Chef and restaurateur Sam Marvin has seen a lot of change and growth surround his Echo & Rig restaurant at Tivoli Village since it opened more than 10 years ago. The swanky suburban center struggled to maintain its dining lineup until recent years, but Marvin’s steakhouse, bar and butcher shop has always been a consistent bright spot.
“It’s really been exciting for us, and it’s definitely given me a lot of confidence in our strategy and what we’re trying to achieve,” Marvin says of the growing overall success of restaurants at Tivoli. “Now that we have some more traction here, people are understanding how to provide service to the neighborhood and treating it like a neighborhood restaurant versus an off-Strip restaurant. There’s a big difference.”
The difference is the people in the neighborhood, he says, and creating an experience that will resonate with regular customers who live nearby.
He’s ready to double-down on that approach this month with the opening of the Valley’s second Echo & Rig steakhouse at the District at Green Valley Ranch, taking over the former Elephant Bar space. The new spot will be only slightly smaller than the Tivoli Village footprint, set on a single story instead of the original’s two floors. But the menu in Henderson will be similar, and there will be a familiar butcher shop and retail component.
Everything will be tweaked slightly for Green Valley, however. The design will be different, skewing in the “desert chic” direction. The cocktail program will be renovated and kicked up, and Marvin is bringing in some ringers to create a beverage experience you won’t find elsewhere in Henderson—or possibly the rest of the Vegas Valley.
“I brought on Tony Abou-Ganim, the G.O.A.T. of them all, and he’s designing the entire program,” Marvin says. “We [also] brought in Tobin Ellis, the designer of the best bar equipment in the world, who has his own line at Perlick [Equipment]; he’s designing the bar from floor to ceiling. These two guys are at the top of their game, and we’re going to match the food program to what they’re doing, with no limitations.”
Echo pioneered different cuts of beef available for neighborhood diners, and Marvin wants to expand on that selection at the new spot. There will be focus on the Zabuton cut, sometimes called a Denver steak, a prized bit of Wagyu beef in Japan that hasn’t become popular yet in the states. “It’s the fourth-most-tender cut on the entire cow,” Marvin says.
He’s also planning to have more options for favorite cuts like rib eyes and filets, from different ranchers cultivated with different feeds so steak lovers can seek out new favorites.
Henderson’s dining landscape appears to be in a blossoming phase, and it’s the right time for a neighborhood favorite from across town to join the party.
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