A two-year-old restaurant group is making its mark on the Las Vegas food scene with at least four properties using four different business strategies. And its largest project is still on the way.
After purchasing the Sunny Side Up breakfast chain and rebranding it as La Madre Canyon Grill, and launching the brand-new Boca Park Italian restaurant Ciao Vino, HUKL Hospitality recently purchased the local institution Marche Bacchus.
And, as HUKL V.P. of culinary operations Lupe Avila revealed on a recent episode of the Food and Loathing podcast, the company has now teamed with reality TV star Danny Koker to revitalize his West Side rock club, Count’s Vamp’d. If that’s not ambitious enough, they’re also planning a three-story $50 million F&B project called Skyline on West Flamingo Road.
Who is HUKL?
Speaking to Al Mancini and Samantha “Gemini” Stevens, Avila explained that HUKL Hospitality Group is backed by professional investors.
“Our founder and CEO (Kevin Elder), he’s a huge foodie. He loves good drink. He loves good food,” said Avila. “A few years ago, they approached me, they wanted to start up a restaurant group.”
Chef Lupe joined Mancini and Stevens for a conversation that you can hear on the Nov. 8 edition of the “Food and Loathing” podcast. He was joined by two of his trusted lieutenants: Ciao Ciao Vino Chef Joel Myers and Marche Bacchus Chef Avian Tun. During the interview, they discussed all of HUKL’s current projects, as well as what else might be in the works.
It’s a real canyon?
La Madre Canyon Grill is a rebrand of the group’s original purchase, Sunny Side Up on W. Flamingo.
“La Madre Canyon is a small canyon just to the right of Red Rock,” Avila said, when asked about the name. “You walk out in front of the … grill and you’re literally staring at it,” he added.
The new concept expands Sunny Side Up’s breakfast and lunch offerings to include dinner. And the chef says they’ve decided to lean into the consumer confusion surrounding the name, as many people erroneously believing it’s a Mexican restaurant.
“We’ve had so (many) people asking for Mexican food that we’re … going to be pivoting hard to more of a Mexican steakhouse in the next coming months,” he said.
Italian and French
HUKL has also opened Ciao Vino in Boca Park, taking over the 4,000-square-foot space that housed the short-lived Bella Vita. After a $1.5 million remodel, Ciao Vino now sports a chef’s table, a covered terrace and a Marra Forni pizza oven.
“There’s familiar classic dishes (like) spaghetti and meatballs – those approachable dishes,” said Myers. “But then we also have things that are a little more kind of playful, so to speak, and kind of a little more seasonally driven.”
The group’s newest acquisition may be its biggest gamble: Marche Bacchus, the 24-year-old classic French restaurant in Desert Shores.
“We’ve been going through a lot of changes since the whole takeover and so far, it’s been very successful,” said Tun. “We’ve been dealing with a lot of past clients, and they’ve been very happy with everything that we’ve been doing,” he added.
The “everything” includes a thorough cleanup of the multi-room, multi-level lakefront space: “Getting it back to its glory,” as Myers put it.
Let’s rock!
That “back to its glory” sentiment is also driving HUKL’s latest project: a partnership with Danny Koker, owner of the venerable West Sahara 80s rock venue, Count’s Vamp’d Rock Bar and Grill.
“We want to grow that business (and) create jobs for the community and turn it into what it used to be,” said Avila.
Count’s Vamp’d was hit hard by the COVID pandemic, and now only operates two days a week. The chef says the plan is to expand the venue’s operation to at least four days a week, and eventually open it every day, and “putting on some theater rock shows.”
“We want to be very respectful for what Danny and his lovely wife, Corey, have created.”
Reach for the sky(line)
HUKL’s long-term plan goes beyond just restaurants. “Skyline” will be a $50 million project that will include 72,000 square-feet of space over three stories, a high-end wine shop and pastry shop on the first floor, event space on the section floor, then a high-end restaurant on the top floor.
“We’re hoping to break ground around the second or third quarter of next year,” said Avila. He expects a 16-month construction schedule, which is about the same timeline as the new movie production complex planned for nearby.
To learn all about HUKL Hospitality Group’s origin and plans for more restaurants in Las Vegas, download the Food and Loathing podcast. HUKL is the featured interview in the episode titled “Ciao Vino, Hard Hat Louge, D.W. Bistro and More.”
