Sin City is home to a lot of restaurants and bars, but there are tons of hidden gems that the majority of Las Vegans aren't unearthing. To help guide us to these potential discoveries, we've enlisted some of our city's food players to share their recommendations for a weekly feature dubbed Dining Confidential. Know a chef who wants to share some top dining spots? The tipline is open.
Mimmo Ferraro [Photo: Ferraro's Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar]
Domenico "Mimmo" Ferraro, son of Ferraro's owners Gino and Rosalba Ferraro, grew up in the midst of his family's bustling business. He remembers pricing deli items, slicing cold cuts and "hanging from the cheese grater" at the original deli and pizzeria location when he was just 8 years old. After attending UNLV, he decided he wanted to be in the family business and went on to study at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, where he studied under chef Davide Mazzuoli at LaGrotta Ristorante in Tuscany. Now he helms the kitchen of the venerable Ferraro's Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar. When he's not gathering with the family for the weekly dinner, here's where Ferraro likes to dine.
Which restaurants do you turn to when you're not working?
Settebello, Jasmine at the Bellagio and STK at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
What dishes are most memorable?
From Settebello I enjoy the Settebello Pizza with crushed tomatoes, pancetta, wood oven sausage, roasted mushrooms, toasted pine nuts, mozzarella, basil and extra virgin olive oil. It's awesome.
From Jasmine, my favorite is the imperial Peking duck served table side with crêpes, scallion, cucumber julienne and hoisin sauce. They also have wok-tossed diced duck meat with jicama and served in butter lettuce cups.
At STK, I order the 20-ounce bone-in ribeye with foie gras.
Why do you enjoy going there?
Settebello has a great Napolitana Pizza. Best in town.
Jasmine has a beautiful room and great food. Management takes great care of us whenever we are there.
STK has a great atmosphere and I see a lot of familiar faces.
· All Coverage of Ferraro's Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar [~ELV~]
· All Dining Confidentials [~ELV~]
