Giada Does Vegas: New Restaurant Doubles Female Celebrity Chefs On Strip

Emmy-winning TV Star, bestselling cookbook author, and classically trained chef Giada De Laurentiis is about to open her first restaurant - in Las Vegas - and it's a big deal.

Las Vegas is an amazing eating city, with a stunning number of restaurants by many of the world’s most famous chefs, including the global flagships of several noted culinary maestros like “Chef of the Century” Joel Robuchon and seafood guru Rick Moonen, who turned his back on 3-Stars in New York to make the move west. There are satellites by just about every famous chef you could name – as long as you stick to naming men. With the notable exception of Border Grill’s (Mandalay Bay) “Two Hot Tamales,” Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, the celebrity chef scene in Las Vegas has long been a boy’s club for the likes of Alain Ducasse, Jean George Vongerichten, Wolfgang Puck, Bobby Flay, Tom Colicchio, Nobu Matsuhisa, Gordon Ramsay, Michael Mina, Guy Savoy, Emeril Lagasse, Todd English, and so on and so on.
That’s about to change.

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Classically trained chef (Le Cordon Bleu Paris), NY Times bestselling cookbook author (five times), and Emmy Award winning television host/cook Giada De Laurentiis is bringing her star power and laid back Mediterranean-by-way-of-California style to Vegas, and in a big way: she is about to become the first brand name chef with a hotel exclusive. Her yet to be named restaurant will be the sole dining venue in the new Gansevoort Las Vegas, a luxury boutique hotel on the former site of Bill’s Gambling Hall, directly across Las Vegas Boulevard from the Bellagio (Nobu Hotel and restaurant, while similar, is within larger Caesar’s Palace). For the many fans of De Laurentiis, who lives in LA, cooked in the kitchens at Spago Beverly Hills and the Ritz Carlton, and founded an LA-based catering company, Vegas may seem a surprising choice for a debut – but not to her.
“I figured go big or go home,” Giada told me from Vegas yesterday while discussing her new eatery. “And I just couldn’t pass up this space. I’ve been thinking about doing this for years, and then five years ago I had a child and waited to see what it would be like to be a working mom. In that time, I’ve seen other spaces in Las Vegas that did not appeal to me, but this is the first boutique hotel on the Strip, and that suits my style and personality. Plus we are not in the basement, we have huge windows and great views, straight at the Bellagio Fountains. I live in LA, but it’s very doable, even as a day trip, I can just get in my car and drive.”

Giada's restaurant has a great space and great views on the second floor of the new Gansevoort Las Vegas, opening early 2014.

Caesars Entertainment has partnered with New York-based luxury hotel brand Gansevoort Hotel Group to open the Gansevoort Las Vegas in early 2014, after a $185 million renovation of Bill’s. It will have just 188 guest rooms and suites, tiny by Vegas standards, plus a 40,000 square-foot casino, signature lobby bar, and Drai’s Beach Club and Nightclub, a 65,000 square-foot indoor/outdoor nightclub and rooftop pool experience by local nightlife impresario Victor Drai – and of course Giada’s restaurant, with a prime location on the second level overlooking the Strip. It will seat just over 300 guests for lunch, dinner, and all hotel room service. Not surprisingly, the former Emmy-Award winning host of Everyday Italian will focus on Italian cuisine.
“It will be Italian, but also what people expect from me, modern with a California twist, lots of citrus. I want it to be very visual, and we will have fresh pasta making, a nice antipasti bar. I try to represent all of Italy, I do Southern, Northern and coastal, but my style is lighter. I also want to do more complicated dishes here that my customers wouldn’t likely make at home. I don’t want them to eat and say ‘I could have made that.’ I want the place to have a feminine touch – which is needed on The Strip. The vibe will be as if you came into my living room. It’s on one floor, but we’ve broken it into multiple levels and spaces, with very high ceilings. We want each seating area to have a homey feel, not just another big Vegas restaurant.”
Prices are expected to be moderate, not inexpensive but a far cry from some of the Vegas luxury menu prices, with entrees likely in the $20s and $30s. De Laurentiis hopes to open in early February 2014 and with her large fan base, it is likely to be a hot ticket immediately upon opening.
“It’s not just the food, it’s also the ambiance and the great views. And it’s the only way you can taste my food first hand.”
Good point.
(Since her television debut in 2002, De Laurentiis has become one of the Food Network’s most recognizable faces, the star of four primetime shows, “Everyday Italian,” “Giada’s Weekend Getaways,” “Giada in Paradise,” and “Food Network Star.” She is a correspondent on NBC’s Today, and the author of six cookbooks, five of them bestsellers. Her seventh, “Giada’s Feel Good Food,” will hit shelves in November.)