In the suburbs of Las Vegas (a 20-30 minute ride from the Strip) is this authentic, quaint French bistro that overlooks an artificial lake and offers wonderful ambiance. Apparently a number of ownership and chef changes have occurred over the years, and Marché Bacchus is currently owned by Jeff and Rhonda Wyatt. There is a superb wine shop attached to the restaurant, so guests can buy a bottle of wine, walk twenty feet to their table, and enjoy their purchase with the robust, bistro-styled cuisine. We enjoyed a very fine onion soup as well as an impressive Salad Niçoise. The roast chicken was good, and the superb homemade french fries that accompanied the chicken were a meal in themselves.

As for the wines, we started with a delicious rose petal-scented, dry, medium-bodied Gewürztramier, the 2005 Cuvée Marie from Lucien Albrecht, which worked well with the onion soup and the Salad Niçoise. This wine and the 2000 Dal Forno Valpolicello were both sold in the wine shop, and I took this opportunity to show my friends (who had never had a Dal Forno) just what a super-intense Valpolicello can taste like. It was a beauty, offering complex, earthy, graphite, blackberry, road tar, and forest floor characteristics. This lovely, full-bodied Valpolicello makes a travesty of the other wines that come from this appellation in Italy.

This is an excellent venue for brunch or lunch if you want to get away from the hustle, bustle, and neon over-kill of the Las Vegas Strip. It is an idyllic, tranquil setting that is a world apart from the Vegas scene.