LAS VEGAS -- In a larger than life city like Las Vegas, it's hard for any one restaurant to really stand out visually. But center-strip, the Harley-Davidson Café juts out onto the landscape, its gigantic motorcycle literally roaring through the restaurant's facade. You can see it from blocks away, and as the only official Harley restaurant in America, it's a beacon to bikers world-wide -- including, not surprisingly, fans from the company's headquarters in Milwaukee.

"Harley comes out and visits us two or three times a year," says general manager John Vallone. "It's their name on the building. They like to make sure that everything is up to their standards, and it looks like a fun place."

And of course, the café threw a big party for Harley's 100th anniversary a few years ago, too. It's been visited by Burt Reynolds, Pamela Anderson and John Voigt -- not to mention scores of bikers every day, clad in orange tee shirts and leather.

The restaurant is owned by Marc Packer (of course), who operates several other eateries in New York and Las Vegas. He created the now-closed Harley Café in New York in 1993, but found better success with the location he opened in Vegas in 1997.

It seems that the Milwaukee motorcycle company has a particularly large following in Nevada. The biggest Harley dealership in the world is located in Las Vegas, says Vallone. "There's a lot of scenery here -- and the weather's always good," he says.

Inside the cafe, Harley stuff is everywhere -- combined with some American rock n' roll -- and a touch of that over-the-top Vegas style. That Heritage Softail on the front wall, for example, is 28 feet tall, weighs 15,000 pounds and cost $500,000 to construct. An American flag made from 44,000 chain links -- weighing seven tons -- also hangs from the ceiling (yes, it's in the Guinness Book of World Records as "the world's heaviest flag").

It also features 15 other custom cycles parked throughout the café, including bikes that belonged to Billy Joel, Ann Margaret, and of course, Elvis Presley.

On top of that, seven current cycles wind overhead on a conveyor belt -- a slightly unnerving visual while you're munching on your ribs.

But could the Harley Café work in other cities -- namely in Milwaukee?

"You never know," says Vallone. "There is very rarely a day that someone who owns another restaurant doesn't come in here and say, 'Gosh, I would love to open this café in my city.'"

It's the kind of concept that could possibly work in Brew City, given the right location. Keep in mind that first and foremost, the Vegas Harley-Davidson Café is a theme restaurant, not that different from a Hard Rock Café, Planet Hollywood or Rainforest Café. And those chains have largely stayed away from Milwaukee.

The menu is heavy on the meat and barbeque (that's literally hog you're eating). The portions are huge, and our group dined on everything from burgers to fajitas to barbeque to salad -- all were more than we could eat.

So, in that respect, the menu looks like something Milwaukee could seek its teeth into. And, the Harley memorabilia is enough to satisfy even a hard-core biker buff.

Upstairs, the café boasts historical company documents and magazine ads, some dating back to the turn of the century.

Milwaukee Harley fans can rest assured that their favorite legacy is cemented into the desert as a loud, roaring piece of the Las Vegas experience.