VEGAS DINING NEWS: Vegas Emerges James Beardless, L.A. Brisket Carves Out Venetian Space

Las Vegas got shut out of this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards. The prestigious ceremony, held Monday night in Chicago, is considered the Oscars of food.

The Strip was represented by Best Southwest Chef finalists Sarah Thompson of the Encore’s Casa Playa and Eleazar Villanueva of the MGM Grand’s Restaurant de Joël Robuchon, and by Cristie Normal of the Wynn’s Delilah, who was up for Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service.

But when the winners were announced, their names weren’t among them.

Last year, only the Peppermill Restaurant and Fireside Lounge won an award — in the less prominent America’s Classics category. Before that, Vegas has gone winless since Bryan Howard of the Cosmopolitan won for Best Bar Program and Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Mandalay Bay’s Border Grill won for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2018.

The closest to a victory Vegas scored this year was when Portland, Ore.’s JinJu Patisserie won the national Best Bakery award. (Its founders, Kyurim Lee and Jin Caldwell, developed their chops working at the Bellagio, Aria, Wynn and Joël Robuchon.)

Dining Ins & Outs

L.A. Brisket is coming to the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian. The Texas-style BBQ joint, founded in 2015, currently has locations in Artesia, Calif. and Oahu.

That new James Trees-led steakhouse that we told you would take the place of Voodoo Steak at Rio now has a name, and its one of the best we’ve heard in recent memory… High Steaks. VooDoo Steak will serve its final guests on July 5.

Leticia’s Cocina and Cantina — the Mexico City-style restaurant run by “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”-famous chef Leticia Mitchell — will open inside its second Stations Casinos property this summer. Mitchell’s Boulder Station location, which replaces  the shuttered Guadalajara, will follow her original location inside Santa Fe Station.

A slew of new restaurants is coming to the Rampart Casino in Summerlin. According to permit sleuthing by What Now Vegas, these include Ai Pazzi Pizza, For the Win, Nom Wah, Pearls Oyster Bar, Wineaux and Tacos 1986, the last of which is a Tijuana-style taqueria with eight locations in California and a ninth on the way in New York City.

The Hat, a SoCal pastrami favorite since 1951, is finally honoring the promise it made six years ago to open at 4,122 square-foot restaurant at 6239 Rainbow Blvd. According to its Instagram account, it will open there in spring 2026 with a drive-thru and outdoor patio.

The Las Vegas smash-burger joint With Love, Always will open its second off-Strip location by year’s end at 8670 W. Sunset Rd, Suite H-110 in Spring Valley’s mixed-use The Bend development. The first debuted last fall in Centennial Hills.