Nozomi 2202 W. Charleston Blvd., Ste. 11 Las Vegas, Nevada 89102 Phone: (702) 366-9119 Fax: (702) 382-9331

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I have no idea what “Nozomi” means. But it’s one damn fine neighborhood restaurant, if you ask me. Best of all, it’s close enough to my house to walk to, which is exactly what I did the other night…not without some coaxing I might add…but now—I’m happy to report—I feel morally superior to just about everyone.

Like most of you, I take driving to dinner for granted. All of us, have become so enslaved by the cult of the automobile that walking to and from a meal has become a forgotten pleasure. No where is this more apparent than in our master-planned communities—where builders and planners and their willing dupes—new house buyers—profess to want and their restaurants nicely segregated from all forms of foot traffic…thus necessitating ironic appellations like “town center”, which is anything but. These concentrations of retail shopping sustain our cult of the big car and the fat ass…and ensure that any stroll after dinner can only occur in a five-acre parking lot…all because we have sold our souls to the tanic suburban removal from the simple pleasures of everyday life.

But the faithful should take heart…because at the corner of Charleston and Rancho is a run-down shopping center blessed with a used book store, a good barber, a fine tailor, and one fine sushi bar. Nozomi is located where the well-regarded Kifune restaurant used to be, and has spruced things up—both in the intimate dining room, and on the plate. Chef Same Samnmit turns out some wonderfully light and artfully presented sushi rolls that compete with anything done at Sushi Fever or Pumi’s. Purists may blanche, but things like Caterpillar, Spider and Kosher rolls are what’s sellin’ Japanese food to the masses these days, but true believers should not despair, because Samanmit also turns out a perfect Hamachi Kama and some finely sliced Sashimi, for those who think an Unagi hand roll is blasphemy. As for me, I think driving your SUV to Starbucks is sacrilegious…so I’ll probably be piously walking to Nozomi, the next time you see me. TIJC

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