Expansions

Daniel Boulud Opening DBGB Kitchen & Bar in Las Vegas

Hot diggity dog.
Hot diggity dog. Photo: Melissa Hom

Reps for the French chef announced this afternoon that later this year he’ll open the second branch of his four-year-old, casual East Village restaurant DBGB Kitchen & Bar at the Venetian and Palazzo in Las Vegas. The bistro derives its name, but not much else, from New York’s gone and lamented punk institution CBGB. There is little formal service and fewer white tablecloths, but there’s an abundance of sausages, oysters, and a mind-boggling array of housemade charcuterie. (There are also baked Alaska and sundaes delivered by trolleys.)

In keeping with the ineluctable “chefs as rock stars” motif, Boulud’s downtown dining room is decorated with beat-up cookware signed over by his equally famous peers — you’ll be eating your burger and suddenly realize you’re basking under a copper rondeau that once belonged to Bocuse. Or light from Thomas Keller’s zabaglione bowl, functioning here like a disco ball, will hit your eye, and then everything else hits you: Your fellow customers aren’t sneaking off outside during the meal to smoke joints on the sidewalk, they’re just adjusting Instagram filters on snapshots of pork belly. The “French Brasserie meets American Tavern” opens — with a big bar of wine and craft beer to match — later this year.

Daniel Boulud Opening DBGB Kitchen & Bar in Las Vegas