Cantina Contramar Sets Opening Date at Fontainebleau
A new Mexican restaurant, Cantina Contramar, is coming to Fontainebleau. The restaurant opens March 28, 2026.
Cantina Contramar is a collaboration between three heavyweights from Mexico: Chef Gabriela Cámara (founder of Contramar in Mexico City), architect Frida Escobedo (who designed the space) and “Maestra Tequilera” (master tequila maker) Bertha Gonzalez Nieves.
Q. Why do most people order tequila “neat”? A. No ICE. We can’t believe we made that joke, either! Do you know this blog at all? We do not live by society’s rules. We’ve been canceled more often than Forever Stamps.
Cantina Contramar is going into a new space within the resort that hasn’t been developed before, so it’s not replacing anything. It’s being built out specifically for the restaurant.
Here’s more from the official news release: “Building on Chef Gabriela’s 27-year legacy of unforgettable dining, Cantina Contramar will weave in her iconic seafood dining—where simplicity is key—with new creations that are a twist on Mexican cantina classics. The menu explores the vast landscapes of Mexican flavors with dishes that are perfect for sharing. The culinary program will be complemented by a selection of custom cocktails and small-batch sipping tequilas from Casa Dragones as well as a flight of the brand’s aged expressions.”
We don’t mind sharing, but do not force us to sit by strangers.
And, no, we have no idea what the phrase “a flight of the brand’s aged expressions” means. We do know if you tell a woman she has “aged expressions,” you will be beaten soundly about the face and shoulders.
About the space, which we hope to sneak into for a security breach prior to opening: “For this restaurant, Fontainebleau Las Vegas and Chef Gabriela have partnered with Frida Escobedo Studio—a world-renowned architect currently engaged in the design of major cultural landmarks such as the new Modern and Contemporary Art Wing for The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Doha, Qatar; and the renovation of the Centre Pompidou as co-designer, alongside lead architect Moreau Kusunoki. Escobedo’s design of the restaurant is inspired by traditional Mexican cantinas where a bright, expansive space fosters conviviality. Cantina Contramar is designed to embody a place where everyone is invited, a place to see and be seen—with an open kitchen, a comal station and a bar as focal points, which anchor the design to traditional Mexican culinary heritage.”
Before we look up “comal,” we are going to share a photo of our high school band.
A comal station is a cooking station centered around a comal, a traditional flat griddle used throughout Mexican cuisine.
A comal can be used for making tortillas, quesadillas and tostadas, and can also help with charring vegetables, heating salsas, cooking meats or melting cheese.
A comal station is like a pizza oven in an Italian restaurant or sushi counter in a Japanese restaurant. It’s how the sausage gets made. If sausage were a thing in Mexican restaurants, which it isn’t. You would appreciate that more if you knew how the sausage gets made.
Anyway, Fontainebleau is beautiful, so expect Cantina Contramar to be beautiful as well.
Mexican checks one of the culinary boxes for casino resorts. Steakhouse (Fontainebleau has a great one, Don’s Prime), Italian, Asian, seafood and burgers, typically. The big resorts even break their Asian offerings down into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indian. Yes, India is in Asia! How did you not know that? And by that we mean we had to look it up because we went to a public school. Saudi Arabia is in Asia, too. That’s going to win you a bar bet someday.
That list used to include buffets, but those were losing casinos lots of money, so most have been nixed since the pandemic.
Anyway, Cantina Contramar opens at Fontainebleau on March 28, 2026.
Come one, comal.
Leave your thoughts on “Cantina Contramar Sets Opening Date at Fontainebleau”