Simon Kitchen & Bar, Las Vegas

Nation's Restaurant News, August 18, 2003 by Amy Spector

Name any great chef or restaurateur internationally, and chances are one of the three Simon Kitchen & Bar partners--concept developer Elizabeth Blau, celebrity chef Kerry Simon or trend-defining hotel creator Peter Morton--has worked with that luminary.

But when the trio came together to create their restaurant at Morton's Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, they did not model Simon Kitchen & Bar after one of their former fine-dining haunts, Blau says. "This is not a foie gras and caviar type of restaurant," she asserts, explaining that the partners' first joint enterprise "is the kind of place where we'd want to hang out."

Simon says the overarching theme of the menu at Simon Kitchen & Bar is American, but his and Blau's worldwide culinary experiences inform each dish. Simon cooked in Europe and Asia as well as in New York and Las Vegas, during his seven-year tenure with chef and restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten. That succeeded Simon's postings at notable New York restaurants Lutece, La Cote Basque and The Plaza's Edwardian Room as well as at Miami's Blue Star, Starfish and Max's South Beach. He came to Las Vegas to open Vongerichten's Prime, a steakhouse at the Bellagio resort, in 1998.

Blau, meanwhile, traveled the globe, scouting chefs and restaurant ideas for casino impresario Steve Wynn after her post-graduate work with the legendary Le Cirque in New York. She met Simon while compiling the star-studded roster of restaurants for the Bellagio, and the two found they shared not only an interest in sports, exercise and reading, but also "Kerry and I have that unique, similar palate. When we go to a restaurant, we want to order the same thing," she says.

Because of Simon's renown in Las Vegas for steak, the menu at Simon Kitchen & Bar includes a "prime meats" section listing three steak cuts and lamb chops. The menu also offers a selection of pastas and pizzas as a nod to the site's previous occupant, Morton's Italian restaurant, Mortoni's, Blau says. She concedes that the menu tried to list the pizzas as "stone pies" initially but then found the name only confused customers. "I couldn't figure out why we had all these orders for a Caprese salad," she says, and then realized customers were mistaking the stone pie listing of buffalo mozzarella, tomato and basil for a salad. Now the menu reads "wood-roasted pizzas."

Simon's meat loaf, made according to his mother's recipe, was an item Blau and Morton insisted on and is one of the restaurant's best sellers, he says. To pick selections for the menu. "we chose the dishes that were killer, not just OK, because everything becomes your signature dish. It's hard to change the menu," Simon says.

Another top-seller is "Kerry's chicken curry," Blau says, which she describes as a translation of a curry, not an attempt at an authentic Indian dish. To explain why the dish is so popular at Simon Kitchen & Bar, Blau suggests, "It's almost like the P.F. Chang's philosophy. You might not feel comfortable eating in an Indian restaurant, but you'll try it here," she says.

The beverage list, like the food list, is primarily American, Blau says. "We wanted to emphasize boutique American wines and beers. But we also have French champagne," she notes, to please the restaurant's A-list celebrity clientele.

"The menu allows you to be incredibly decadent But we also have yellowtail carpaccio, five to six salads and nightly specials," she says. "It's all about bold flavors and spices. That's what shapes our menu."

Location: 4455 Paradise Road at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas

Cuisine: American

Opened: Oct. 27, 2002

Seats: 180

Average food cost: 30 percent

Per-person dinner check average: $50

Nightly average covers: 200

Best-selling item: Kerry's chicken curry

Slowest-selling item: veal osso buco with mascarpone polenta

Menu makers: Kerry Simon, chef de cuisine Glenn Jones and pastry chef Justin Nilson

Owners: Simon, Elizabeth Blau and Peter Morton