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Eater Vegas first revealed the Hexx Kitchen & Bar takeover of Sugar Factory back in November and the new Paris Las Vegas restaurant has finally begun serving, even while construction, branding and a finalized menu are still in a state of flux.
Created by Vintner Grill executive chef Matthew Silverman, Hexx Kitchen & Bar is joined by his adjacent retail store named Hexx Chocolate & Confexxions, which helps explain why the project is one letter away from being confused with a strip club.
Yet to be officially announced, the 30,000-square-foot restaurant is enhanced by a patio facing the Bellagio fountains and an open-plan "chocolate factory," where visitors can watch the Hexx chocolate-making process.
Described as "a distinctive new dining experience through a combination of cuisine, retail and chocolate," it replaces the cuisine, retail and candy experience of the Sugar Factory American Brasserie, which debuted to much fanfare 2011.
While Sugar Factory hired celebrities like the Kardashian family to promote their wares, Silverman currently lacks famous endorsers, but offers "Las Vegas Strip’s first bean-to-bar chocolate factory where the venue’s very own brand of chocolate is made and sold on-site." His culinary resume includes time with Wolfgang Puck, locals Roadrunner Saloon and the Vintner Grill Strip inside the Neiman Marcus store at the Fashion Show Mall. This will be his first fully committed venture into the world of chocolate. As of opening weekend, his new creations were not yet on display for customers to sample.
While guests dine and shop, construction continues, revealing a color scheme of cream, light and dark browns and plain, undecorated walls. Temporary vinyl banners are placed above the entrances.
The current dinner menu is exactly the same as the former Sugar Factory dinner menu created by their executive chef Matthew Piekarski, featuring comfort foods like chicken fingers, mini burgers, spicy jambalaya and turkey pot pie. The menu is touted as eventually morphing into a mood of "upscale, yet approachable, by focusing on quality-sourced ingredients and products made from scratch."
The muddled takeover still features Sugar Factory-branded products in the chocolate shop and a growing band of upset Yelpers who came for the Sugar Factory experience and encountered Hexx.