Good Eats at Rosemary's Restaurant in Las Vegas, NV

8125 W. Sahara. Yep, that's where we are. Except I'm looking at a strip mall complete with Cash Advance America. Surely one of Las Vegas' finest off-strip restaurants can't be located in this seemingly questionable strip mall all these miles out here, can it?

We venture inside and are greeted by a quaint little bar and a friendly hostess. I had reservations for dinner, but it was 1:30 in the afternoon. I explained that we were afraid we wouldn't make our dinner reservations due to a previous commitment and our hostess was all to happy to get us in for lunch. We're led back into the dining room, which I was surprised to see was very well populated for lunch on a weekday. The atmosphere was wonderful, light and airy. I took the seat at our table facing the kitchen, because hey - thats where all the excitement is.

Instantly the table is surrounded by our server and his assistant. They remove the white napkins from the three other settings at the table and place mine in my lap. They return quickly with black napkins for the other three at the table and place them delicately in everyone's lap, starting with the lady and working clockwise around the table. This would become a theme later. We're presented with menus and a wine list and the sommelier comes over. He is gracious, knowledgeable, and a fine steward of the libations. I order a bottle of Barbera because we had been discussing northern Italian reds on the way to the restaurant. He returns, corks the bottle and presents me with the cork. When everything is ok, he proceeds to fill the wine glasses, starting with the lady and working clockwise (service was always this way. I don't know how many people would notice this kind of thing but I was eating it up. The consistency was amazing.). We all decided to go prix fixe for the full experience.

The bread course was brought out and we were each given two rolls. I don't remember exactly, but one of them was a white chocolate something or other with a honey drizzle. I'm pretty sure it was the best bread I've ever had.