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Nothing says chef Roy Choi wants to keep a little bit of Los Angeles in his new restaurant opening at the Park MGM in November than some of his recent Instagram posts. The chef continually refers to Las Vegas as “Los Vegas” as he previews some of his menu testing for the restaurant.
Back in January, he promised the venture “will feel like Ktown when you walk in and I plan on filling the casino with stinky delicious smells and lots of double dipping. Ha.”
Choi has kept the name of his restaurant under wraps, but in an interview with Bloomberg he dubbed the restaurant Best Friend. A space with that name is confirmed to be on the way to the Park MGM, but has yet to be announced by Choi.
Choi plans what he calls a “multifaceted, multi-sensory experience” restaurant, he tells Food & Wine, inspired by LA’s Koreatown, where he started with his gourmet Korean taco truck Kogi.
He says the Las Vegas restaurant is a step toward opening another in New York down the line. He tells Food & Wine that the 45-minute flight to Vegas from Los Angeles gives him a chance to fly in monthly, but his space definitely steers him in the direction of an expansion east. “In order for me to do New York, I have to create a restaurant like that, where it doesn’t require every bit of my DNA. There’s a formula to it to some extent,” he tells the magazine.
In the meantime, Choi previews some of his dishes on Instagram, writing that his restaurant is “Gonna be a place where I pay homage but also remix parts of what I love about LA,” representing “all of my hoods.” Slippery shrimp, shaking beef lomo saltado, banchans, a fried bologna sandwich, and Korean spicy octopus done tapas style are just some of the dishes he mentions.
Fried papas by Papi (one of Choi’s nicknames) may be a snack at Choi’s restaurant.
• Why Roy Choi’s Forthcoming Las Vegas Restaurant Is Such a Big Deal [F&W]
• Exclusive: Roy Choi Expanding From L.A. to The Las Vegas Strip [ELV]
