Last Friday’s announcement detailing MGM Resorts’ reimagining of the Monte Carlo resort was an eye-opener—not because the company will somehow divide the hotel into two, but because the anchor of those new hotels will be food.
Eataly, the acclaimed mega-marketplace of all things delicious and Italian, has long been rumored for Las Vegas, at one point believed to be moving in near Hakkasan at MGM Grand. So it’s no surprise that the first Eataly in the southwestern states will arrive inside the Park MGM hotel, expected to debut in 2018.
Inside the other hotel, the Vegas version of the Sydell Group’s NoMad, chef Daniel Humm and restaurateur Will Guidara—who also operate the three-Michelin star Eleven Madison Park, ranked fifth in the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants last year—will bring a NoMad restaurant to Las Vegas, exactly the kind of posh, ultra-cool eatery that has eluded the Strip, until now. David Chang’s Momofuku is coming to the Cosmopolitan, and then we’ll have NoMad.
Not that we don’t already have fancy restaurants serving salmon rillettes in Mason jars, suckling pig and gourmet fried chicken. It’s just that the world’s food critics can’t seem to find their way to be impressed with food prepared in Las Vegas, and these new additions could help change that. Perhaps our share of James Beard awards will follow, or at least a little more national media respect for the Strip’s increasingly dynamic, utterly unique foodscape.
