VEGAS RESTAURANT ROUNDUP: Michael Mina Opening Four Seasons Steakhouse; Popular Restaurateur Prison-Bound

Posted on: January 8, 2024, 12:26h. 

Last updated on: January 17, 2024, 12:12h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

Celebrity chef Michael Mina is applying the finishing touches to Bourbon Steak, his take on the classic Las Vegas steakhouse. It will be located at the Four Seasons, in the former Charlie Palmer Steak space, which has remained closed since the pandemic. No opening date has been announced.

Michael Mina
Michael Mina’s first Las Vegas venture was transplanting his San Francisco seafood restaurant, Aqua, into the Bellagio before its 1998 opening. It’s now known only as Michael Mina. (Image: BBC)

“We have Bourbon Steaks in other premier cities, and this will be the first one for us in Vegas, and the first Bourbon Steak supper club,” Mina told the Las Vegas Weekly last November. “I’ve always loved that space for its accessibility, coming off the Strip and pulling up to the Four Seasons, how it’s private, and it’s a restaurant that attracts locals. We’re creating a menu that moves Bourbon Steak forward, and it’ll have great live music, a really good atmosphere with a lot of layers, indoor and outdoor, and beautiful tableside presentations so we can do some fun, theatrical stuff.”

In Las Vegas, Mina currently owns and operates Michael Mina at Bellagio, Bardot Brasserie at ARIA, International Smoke at MGM Grand, and Stripsteak at Mandalay Bay. Also opening at Mandalay Bay will be Mina’s next project, a Mediterranean restaurant called  Orla.

The food that restaurateur Raul Gil will be served in federal prison definitely won’t stand up to the food he served at his three Casa Don Juan Mexican restaurants in Las Vegas. (Image: gao.gov)

He’s in the Big Casa Now

You won’t see Raul Gil at any of the three popular Casa Don Juan Cantina restaurants he owns in Las Vegas — at least you won’t for three years, the length of his federal prison term for skimming cash and evading federal and state taxes between 2014 and 2018.

According to federal prosecutors, Gil, 64, removed $5M stored by managers in his restaurants’ safes to support a “lavish lifestyle.” He’s also been ordered to pay $2.2M in tax restitution to the IRS and the state of Nevada.

Gil opened his first Casa Don Juan in 1995 in what is now known as downtown Las Vegas’ Arts District.

Dining Ins & Outs

The highly anticipated All’Antico Vinaio Florentine sandwich shop will open on January 26 in about 1,400 square feet at the UnCommons food hall at 8533 Rozita Lee Ave. in southwest Las Vegas. Its name is Italian for “at the old wine merchant.” The franchise operates 19 shops in Italy, three in New York City, and one in L.A. The Vegas menu will approximate the other U.S. locations, with 16 sandwich choices on freshly baked schiacciata.

Also opening at Uncommons this year will the Wineaux wine bar from James Beard Award-winning chef Shawn McClain, the Todo Bien tequileria, and the J. Blanco Mexican steakhouse.

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue has opened its 16th Las Vegas area location at 81 W. Horizon Ridge Parkway in Henderson.