You Gotta Eat: Bleu Gourmet

Crowd pleaser: Deli? Cafe? Wine bar? Bleu Gourmet is all that and then some

By James P. Reza

One of the most unsettling things about our valley's growth is how rapid sprawl tends to magnify the challenges of living under such horizontal conditions. We suffer most of the challenges associated with an urban population while reaping very few of the benefits, and that double-edged sword is easily illustrated by the dining scene. Ask folks who have lived in Las Vegas at least 25 years to list the "in" restaurants back in the day and you'll see a lot of overlap. But ask those same people that question today, and the lists will widely vary according to cuisine, demographics and, most importantly, what part of town respondents live in. More than ever we are spoiled lazy by proximity, meaning that Sonny Ahuja's recently launched Bleu Gourmet--on West Charleston Boulevard at the heels of Summerlin -- will likely never have to answer to the demands of those living in Green Valley.

That's too bad for them, for if the Las Vegas dining scene needs anything, it's more places like Bleu Gourmet. This joint proudly wears the passions and quirks of its owner, a welcome deviation in a city notorious for its common-denominator focus-grouping. Still, if anything challenges Bleu Gourmet's success, it will be its split personality--cultivated, it seems, deliberately. Nothing here is obvious. Is it a restaurant? An upscale deli? A nice place to drink Seattle espresso and surf the Internet?

The bistro menu, overseen by chef de cuisine Christophe Bonnegrace, offers a wide-enough selection of sandwiches and salads, plus a short list of entrées, from vegetarian lasagna to aged rib eye. Offerings are deceptively simple; for a glimpse at that dual appeal, one need only read the description of the "Mac & Cheese for Grown-Ups": Castellani pasta with Camembert, Gorgonzola and Boursin cheeses and parmigiano reggiano sauce. The corner diner this is not.

It's also not a restaurant proper. Sure, there are tables (but no table service), a sizable menu and folks enjoying the food from morning to night. But the duality of Bleu Gourmet is a built-in feature, as it does double duty as a wine retail store. From the well-tended selection, an employee will gladly help you select a bottle to enjoy here (no corkage fee) or take home. On my three recent visits, it seems most people are choosing the former. Some oven-roasted chicken, a bottle of wine, and thou.

But just when you think you have a handle on what's happening, another glimpse at the menu reveals a selection of pizzas and phazanis, all baked fresh in a miraculous woodstone oven. The phazanis--stuffed sandwiches made on pizza dough and baked to order--count as The Surprise Item in a place of surprises. Drop in any time of the day, sporting anything from jeans to a suit and enjoy an egg, prosciutto, asparagus and fontina cheese phazani (or one of six other variations) with a Roquefort salad (more than enough for two). Sip a well-priced wine. Chat with the staff. Or eat alone at the bar with a book or your laptop. Above all, go in with an open mind and enjoy the food, and you'll get what Ahuja is trying to accomplish with this urban bistro/wine store--a place that would be equally at home in Oscar Goodman's as-yet mythical downtown.