After walking into Eliseevsky Restaurant for a lunchtime "pit stop," Victoria Frontiere wound up dining instead on a salmon entree prepared in white wine with a spinach sauce.
It was, she said, the best salmon she'd ever had.
"(And) I was thinking I would get a sandwich or something," Frontiere said post-meal, while sitting with friend Gary Coles at the restaurant on West Flamingo Road and South Decatur Boulevard.
But the salmon and the restaurant's log-cabin interior won Frontiere over and she says that she'll be returning again soon.
Oddly enough, this is what Eliseevsky's owner Art Groisman promises when speaking of the restaurant he owns with Kirill Eliseev, who also has restaurants in Moscow.
"If somebody came here for one time," he said with a drawn-out Russian accent, "they'd be back." With the opening of Eliseevsky five months ago, Groisman and Eliseev have brought to Las Vegas something typically attempted by the megaresorts on the Strip: a slice of somewhere else, and with more authenticity than the typical tourist attractions.
Decorated with picket fences, pine-log walls, Russian trinkets and folk art, it's easy while slurping spoonfuls of borsch to forget you are in Las Vegas. You can feel, if only momentarily, as if you are in a log cabin nestled in the snowdrifts of the old Russian countryside.
The staff at the restaurant is Russian, including Moscow-trained chef Oleg Basov, who prepares his "secret recipes."
"We just wanted to show American people Russian food," said Groisman, who was born in Siberia and moved to Moscow at age 7, where he later became a triathlete.
Groisman moved to Las Vegas from New York in 1994, and with Eliseev opened the restaurant's neighboring Russian grocery store with the same name three years ago. Groisman hoped that it would build a large enough clientele to open a restaurant.
Both the store and restaurant unite the local Russian community of more than 5,000, Groisman said. Unlike other regions, Southern Nevada does not have its own Russian-language newspaper, nor does it have a Russian community center.
At the store, Russian videotapes and literature, meat, pastries, dairy products, juices, sundries and souvenirs can be purchased. Groisman shakes hands with all the regular customers.
He also advertises the restaurant in Russian newspapers in New York and Los Angeles, so Russians visiting or moving to Las Vegas will already know about the restaurant.
However, Groisman said that 80 percent of the restaurant's clientele is American. And, he added, "Everybody wants beef stroganoff."
Those wanting to taste other Russian flavors might try Kamchatka shrimp -- "grilled in cognac with garlic sauce " -- duck filet, Russian soups or skoblyanka (grilled sturgeon with mushrooms and golden potatoes). Between the appetizers, salads, soups, entrees and desserts, there are nearly 50 items on Eliseevksy's menu.
"It's all old (fashioned) Russian food," Groisman said. "It's mostly country food. Everything is baked in the oven, not fried. We don't use oil at all."
For Eastern Europeans living in America, the food and atmosphere are welcoming.
Edward Little, who lives part time in San Francisco and Las Vegas, moved to the United States from the Ukraine several years ago. While sitting with friends at Eliseevsky recently, he said that he regularly frequents the restaurant to eat the foods he enjoyed in the Ukraine.
"It's typical Russian food," Little said. "It's good and it doesn't cost much."
Little's only qualm has been that the restaurant hasn't served alcohol, which Groisman said has probably slowed business during its opening months.
But with a liquor license obtained in November, placards on the table announcing the service of Dolgoruki: "Vodka from the Heart of Russia," and a selection of Russian beer and wine, Groisman expects that business will continue to increase. That's especially true during the holidays, which are typically celebrated in Russia through early January.
In Russia, he explained, Christmas is celebrated Jan. 7. Some celebrate the old tradition of New Year on Jan. 13 as well as the Jan. 1 celebration.
"So all January is all celebration," Groisman said. "In Russia, everybody stops working."
Groisman said that this month 20 items will be added to the menu.
"If the business goes up," he said, "we'll plan a bigger restaurant."
And through word-of-mouth, the business is likely to pick up.
"It's something different," Coles said. "It was enjoyable to come in here and feel that you're completely away."
Frontiere added: "We joked that the next time (we come) there's going to be a line out the door."
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