After a run of bad luck at home, more and more Bay Area chefs are rolling the dice on Las Vegas, where tourism is booming and casinos offer inducements valued at upwards of $10 million.
Hubert Keller, owner and chef of posh San Francisco French restaurant Fleur de Lys, last month doubled down on Vegas, opening the gourmet "Burger Bar" at the Mandalay Bay hotel, to be followed by a second incarnation of Fleur de Lys in five months. Keller follows a string of Bay Area restaurateurs who have established desert outposts, and top local chefs say others in their ranks are poised to follow suit.
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"They made for me a deal you cannot refuse," Keller said of the Mandalay Bay. "They were really, really generous."
Such offers have lured not just Keller but Michael Mina, of San Francisco's Aqua, Charles Condy, also of Aqua, Bradley Ogden of the Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur, Julian Serrano, formerly of Masa's, and even Thomas Keller of the esteemed French Laundry in Yountville.
Las Vegas continues to evolve in positive ways ...
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