Local club scene serves up tasty fare

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2001 | 9 a.m.

Everyone knows that Las Vegas is a 24/7 town, but for those night crawlers who want to both eat and be entertained, the choices are more limited than some might imagine.

Several night spots do not serve food at all. Light, for instance, which opens this week at Bellagio, does not even have a kitchen. Venus, a nightclub at The Venetian, has been announcing its intentions to serve food, but has yet to do so.

Late-night haunts, such as Drai's at Barbary Coast, often have customers eating from a continental late-night supper menu at five in the morning. Jack's Velvet Lounge at Warner Brothers Stage 16 at The Venetian has a limited snack menu available while jazz music is played.

The new Ghostbar at the Palms, which originally planned to offer food service, does not yet do so. And VooDoo Lounge, atop the Rio, serves items from a Cajun-themed menu, but one floor below where the music and night life actually takes place.

The good news is that the city does have a few places where you can sit in the middle of the action, wile away an evening and eat yourself to oblivion, if that is your heart's desire. Here are four attractive options:

Jazzed Cafe & Vinoteca 8615 W. Sahara Ave.

Kirk Offerle honed his cooking skills in Italy, and his authentic menu of risottos and fresh pastas would draw you here even without the live jazz served up five nights a week.

Late-night patrons will hear bands such as the Marv Koral's All-Stars Band featuring Carl Fontana, rhythm and blues on alternate Friday evenings and other forms of traditional jazz.

Offerle's slow-stirred risottos (there are 14 to choose from) are among the best in the city.

Don't miss his classic Carbonara, made with scrambled eggs and bacon or, for heartier appetites, a filet mignon served on a bed of braised radicchio with a gorgonzola-cheese sauce.

Curtains separate the dining room into discreet alcoves, and velvet upholstered sofas are great to sink into. The glittery stars suspended from the ceiling shine bright at three in the morning -- a time when most of us are asleep and only dreaming of jazz and risotto.

Blue Note Jazz Club, Desert Passage at Aladdin

This New York import is preparing to morph into two clubs, with the opening of a full-time cabaret revue called "Tease" in the larger showroom. Meanwhile in the smaller room, live jazz acts, such as renowned pianist Chick Corea and guitarist Phil Upchurch, will perform in a more intimate setting.

The food, prepared by Executive Chef Ning Crook and his assistant, Heberto Segura, is quite good, American-grill fare. A meal for two here, not including charges to see the performers (which vary depending on the artist), averages between $50-$60.

In the showroom, there is a prix-fixe menu consisting of a salad, a choice of entrees and dessert. In the smaller room you can feast on such foods as ceviche, St. Louis-style spare ribs, Maryland crab cakes and a first-rate cheesecake.

Seven, 3724 Las Vegas Blvd. South

This new nightclub features a sushi patio facing the Strip, with live jazz on Friday and Saturday evenings and nightlife inside in the main dining room or in private rooms throughout the building. The dining room features top-40 music during dinner.

Seven has an eclectic menu. Most items are less than $10 on the sushi menu, which features sea urchin, tuna belly and yellow tail. Also there are grilled steaks, grilled flat breads with creative toppings and entrees such as Jamaican-style jerk pork.

After midnight there is a late-night supper menu serving potato skins, chicken wings, fried calamari and the flatbreads. It should also be mentioned that Seven has one of the city's most reasonably priced wine lists, with a large selection of excellent wines priced between $20-$30.

Rain in the Desert, Palms

Talented Executive Chef Brian Massie, who also does the cooking at N9NE, will make anything on that bar's menu (and then some) available to clubgoers at Rain in the Desert, an atmospheric new venue, but with a small catch:

"It will be possible, but not easy, for an individual to get a sandwich or some finger foods in the club, but most of what we serve will be for the people who reserve booths, the more-expensive cabanas or the high-priced sky boxes," the chef says.

That's not as exclusive as it sounds. True enough, these seating arrangements don't come cheap (starting at around $200, but they can be shared by groups of seven or more). In addition to the 100 percent, wet-aged Prime steaks, which come from Allen Brothers in Chicago, Massie has put together an appealing, creative menu of upscale bar foods that cost less than $15.

Celebrate with such fare as yakitori steak, marinated rock shrimp with chilled gazpacho, oyster shooters or vichysoisse with Ossetra caviar. Or order a gaudy platter of iced, fresh seafoods. For big splurgers and high-rollers there are outrageous tins of caviar (sold by the ounce). Massie will sell up to 3 pounds in a tin -- excessive even by the standards of most late-night Vegas party animals.

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