EVA’S LUCKY BREAK: A FORK IN THE ROAD

Eva Longoria Parker’s road to Las Vegas took a slight detour .

In the fall of 2008, New York-NewYork offered her a choice location: “Right under the Statue of Liberty. It was really tempting. The traffic on that corner is amazing."

Then she got a tour of MGM Mirage's CityCenter, the $8.5 billion megaproject. The location was a case of love at first sight. “When I walked into CityCenter...oh my God I wanted to be part of it.”

But there was a road block. “All the spots were taken. All the six restaurant spaces were leased out.”

Then, out of the blue, she got a call from Bill McBeath, president and chief operating officer of CityCenter’s 4,000-room Aria resort.

“Bill said, ‘Guess what, we have your space open.’" That was eight months ago. It was a match made in heaven. Thank God somebody fell out.”

The space offers some of the premier views of the project. Outside one window the multi-colored fountain. Another view features Henry Moore's "Reclining Connected Forms,” a large, abstract sculpture of a baby wrapped in a mother's embrace.

Inside, chandeliers from the Academy Awards.

Cynthia Kiser Murphey, president and chief operating officer for New York-New York, had started the ball rolling by paying a visit to Beso at Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood.

“We met her. She’s a tremendously impressive businesswoman,” said Kiser Murphey.

When McBeath gave Longoria Parker a tour of the new project, she was smitten “hook, line and sinker,” said Kiser Murphey.

The idea of getting involved in a restaurant took wing about 10 years ago when her friend Jonas Lowrance, who was opening in Rok Bar in Miami, brought it up. “He knows how much I love to cook," she said.

They opened Beso in the Hollywood and Vine area about two years ago.

Her favorites on the menu: “the guacamole, definitely, and the tortilla soup. That’s my original recipe that I’ve adapted over the years. About four times a week I go to Hollywood to make sure it’s still great.

"I love the paella. I wasn’t a fan of paella until Todd (star chef Todd English) made it. It’s incredible. And the chili-rubbed skirt steak, which is a really great steak for women because it’s not the big honkin’ tomahawk piece of meat that men like to eat."

Her family goes back nine generations in what is now Texas. “We were under five different flags before Texas became a part of the United States flag. I’m as American as they come.”

--NORM CLARKE, Vegas Confidential