Grimaldi's Fires Up the Coal Oven at the Shoppes at the Palazzo

Phone: 702-754-3450
Status: Soft opened Monday, grand opening July 29

The latest addition to the Grimaldi’s Pizzeria family finally opened at the Shoppes at the Palazzo on Monday. It takes over the former Woo space next to Emeril Lagasse's Table 10. The restaurant, which started talks two years ago and construction a year ago, debuted with the largest wine and liquor menu of any of the five Vegas-area locations.

Inside find a wine cellar and chandeliers fashioned from wine bottles. Tuesdays feature half-price specials on bottles of wine.

In the dining room, the 25-ton coal-fired oven is the centerpiece, brought in brick by brick and built on location. Grimaldi’s had to build an exhaust system three times as long as any other location to vent the oven away from Azure, the luxury pool at the Palazzo.

The oven uses 100 pounds of coal per day to temperatures up to 1,200 degrees. It’s the heat that bakes the pizza’s crispy, smoky crust. The Vegas outposts bring in a chemist to get the water composition just right so the crusts taste the same as they do in the original under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Red and white checked tablecloths a la Lady and the Tramp cover the tables that wrap around on a patio next to the wine bar and in the dining room. The windows offer a view of the Strip toward Fashion Show mall.

The restaurant opens daily at 11 a.m. and closes at 2 a.m. in hopes of catching the late-night crowds.
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Grimaldi's Pizzeria [Photo: Susan Stapleton]