UYE Steppin’ Out- MANGIA! 4.5: Pizzaiolo Party with Chef Marc!!!

The ‘Hungry Hawai’ian’ does it again!
When I read that there was going to be a Unofficial Unilocal Event (UYE) in the extreme NW, there was no way I was missing it (although we missed the first part of it: The Farm and Orchard).
Chef Marc offered entirely too much for the mere 25 $ this event was priced at (for adults; keiki = free).
As someone who had already been a frequent patron of Novecento, and, eager to see old friends from past Unilocal events, this UYE did not disappoint at all.
To my astonishment, the German pizza was my favourite. I do not even know if they normally offer the German pizza on their menu (my guess is that they do not), but perhaps if enough customers badger them by requesting it, we can order it whenever we would like.
Sausage was delicious; salad tasted so good that there is no way it could have been healthy (!); and the company of fellow Unilocalers and non-​Yelpers (Christie O.‘s friends; keiki) was incalculable, as always. — E

Though my friends and I could only attend the Novecento portion of this fabulous day of UYEs, it did not disappoint. Unilocalers were so friendly and welcoming to Tatiana and Warren, (who attended Chef Marc’s last tasting meal in Feb) Thanks to David S for always greeting with love and for moving our «kids table» next to the grown ups :)
We enjoyed chatting with Edwin, Colleen, Rod, Terri, Mel, Nelson, Chef Marc, Tina and many others, even briefly. Forget the exact number, but we had quite a crowd including Soul, Rosemarie’s adorable two little ones and Tina’s as well. Imagine the kids had a great time at all three events.
Chef Marc never disappoints, and this was no exception. Loved the Arugula Salad and the Chopped Antipasto Salad prompted me to stop at Parma and put in an order for Father’s Day imported delicacies Daddy loved! It amazes me how after all of these years –and several restaurants — Marc remembers that I’m not a carnivore and kept promising in addition to the perfect Margerita «more was coming you’ll love.» I easily move meat aside and chow down, so the only dish I did not have was the sausage and peppers, but it elicited raves. The mushroom pie was fantastic for fungi fanatic moi; and the red cabbage pie = unique, daring and full of bravado and flavor: just like Marc. He has worked hard perfecting his VPN Za and it shows: perhaps not to chain loving pre made/​frozen dough/​fast food «Pizza» lovers: but those «pizzas» are about as authentic Italian as the chain «Italian» restos people flock to. If you’ve been to Italy or had authentic pizza, clearly it does not originate from chain/​pre made/​preservative laden ingredients just like «pasta» does not. Might as well buy a can or frozen GMO laden frankenza. Marc also served up traditional (non breaded and baked) eggplant Parmesan, which won over even the non eggplant folks.
By this time, I’d tapped out and was not able to sample any of the gelato, but it was popular; particularly in Affogato form = in espresso. Marc even made sure I had mini cannoli to go (with a couple extra) when he asked about my Dad and I told him twice he’d insisted on going from the hospital to Parma for Eggplant Parm! (added a hero to my Father’s Day order at Parma, too :))
Thanks again to Marc whose passion is contagious and Nelson and Sylvia Q who host such incredible and diverse UYEs, always making even non Unilocalers feel welcome.
When pizza is back on my «ok by coach list» Novecento will be a frequent stop (quarterly in my world) perhaps I’ll join friends and have that delicious Arugula Salad. Congratulations to Chef Marc who is truly one of the hardest working and caring in Las Vegas and beyond. We are lucky to have you.
Unilocal 100 Challenge

I had a great time as always when Chef Marc is hosting :)
The turnout was nice, with over 20+ counting the little ones!
We had a multi-​course meal, ayce family setup, for about $ 25 bones! This included the espresso and gelato at the end too! Hope everyone tossed a couple bucks in for tip!
The highlights for me were the :
Roasted Sausage and Peppers! The wood fired grill adds a wonderful taste!
Chopped Salad… this was great! So good, I took some home and ate it! And I normally don’t eat salad personally :)
Margarita Napoletana! This was great! I normally don’t enjoy Margarita pizzas, but they do something different here… I think it’s the cheese used.
And the Gelato! The Bourbon Caramel option was super good!
If you haven’t tried Novecento yet, you should :)

An event at any of Chef Marc’s restaurants is a recipe for a fun time. It is always a pleasure to hang out with the Unilocal crowd. Add in good food and it is a recipe for a fantastic afternoon.
For the low price of $ 25, we were able to taste two salads, three pizzas, and dessert. Everything placed in front of us was amazing. The arugula salad matched perfectly as a topping on the pizzas. The chopped salad was good enough for me to clear two plates. The margherita pizza only got better as the mozzarella cooled. The mushroom was jammed packed with flavor. The pickled cabbage was so different than any pizza I’ve ever had. Save some room for an affocato. The homemade gelato with a shot of espresso the only way to finish a meal. Thank you Chef Marc, the Novecento staff, Nelson and Sylvia Q.

Great Food + Unilocal friends = an Awesome Time.
I don’t make it out to too many Unilocal events because of my 2 kids, but when there is a kid friendly one– I try my best to be there. Besides I have Novecento Pizzeria bookmarked for quite some time. Plus, being a fan of Parma and having missed Nelson Q’s Steppin Out Mangia, 1, 2, 3, and 4– I had to make it to the 4.5!
Chef Marc’s passion for food truly came out in the food as well. For only $ 25– we were treated to a beautiful spread of salads, sausage & peppers, pizzas of all kinds, and dessert. Doesn’t get better than that. I had a great time seeing Unilocalers I had not seen in a while, and meeting new ones. Great food and great conversation is my idea of a great time. Thanks again to Nelson, Sylvia, and Chef Marc!
*Yelp 100 Challenge: Review 45/​100*

Heck yes this was an awesome event thanks to Nelson :) All you can eat pizza and salad? The best ever! Thank you so much Nelson!
I really love the Margarita pizza here, and the arugula salad went very nicely with it. I had never tried to eggplant here and was totally delighted to devour a plateful! I think I ate my 25 $ worth in just pizza though :) I was completely stuffed by the end, and I didn’t even try everything! I was told the German Pizza was the bomb and that the sausages were amazing. It was really cool to get to try a wood fired pepper– Chef Marc was right, the black bits are the best!
It was so cool to see everyone there and see the kids enjoy amazing pizza and Gelato (good god that Gelato espresso looked awesome!) Thanks Nelson and Chef Marc for making an amazing event!

Amateur in da house! I originally posted all my photos on the actual event invite, whoops, sorry Nelson. I’m getting it right this time! Thanks again for organizing a great day trip for the families and foodies! What a convenient and satisfying cap to the Gilrease Orchard and Farm adventure. This place is perfect for kids and grownups to relax… nice open space, Italian smells greeting you at the door, pizza, gelato… seems like my lil man didn’t want to leave :).
This is my 2^nd time trying Neapolitan pizza and it is growing on me real fast. After savoring a real good sauce and fresh ingredients, the soft center crust is something I can get used to, esp in conjunction with other great antipasto. We had the lettuce and arugula salad, sausage and roasted peppers, 4 types of pizza, eggplant parm (which I missed, wwwaaaaahhh… I though it was pizza! I would’ve made more space in my tummy if I knew!!!) and finally, delish gelato!
The passion of Chef Marc is infectious, and clearly spills out into his food. Whether you are a comfort food conservative, or a more daring glutton, there is definitely something in Novecento to please your palette. Thanks again for the great grub and even better company Mr. Q! Til the next food fest!

FOOD COMA STATUS!!!
(Refer to LJ’s in-​depth review…)
Chef Marc served it up family style, and even played a little video clip of Pizza Making in Naples. Being made in the Vero Pizza Napoletana Style, Chef Marc’s pizzas don’t need no VPN certification which can supposedly be purchased by the way for some $$$$ and an intensive 5-​day course in CALIFORNIA, not Italy… Huh???
***cough**Settebello???**cough****
23 hungry Unilocalers, Chopped and Arugula Salads, Sausage and Peppers, Three different Pizzas, Oven Roasted Eggplant, and Gelatos or Affogatos for dessert afterwards? For $ 25/​person (and NO auto-​grat) plus tip and the Kiddies eating for free, This was a very filling lunch! We had tons of Doggie bags and full stomachs which ended our fun filled morning.
Thank you for everyone who came out, for some good food, fun, and friendship, and Thanks also to Chef Marc and Team Novecento for taking care of us! ALOHA!!!

Another UYE, another great day with Unilocal buds at Novecento. First things first, thank you Nelson for putting this together. Another thanks to you Mr. Q for throwing this Unilocal get together in Centennial.
Chef Marc didn’t hold back on this UYE. He made sure that we had everything from salads, desserts, and of course pizza. For on $ 25 per person, everything and I mean everything was all you can eat. The food looked delish!!! But because I didn’t plan on eating all I can eat, I ended up getting my own pizza. Besides, my main reason here was to hang out with friends that I haven’t seen in a while, like a week.
Again, another fun afternoon with some of my Unilocal buds. I also got to meet new Unilocal friends at the same time.
To Nelson, Sylvia, and Chef Marc;
I had a great time as usual. Fun times, my friends.

OK I’m going to try to fight through this food coma and write this review while everything’s fresh. Big inhale, exhale. Ok I’m ready. Nope. One more time should do it. Big inhale, exhale.
First off thank you Nelson Q. for setting up this UYE, your UYEs are always amazing. And thanks you Chef Marc and the staff Novecento Pizzeria for the delicious spread. It was an excellent first time to Novecento. Got to enjoy the company of my fellow usually Unilocal crew, finally met a few more Unilocalers in person, stuffed ourselves, left happy, AWESOME.
After taking a seat and patiently waiting to get my grub on I couldn’t stop from breathing in all the great bacon smell coming from the kitchen. I was literally eating the air. We were greeted by Chef Marc and after his brief introduction it was time to eat. The salads came out first. The Chopped salad, my favorite,
and the Arugula salad
You’ll probably noticde a trend, I’m stealing other Unilocalers pics. Thanks Cathy C :) Then came the sausages and peppers.
The more charred the peppers the better they tasted.
The pizzas started to come out next. First the Naples Pizza
Chef Marc mentioned that this pizza is made runny because you’re suppose to break the crust off and dip it into the center of the pie as you eat it. I started topping some of the Chopped salad onto the Naples slices, try it for yourself so good. Chef Marc later suggested that we should try topping the Naples with some of the Chopped salad, haha, I was already on top of that. Next came this pizza topped with mushroom and bacon like meat, veal cheeks I believe.
Followed by a German inspired pizza which Chef Marc wanted to test on us

Right when we thought we were done with the feasting they brought out some Eggplant Parmesan. Last we did gelatos. I did a chocolate gelato in a cup of espressos which I thought was the end but then there was talk of cannolis and since I’ve never had one, I did one of those.
As you can see you can only try to resist the food coma while eating the spread we were presented with but it will happen. I’m about to knock out as soon as I post this review. I already ate pasta/​pizza/​Italian 11 day of the 15 days in June so far and this UYE feast made up for those 4 days I didn’t I missed.
I guess I do write reviews for almost all UYEs.

So we made it on time for Nelson’s UYE! Christina W, Arvin, David S, Sylvia Q, Nelson Q, Rosemarie Y with Lily and Dylan, LJ, Edwin P, Colleen Tina S with her hubby and her son, Rod L, Christie O, Terri R and Mel C were there. The kids were getting restless and hungry so Chef Marc fired up some white pizzas as the grown-​ups ate some arugula salad (with artichokes, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and shaved parmesan), roasted peppers and chopped salad (I really liked this… with cucumbers, tomatoes, gorgonzola, salami, onions and lettuce).
The food kept coming. Next was the sausage with roasted peppers. Very good but we had to control ourselves from eating too much too early since we were expecting a lot more food. With the help of Arvin, Chef Marc played videos and shared his knowledge of authentic Napoli pizza while we waited for more food.
The first pizza came: some people call it Margherita, Neopolitan… but for me, if it tastes like the pizza I’ve had in Italy, I call it pizza Napolitano. It was really good. It’s all about the tasty crunchy but chewy crust and the fresh tomatoes… the basil is just icing on the cake. Next, the mushroom pizza, and a pizza with jowls. If you like pork, you’ll love jowls… I know I did! After that, we had the German-​inspired pizza with red cabbage, speck and onions. It had a sweet taste to it but the speck provides a nice smokey and salty flavor to it. Then, we had eggplant parmesan sans bread crumbs. Finally, to finish off the meal, we had gelato and affogato. We tried pistachio, cantaloupe, salted caramel and Bourbon caramel gingersnap. I liked the cantaloupe and pistachio. They had salted caramel and Bourbon caramel. The espresso to gelato ration on the affogato was a tad bit off. There was much more espresso, however, I appreciated it because I’m still jet lagged and have to stay awake during the day!
All the delicious food only for $ 25 + tip, a great time with Unilocalers… it was a great day! Thank you Nelson for setting this up! We had an awesome time! :)

Molto grazie to Nelson and Chef Marc for another great Unilocal event. The food, the friends, did I mention the food? We had a great time catching up with our fellow Unilocalers. I also met Rosemarie, Tina S., Edwin P., Colleen, and Rod for the first time. These are always the benefits of UYEs and why they are always 5 star events. The food was excellent as well, but I’ll save that for a separate review. Thank you for another excellent adventure in food and socializing with Unilocal familia.