Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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T he THIS MONTH THE VERY BEST OF Guide BEST OF VEGAS acquire: watches relax: hammams Hearth of Gold PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF MGM RESORTS INTERNATIONAL THE FIRE-KISSED MENU AT MIRAGE'S HERITAGE STEAK MAKES THE NEW RESTAURANT THE LATEST JEWEL IN TOM COLICCHIO'S CROWN. BY JOHN VILANOVA S ituated just off Mirage's main casino floor, Tom Colicchio's Heritage Steak is the Strip's latest attempt at back-to-basics elegance—a neutral palette of browns, blacks, and grays brightened by occasional flashes of flame from the kitchen, where every dish on the menu is cooked over fire. "There's something inherently wholesome about cooking over an open flame," says the master chef. "It preserves the integrity of each ingredient and enhances natural flavors." The kitchen is run by Executive Chef Anthony Zappola, a 10-year Colicchio veteran, whose execution of what he calls the "natural meats on natural equipment" concept is on full display. The menu, with ingredients and flavor combinations unlike those of any other Colicchio restaurant, tweaks the standard steakhouse fare with bold, tasty results. Grilled Gulf shrimp with shishito peppers and squid ink is earthy, tangy, and smoky all at once. Soy-chili glazed skewers—squab, skirt steak, or duck over black gar- lic and watercress—are flame- and diner-tested and Colicchio-approved. As customers grow more knowledgeable about the food they eat, the expectations for higher-quality, chef-driven Vegas cuisine continue to rise. "We don't have 28 different steaks with blue cheese crusts," Zappola jokes. "It gives us more ambition to push the envelope, and that's the stuff we want people to be able to order." Of course there's porterhouse, filet, and rib eye, each one lent an extra level of roasty complexity by its time over the flame. But the duck breast, served with a duck chorizo and deliciously smoked peaches, is a showstopper on a menu that makes Heritage Steak as worthy a stop as any of the new restaurants in Vegas dining's latest chapter. "We want it to be approachable," Zappola says, "but we want people to be ambitious as well." It may be a culinary baptism by fire, but Heritage is just heating up. Mirage, 702-791-7330; mirage.com V VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 123_V_BOB_G_Opener_Nov13.indd 123 123 10/22/13 10:38 AM