Humboldt Fog blue cheese souffle. Hot and cold foie gras with toasted Boston brown bread. And yes, that butterscotch pudding.
These are some of the signature dishes of Bradley Ogden, the Michigan-born chef who worked with James Beard in Kansas City, put himself on the national culinary map at the Lark Creek Inn in California and brought farm-to-table dining to the Strip during a 10-year-run with his eponymous restaurant at Caesars Palace. And those beautiful bites are coming back to Las Vegas. Ogden was recently named culinary director at Marche Bacchus in Desert Shores.
“It reminds me so much of Lark Creek Inn, my first restaurant opened in Marin County,” Ogden says of the Vegas neighborhood favorite restaurant and wine shop owned by Jeff and Rhonda Wyatt. “I guess what goes around comes around. There’s so much opportunity there, with the feel of the lake right there and the community restaurant that it is. It’s a great fit.”
The Desert Shores restaurant’s patio views
Ogden’s most recent Vegas project was the Hops & Harvest gastropub, which closed at Tivoli Village in 2013. He moved back to the Valley a couple of years ago to serve as a corporate chef at Sugar Factory, where his son and longtime collaborator Bryan Ogden worked as vice president of operations.
Bryan had introduced Bradley to the Wyatts, and when the Sugar Factory gig ran its course, a new conversation began.
While plenty of change is coming to Marche Bacchus, Ogden says loyal fans have nothing to worry about. “I plan to have a working chef in place, under my tight control, and we’re already talking about remodeling the kitchen and bringing everything up to date,” he says. “But we’re going to maintain a lot of what they’ve already acquired, maintain the venue and the success they’ve had with the wine program and other things. I’m just going to be bringing in my style.”
Favorite dishes will stay put, like escargot, French onion soup, and much of the popular brunch and dinner fare. Ogden has plenty of ideas about other dishes from his past that could be updated for the new menu, like Peekytoe crab salad with cucumber broth. “I’m not French, but certainly great cooking comes from French technique,” he says.
Regulars know the Wyatts have been steadily reinvesting in and updating the food and space since they bought the restaurant nearly 15 years ago, building Marche Bacchus into something more than a pleasant escape for locals—a bona fide institution. Different chefs have also added their own touches to the core cuisine through the years.
Ogden is searching for a chef de cuisine and other additional staff, but “we have great people already that bring great skills,” he says.
MARCHE BACCHUS 2620 Regatta Drive, 702-804-8008, marchebacchus.com. Sunday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
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