Restaurant Scene Enjoys Rebound in 2014
By: Heidi Knapp Rinella (Las Vegas Review Journal) December 2014
Las Vegas’ restaurant realm staggered a bit for a few years during the worst of the recession. But, like the most dedicated Strip imbiber, it regained its footing during 2014 and partied on in high style, with openings — many of them justifiably celebrated — across the valley.
Much of the renewed energy was the product of two of the first major projects to come out of the recovery.
SLS Las Vegas opened in August on the footprint of the legendary Sahara with nine restaurants, the most prominent of which is Bazaar Meat. From culinary lion Jose Andres, the vaguely jungle-themed restaurant lifts the traditional casino steakhouse far above the norm with a menu of carefully sourced meats (some of them a little exotic for Las Vegas tastes) cooked over burning wood. This is, for example, the only place in town where you’re likely to routinely find suckling pig.
The other major project is Downtown Summerlin in the far-western valley. It opened in October with but a handful of restaurants, among a roster of businesses that’s expected to reach 125 at build-out. Among them is Crave American Kitchen &Sushi Bar, the first Western outpost of a small chain based in Minneapolis. Crave is notable not just for the full sushi restaurant incorporated into it but also for the chef-driven philosophy that separates it from most mall-based restaurant chains.
Wolfgang Puck broke new ground this year — literally — when he opened his first off-Strip Las Vegas restaurant, Wolfgang Puck Bar &Grill, in Downtown Summerlin in early November.
Which brings us to arguably the most exciting opening of 2014, the one that refocused the international spotlight on Las Vegas dining. That was Giada, the first restaurant — anywhere — from the classically trained and made-for-TV chef Giada de Laurentiis, which opened in early summer at the extensively remodeled The Cromwell, the former Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Barbary Coast. With its wall of windows overlooking the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road it also offers one of the best views of the Strip, with aspects of Caesars Palace, Treasure Island and more.
The esteemed Daniel Boulud returned to Las Vegas this year after a four-year absence, opening DB Brasserie at The Venetian in April.
After many years in Las Vegas, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, who first came to fame as TV’s Two Hot Tamales, opened a second Border Grill here, this one at the Forum Shops at Caesars. Bobby Flay also expanded his local footprint with Bobby’s Burger Palace, which opened early in the year in the CityCenter complex.
Other chefs, known locally and in many cases more widely, opened additional restaurants in 2014. Among them were the wife-and-husband team of restaurant developer Elizabeth Blau and chef Kim Canteenwalla, who debuted Made L.V. at Tivoli Village, joining their Honey Salt just down the street.
Kerry Simon, whom Rolling Stone magazine crowned the Rock ’n’ Roll Chef, opened Carson Kitchen in June in the old John C. Carson Hotel in downtown Las Vegas.
Brooklyn Bowl, an offshoot of the original in Brooklyn, N.Y., and with food from brother chefs Bruce and Eric Bromberg, whose other restaurants include Blue Ribbon Sushi at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, is one of the few places in town that combine a high-quality restaurant with a concert venue — not to mention a bowling alley. It opened in the spring at The Linq.
TV chef and UNLV graduate Guy Fieri opened Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen &Bar, also at The Linq, in April.
Mercadito and Hearthstone deepened the restaurant offerings at Red Rock Resort, and Pot Liquor added Southern and barbecue flair to Town Square. Henderson saw a second location of Lake Las Vegas’ Bernard’s Bistro.
And the landmark El Sombrero on Main Street downtown, which had been in the same family for more than a half-century, closed this summer, to be replaced in September by a restaurant of the same name but with updated decor and menu from a former partner in La Madonna and Mundo.
On the more casual front, Chicago icon Al’s Beef opened this year, and White Castle was scheduled to open its first outlet in the market in November, although the opening has been delayed until early next year.
What’s ahead for 2015? Plenty, it’s already clear.
Alex Stratta, who started here with the former Renoir at The Mirage and was Michelin-starred for his former Alex at Wynn Las Vegas, is set to open a tapas restaurant in the next few weeks at Tivoli Village in the northwest part of the valley, and Michael Mina will open Bardot Brasserie at Aria at about the same time.
Also slated for opening in the earliest part of 2015 is another Blau/Canteenwalla restaurant, Andiron, which is expected to be an anchor at Downtown Summerlin, and Yardbird, the Southern-centric restaurant from a Miami-based group, at The Venetian.
