Bruce Bromberg is just about ready to unveil his third restaurant concept in Las Vegas next week on Wednesday when Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken debuts at Downtown Summerlin. The fast-casual restaurant is a departure from his Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Brooklyn Bowl at The Linq. Instead, this is a restaurant dedicated to fried chicken and its counterparts.
The brightly lit restaurant is the first outside of New York City with 85 seats and options for dining in or taking out.
The simple recipe for the Brombergs fried chicken started 23 years ago when brothers Bruce and Eric were testing recipes for a childhood favorite dish. They dunked chicken breasts in egg whites, coated them with matzo meal and fried them. "This is not a Southern fried chicken," Bruce says. "This has all of the flavor and none of the grease."
The version served at Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken uses a seasoning of dried parsley, basil, thyme and garlic then mixed with cayenne, paprika and salt, different from the style served at Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar & Grill with its Asian influences. Bromberg says the possibility of that Asian version coming to Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken is out there.
Sauces such as wildflower, wasabi and chipotle honey come along for the ride as well.
When the Brombergs started their fried chicken outlet in Manhattan two years ago, they went in with a fine dining perspective. With their second outpost, the makings of a fast-casual kitchen should help the restaurant keep up with the traffic. The compact menu only contains chicken dishes, sandwiches and sides.
New for Las Vegas, the Blue Bird, an exclusive sandwich topped with melted blue cheese, red onion and smoked bacon. Guests can find The Pit with sharp melted cheddar, smoky bacon and Blue Ribbon barbecue sauce, and the Kerry’s Classic, featuring caramelized pineapple drizzled with Blue Ribbon Special Sauce.
Homemade sides include a spicy slaw and fries as well as new for Blue Ribbon adobo corn, collard greens with bacon and mashed potatoes, and salads such as the Las Vegas-exclusive chopped wedge salad also make the menu. A special menu just for kids and a lunchbox special with fries and a soda for $8 also make the cut.
Find one of the few if not only outlets with Boylan’s craft sodas made with cane sugar on the soda fountain. Guests can order homemade milkshakes, draft beer, red and white wine, and champagne.
Near the registers, guests can pick up dishes to go or buy T-shirts, cookbooks, hats and eventually pre-packaged flour and seasoning mixes.
Of note, the cement for the floor was poured on April 6, and it only took nine weeks to build the restaurant from scratch.
Find Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken between Andiron Steak & Sea and Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill on the northeast side of Downtown Summerlin.
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Cluck Yeah. Your First Look Inside Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken, Opening Next Week
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