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Ice House Lounge

By: The Lady of The Night Out

Why should you eat at the Ice House Lounge?

Most bars in Las Vegas serve food as an after thought. The Ice House makes the comestibles the reason for coming. The victuals are tasty, funky, and fun. High cuisine in low places … sounds like a Garth Brooks song. What a great place for lunch!

Who should eat at the Ice House Lounge?

Gourmets. The main seasoning is surprise. You take one bite and go: wow! Because no one expects gourmet goodies at the neighborhood tavern. For example, Chef Matthew Tryba uses filet mignon for his sliders (ground beef is the norm) and makes his own mozzarella cheese.
Folks on a budget. With the exception of the main courses, all the menu items have price tags under $10.
LVNV Historians. The owners spent $600,000 purchasing historic black and white photos that capture the magnetic magic of LVNV. There are terrific casual shots of Elvis and Francis Albert. Major museums don’t have photo collections this extensive. Even the bathrooms double as photo galleries, so be sure to have someone of the opposite sex escort you into their space.
Martini and beer lovers. Each bar has a trough that freezes over. The icy bar keeps libations frosty. The owners place cups in the trough during the freezing process, creating pockets for beer bottles. You can really have a cool one at the Ice House Lounge.
Fans of la Donna Reed epoch. My grandfather owned a neighborhood tavern in Chicago during the ‘50s. I walked into the Ice House and was engulfed with a sense of déjà vu. The architect correctly captured the flavor and feel of the ‘50s.
The lunch bunch. There are not many lunch options along Main Street. This is your best bet.
Any hostess with the mostess. The upstairs lounge is tres chic. What out, Ghostbar! What a great place for a private party.
New Year’s Eve revelers. The second floor balcony provides breath-taking views of both downtown and the Strip. You can see the fireworks in stereo.
Anyone with a sweet tooth. Pastry chef Silas uses family recipes for old-fashioned sweets with an uptown twist. And the place serves a mean cup of java.

Who shouldn’t eat at the Ice House Lounge?

Folks who believe casinos and cuisine don’t mix. Gaming is definitely an ingredient in the bar mix. There are 15 video poker machines.
Women who drive big rigs or wear Manolos. OK, we’re talking about me. The Ice House’s parking lot is paltry with no room for full-sized SUVs or pick ups like mine. There is plenty of parking in the railroad’s unpaved lot next door. My way-too-expensive shoes did not like the rocky road or the fine layer of dust that just won’t wash off. There’s this new thing called valet parking….
Those who don’t do downtown. If Oscar has his way, this part of town will become remarkably trendy. N.B.:This hasn’t happened yet. The area appears seedy yet safe.
Families. This is clearly an adult destination.

Ok, so what’s the food like? The must have item is the filet mignon sliders. Thick tender slices of beef are topped with sweet pickles and a Medusa head of grilled onions, translucent and carmelized. A spunky Dijonnaise sauce gives the beef a mustardy glow. The better cut of beef makes this dish, providing a deeper, richer, meatier moment.

Don’t leave without sampling the catfish cardinale, a New Orleans dish. The pearly fillets fool you into thinking this is a much snooty fish. The fillets are swamped in a Creole sauce studded with crabmeat and shrimp. They have a smokey, spicy flavor but they don’t smoke with hot pepper heat. You can enjoy the dish without having one hand on your water glass.

The Ice House chicken is served airline style – that means the breast still has its wing bones cocked for flight. Some restaurants stuff their chickens with beer cans, but the Ice House uses a stuffing made of crabmeat, shrimp, and scallops, a tastier alternative. This juicy breast landed on a bed of sautéed spinach the color of a pool table. I generally can’t ferret out the organic birds – they all taste the same to me. But not this one! It was fantastic. The breast feels like it was injected with juice.

My favorite appetizer is the pot stickers. These Asian won tons are bursting with yummy pork stuffing and then encased in a petite crescent moon of dough. The jelly-like Asian sauce is spiked with fresh cilantro. There are six on a plate – guaranteed to satisfy any Asian craving.

The French onion soup is thick with sweet onions sautéed until they become translucent. A cap of crusty Gruyere cheese is so delightfully sharp it pierces like a knife. This is a toasty French version of sweet and sour.

The gazpacho is a refreshing choice for the dog days of summer. The soup itself is cold but the spicing is hot, hot, hot. Plump shrimp swim in the tomato-based murk.

My favorite was the tomato Florentine soup, a velvety puree punctuated with tiny bursts of white meat chicken. Green spinach gave the soup an earthy, herbaceous undertone.

The Ice House salad is Chef Matt’s take on the traditional Cobb. Bacon and crumbled blue cheese are the most vocal voices; they sing a tasty duet. The house dressing is a remoulade.

The mozzarella tomato salad looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It’s a towering silo of red, white, and green. The red comes from heirloom tomatoes – when they are in season. The white is the cool, creamy, homemade mozzarella. The green is basil oil. Chef Matt adds a balsamic reduction to the mix to create a true taste of Italy.

Dessert in the desert: This is the place for dessert. The pastry chef, Silas, grew up in New Orleans. Many of the dessert recipes came straight from Grandma. My favorite is sweet potato pecan tart. A deliciously serious sweet potato filling sits on top of a rock road of crunchy pecans. I’ll take two home at Thanksgiving.

You have to order the frozen cappuccino mousse. It’s poured into a white chocolate box stamped with the Ice House’s imprimateur. You can also order berries in this edible container. The mousse is so jazzed with coffee tastes it would do fine without its show-stopping sidekick.

The lemon ice box pie has a puckeringly tart filling inside a buttery pastry shell that could pass for candy. The pie is served with vanilla ice cream and creme Anglaise to neutralize that sharp citrus bite.

Even if you don’t drink coffee, order a cup anyway. The Ice House serves its coffee in sleek metal coffee cups. They are insulated so the coffee stays hot but your hands don’t singe with every sip.

History: The restaurant opened in July 2003 in a new structure. The ground was the site of LVNV’s original ice house, which provided 350 pound ice blocks to the Valley. The original ice house burned down in 1907. The second ice house served the downtown casinos and the Union Pacific Railroad. In the 1930s the ice kept produce and meat refrigerated in their rail cars.

Executive chef Matthew Tryba worked with Jean Louis Paladin at the Napa Restaurant at the Rio. He developed the specialty menu at Fiore Restaurant, also at the Rio, and helped opened the original Wild Safe Café as assistant chef. He had a delicious position as the executive chef at Club Paradise, where he met his wife.

Summing Up: I predict the Ice House Lounge will become one of the hottest restaurants in LVNV … despite its challenging location. Chef Matt is a master. He prepares down home favs with a haute cuisine touch. Half the fun is setting down your beer in the ice bar and enjoying the vintage photos. Made me wish I got here sooner!

Where is it? 650 South Main Street at Bonneville just south of downtown. The phone number is 702.315.2570.

By: The Culinary Curmudgeon Lady of the Night Out

If you’re not really good at poker, investing in real estate is one of the best gambles in town. That’s why enrolling in a real estate class at UNLV has been on my list for ages. But watching the fortunes of the Ice House is a more enjoyable way to get the flavor of commercial transactions and learn the secrets behind location, location, location … especially if you prize really cold beer.

Here’s my take on the scenario. Currently, the Ice House’s Main Street address is not the most coveted part of town. That part of Main Street is too seedy to be historic. I can understand why the place is packed at lunch time. The Ice House is a welcome oasis in a culinary wasteland for government workers. (How many days a week can you eat at Chicago Joe’s, the other fantastic restaurant in that ‘hood?) But will locals venture there after dark? And it’s just too far a walk for tourists stranded downtown, especially in LVNV’s meltdown August heat.

I suspect this is a land play. That’s as delicious as those sirloin sliders. Main Street is the far border of Oscar’s dreamy new downtown renaissance. Here’s a great recipe for success: Just keep serving terrific food to subsidize those bank payments until the ritzy neighborhood comes to you! Then sell the land to Coast Casinos! Take your profits and cook up another deal!

The recipe only works if the food is soooo good it’s a magnet for the fress to impress folks who will brave the 95 for a hard-to-find feast. Fortunately, the food at the Ice House is wondrous, down to the last bread crumb. Chef Matt takes down home bar food and seasons it with Picasso-style quality. I never eat chicken in a restaurant because that’s the one thing I can cook at home. But the airplane chicken here really clucks! And Chef Silas’ desserts rock. How can you not give four stars to a place that uses white chocolate for its branding? It’s the best tasting logo in LVNV.

It’s worth the hot summer drive to plunk your MGD into one of those icy slots in the bar. In my opinion, that’s the best real estate in town.

Aired 22 August 2003

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