It’s a new era for Esther’s Kitchen in the Downtown Arts District. The innovative Italian restaurant has paused service to move next door with an anticipated March 8 reopening.
Esther’s Kitchen takes over the former Retro Vegas building on the corner of Main Street and California Avenue with a simple goal: Expand the operation without losing what everyone loved about it in the first place. Much of the menu will look the same, featuring house-made pastas, breads, and pizzas with seasonal, farm-fresh touches.
📈 Size Matters
Ever since debuting in early 2018, Esther’s Kitchen was never quite large enough to meet demand. While the original was a tight 2,100 square feet to service 68 customers at a time, the new version will be able to accommodate 187 customers with 10,460 square feet of space, including a newly built 4,320-square-foot add-on.
The kitchen will be bigger and better equipped, featuring everything chef and owner James Trees could want in a full-scale culinary playground. A new steam-injection oven can bake a day’s worth of bread in 45 minutes, while a wood-fired hearth will be a hub for experimentation with whole proteins like chicken, lamb, and fish while offering a few surprises like smoked butters or even smoked water for pasta.
🍕 Pizza, Pastas & More
A chef’s station in the heart of the dining room will serve pasta that’s rolled, cut, and cooked to order in a way that’s rarely done in Las Vegas. Pizzas will come to life in a wood-fired tile Italian oven. While some pizzaiolos believe 800 degrees is the optimal temperature for these things, Trees is cooking his pizzas lower and longer at 650 degrees for more crunch and less chew.
Overall, the dining room is noticeably more contemporary, but smartly designed with warm color tones, modern light fixtures, and wraparound windows that gaze out to the streets and sidewalks of the Arts District.
🍸 A Better Way to Drink Cocktails
The original bar at Esther’s Kitchen was notoriously tight, handling overflow seating for the restaurant as well as those drawn to the exceptional cocktail and amaro selection. The new version of the restaurant will have a 27-seat, square-shaped bar with state-of-the-art equipment and a centralized, illuminated back bar.
An additional upstairs cocktail lounge overlooks the main dining room, almost like a speakeasy in plain sight, featuring a record player with a curated vinyl selection.
👀 Looking Ahead…
An outdoor courtyard will host pop-up events, including a Sunday farmers market and special dinners by guest chefs. Meanwhile, the original Esther’s Kitchen space will be reimagined as an ambitious, yet-to-be-named, fine-dining concept with tasting menus for just 30-50 seats a night. Trees is also planning to open Bar Boheme, a French bistro on the corner of Main Street and Imperial Avenue inside the old Jammin On Vegas shop.
😋 There’s more great dining out there with the best new restaurants in Las Vegas. [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]
