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Viva Las Vegas This is a story about a glitzy city located in the middle of the desert that has always been about action and big names. Martin and Lewis; Frank Sinatra; Johnny Fontane; Elvis Presley, and Wayne Newton. The Stardust; the Mirage; New York New York; Bellagio and Excalibur. And now Emeril Lagasse; Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Charlie Palmer. The chefs have arrived and they’re falling all over each other trying to open a concept in this incredible city. Las Vegas has great weather and some beautiful golf courses, but this is a place where slot machines and roulette wheels rule. It’s a city of money, and with some 100,000-hotel rooms and with some thirty million visitors a year waiting to fill them, it’s a city of action! It’s quickly become one of the world’s hottest restaurant towns, and when it comes to celebrity chefs and casinos, we’re talking about a marriage made in heaven. The casino business is very simple. The objective is to bring the folks (with their expense accounts and American Express Cards) to your place. The marketing people do everything possible to achieve this end, and now they’ve added one new angle – celebrity chefs and big time restaurants. With no disrespect intended to Sante Fe, with just one Las Vegas convention (and there are a lot of them) Mark Miller can see more action in one week at his Coyote Café in Vegas, than months in New Mexico. Maybe all this restaurant development started by accident. The ubiquitous Wolfgang Puck allegedly started it all by coming to Vegas to watch boxing matches (another popular casino draw). He fell in love with the city, noticed the potential, and decided to bring his already successful concept to the desert. It worked, and with a little help from the hotels (casinos), the competition was on to turn those restaurants into very popular destinations. Every single day the airplanes land with a multitude of new people and new money hoping to have their picture taken with Emeril Lagasse, and at the very least with the expectation of enjoying a meal in his great restaurant. Right now Las Vegas is cooking with names like Todd English, Nobu Matsuhisa, Michael Mina, Jean-Louis Palladin, Joachim Splichal and Jean-Georges Vongerichten, etc. The visibility of all these big names certainly provides a new culinary focus to this city, but interestingly enough, the local restaurant scene has benefited the most from the influx of lesser-known chefs. These are the people really running the day-to-day operations at these casino restaurants, and in many cases they seize the opportunity to open their own places, and in this regard, Las Vegas has experienced a tremendous influx of chef-owned, upscale restaurants. Many are small operations located in strip malls and other less ambitious places, but this phenomenon will undoubtedly continue as more culinary talent is pumped into the area. One such example is Michael Jordan who worked with Emeril Lagasse for years as a sous chef at Nola and Emeril’s in New Orleans. He made the trip to help open Emeril’s at the MGM and ended up on his own (along with his wife who is also a chef) at Rosemary’s, a new bistro operating in a strip mall outside the strip. The pressures and life in general in the casino restaurant business can become overbearing. A casino restaurant is something totally different, and it begins and ends with the customers. Most of these people didn’t come to Las Vegas to dine - they came to gamble. They bring an entirely different perspective and attitude to the table, and it’s one thing to have your name on the restaurant, and yet another story to actually work there. Moving to Las Vegas is a cultural shock all by itself, and working in this environment can’t be for everyone, so it’s understandable that some talented chefs will defect and try something on their own. Money is a significant motivating factor, and this Las Vegas thing is all about show business. It’s a perfect scenario and opportunity for the high profile chef, but it’s not without some serious problems. Our business is filled with stories of people attempting to clone concepts and assuming that the magic of their business can somehow be transported thousands of miles and capture the success of their original location. In this instance, we must define the meaning of success, because there’s no doubt that the financial success is almost a given. The artistic success is another matter. The highly visible and extremely successful Commander’s Palace from New Orleans is planning a branch in Las Vegas. I don’t think it’s possible to replicate this concept in a casino environment. New Orleans is unique all by itself, but you can’t possibly move the incredible ambiance of this beautiful neighborhood restaurant to a desert city, or any other city for that matter. Georges Perrier of Le Bec-Fin is also contemplating a similar move. Unless you can clone this great chef himself, it’s impossible to believe that you can take a small French restaurant on Walnut Street in Philadelphia and place it in a Las Vegas Casino Hotel. It’s the old story – there are some things that money just can’t buy. For me personally, I prefer the real thing. If I find myself in Las Vegas, Emeril Lagasse and company will have to wait. I’ll be looking for a nice quiet spot in some strip mall like Rosemary’s, which in my mind is the real thing.
Some Celebrity Chefs (Las Vegas Style) and where you can find them. Todd English - Olives at Bellagio and Onda at The Mirage
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