Las Vegas Mixtape v13: Drag City, French-Asian Sweetness, and Unknown Realms

Track #5: Al Solito Posto @Tivoli Village

The culinary spotlight in Vegas now shines deservedly on chef James Trees—thanks to the buzzy grand opening of his new and bigger Esther’s Kitchen. Look for it on Main St. in the former Retro Vegas building around the corner from his original Italian eatery. Trees is also a co-partner in two other Vegas restaurants across town at the fancy Tivoli Village: Ada’s Food + Wine as well as a second Italian restaurant, Al Solito Posto, where I recently returned.

A colorful collection of vintage glassware lines the shelves of the eye-catching entryway. The good impression continues with complementary homemade bread, setting the tone for a soulful and refined dining experience.

We started with an immediate homerun: the Squash Blossom pizza (one of five pizzas on the menu), with its heavenly and healthy combination of shaved zucchini, goat cheese, and pepita pesto.

Next, we ordered two handmade pastas that were equally seductive: the rigatoni with vodka tomato sauce, basil, and house-made fennel sausage and the casarecce (short pasta noodles with curled edges), prepared with a mix of roasted eggplant, capers, and burrata.

As delicious as each dish was at the restaurant, the leftovers tasted even better the next day when the flavors had more time to magically blend into each other.

This is a good argument for not eating everything on your plate and taking food home with you, particularly when the restaurant you’re visiting is Al Solito Posto.