CasiNotes: Emeril sets an Italian Table at Sands Bethlehem

BAM! BAM! BAM!

That's as good a way as any to describe uberchef Emeril Lagasse's relationship with the Sands Casino-Resort in Bethlehem.

When the gaming hall, built on the site of the old Bethlehem Steel works, opened in 2009, Lagasse was there with Emeril's Chop House, a high-end steak outlet. Last year, he opened Burgers And More (BAM, get it?), a casual spot that serves what - to these taste buds, at least - just may be the world's greatest hamburger. Tomorrow, the New Orleans-based culinary giant will complete his trifecta with the debut of Emeril's Italian Table.

Located at the edge of the casino floor just off the corridor leading to the casino's recently opened 302-unit hotel tower, Emeril's Italian Table is a casually elegant space whose narrow front leads to a circular main dining room in the back. To get there, patrons pass by the open pizza and antipasti stations, where they can watch those items being made.

The Tuscan-influenced decor features tile, stone and wood. The latter is taken from a dismantled Lehigh Valley barn. The idea behind the design, said Lagasse, is to make patrons "feel at home when you come here - as you do in Italy."

Although the restaurant's visual cues are specific to a region of Italy, the menu is more geographically diverse.

"I can't tell you it's Northern Italy or Sicilian or Roman," he said, adding that the more important elements are the menu's authenticity and simplicity. The offerings include pizza; salumi (a wide variety of tissue-thin cured meats cut on a hand-cranked slicer); a selection of cheeses; soups; salads; pasta dishes, and poultry, beef, veal and shrimp entrées. Prices are in line with other casino gourmet rooms; entrées run between $18 and $24.

Like his other two Sands operations, Italian Table will emphasize locally grown ingredients, something, he admitted, that isn't the case in some of his other locations, specifically Las Vegas, which Lagasse described as "Los Angeles-dependent."

"Fifteen minutes from here you're in the middle of paradise," he insisted. "You can be in a tomato field or a sweet-corn field. It's really agriculturally blessed here. That was one of my draws" for coming to the Sands.

Although he is of Italian heritage, Italian Table is Lagasse's first attempt at this kind of eatery. So what took him so long?