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Three new restaurants at Wynn Las Vegas. A revamped restaurant from Wolfgang Puck. A cake vending machine from Buddy Valastro. A Japanese restaurant from Gordon Ramsay. Sliders from David Chang. All make up the new dining landscape of Las Vegas when they open in 2020. Off Strip, El Dorado Cantina plans a second location, while chef Justin Kingsley Hall has big comfort food plans in the Arts District and Todd English returns to Las Vegas at Area15. Of course, Zippy’s already plans to make its first foray into Las Vegas later this year, with additional locations on the way, while California’s The Hat has a deli on the way. And that’s just a taste of what’s to come. Find out about 20 of the biggest openings in Las Vegas in 2020.
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Elio
Location: Encore
Players: Enrique Olvera, Daniela Soto-Innes, and Santiago Perez of Cosme in New York City
Projected Opening: March 2020
The 6,908-square-foot Elio will replace the pan-Asian menu at Andrea’s with “a restaurant that embraces the showmanship of the city not just with celebratory food, but also in the design and ambiance.” The same team is behind previous hit projects Cosme and Atla in New York City. Olvera further expanded his global recognition in 2000 with the launch of the award-winning Mexico City restaurant, Pujol. For the menu, chefs Soto-Innes and Olvera are so far promising Elio’s “dishes are rooted in Mexican ingredients and flavors and prepared according to time tested and specialized Mexican techniques.”
• All Coverage of Elio [ELV]
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Wolfgang Puck Players Locker
Location: Downtown Summerlin
The Players: Wolfgang Puck and Vegas Golden Knights players Alex Tuch, William Karlsson, Deryk Engelland, Reilly Smith, and Shea Theodore
Projected Opening: Late January
Wolfgang Puck teams up with active members of the Vegas Golden Knights when he revamps Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill at Downtown Summerlin in 2020. The family friendly community restaurant features traditional sports fare and a new beverage program.
• All Coverage of Wolfgang Puck Players Lounge [ELV]
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Moon Palace
Location: Palazzo
The Players: David Chang
Projected Opening: January 2020
Chef David Chang’s big Majordomo Meat & Fish opens on December 30 at the Palazzo, but that’s not all he has planned for Las Vegas. Chang also plans to open Moon Palace, more of a quick, casual place to grab a bite, in January 2020 across from Majordomo Meat & Fish with a menu of Tastys, his ode to the White Manna, the slider burger institution in New Jersey, with beef or Impossible burgers served on King’s Hawaiian rolls. Other dishes include fried potato chips dubbed hot chips, and half dips with two pillowy pancakes sandwiched around marshmallow fluff and half-dipped in chocolate.
• All Coverage of Moon Palace [ELV]
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Kamu Ultra Karaoke
Location: Grand Canal Shoppes
The Players: LA chef Chris Oh
Projected Opening: February 2020
Kamu Ultra Karaoke makes its debut at the Grand Canal Shoppes next to SushiSamba in February. The 17,000-plus-square-foot space features 40 private singing suites, as well as a menu from chef Chris Oh and cocktails. The kitchen serves dishes such as fresh oysters, pizzas, and churro doughnut holes, while bottle service feeds singers who need liquid courage.
• All Coverage of Kamu Ultra Lounge [ELV]
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X Pot
Location: Grand Canal Shoppes
Projected Opening: January 2020
Hot pots galore served by robots land at the Grand Canal Shoppes this winter when X Pot opens near SushiSamba. The restaurant, previously called Xiang Hot Pot, brings robot servers, 360-degree projections in high-def, interactive light shows, and themed sounds to accompany the thousand-year-old hotpot tradition of Sichuan hot pots.
• All Coverage of X Pot [ELV]
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Delilah
Location: Wynn Las Vegas
The Players: L.A.’s h.wood Group — which runs The Nice Guy, Peppermint Club, Poppy, Petite Taqueria, and Bootsy Bellows
Projected Opening: Spring 2020
A dash of roaring ’20s-inspired supper club with West Hollywood roots takes over the former Alex space at Wynn Las Vegas. Delilah, the glossy restaurant and lounge decked out in plush seats, serving big dinners, and enticing with bottle service is coming to Las Vegas. Servers wearing white jacket tuxedos and flapper dresses, and a band playing on stage set the entertainment vibe of the space set to be designed by Todd-Avery Lenahan of TAL Studio. The Art Deco-inspired restaurant includes “Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired palm tree columns.” In Los Angeles, the supper club serves baby back ribs, spaghetti squash primavera, roasted chicken, a veal chop marsala, and salmon en croute for entrees.
• All Coverage of Delilah [ELV]
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Unnamed Thomas Keller restaurant
Location: Wynn Las Vegas
The Players: Thomas Keller
Projected Opening: Fall 2020
Acclaimed chef Thomas Keller, who already has Bouchon Bistro and three Bouchon Bakery locations at the Venetian, turns his eye toward Wynn Las Vegas in 2020 when he opens a new restaurant there. The resort announced that Keller — who has The French Laundry, Per Se, The Surf Club Restaurant, and TAK Room in his portfolio of restaurants — takes over the former Country Club space overlooking the golf course. Wynn didn’t tease which restaurant would arrive, or whether it would be a new idea, but did say that it opens in the fall of 2020.
• Thomas Keller Plans a New Restaurant on the Strip [ELV]
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Area15
Location: 3215 S. Rancho Drive
The Players: Todd English
Projected Opening: May 2020 to the public
Todd English returns to Las Vegas with an unnamed food hall to Area15, the 200,000-square-foot retail and entertainment center west of I-15 that plans to offer live events and art installations in 2020. English partners with the venue to open an unnamed food hall with a menu he creates. A press release notes that patrons can “dine among large-scale art installations, music, performance and other” activities when it opens to the public this spring.
Other food and beverage outlets at the venue include ice cream shop Emack & Bolios; cocktail and coffee bar Oddwood, highlighted by a 23-foot Japanese maple tree replete with twinkling LED lights; Rocket Fizz with nostalgic candies and sodas; and event partner Hakkasan Group.
• All Coverage of Area15 [ELV]
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Lucky Cat
Location: Unknown
The Players: Gordon Ramsay
Projected Opening: September 2020
Gordon Ramsay, the chef behind five Las Vegas restaurants, announced a sixth, coming to the Strip in 2020. He plans to open Lucky Cat, the Asian “eating house” and late-night lounge he debuted in London’s Mayfair section in June. The restaurant takes its inspiration from “drinking clubs of 1930s Tokyo and the Far East.” In London, the restaurant features small plates that Eater London describes as “almost exclusively Japanese.” Robata dishes, sushi, sashimi, seared meats, and cocktails from “the Far East” make up the menu with Japanese gins and more than 50 types of sake.
• Gordon Ramsay Goes Asian for His Sixth Las Vegas Restaurant [ELV]
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Golden Gai
Location: Venetian
The Players: Restaurateur John Kunkel and 50 Eggs
Projected Opening: Unknown
Golden Gai will take over an impressive 12,820-square-foot space at the Venetian. Yet to be announced by the property or the 50 Eggs brand, Golden Gai now has a place holder on the company’s hiring page. Already trademarked, the name Niku at Golden Gai has also been protected. Niku is the Japanese word for meat. Located close to Shinjuku in Tokyo, Japan, the namesake Golden Gai district hosts more than 200 diverse and eclectic tiny bars in a community contained within six short blocks. Most bars are only large enough for a handful of patrons, and the dark corridors and rundown atmosphere create a unique and hard-to-replicate experience.
• John Kunkel’s 50 Eggs to Import a Taste of Tokyo to the Venetian [ELV]
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Main St. Provisions
Location: 1214 S. Main St.
The Players: Justin Kingsley Hall and Kim Owens
Projected Opening: Winter 2020
The former chef at the Kitchen at Atomic brings a comfort food restaurant to the Arts District. The restaurant has kept a tight lid on details, although chef Justin Kingsley Hall has done a few popups to showcase potential dishes.
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The Slanted Door
Location: Forum Shops at Caesars
The Players: Charles Phan
Projected Opening: January 2020
The Slanted Door is in no rush to expand from San Francisco to the Las Vegas Strip, missing posted opening dates since 2018. Now on its second executive chef before it even served a single meal, Charles Phan’s 8,200-square-foot Vietnamese restaurant is planned for the prominent corner space at the Las Vegas Boulevard entrance to the Forum Shops at Caesars. The restaurant recently enlisted former Greene St. Kitchen chef de cuisine Lanny Chin to oversee the kitchen after former Momofuku chef Shaun King, who had taken the job, then departed for Portland, Oregon, in May. The Slanted Door allocated an estimated construction budget of $3 million for the remodel back in 2018, still hidden behind plywood for the last two years. The first out-of-state expansion for the award-winning brand features “vibrant home-style Vietnamese food in a modern setting.”
• All Coverage of The Slanted Door [ELV]
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Frida Mexican Cuisine
Location: Forum Shops at Caesars
The Players: Frimex Hospitality Group
Projected Opening: Spring 2020
The self-described “best Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles” has yet to announce its first out-of-state expansion to the Las Vegas, but plywood and construction paperwork reveal Frida Mexican Cuisine intends to make a big impression at the Forum Shops at Caesars. The brand promotes itself as an “ambassador to authentic, artisanal, and traditional Mexican cuisine” in Beverly Hills, Westwood, Torrance, Cerritos, and Sherman Oaks, California. In Las Vegas, the restaurant is also expected to be open for brunch, lunch, and dinner.
• All Coverage of Frida Mexican Cuisine [ELV]
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True Food Bar & Kitchen
Location: Forum Shops at Caesars
Projected Opening: Spring 2020
Phoenix-based True Food Kitchen, the healthy restaurant beloved by Oprah Winfrey, now looks to spring 2020 for its opening at the Forum Shops at Caesars. The 11,314-square-foot restaurant with room for 315 plans to include True Bar next to the Reflecting Pool area on the ground floor of the shopping center, near the Las Vegas Boulevard entrance. The space includes a patio dining, inspired by an industrial warehouse overtaken by greenery. Diners will see natural wood and stone, industrial-style lighting, steel-framed glass doors, and a greenhouse-style ceiling with live plants throughout the space.
True Bar will sit atop the nearby Reflecting Pool with a range of cocktails including the Citrus Skinny Margarita made with citrus juice and organic tequila, along with beer and sustainable, organic and bio-dynamic wines. The scratch bar will also offer freshly pressed juices, organic teas, and natural refreshers, such as the Medicine Man, Hangover Rx and Kale Aid, among others.
• All Coverage of True Food Kitchen [ELV]
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El Dorado Cantina
Location: Tivoli Village
Projected Opening: January 2020
El Dorado Cantina expands its table-side guacamole service from next door to a strip club to Tivoli Village. The Mexican restaurant’s second location plans to take over the former Leticia’s space at the outdoor shopping center. El Dorado Cantina rolls in with its popular dishes such as pozole, a molé sampler, cochinita pibil, street tacos, and tres leches. Of course, a full roster of margaritas, sangrias, and mojitos fill out the bar menu. The 6,200 square-foot space with a patio and space for 266 dinners plans to be open 24 hours daily.
• All Coverage of El Dorado Cantina [ELV]
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Bugsy & Meyer’s Steakhouse
Location: Flamingo Las Vegas
Projected Opening: Early 2020
Bugsy & Meyer’s Steakhouse plans to open in early 2020 with a vintage look, speakeasy entrance, and homage to the mobsters who opened the Flamingo in 1946. Parent company Caesars Entertainment named the restaurant for Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and his business partner Meyer Lansky, who opened the Flamingo, the first resort-style hotel on the Strip. Diners enter through a front that looks like a bakery, walking past the kitchen and meat cooler where steaks are dry-aged. Chicago’s Studio K Creative and designer Jonathan Adler created the look of the restaurant that features an oval bar, patio dining, a raw bar, and three private dining rooms. The Count Room inside brings a speakeasy bar with its own cocktail and food menus and vintage images from the Flamingo’s early days.
• Mobster-Themed Bugsy & Meyer’s Steakhouse Debuts With a Speakeasy in Early 2020 [ELV]
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Zippy’s
Location: The southeast corner of Badura Avenue and Montessouri Street, near Rainbow Boulevard
Projected Opening: Late summer 2020
Zippy’s combination 7,000-square-foot restaurant, take-out, and retail bakery is now scheduled for a “third-quarter opening.” The huge facility will also include an additional 12,000-square-foot central kitchen and bakery, confirmed “to support (more Zippy’s) in other parts of Las Vegas.” Created in 1966, Zippy’s has evolved into a go-to destination for plate meals, the Zip Pac, created with fried chicken, hoki fish, teriyaki beef, and Spam served over rice, and its bestselling chili.
• Zippy’s Updates Its Las Vegas Debut Date [ELV]
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PizzaCake
Location: Harrah’s Las Vegas
The Players: Buddy Valastro
Projected Opening: Winter 2020
Buddy Valastro’s latest restaurant PizzaCake is rushing to debut at the Harrah’s Las Vegas. The restaurant replaces a former gift shop right on the Las Vegas Boulevard with a counter-service, combination bakery and old school pizza joint will feature a six-foot-tall, six-layer, rainbow-colored vanilla cake sculpture, plus a cake ATM, serving fresh cake slices to pedestrians and customers out on its 441-square-foot patio.
• All Coverage of PizzaCake [ELV]
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The Hat
Location: 6239 S. Rainbow Blvd.
Projected Opening: 2020
Boasting “World Famous Pastrami” and a Southern California pedigree that stretches back to 1951, The Hat’s first out-of-state expansion is back on track for a 2020 debut in Spring Valley. First revealed back in May, pastrami dip sandwiches, chili fries, and hot dogs are moving into a 4,122-square-foot restaurant upgraded with an outdoor patio and drive-thru at 6239 S. Rainbow Blvd., close to the intersection with Sobb Avenue. The famed attraction is thinly sliced pastrami served on a French roll with mustard and pickle and dipped in the house recipe au jus. Also available, roast beef dips, burgers, cold sandwiches, fries with gravy, onion rings, and chili fries served with tomato and pickle.
• All Coverage of The Hat [ELV]
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Din Tai Fung
Location: Aria
Projected Opening: Mid- to late 2020
Din Tai Fung with its xiao long bao takes over the Aria Cafe space in mid- to late-2020. The restaurant plans to feature an open kitchen, where customers can watch chefs make the soup dumplings, once described by the late Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Gold as “small miracles.” Other dishes among the 100 on the menu include shao pot stickers, noodle soups, fried Shanghai-style crispy fried pork chops served on a bed of fried rice, wontons with shrimp and pork, pork buns, and noodles with minced pork sauce, spicy sesame, and peanut sauce. But the star of the show is the Shanghai-style soup dumplings xiao long bao with a delicate skin encasing the broth, folded 18 times. The best sellers feature Kurobuta pork in a broth made with fresh ginger and green onion.
• Expect Long Lines When Soup Dumpling Specialist Din Tai Fung Opens on the Strip [ELV]
Disclosure: David Chang is producing shows for Hulu in partnership with Vox Media Studios, part of Eater’s parent company, Vox Media. No Eater staff member is involved in the production of those shows, and this does not impact coverage on Eater.
• The 12 Most-Anticipated Winter Restaurant and Bar Openings in Las Vegas [ELV]