5 new Las Vegas restaurants for the start of summer

In the latest dispatches from the Las Vegas restaurant front:

■ Chef Mariana Alvarado founded Masazul, a local caterer known for celebrating traditional Mexican foodways, especially masas made using imported heirloom Mexican corn. Now, Alvarado is going bricks and mortar with Chamana’s Café &Molino, which is scheduled to open in late summer. The hospitality group owned by chef Dan Krohmer of Other Mama is joining with Alvarado to open the restaurant, at 3655 S. Durango Drive, Suite 29 (the old Dirty Fork).

A sneak peek at the menu (breakfast and lunch) shows house salsas and sodas, sweet corn pancakes with agave syrup, huaraches topped with avocado and garlic confit, tetelas (triangular masa pockets) stuffed with fried eggs and chickpeas, bowls of pozole, vegetarian and chicken milanesa tortas, pork belly in salsa verde, and arrachera skirt steak with fried eggs, fried potatoes and frijoles.

■ California Noodle House in the California Hotel closed during the pandemic. It recently reopened with a refreshed menu of Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese dishes.

Among the new items are oxtail stew with beef and tomato gravy, spicy garlic chicken, crisp fried pork chops, braised chicken ramen with shoyu chicken broth, and tonkotsu ramen with chasu pork and pork broth. Favorites like pork potstickers, oxtail fried rice and grilled kalbi short ribs remain on the menu. Visit thecal.boydgaming.com.

■ Siempre, J.B., the latest project from AYYA Hospitality Group (and its first under chef Min Kim, the new head of food and beverage), is set to open July 3 in UnCommons. Some of the dishes have been reported on, but now the restaurant has revealed details of the beverage program.

Siempre will be the sole purveyor of Dos Caras x Siempre Special Reserve Blend reposado tequila, made in partnership with Dos Caras Spirits, a woman-owned tequila company in Jalisco, Mexico. The blend will be poured for sipping or used in margaritas in Siempre, hibiscus, tamarindo and passion fruit versions.

The restaurant will also offer 10 signature cocktails, including a Oaxacan Old-Fashioned with Don Julio reposado, mezcal, agave, bittersweet Ango Bitter and a grapefruit twist for garnish. Agua fresca fruit drinks made in-house round out the beverage highlights. Visit siemprejb.com.

■ Luckley Tavern &Grill is now open at the Rio. The restaurant, which replaced All-American Bar &Grill, offers lollipop-style spicy wings among the appetizers, lobster pot pie and wood-grilled steak among the main courses, a tableside ice cream sundae cart, and beer, wine and craft cocktails. Visit riolasvegas.com.

■ Urth Caffe, a chain serving sustainable coffee, tea and dishes, is opening a location in the District at Green Valley Ranch, according to building permit records. A sign strung across a construction fence announces a fall opening. In Vegas, Urth Caffe also has a shop at UnCommons. Visit urthcaffe.com.

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Aria welcomes Brett LaReau as the new executive chef of Cathédrale, its Mediterranean restaurant that opened in May 2023. LaReau returns to Vegas after a stint as executive chef of Mina’s Fish House in the Four Seasons on Oahu. He has also worked at Wynn Las Vegas and for chef Wolfgang Puck’s group. LaReau and chef Jason Hall of Tao Group have introduced new seasonal dishes at Cathédrale.

A meze platter, Tomatoes Mykonos salad and king salmon carpaccio offer preludes to the main courses. Salt-baked and filleted Mediterranean sea bass with saffron potatoes is served tableside. So is a 48-ounce Mishima Reserve wagyu tomahawk flambéed with Woodford Reserve Baccarat Edition bourbon. If it’s ordered in advance, the steak can be custom-stamped.

Among desserts, look for a baklava napoleon and a croquembouche tower (a dish not often seen outside the holidays) that brings all the Vegas as its stacked hazelnut and vanilla profiteroles are drizzled tableside with warm chocolate sauce. Visit aria.mgmresorts.com.

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Through July, Velveteen Rabbit, 1218 S. Main St., is offering The Alchemy Cabinet, a collection of 10 cocktails inspired by eldritch elixirs, potions, philters, remedies, draughts and the like.

The Cabinet includes an Elixir Vitae made with jasmine green tea gin and bee pollen-infused apéritif, The Antidote built with chamomile vodka and lychee-elderflower liqueur, the Philosopher’s Stone calling on beet-infused tequila and blackberry-mint liqueur, and a nonalcoholic Mumia featuring zero-proof limoncello and sparkling lemonade.

All Cabinet cocktails are $16 except for the $14 Mumia. Visit velveteenrabbitlv.com.

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