Italy Photo Highlights, Part 1 of 3

I took 1,909 photos in two weeks and wittled them down to a digestible 500 for folks' viewing pleasure.

This is the first of three groups. Enjoy.

(I released the second group. See it here.)

Vegas Restaurants

I'm due to be in Vegas next week for work, and what that usually means are 17 hour days occaisonally peppered with a great dinner with coworker friends. One in particular, Jay, I see outside of work all the time, and he appreciates a good restaurant. But he's not going this year. Considering I explain pasta with vodka sauce to people at work, I can't expect a hidden foodie to come out of the closet for a pricey meal on the town.

I have a night or two free for dinner so far and am debating meeting up with coworkers for good, fun times, or one night breaking off on my on to do my own foodie thing. Dining alone isn't a problem, but it's not ideal for me. If I'm going to drop a wad of money on a dinner -- at best, I can use my entire $50 food stipend per day on the whole meal -- I'd prefer to share it with someone. But oh well.

Right now I have reservations lined up at Thomas Keller's Bouchon at The Venetian and Shawn McClain's Sage at the new Aria at CityCentre. I just have to figue out which one I'll go to on which night. As tempting as Keller's Bouchon is, my experience is that the Vegas equivalent of notable chef's restaurants are never as good as the original. Todd English's Olives, for example, had humongous portions that were over-salted. My friend thought Craftsteak was OK. And Bouchon isn't getting that great of reviews -- they run the gamut, which says a lot.

Sage though seems promising, if only b/c McClain's new there and I know has had a heavier hand in the restaurant than others might; heck, he left Chicago's Custom House to take this job, so it better be good.

I'll keep you posted.