rm Seafood Restaurant in Las Vegas as seen in
Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com
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Valentine's weekend (2005) in Las Vegas saw the launch of celebrated New York chef Rick Moonen's rm restaurant.
Overhead spot lighting is flattering, and easy listening jazz plays unobtrusively in the background. Booths and tables, arrayed with white linen tablecloths & napkins and deep dish votive candles, seat 80 people. Mahogany is everywhere, and pinpoints of light reflect on a glass wall separating the bar from the restaurant. In the middle of a window overlooking the shopping mall, water cascades down glass to pool above the entrance below.
This striking design was created by Cass Calder Smith, a San Francisco-based architect. Perhaps that's why the clean, modern look could be reminiscent of a swank yacht club with both a tranquil and intimate feeling. You get the idea that no detail has been overlooked by Smith and Moonen, right down to the square water glasses and square white china plates.
Brett, our waiter, in simple black shirt and slacks, brings menus and fresh-from-the-oven-tasting crusty rolls with a tiramisalada. The spread consists of almonds, potatos, lemon, oil and carp roe. We remind ourselves not to fill up on this delicacy—there's much more to come.
We begin with an Amuse of Yellow Fin Tuna finished in champagne vinaigrette, which perfectly sets off the salty flavor of the tuna's spicy crust.
The first of the six courses that constitutes the Chef's Tasting Menu is the flash-seared Hamachi, a white fish surrounded by honshimiji mushrooms and green onions. At the table, Brett pours over it a warm lobster consomme.
Since I ordered the Chef's Tasting Menu and my husband, Cork, ordered an entree, his salad of choice is served at the same time. It's a cold Hamachi Ceviche, with ruby grapefruit and yuzu. "Yuzu is a spicy sweet and sour sauce," Brett says. It's lemony and sweet at the same time, but doesn't overpower the tender morsels of hamachi.
Next is served Dorade Royale with a golden raisin caponata, garlic puree and white balsamic agrodolche. Two of these words are new to me. Brett explains: "A caponata is a mixture of vegetables and pine nuts, a sort of Mediterranean relish. Agrodolche is Italian for sweet and sour." The golden raisins make a tiny burst of sweet in your mouth when you least expect it.
The third course is Rainbow Trout accompanied by braised artichokes, apple wood-smoked bacon, oven-roasted tomato, aged balsamic and black truffle. All these exotic ingredients may sound busy, but the flavors blend well with the light flavor of fresh trout.
While I'm tasting and photographing the artistically presented dishes, my husband's entree arrives. He's picked the grilled wild Salmon. Braised leeks fan out from the salmon. All is drizzled with a Manila clam vinaigrette.
Rick Moonen has a passion for ocean conservation and the sea, which he calls "our last wild frontier," but he won't serve any seafood that's farm-raised. His is a strong belief that our favorite seafoods must be eco-managed in such a way that natural seafood populations continue to be sustainable. In his New York restaurant, concerned about the dangers of over-fishing, he took Chilean Sea Bass off his menu at the height of its popularity. Moonen has testified several times for environmental and sustainable policy issues in Washington, DC and New York. As a founding member of the Chef's Coalition, he brought together 2,000 chefs nationwide to fight for the purity of food. He is a founding member of the Seafood Choices Alliances and an active member of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Seaweb, and a chef's advisory board member of Ecofish. He has also served as a spokesperson for American caviar, an environmentally sound alternative to the Caspian Sea varieties.
Read the entire feature free with photos at:
http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/food/vegas/rmseafood/rmseafood.html
rm seafood
Mandalay Place
3930 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89119
702/632-9300
www.rmseafood.com
Reservations recommended.
By Carolyn Proctor, Las Vegas Correspondent. Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com
About the Author
By Carolyn Proctor, Las Vegas Correspondent. Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com Join the Travel Writers Network in the logo.