Here's a look at the best new Las Vegas restaurants, corporate event venues, hotels, conference centers, and private and party rooms to open this spring. These new and renovated Las Vegas venues can accommodate groups large or small for private and corporate events, conferences, meetings, weddings, business dinners, teambuilding activities, cocktail parties, and more.
Lucky Foo’s Restaurant & Bar, with a menu combining Asian and Mediterranean flavors with American cuisine, opened in November in the Green Valley area. The 5,000-square-foot space has four distinct dining areas each inspired by a specific "lucky" idea or character. The design incorporates Tatami mats, hand-painted Taiko Asian drums, and roof tiles and has space for DJs or other live entertainment. The entire space seats 180 guests.
Special event and entertainment facility group the Venues Group is opening a new facility in downtown Las Vegas. The Venue Las Vegas opens this month with 36,000 square feet of versatile event and meeting space covering two stories and a rooftop patio, including six indoor and outdoor spaces. The venue can hold as many as 2,000 guests.
Chef Michael Mina opened Bardot Brasserie at Aria Resort & Casino in January. The French concept serves decadent items such as a foie gras parfait, a croque-madame, fruits de mer seafood towers, and an oversize chocolate macaron. The space, with more than 5,400 square feet in the front-of-house areas, seats 206 and has a private dining room that seats 45 guests.
The Miami-based restaurant Yardbird Southern Table & Bar debuted a Las Vegas location in January at the Venetian. The menu features Southern cuisine staples such as fried chicken, deviled eggs, and shrimp 'n' grits, along with menu items specific to the Las Vegas location including an 18-ounce smoked tomahawk pork chop. Adding a glamorous vibe to the decor are 75 photos of photos of film stars, musicians, and other celebrities from photographer John R. Hamilton. The 8,000-square-foot restaurant seats 180 and has private dining for 16 seated guests or receptions of 25.
Chefs and owners Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger opened a new location of Border Grill Las Vegas at the Forum Shops at Caesars in October, their second in the city. The restaurant, which serves gourmet takes on tacos, quesadillas, ceviche, and other Mexican staples, seats 300 and has sizable private dining options. Located in the back of the restaurant, the private dining room seats 70 or holds 100 for receptions in a space equipped with its own bar and a full audiovisual system. It can be combined with another space by opening a set of pocket doors for seated events of 150 guests or receptions of 200.
Danny Meyer's global Shake Shack juggernaut expanded to Las Vegas in December with a location on the Strip in front of New York-New York Hotel & Casino. Its site is next to a future park being developed by MGM Resorts International, recalling the restaurant's roots in New York's Madison Square Park. The fast-casual restaurant features green architecture and eco-friendly construction in touches such as furniture constructed from lumber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, tabletops are made from reclaimed bowling alley lanes, and energy-efficient kitchen equipment and lighting. The venue has indoor and outdoor seating and can host receptions of about 300 people.
Splash Studios, a paint-your-own pottery studio, opened in Southwest Las Vegas. The venue offers a colorful space with nearly 3,000 square feet of ceramic painting areas, two private rooms (one seats 20 painters and the other about 15), a game room with air hockey, a lounge with a flat-screen TV, and a karaoke stage. The entire venue holds 75 for painting sessions.
A cigar lounge opened inside Sean Patrick's Pub & Grill's Southern Highlands location. The club-like space, which opened in December, has a selection of cigar brands chosen in consultation with local company FreyBoy Tobacco and stores them in three stand-up humidors. The lounge seats 12 at stuffed leather armchairs and club chairs arranged around small circular tables and is decorated with warm wood paneling, a fireplace, and a flat-screen TV.
A locally owned purveyor of cold-pressed juices, the Juice Standard is a cozy spot for casual, health-conscious meetings. The 1,204-square-foot space and has nine seats and an open floor, where staff host juice tastings and Q&A events. The venue opened in March, and a second, larger location is being prepped to open in the Green Valley area this spring.
The team behind downtown's successful bars Commonwealth and Park on Freemont have opened Due & Proper in the District at Green Valley Ranch in October. Designed in the style of a classic pub, the 2,500-square-foot restaurant, bar, and patio seats 91 and offers space for semiprivate events. It serves pub fare and has a beer-centric beverage menu.
