LowLife Staff Reviews

"He Does It His Way"

(This has nothing to do with the dishes served at Cafe Martorano but a restaurant is more than just food--in this case much more. On the chance you were thinking of checking this place out, we thought you ought to know that you are not just sitting down for a meal--you are sitting down for an experience and it will be done Chef Steve Martorano's way...)

This is from Norm, the gossip dude in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

"NO WHINING
Maverick chef Steve Martorano explains it as a case of putting his food ahead of profit.
The issue: Some would-be diners tell me they walked out of Café Martorano last week when informed of a new drink policy: Mixed drinks are prohibited with dinner at the South Philly-style restaurant at the Rio.
Martorano's spokesman, Alan Brown, confirmed the new policy, saying it went into effect about three or four weeks ago.
Wine and beer have been allowed at Martorano's popular Fort Lauderdale, Fla., eatery for 15 years, but hard liquor "ruins the taste, throws off the taste buds," Brown said. "They can drink before or after, but he's requesting you have wine with dinner," Brown added. "Anyone who is a real foodie," Brown said, will applaud Martorano's action. "He really wants people to taste his food. He's breaking the rules. He doesn't care about making money. It breaks the mold of anything in the restaurant business," Brown said.

A local attorney e-mailed me to say he walked out with his dinner party because several members of his group didn't drink wine. "What do you order with a cheese steak? White or red?" the attorney said.

Martorano, heavily tattooed and often wearing a wife beater T-shirt, admits his hard-edged restaurant "is not for everybody." The music is often mind-numbingly loud, along with scenes from some of the most violent mob scenes in movies. In an interview in Vegas magazine's July issue, he said, "I threw a guy out the other day" for asking that the music volume be lowered. When Martorano refused, the customer said, "What do you mean 'no,' I'm a customer." "I don't give a (expletive) who you are. This is what we are and what we do here.

"The customer is not always right," Martorano told Vegas magazine. "Whoever invented that had to be a customer. If you go see Sinatra sing and you're spending $500 a ticket, what do you do, raise your hand and holler out to him that you want to hear 'My Way' because he's not singing it? You spend $500 to let him do what he does. Let me do what I do."