Resorts World Announces New Restaurants Vegetarians Won’t Want to Leaf

Resorts World announced it will open two new restaurants from “plant-based visionary Tal Ronnen.”

Which is intriguing news for several reasons.

First, we didn’t know plant-based visionaries were a thing.

Second, we figured Resorts World would be thinning its herd of restaurants, not expanding it.

That looks like bread. We’re in. Photo via Crossroads.

The two new restaurants will be Crossroads and CB Crossroads Burgers.

The restaurants will feature “an approachable yet refined take on plant-based cuisine.”

There’s nothing worse than food you don’t feel comfortable approaching.

You figure, hey, that looks pretty good, I should introduce myself. But as you get closer, you get that look. You know the one. Like you have leprosy. Which we’re not sure is a thing anymore, because Bill Gates has probably cured it, but you know what we mean.

You definitely get a feeling, “Approaching is the last thing you want to do right now.”

But since rejection is nothing new, you sort of want to approach, mostly because of the obvious level of refinement.

So, you go for it, and boom, approachable, and you suddenly find yourself chowing down on Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms, whatever those might be.

Crossroads is described as a “beloved Los Angeles institution.”

Fortune favors the bold.

Here’s more from the news release: “Crossroads Las Vegas will bring a new, upscale dinner service experience where vegans, flexitarians, omnivores and meat eaters can cross paths to share a delicious meal and a good time.”

One of the best things about this restaurant announcement is we now have a new word to describe the performers in Cirque du Soleil. No, not “omnivores.” What does that have to do with anything? “Flexitarians.” Please try and keep up.

You should totally check out the Crossroads Los Angeles Web site, because it has breathtaking photography of food we can never imagine eating, mainly because we are set in our ways and the word “vegan” makes us involuntary wince despite our best efforts to control it.

Crossroads in L.A. has been around since 2013, on the corner of Melrose and Sweetzer, not far from the Hollywood Improv and Melrose Place Farmers Market. We’re only giving these specifics because we lived in L.A. and want to sound like we visited this neighborhood despite having just gotten the information from Google maps.

Crossroads L.A. has a solid four stars on Yelp, but we honestly don’t have a good feel for the level of demand of a vegan restaurant in a Las Vegas casino resort, even a great one.

It’s estimated 2-5% of the U.S. adult population is vegetarian. Roughly 0.5% are vegan.

Resorts World didn’t get into much detail about what Crossroads will offer, but we trust it will bring to Vegas many of the dishes served at its L.A. outpost.

The menu is filled with lots of delicious-sounding dishes, many of which contain things we never imagined being in our blog much less our mouth, including Baby Beet Salad, Eggplant Fillet, Whipped Feta, Impossible Cigars, Mushroom Tart, Escarole, Roasted Root Vegetables, Lentil Tempeh Piccata, Spiced Chickpeas, Pumpkin Seed Tofu Marsala and Lemon Mille Feuille.

Fortunately, there’s a house made pasta section. We trust this will be the majority of what we have at Crossroads. The menu includes Squash Tortelli, Spicy Rigatoni Vodka, Risotto Del Giorno, Tagliatelle Bolognese, Spaghetti Carbonara, Fettuccine and Truffles, Lasagna Bolognese and Campanelle.

Now, add some vegan garlic bread and we’re good.

Crossroads also has cocktail menu that looks so delicious, you may forget you’re eating vegan food.

We don’t care if they cocktails are vegan, we’re trying them, anyway.

As we explored the Crossroads L.A. Web site, we came across this great quote from Chef Tal Ronnen, “Crossroads is defined not by what’s missing but by what it is.”

Boom. We know when we’ve been schooled.

In addition to the main Crossroads restaurant, there will also be a quick-service restaurant, CB Crossroads Burger. There, guests can have “house-made sausages, burgers, fries and milkshakes.”

While we’ve yet to hear back from Resorts World about the restaurant’s location, we trust it will go into the former Marigold space. That restaurant abruptly closed after just five months of operation.

We suspect the Crossroads folks are having heated discussions about whether they want to inherit this Marigold furniture or not.

Resorts World opened with a whopping 40 food and beverage venues, which seemed ambitious, but apparently when the going gets rough, Resorts World gets ruffage.

It’s worth noting Resorts World has another vegan import from California, Craig’s Vegan Ice Cream, not far from the resort’s glowy video orb.

Crossroads and CB Crossroads Burgers will open at Resorts World in spring of 2022. Which is between March and June. Let the guilt-free eating begin.