style seating with individual tables.  One minor drawback; you cannot order dinner while in the bar area.


    The meals go pretty much like this:  once seated, the diner may visit a large buffet style bar which offers more than 40 different eclectic selections for salads or side dishes.  While one could build an amazing salad from the proffered fare, many of the selections could serve as satisfying accompaniments to any dinner as something different than a salad.  For example, on the night I dined there, the buffet included warm marinated mushrooms, shrimp, and several different rice dishes.


    After returning from the buffet bar, the diner may signal he or she is ready for the meat dishes by turning over a marker colored green on one side and red on the other.   Place the marker green (for go) side-up, and almost immediately the roving carvers will come one at a time to your table and slice you portions of roasted meat.  Each carver has a different type of meat.  The meats include chicken, beef, pork ribs, Brazilian sausage and lamb.   If a respite is required between servings, the diner simply turns over the marker to show red (for stop…!), and the carvers will stay away from your table.  Before the meal has ended, the carvers will offer each visitor a sample of each type of meat cooked that evening.  In this way the diner can control both the pace and volume of the food served.

    Texas de Brazil has an impressive wine list that goes on for more than 20 pages.  The handsome and massive wine locker that runs down the center of the restaurant provides further testament that this restaurant considers the enjoyment of wine a top priority.  The restaurant even has “wine specialists” who will come to the table to help select a bottle most appropriate to the food served.   As further consideration to wine lovers, the restaurant charges a reasonable corkage fee of $20.00 for those who wish to bring carry-in bottles of wine.  

The comfortable and well-appointed bar area...

Rebecca Prephan of Bistro Divino with some of the art featured currently at the restaurant...

    The prices at Bistro Divino seem right out of the 1960s.  The entrees range in price from $12.00-$15.00.  The salads and appetizers go for $8.00-$15.00.  If you have dined out on the Strip within the last ten years, you will recognize the outstanding price/quality ratio offered by Bistro Divino’s reasonable pricing.


    The lovely proprietor, Rebecca Prephan, has big plans for Bistro Divino. These include hosting art exhibits, wine tastings, special dinner events, and live music on selected evenings.   This website will post all the wine related events, so remember to check back for more information. 


     As to our favorite subject, wine, Bistro Divino has a decent little wine list featuring mostly Italian wines designed to complement the restaurant’s food menu.  Normally the wines include about six white and nine red wines, but this lineup changes regularly.  The wines are reasonably priced, and bottles listed on the menu during a recent visit ranged between $19.00-$69.00.  A wine lover herself, Rebecca often has other bottles not listed on the menu, and anyone interested in something different should consult with their server about the availability of these special bottles.  The Bistro encourages wine lovers to bring their own wine, and charges a nominal corkage fee of only $15.00 for this service. 


    Bistro Divino can prove a bit tricky to access unless you travel eastbound on Charleston.  From Interstate 15 north, exit at eastbound Charleston and it appears almost immediately on your right.  Careful or you could drive right past.  If you pass under the railway tracks you have gone too far.


     Note that the restaurant has rather unusual hours:  open for lunch Monday-Friday from 11:00 a.m until 2:00 p.m., and for dinner from 5:00-8:00 p.m., except that on Friday it remains open until 9:00 p.m.  Bistro Divino closes its doors on Saturdays and Sundays.


    The good food, reasonable prices and warm atmosphere have made Bistro Divino a diamond in the rough and resulted in its becoming quite popular.  I suggest making reservations for dinner, especially on the weekends.  For reservations call (702)362-8200, and for more information, go to their website at www.bistrodivino.com .























Another dining area, with the glass enclosed wine cellar on the left...

    The individual pizzas provide another favorite dining option. The customer may choose from a menu of six specialty pizzas or “build’ his own pizza by selecting from a list of 28 different toppings to create a 12 inch pie worthy of an Italian prince. Every pizza at Bistro Divino looks scrumptious. 


    Bistro Divino also has a nice selection of appetizers, salads and the soup of the day to complement any meal.  The chicken Caesar salad appears large enough to constitute a meal all by itself.  In fact, for lighter eaters, a split of the salad and a pizza would satisfy most couples’ appetites.