A number of hotels and resorts have announced, opened or reopened food-and-beverage venues in March—six in Las Vegas alone. Here are a few notable venues to know:
Durango Casino & Resort
The Durango Casino & Resort by Station Casinos in Las Vegas is set to get three new immersive concepts by Clique Hospitality: Mijo Modern Mexican Restaurant and Bel-Aire Lounge will open this fall, while the poolside Bel-Aire Backyard will open in late spring 2024.
Mijo Modern Mexican Restaurant serves coastal Mexican cuisine and spirits in an immersive setting. The restaurant’s tequila and mezcal program is guided by “catadores,” also known as tequila experts, and tequila lockers hold special bottles. The Bel-Aire Lounge will have modern furnishings decorated with gold and brass finishes, while the Bel-Aire Backyard will include palm trees and shrubbery. The pool space will also have private cabanas, oversized daybeds and pool chairs.
Aria Resort & Casino
Clique Hospitality also recently unveiled Easy’s Cocktail Lounge, a new speakeasy hidden within the Proper Eats Food Hall on the promenade level of Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
A secret entrance leads to a cabaret lounge where live musicians play post-modern jukebox music. The venue offers a Beluga caviar service with house-made blinis, crème fraiche, chives, lemon wedges and chilled glasses of Belvedere vodka. The caviar itself is presented on a bed of ice in a replica Fabergé egg.
The venue’s decor emphasizes emerald hues and velvet textures. Theatrical floor-to-ceiling emerald green drapery and velvet upholstered panels frame the recessed performance stage and the floral design on the ceiling is mirrored on the carpet below. Sofas with channel tufting are paired with chairs, while dark-stained oak wood and marble coffee tables encourage lounging.
Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Carver Road Hospitality has unveiled the first look at Flanker Kitchen + Sports Bar, its third Flanker concept, set to debut at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip on June 10. Incorporating sports stadium elements, the 8,445-square-foot restaurant serves a menu of enhanced American classics created by Chef Daniel Ontiveros, Carver Road Hospitality's corporate executive chef. The menu includes burgers, sliders, shareable tacos and a range of salads and bowls.
Conceived with international studio DesignAgency, every view in Flanker Kitchen + Sports Bar’s 102-seat main dining room is meant to be a “50-yard-line” experience, with a signature LED wall and screens along each wall as well as above the 66-seat bar and lounge. The space can accommodate groups of up to 350 people and has three private dining suites for 20, 40 or 60 guests as well as a private 20-seat karaoke room.
A 24-seat dining patio is close to the entrance to The Shoppes at Mandalay Place and Mandalay Bay’s walkway to Allegiant Stadium. The venue also has a takeout window program inspired by stadium concession stands.
Caesars Palace
Stanton Social Prime will open at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on March 21, developed by Tao Group Hospitality and Chef Chris Santos.
The restaurant will bring Santos’ signature sharable dishes to the center-Strip resort, with the return of the French onion soup dumplings topped with Gruyère cheese and garlic croutons, as well as pierogies made with potato, goat cheese and truffle. New creations include the smoked butter board with Thumbelina crudités, Maldon sea salt flakes and sourdough demi baguette and the ‘al pastor’ yellowtail crudo, which includes grilled pineapple, cilantro, lime and pineapple ponzu.
Designed by architecture and design firm Rockwell Group, the 200-seat space draws inspiration from the original restaurant on New York’s Lower East Side and the Las Vegas Strip, with a modern nod to art deco style. The main dining room is decorated in ruby red, sapphire blue and gold with rich textures and patterns found in extravagant costume design. The two private dining rooms have decorative paneling evocative of a dressing room screen.
Foxwoods Resort Casino
In Connecticut, Foxwoods Resort Casino will open Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen this summer, inspired by the hit television series. The restaurant will be located in the Grand Pequot Concourse and will seat nearly 260 people. The space will include a chef’s counter and 40-seat private dining room. This marks Ramsay’s sixth Hell’s Kitchen in the U.S.
Design elements draw from the TV series, combining the energy of a busy kitchen with upscale style. The menu will include signature classics from the show, including Beef Wellington and Sticky Toffee Pudding, as well as an extensive wine list, craft cocktails and a curated selection of beers and spirits.
The Driskill
The Driskill in Austin, Texas, has reopened The Driskill Grill in the original dining room attached to the bar. The 82-seat space, which closed in 2020, has maintained its traditional ambiance that is a natural fit with the rest of the hotel. The new menu focuses on both traditional Texas fare and dishes that are inspired by the hotel’s 137-year history.
Starters include Oyster Rockefeller, Halibut Ceviche, Lobster Bisque and Steak Tartare. Main dishes will rotate seasonally but will include Tournedos Rossini, a 6oz filet mignon with foie gras, sautéed spinach, duck fat rösti and truffle sauce; Whiskey Infused Duck Breast with sous vide duck breast, sugared baby carrot, wild mushroom risotto; Pan Seared Black Halibut with carnival cauliflower, warm grain salad, sweetened yogurt glaze; and Roasted Chicken Breast with wild mushroom ravioli.
Kimpton Hotel Fontenot
The Kimpton Hotel Fontenot in New Orleans’ central business district will open King, its new French brasserie, on March 30. The new restaurant is part of the hotel’s expansion into the historic building next door, which will also include more than 12,000 square feet of flexible meeting, wedding and events space as well as 33 new guestrooms and suites.
Located on the ground level with an entrance on Tchoupitoulas Street, King will evoke the brasseries of the French Riviera while weaving in culinary traditions of New Orleans. The restaurant will have seating for 125 in the interior dining room, at the bar or on the outside patio in front of the restaurant and hotel.
Part of an adaptive reuse expansion of the Fontenot and designed by MarkZeff, the interiors have black and red paneling cooled by a mix of white marble bar and table tops, white painted brick walls and natural oak wood floors. The design team worked to keep and incorporate elements of the original structure, like the painted-over existing brick walls and reclaimed timber, wherever possible. The building was built in 1844 by New Orleans architect James Gallier.
Kimpton The Forum Hotel
This April, two new restaurants will open in Charlottesville, Va., inside the Kimpton The Forum Hotel on the grounds of the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. When it opens next month, The Forum Hotel will be the newest Kimpton property in IHG’s Luxury and Lifestyle Collection.
Birch & Bloom, an American steakhouse with regional farm-to-table influences, will serve select butcher cuts and seasonally driven cuisine while The Good Sport will be a neighborhood craft beer bar with classic tavern fare. The restaurants will pay homage to both the tradition and evolution of Charlottesville through locally inspired menus, sustainably sourced ingredients and community partnerships.
Birch & Bloom, open for breakfast and dinner service, draws inspiration from the fields, orchards, vineyards and waters that surround the 188-seat restaurant. The modern farm-to-table steakhouse has indoor and outdoor spaces designed in bold colors. A 2,000-bottle wine cellar will be available to host private events, and the L’Orangerie, a glass-enclosed solarium attached to Birch & Bloom, will have views of the property’s 5-acre botanical garden. The Good Sport will serve classic tavern fare and was designed with subtle collegiate touches and notes of houndstooth and leather.
Hotel 48Lex
Brasserie Cognac will open its second location at New York City’s Hotel 48Lex on March 21. Restauranteurs Vittorio Assaf & Fabio Granato of Serafina Restaurant Group opened their first property in the city, Brasserie Cognac de Monsieur de Ballon, in April 2008 and closed the restaurant 10 years later to focus on the five Café Serafina restaurants and the Brasserie Cognac East, which opened in 2013.
The 85-seat open dining room combines the hotel’s design with the traditional intimate design of its sister restaurant uptown. Brasserie Cognac at Hotel 48Lex will serve the signature yellow fin tuna tartare, prepared with wasabi, avocado and ponzu sauce; the signature chicken salad with green apple and cranberries; and branzino, atop roasted artichokes, capers, cherry tomatoes and espelette sauce.