Giada Spills the Cannellinis on Her First Restaurant

Expect to find Italian dishes with California influences at spunky Food Network star and cookbook author Giada De Laurentiis' first restaurant, today confirmed by Caesars Entertainment. The pint-size powerhouse talked to the Los Angeles Times about her restaurant, tentatively named Giada's, coming to the gutted Gansevoort next year.

"Ever since I was a little girl hanging out at my grandfather's restaurant, I've dreamed of having a restaurant of my own," De Laurentiis says in a press release. "I've held back on past opportunities because I really wanted to be ready for the responsibility and challenges that come with a restaurant? The location, the al fresco dining and the views were just too good to pass up!"

De Laurentiis says she was approached last February about opening her very first restaurant there. With the former Bill's Gamblin' Hall that will become a Gansevoort now sitting as a skeleton at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, expect a March opening.

For now, she's starting to work on the menu. "Some of it will be traditional family recipes, and others the lightened-up California-style food I'm known for — my lemon spaghetti and butternut squash lasagna," she says. "But also more traditional bolognese that takes longer to prepare and I don't get a chance to make on my shows or for my books."

Also expect to find an antipasto bar next to the bar. Giada's will have 300 seats; 150 in the dining room, 100 in the bar and lounge area plus additional space at a chef's table and private dining room. Expect to find an open kitchen where chefs will prepare the specialty pasta of the day, flatbreads and desserts for lunch and dinner.

Studio Collective — which worked on projects for Thompson Hotels including Teddy's and Public Kitchen & Bar as well as The Spare Room located in the Roosevelt Hotel — will create the look that starts with a space that hangs over the pedestrian walkway below. Large glass windows open up the view while living room-style furniture outfits the space.

As for why she would make her first restaurant so big, De Laurentiis says, "We're little Italian people who want to pretend like we're big."
· Giada De Laurentiis to Open Restaurant in Las Vegas Next Year [LA Times]
· Proof Positive Giada's Will Open in 2014 [~ELV~]
· All Giada De Laurentiis Coverage [~ELV~]