Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)

Casa Calavera set to bring the beach to Las Vegas

Mexican restaurant to open next year with Virgin Hotels

- By Heidi Knapp Rinella Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjour­nal. com. Follow @HKRinella on Twitter.

Lots of Mexican restaurant­s promise they’ll make you feel you’ve been transporte­d south of the border for your meal. At Casa Calavera from the Hakkasan Group — which will open next year with Virgin Hotels Las Vegas — the experience will include dining on a beach.

Well, not quite. But you will be able to nosh with your feet in the sand, an experience the group’s executive vice president of food and beverage, Derek Silberstei­n, said will be unique in Las Vegas.

The group’s first Casa Calavera opened in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, in 2018, and Silberstei­n said they wanted to replicate that beachy feeling. So, Silberstei­n said, the outdoor patio of the former Hard Rock Hotel’s Pink Taco has been expanded toward the pool area, and some tables will actually be in sand.

If that’s not Instagram-worthy enough for you, there will be plenty of other opportunit­ies. The original Casa Calavera reportedly has become known as one of Mexico’s most Instagramm­able restaurant­s, and Silberstei­n said the theme will be continued here. It will include

four Dia de los Muertos-style altars, setting the tone for the restaurant’s larger theme.

“At Hakkasan Group, we love to create experience­s through our venues,” he said. “We definitely take that into considerat­ion — to create

something that is compelling for people to capture and help market and promote.”

The restaurant will have a menu that reflects authentici­ty, he said, not contempora­ry but traditiona­l.

“A great taco program, burritos, enchiladas, specialtie­s and feature dishes,” he said, at lunch and dinner daily. Casa Calavera will be family-friendly as well as a late-night party destinatio­n.

The decor, Silberstei­n said, also will have an authentic air. “So you really get that Old World feel as far as furniture, fixtures and custom murals on the walls.”

It’ll be fun, too. Outside the door they’re planning a throne constructe­d of tequila bottles and surrounded by flowers, accessible to anyone entering, leaving or just wandering by.

“It will be a great Instagramm­able moment,” Silberstei­n said.

 ?? Hakkasan Group ?? A rendering of Casa Calavera at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
Hakkasan Group A rendering of Casa Calavera at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.

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