This weekly update covers noteworthy restaurant openings and closings, dining news, culinary events, and entertainment news.
Events
Winnie & Ethel’s Downtown Diner — October 25
Winnie & Ethel’s Downtown Diner’s next supper club dinner will be the Haunted Home Means Nevada Supper Club!, a one-night-only five-course dinner with a haunted theme.
The collaborative dinner by Winnie & Ethel’s Co-owner and chef Aaron Lee and Wynn and Encore Las Vegas Executive Pastry Chef Jen Yee will include Ghostly Cheese & Haunted Bread Plate, Witch’s Roasted Cauldron Cauliflower, Bone Chilling Marrow Madness, Dark Chicken Enigma, Sinister Sweet Temptation, and Wickedly Delicious Farewell.
Costumes are strongly encouraged to enhance the spooky atmosphere. The evening will begin at 7 p.m., and tickets, which include the five-course meal, soft drinks, and a 20% gratuity, are $125. An optional drink package for one featured cocktail or mocktail with each course is an additional $45.
To purchase tickets, click here.
Border Grill — October 25
Celebrity chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, owners and creators of Border Grill, will host the first Border Grill Mexican Food + Wine Festival.
The event, held at Border Grill at Mandalay Bay from 7 to 10 p.m., will feature diverse and vibrant flavors of modern Mexican cuisine paired with wines from 19 Mexican wineries in Baja California, Coahuila, Guanajuato, and Querétaro.
The festival will include various food stations featuring Feniger and Milliken’s Border Grill, BBQ Mexicana, Socalo, and Pacha Mamas. Rosa Mexicano from the Miracle Mile Shops will also be represented.
Winemakers will be available for conversation, and a mariachi band will entertain guests. Wineries being featured include Bruma, Casa Jipi, Bodegas Henri Lurton, Fincas, Llano Colorado, Magoni, Palafox, Tres Para Uno, Symmetria, Vinsur, Camino Corazon, Los Cedros, Hacienda Florida, Guaname, Dos Buhos, Freixenet, Bodega de Cote, and Vinisterra.
Tickets, available through OpenTable, are $100 per person (plus tax) if purchased before October 25 or $125 at the door.
A portion of ticket sales will support the Nevada Restaurant Association Foundation’s ProStart, a high school program providing scholarships for students pursuing restaurant, food service, and hospitality degrees.
Pick of the Week: Mae Daly’s Fine Steaks & Whiskeys
Restaurateur Richard Femenella first came to Las Vegas from New York in 1997 to build and open celebrity chef Charlie Palmer’s renowned Aureole at Mandalay Bay and Charlie Palmer Steak at the adjacent Four Seasons. Over the next 25 years, he served as Senior Vice President of Operations and Chief Financial Officer of Charlie Palmer Group. Also, he operated the Stirling Club at Turnberry Place, so he knows more than a few things about running a successful restaurant. Now, he’s putting his knowledge and experience to good use as proprietor of the newly opened Mae Daly’s Fine Steaks & Whiskeys.
As for the steakhouse’s name, Femenella heard the legend of a woman named Mae Daly who ran a higher-end Las Vegas saloon in 1925, during a time when women rarely held such positions. The unique décor reflects the spirit of the 1930s, with a pristine 1931 Model A Ford Pickup and 1934 Plymouth Roadster out front, black and white tile floors, tin walls and ceiling, crystal chandeliers, rich dark wood, plush couches, and windows providing natural light. For added authenticity, the restrooms are even equipped with pull-chain flush toilets. The ambiance is best described as history meets modern elegance, and instead of rustic antiques, the “artifacts” are new and appear as they would have back in the day.
This is not your run-of-the-mill steakhouse. There is a dinner theater in the form of a chef’s stage where you view the final touches of your meal, which is then delivered to your table by none other than the executive chef or sous chef who prepared it.
Excellent beginnings are the French Onion Soup with Parmigiano-Reggiano and Gruyere, Bacon Tasting with five types of bacon served with bacon jam, Ahi Tuna Tartare with avocado and citrus ponzu, and Chilled Seafood Tower with all the shellfish stars of the sea.
As for the meat of the menu, five styles of 100% Prime beef are served: Wet Aged, Dry Aged, 100% Grass-fed, American Wagyu, and Certified Japanese Kobe A5 Wagyu (one of only a few restaurants in Las Vegas to carry this distinction). A true dinner show is the Frey Ranch 8-oz Filet Mignon Au Poivre, which is finished before your eyes at the Chef’s Stage with an au poivre sauce made from Frey Ranch’s Un-Cut Whiskey that is set afire and flambéed.
In addition to the Prime steaks, there are options of Mediterranean Branzino served with a golden raisin agrodolce sauce, vegan Eggplant Steak with a cashew peppercorn sauce, Mary’s Farm Chicken with rosemary natural jus, Faroe Island Salmon with lemongrass beurre blanc sauce, and Lobster Thermidor—the classic French dish with a shellfish stuffing and cognac tarragon cream sauce that legendary chef André Rochat collaborated on.
You should plan ahead and, when ordering your entrée, also select the house specialty: House-Made Chocolate or Grand Marnier Souffles, which take roughly 30 minutes to bake.
Not surprisingly, all the cocktails are traditional and date back to prohibition or are older, like the South Side—Al Capone’s favorite with gin, citrus, sugar, and mint. There is also a refined whiskey list with about 70 high-end choices and a 100-bottle wine list with 20 wines by the glass.
A tip for locals is the Mr. B, a secret menu with specials for locals with a not-so-secret password (SWORDFISH) that can be accessed from the restaurant’s website.
Show up on a Thursday night and head to the patio to enjoy live jazz from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. where cigar aficionados are encouraged to bring their cigars to have a smoke while enjoying the drinks and fare of Mae Daly’s.
Mae Daly’s Fine Steaks & Whiskeys is open daily from 3 p.m. to midnight and is located at 2211 South Las Vegas Blvd. across the street from The STRAT. There is complimentary valet parking.
For the full menu and to make reservations, visit www.MaeDalys.com.
Dining News
Ada’s Food + Wine Awarded Most Original Wine List
Ada’s Food + Wine has been awarded Most Original Wine List from The World’s Best Wine Lists, organized by the prestigious World of Fine Wine magazine.
The wine-focused restaurant co-owned by James Trees and LEV Group was up against nominees from Mexico, the UK, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and Hong Kong.
Ada’s Wine Goddess Kat Thomas and Chef Jackson Stamper accepted the award at Glaziers Hall in London, England. “This is the greatest acknowledgment I’ve ever received in my career,” said Thomas.
“We all knew what Kat and Jackson were creating was something special to us. Now we know it’s special to everyone!” said Chef Trees.
Palate Offering Thursday Night Football Sampler
The newly opened Palate, inside the Arts District Colorado building, offers game day bites by Chef Sterling Buckley during Thursday Night Football.
Priced at $35 and available in the bar/lounge area, included are a choice of a glass of wine or draft beer and a choice of six of the following options:
- Pork Buns with pickles, radish, and soda sauce
- Longganisa Sliders with cucumber slaw and tomato relish
- The Daily Dip with choice of chicharrónes or housemade potato chips
- Salmon or Short Rib Rillette with roti, pickled red onion, and umami crème fraîche
- Biscuits of the Day with housemade jam and maple butter
- Palate Wings with sweet chili glaze
- Baby Bucks with truffle tremor, buck sauce, and pickled red onion served on a brioche bun.
Entertainment News
The Millennium All-Stars — October 26
The Rouge Room cocktail lounge at Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa will rock out like it’s the 90s and early 2000s with a performance by The Millennium All-Stars.
The show will assemble some of the most iconic musicians from the era, including two-time Billboard-charting artist Stephen Wesley, who has collaborated with artists such as Slash, T-Pain, and Bubba Sparx; OneRepublic songwriter and drummer Jerrod Bettis; Puddle of Mud guitarist Matt Fuller; Goo Goo Dolls guitarist Nathan December; Matchbox Twenty drummer Ryan MacMillan; and founding member of Third Eye Blind, Kevin Cadogan.
Showtime is 9 p.m. Reservations are highly encouraged and may be made here.
