Dining News

Dining News & Notes: Changes at Omae, a giant Smorgasbird and more

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Maybe skip breakfast if you’re planning to attempt the Smorgasbird.

Local jewel-box and Best of Vegas award winner Japanese Cuisine by Omae is changing things up. Lunch is no longer being served, and the dinner format is one table only, available for two to 10 people at three seating times per night: 5:30, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Only omakase (chef’s choice) format will be served, for $150 per person, Tuesday-Sunday. What does it all mean? Basically, chef Takeshi Omae is turning his tiny restaurant into a private “chef’s table” experience for anyone interested. Should you be? Yes.

In perhaps the sweetest-ever pairing of the Strip and Downtown, Shake Shack has teamed up with O Face Doughnuts this month. All through August, the New York-New York burger giant is serving up a Coffee & Doughnuts Concrete made with vanilla frozen custard blended with coffee marshmallow sauce and O Face’s glazed cake doughnuts ($4.75 or $6.75 for a double).

Behold, the Shake Shack-O Face mashup concrete.

Also throughout the month of August, restaurateurs Bruce and Eric Bromberg are challenging diners to down the Smorgasbird sandwich at their new Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken at Downtown Summerlin. The monstrous fried chicken sandwich is stuffed with barbecue chicken, grilled pineapple, lettuce, tomato, Blue Ribbon special sauce, barbecue sauce and a heaping portion of Game Day Fries—potatoes with more barbecue chicken, smoked bacon, aged cheddar cheese, sour cream and pickled peppers. Why would you eat this? Why wouldn’t you eat this? (Especially because a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each $15 sandwich will be donated to the MS Society.) Challengers are asked to down the Smorgasbird in five minutes or less and share a photo with tags #Smorgasbird and #MSSociety and the restaurant's Twitter handle, @BlueRibbonFC.

Pizza Forte, the new quick-serve restaurant concept from the family behind Ferraro’s, has opened its second store at the Hard Rock Hotel, open seven days a week and located near the pool. The first Pizza Forte opened earlier this year at Sunset Station. Another second slice: Fast-growing Blaze Pizza, which made its Las Vegas debut in May at the Horizon Pointe center on Eastern Avenue, opens its sequel store August 7 at 6211 N. Decatur Blvd., just off the 215 Beltway. To celebrate, Blaze offers free build-your-own pizzas from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. that day to anyone who follows the restaurant on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Planning on having a beer this weekend? The original Aces & Ales on Nellis Boulevard is hosting its sixth annual Strong Beer Festival August 7-9, featuring 60-plus rare specialty beers. You’ll find brews from familiar favorites like Anchor Steam, Lagunitas, Ballast Point, Stone and New Belgium along with harder to find selections from Noble Aleworks, Belching Beaver Brewery, Bottle Logic Brewing, Monkey Paw Pub, Pizza Port and more. The $15 entrance fee gets you a commemorative sample glass and your first sample, with additional samples at $4 each. Eight-ounce goblets of any beer will be $9.

It was already the biggest, craziest buffet in a town full of them, but Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace recently added more menu options. If 500 daily dishes just aren’t enough, now you can feast on whole fish, lobster and caviar. Whole fish options include Norwegian mackerel ($22 per pound) and New Zealand Tai snapper ($27 per pound) and can be grilled or fried. Whole poached lobster is $150, a price that includes immediate seating and a glass of Veuve Clicquot, and Sasanian Imperial caviar is available for $150. The new Caviar Dreams package includes the caviar and accouterments plus a bottle of Dom Pérignon and, yes, immediate seating, priced at $500 for two or $650 for four. Is this even a buffet anymore?

This is buffet food? It is at Bacchanal.

California-based fast-casual dynamo The Habit Burger Grill opens its first Las Vegas location on August 12 at the Howard Hughes Center. A sneak peek of The Habit can be had on August 6, 9 and 11, when the restaurant will donate 100 percent of proceeds to five local nonprofits.

Made L.V.’s monthly guest chef series is providing a sneak peek of the food at the Life Is Beautiful festival on August 13 at 6:30 p.m. with a four-course, family-style dinner featuring chefs Kim Canteenwalla, Brian Massie, Sam Marvin and Ricardo Romo plus cocktails from mixologist Mariena Mercer. The price is $59 and reservations can be made by calling 702-722-2000.

Lagassse’s Stadium at Palazzo teams up with Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Co. for a five-course pairing dinner on August 21 at 6 p.m. Planned dishes include a spicy salmon sushi roll, green chili-marinated shrimp on Andouille sausage jambalaya and grilled filet of beef with red wine demi-glace. The price is $55 and reservations can be made by calling 702-607-2665.

Panevino is hosting the next installment of its quarterly wine dinner series on August 27 at 7 p.m., a four-course tasting menu pairing Italian cuisine with wines from Campania, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily. Planned dishes include burrata with roasted peppers and grilled zucchini, orecchiette with pork ragu and lamb roast with green olives and rosemary. The price is $85 and reservations can be made by calling 702-222-2400.

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Brock Radke

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of managing editor at Las Vegas Weekly ...

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