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The biggest restaurant opening in Downtown Las Vegas this fall debuts with brunch and dinner options, an enviable patio, and creative cocktails in a desert setting at Fergusons Downtown. Peyote brings a 3,400-square-foot restaurant from Corner Bar Management, the company behind Fremont East favorites Commonwealth, Park on Fremont, Discopussy, and Lucky Day, as well as Oddwood at Area15. This marks a different approach for Corner Bar’s Ryan Doherty, who teamed up with Justin Kingsley Hall and Kim Owens of the Arts District’s Main St. Provisions; Jolene Mannina of Vegas Test Kitchen next door to Fergusons; and Max Solano, a beverage and cocktail program consultant.
“This was truly a whole bunch of friends coming together for a project,” Doherty says. “As we started getting into it, we started getting more and more excited about it, but we’re hoping to be just one piece of the neighborhood down here.”
Doherty describes the space as a “little dreamy watering hole down here on top of being a restaurant.” Two-thirds of the seating at this newcomer sits outside on the patio, designed with desert hues and a custom 3D-mapped LED bistro light canvas by San Francisco-based artist Keegan Arthur Olton. On the walls inside, a catalog of works from artists such as Rafael Silveira, Bruno Pontiroli, and Eric Vozzola, who painted the mural. Doherty says he was going for a Palms Springs vibe with 200 cactus brought in to decorate the patio.
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Peyote rolls out a dinner menu with an heirloom tomato summer squash tart; mini shrimp toast topped with wild smoked salmon roe; and American country ham on toast served with tangy pickled mustard seed, carrot aioli, and wild arugula topped with red-eye gravy on the appetizers menu. Main dishes include Carolina Gold rice risotto with grilled corn, sunflower seeds, leeks, and almond milk; barbecue kingfish with braised butter beans and greens; a heritage pig sandwich with grilled pork belly, grass-fed butter, radish, plum mustard, rouge creamery cheese, and red pepper pickles; and Santa Maria vintage tri-tip grilled on oak and served with grilled baby gem, corn salad, pickles, chili preserved radish, butterball potatoes, and fry bread designed to feed three to six people. Vegetarian dishes make a mark on the menu as well.
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Over on the cocktail menu, diners can order the Tea For Two meant to share with either certified organic vodka or small-batch bourbon, OM organic lemon, and ginger liqueur with cold-brewed organic Earl Grey tea; El Camino with Joven mezcal, Alpine Preserve liqueur, passion fruit puree, lime-agave sour, and smoked sea salt; and the Hey, Smokey!, a 30-day barrel-aged cocktail made with bourbon, apple brandy, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and orange and tobacco bitters that are all gently smoked.
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Fridays through Sundays bring brunch from noon to 4 p.m. with grilled and chilled shellfish with a half dozen chilled oysters on the half shell, chilled smoked mussels, grilled prawns, and a half lobster tail; the plant-based Just egg quiche with red kitten spinach, caramelized leeks, and lions mane mushrooms in a non-dairy pie crust; and a fire-roasted tomato and shaved American country ham, smashed then fried with fingerling potatoes and red-eye gravy with two eggs.
Peyote, Fergusons Downtown, 1028 Fremont Street. Open from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and from noon to 2 a.m. Fridays through Sundays. Reservations are available online.