Nora’s Italian Cuisine moves to new digs
Longtime locals favorite Nora’s Italian Cuisine has a new home.
The new restaurant, at 5780 W. Flamingo Road, is only 900 feet from the old one. The biggest difference: The family built and owns it.
“The restaurant was pushing 30 years old and was due for a major remodel to get everything cleaned up,” said general manager S. Marcello Mauro, Nora’s son. “And we were renting.”
The new spot, which had a soft opening Sept. 21, seats about 166 (compared to 115 for the old one) and has a patio complete with bocce pit. Upstairs will be a banquet room with its own bar and balcony.
“We wanted to build a home for Nora’s — build our own house, build it properly and build it from scratch,” Mauro said. “It’s like our team got a stadium.”
One of the features is a Josper wood-burning grill from Spain, which can be converted to a charcoal oven.
“We never even had a grill before,” Mauro said. “Grilling in Sicily is a huge part of the cuisine.”
And, he said, the air-conditioning works.
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The scheduled end-of-the-year closing of New York’s Carnegie Deli has inspired the sorrow and ire of Gotham residents and a campaign to raise the money to keep it open. Which seems like just one more reason to recognize Las Vegas as one of the country’s best restaurant cities, since the Carnegie Deli at The Mirage remains alive and well.
And speaking of delis: Los Angeles legend Canter’s Deli, which used to have an outlet at Treasure Island, is branching out to both The Linq and Tivoli Village. Official opening dates not yet announced.
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Lazy Dog has opened a second valley location, at Town Square, 6509 Las Vegas Blvd. South. The first Southern Nevada location is in Downtown Summerlin, 1725 Festival Plaza Drive.
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Plaudits: Mark LoRusso of Wynn Las Vegas was named best chef by the Southern Nevada Hotel Concierge Association. David Weintraub, managing partner of The Capital Grille at Fashion Show mall, was one of five of the group’s managing partners, from among 56 in North America, named to parent company Darden Restaurants’ Diamond Club. Pour, at 6811 S. Eastern Ave., was named one of the 50 best coffee shops in America by cosmopolitan.com. And the culinary program at the College of Southern Nevada was ranked seventh in a list of best culinary schools in the country by bestchoiceschools.com.
Sightings: “Dancing with the Stars” duo Ryan Lochte and Cheryl Burke at Tao at The Venetian; country star Martina McBride with family, friends and band at Lavo at the Palazzo; tennis legends Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf (together) and Rick Harrison of “Pawn Stars” and former Sen. Richard Bryan (not together) at Vintner Grill.
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