If you’re a local eater always hunting for that next great bite, Brian Howard has surely topped your favorite chefs list for some time. At 33, the Michigan native has done a lot in Las Vegas—a turn at Lutéce, a five-year-stint at the impeccable Bouchon and gigs at Kerry Simon’s CatHouse and Town Square’s Nu Sanctuary. When he took over at Cosmopolitan’s Comme Ça, Howard quickly catapulted an overshadowed bistro into the rarefied echelon of dynamic, boundary-busting restaurants on the Strip.

“Comme Ça definitely put me on the map,” he says. “It gave me the opportunity to put myself out there and take risks and do something different. And the experience pushed me to what comes next, which will be very unexpected.”

Howard left Comme Ça in December and is prepping his own local restaurant. It could be open this fall, and it might be Downtown—Howard and his partner, consultant and Labor Wines founder Cory Nyman, may have finalized a space by the time you read this. What will Howard cook? “It will be personal. It’s been a long time coming. You’re really going to get to see who I am as a cook, but I’m not putting myself into a box. It will definitely be affordable and casual … it’s really about being the neighborhood restaurant you want to come back to three times a week, being unique enough to make you want to come back.”

Be prepared: That next great bite is coming soon.