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Las Vegas hasn’t let a pandemic stop it from opening exciting new restaurants and bars. The roster of fall openings is slightly smaller in 2021, but that still means a new Mexican restaurant at Encore Las Vegas, an insane Italian-American supper club at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, a tapas bar and nightclub at Resorts World, and so much more. Off the Strip, a watering hole from Corner Bar Management opens at Fergusons Downtown, a trio sets high hopes for their diner headed to Henderson, and a former Masterchef winner debuts his first restaurant. Here, a look at nine new restaurants and bars that debut this fall.
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Casa Playa
Estimated Opening: Mid-September
A coastal Mexican restaurant with a playful vibe opens at Encore Las Vegas in September. The resort opens Casa Playa in the former Elio from superstar chefs from Enrique Olvera, Daniela Soto-Innes, and Santiago Perez of ATM Group space. Former Elio executive chef Sarah Thompson returns to debut her own menu, while Wynn resort mixologist Mariena Mercer Boarini created the daring cocktails and assistant general manager and agave expert Noah Arenstein curated the robust mezcal and tequila collection. The menu takes its inspiration from the grilled seafood found at hidden playacitas along the Mexican shoreline. Thompson calls her menu a “culinary adventure,” where she tried to balance creativity with tradition.
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Bar Zazu
Estimated Opening: October
The second restaurant from chef Nicole Brisson, who also opened Brezza at Resorts World, offers a European café serving hot and cold tapas, cheese and charcuterie, and sweet and savory pastries. The 140-seat restaurant next to Brezza promises wines from around the world served by the glass, bottle, and flights, along with European beers and cocktails.
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Zouk Nightclub
Estimated Opening: September 17
The highly anticipated nightclub opens at Resorts World with Tiësto on the decks. The 26,060-square-foot Zouk will become the Las Vegas resort’s nightlife focal point. The club offers the Capital Bar and Empire, which can operate as an addition to the main club or separate venues on specific nights and seasons. Zouk, with room for 2,160, plans to be open Thursday through Saturday from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
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Superfrico
Estimated Opening: September 24
Spiegelworld, the production company behind Absinthe, Atomic Saloon Show, and Opium, opens Superfrico at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on September 24 with dining and drinks next to the Opium Theatre in the former Rose. Rabbit. Lie. space. Superfrico plans to offer dining all night in a space where anything goes, serving cuisine dubbed “Italian American psychedelic.” That translates into pizzas, pasta dishes, steaks, seafood, small plates, signature desserts, and “late-night finales.” Cocktails available as bottled cocktail flasks as well as small batch beverages are sold from Superfrico’s on-site Bottle-O retail store. The restaurant gets divided into themed bars, lounges, and dining rooms that blend the lines between the show and the restaurant. Performers come and go from their dressing rooms to the Opium Theatre through Superfrico’s kitchen and dining rooms.
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Chickie’s & Pete’s
Estimated Opening: Early October
Chickie’s & Pete’s Crab House and Sports Bar debuts its first expansion to the western United States in October. The Philadelphia-based chain moves into the former Umami Burger space at the Sahara Las Vegas with two bars, fireplaces, room for a DJ, plus a William Hill Sports Book. Diners can expect a self-described “elevated bar cuisine” menu, featuring chowders, cheesesteaks, a white pie topped with lobster meat, crabs, mussels, and chicken wings. The brand’s most famous dish, the trademarked crabfries, features a portion of crinkle-cut French fries sprinkled with crab-infused spices and served with creamy white cheese sauce.
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Boom Bang Fine Foods & Cocktails
Estimated Opening: Fall
A new restaurant with breakfast, lunch, and dinner heads to Valle Verde Drive this fall from three culinary heavyweights. Top Chef Season 2 alum Elia Aboumrad-Page, who helped open Joël Robuchon’s restaurant at the MGM Grand, joins Christian Page of Los Angeles-based Cassell’s Hamburgers and food and beverage specialist Tony Angotti, who worked as the general manager at The Stirling Club, the director of food and beverage at Red Rock Resort, and other local restaurants, to open Boom Bang Fine Foods & Cocktails. The restaurant includes a weekend brunch as well as baked goods including pastries, savory tarts, and pizzas and sandwiches. Customers can to head to a deli with grab-and-go items or opt to sit at the indoor and outdoor bar and patio. Entrees will range from a hamburger to a pork shank, focusing on ingredients such as wild and sustainable fish, antibiotic-free and grass-fed proteins, and vegetables dishes using regionally sourced produce.
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Oasis at Rise
Estimated Opening: Fall
Area15, the 200,000-square-foot entertainment complex west of the Strip, plans to open a cocktail bar with a ride taking customers 131 feet in the air for seven minutes. Rise — An Elevated Bar Experience opens this fall with a 360-degree view of the city. Riders can bring along a cocktail or nonalcoholic beverage on board from a full-service bar dubbed Oasis at the base of the ride.
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Larrea
Estimated Opening: Fall
Las Vegas deejay turned chef Shaun O’Neale won Gordon Ramsay’s cooking competition MasterChef in 2016, taking home $250,000 and a cookbook deal. O’Neale toured the world, going to food festivals, events, and cooking in different locales. Now the chef is ready to start his own restaurant to showcase his food. O’Neale teamed up with mixologist and former Survivor: Samoa contestant Benjamin Browning to open Larrea, taking over the former Blind Pig space at Panorama Towers on Dean Martin Drive this fall. Larrea, a desert flower, represents the “gem that’s found in the desert” vibe the restaurant and bar has planned. The seasonal menu that uses local purveyors such as wagyu beef from Wells, Nevada, starts with dishes such as a wild mushroom risotto, Nevada wagyu steak, scallop crudo, Baja kampachi crudo, roasted bone marrow, and honey-lacquered Jidori chicken.
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Peyote
Estimated Opening: Mid-September
Ryan Doherty and his company Corner Bar Management plan to debut Peyote, a desert respite with retro charm serving elevated American dishes, in the former La Monja space at Fergusons Downtown. Doherty describes Peyote as “a little dreamy watering hole on top of being a restaurant. We’re not going to be doing what we normally do,” he says, saying food take precedence over the deejay- and music-driven bars he owns. After the dinner crowds, he says the restaurant converts more of a lounge vibe. A menu of heirloom tomato summer squash tart; mini shrimp toast topped with wild smoked salmon roe; American country ham on toast served with tangy pickled mustard seed, carrot aioli, and wild arugula topped with red eye gravy; and beet tartare comes from Main St. Provisions’s Kim Owens and Justin Kingsley Hall.