Famed CDMX restaurant finally sets opening date on Vegas Strip
A Big Three of Mexican food, architecture and spirits — each globally acclaimed — is collaborating to open a place on the Las Vegas Strip that is one of the city’s most anticipated restaurant debuts of 2026.
On March 28 at the Fontainebleau, chef Gabriela Cámara will launch an outpost of Cantina Contramar, her Mexico City flagship famed for its freshly caught seafood dishes. Contramar, a 50 Best Discovery from World’s 50 Best Restaurants, has been more than two years in the making at the property, with its name among the restaurants first announced for the Fontainebleau in September 2023.
Frida Escobedo, the Mexico City and New York City architect whose projects have included a wing for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the renovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, is designing the new Cantina Contramar.
Bertha González Nieves, the first maestra tequileria and co-founder and CEO of Tequila Casa Dragones, the house praised for the smoothness of its small-batch sipping tequilas, completes the trio. Casa Dragones will be served at Cantina Contramar.
“One of the most exciting aspects of bringing an interpretation of Contramar’s spirit and cuisine to Fontainebleau Las Vegas is the opportunity to offer a taste of Mexico: fresh, vibrant, spicy and full of character,” Cámara said in a Wednesday announcement.
On the menu
The restaurant occupies a space on Level 2 of the Promenade, next to Komdo and near the Promenade Food Hall. Among the menu offerings: fresh ceviches and aguachiles, seasonal tostadas, specialty whole-fish preparations and striking large-format entrées. The menu also features new dishes that explore the rich and varied terrain of Mexican cooking beyond Contramar’s signature seafood.
Casa Dragones stars on the beverage program, with González Nieves creating cocktails, pairing menus, and flights of the house’s aged tequilas: Añejo Barrel Blend rested in two styles of new wood casks and Reposado Mizunara, made from 100 percent blue agave and rested in casks of mizunara, a rare Japanese oak traditionally used for aging whisky.
Only U.S. restaurant
Escobedo draws inspiration from traditional Mexican cantinas for the design of the restaurant: bright, spacious, convivial, with a bar, a comal (round flat-top griddle) station and an open kitchen. Cantina Contramar is Escobedo’s first restaurant project in the U.S.
Cantina Contramar will be the chef’s only restaurant in this country (her Cala and Tacos Cala in San Francisco closed during the pandemic). The chef also has several other restaurants in Mexico, with the new Contramar being the next extension of the 27-year-old brand.
“As longtime admirers of Contramar, a Mexico City institution, we are proud to serve as the home of its next chapter,” Brett Mufson, president of and partner in the Fontainebleau, said in the announcement. More menu and design details will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.
