Enoteca San Marco; The Venetian, Las Vegas

Why did Jay and Bendy Cross Las Vegas Boulevard? Formaggi ... Edam Up, Yum; They're Gouda!!!

It is no mean feat to plan a seven-day pilgrimage to a mecca of fine dining - it's a perilous high-wire balancing act that must take into consideration Jay's "I'll try anything once" adventurous palate along with my more cautious "I hope this doesn't make my colon explode" approach to dining. Add to that the singular necessity of visiting at least one establishment daily in order to satisfy my artisan cheese cravings and, well .... you begin to understand how daunting a task I had set for myself. And the first day of our trip wasn't going to allow many cheese chances, which is how I backed into a reservation at Enoteca San Marco, an Italian restaurant located on the Venetian's indoor piazza that is owned in partnership by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich.

Now, to be totally honest, I could give two squirts of the ol' cheese cloth that Mario Batali is in some way, shape, or form involved with this restaurant. He seems like a decent enough guy based on what I've seen of him on Iron Chef America, but he's always reminded me of a very hairy, large orange with legs and I don't like oranges. But from what I understand Mario doesn't really like food bloggers, so I guess we're even!

Anyhoo, this restaurant is located on the third floor of the Venetian hotel in the Canal shopping area. You'll know you've made it to the right place when you spot Enoteca's meat and cheese curing tower rising above everything else in the area. During lunch the restaurant primarily utilizes "outdoor" seating and then in the evenings they open up the more formal and very dark dining room. There is definitely some charm to eating out on the piazza, but I also think it gets really annoying really fast when every thirty minutes or so a wandering troupe of heavily made-up street performers delivers a shrieking operetta performance in Dolby stereo. Not only did my eardrums feel like they were going to start spouting blood, but the singing made conversation impossible during the ten minute show. And we were interested in conversation because we were sharing the meal with our friend Catherine and her parents, who I must say were just about the coolest parental unit we've come across in a long, long time!

It's like night and day!


You can banish me to the meat and cheese tower whenever you like!


An outdoor bar is better than no bar at all.


The first order of business after we were seated was to order some drinks. I don't recall the name of Catherine's drink but she picked the clear winner and seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.

Catherine's mystery martini


Now I do I remember the name of the drink I chose and I can also recall just how truly bad it tasted. I should have known better when I saw that grapefruit juice was part of the mix, but I thought the prosecco would offset it and I wanted to try some new drinks while on vacation. Sadly, I ended up with a very bitter, almost unpalatable drink and I'm going on record right now for those of you who may see it on the drink menu and be tempted like I was: DO NOT ORDER THE MASERATI!!

Even on my worst days I'm not this bitter ...


Jay, as is often the case, was the more intelligent of the two of us when it came to alcohol and he stuck with wine - a nice, hearty red that paired well with our cheese and meat platters.

The big draw for me was Enoteca's "build your own cheese plate" appetizer option: three cheeses for $14; five cheeses for $17; and seven cheeses for $21. It goes without saying that we selected the seven-cheese option and then had to choose from among the following: Burrata; Ricotta; Caprino; Mozzarella; Robiola Bosina; Scimudin; Asiago; Baita Friuli; Toma Brusca; Pecorino; and Parmigiano Reggiano. Once we'd placed our order the serving team came back with these little yummies to enhance our cheesie enjoyment - fresh honey, tart cherries in syrup, and pickled, peppered apricots.

Dip, or don't dip ... it's immaterial to me!


The bad thing about not having a receipt is that I'm not sure about all the cheeses we selected. A shameful lapse of foresight on our part, but there's nothing I can do about it now, so let's play a guessing game! In the picture below there is Robiola, Parmigiano, Pecorino, Asiago, Caprino, Burrata, and a mystery cheese that looked and felt like a wad of sticky silicone caulk. There wasn't much in the way of new cheesees for us other than the Caprino, which was a tangy, young goat cheese, and the silicone wad, which reminded me of a high school science experiment gone horribly wrong. My personal favorites were the parmigiano (needed some aged balsamic) and the robiola (needed some fresh bread).

Please cheese me!


Jay ordered a crock of mixed, marinated olives ... oh, the horror!! I don't eat olives but Jay liked them; he said they were "good and pitt-ey."

Bowl of bleh...


And to round things off, he also ordered the Grande Carne Tasting platter, which was a plate of five sliced, cured meats: Prosciutto di Parma, Mortadella, Cotto, Salumi, and Testa.

There is no cure!!


I wasn't crazy about most of these ... too salty for my taste, although the prosciutto was quite good. Jay said it was alright - about what you'd expect for cured meat and worth ordering once but not good enough for a repeat performance.

We'd like to pay Enoteca another visit some day and order some of their pasta dishes, which looked quite appealing. They also had some darn fine homemade gelato - Catherine ordered a dish of cinnamon oatmeal gelato and it was unbelievably tasty. Overall I was pleased with the restaurant; we received good service, the menu offered a nice variety of Italian dishes, and they provided a satisfying cheese plate that would hold up well against the parade of fromage to come during the rest of our vacation.