Red Rock Resort adding 2 local favorites to its food court

Red Rock Resort is fully embracing its status as a locals’ destination in its 20th anniversary year.

“What we’ve done, especially in the last couple of years, is continue to refocus our food efforts back into the community,” says Jordan Seager, Red Rock’s vice president and general manager.

“Hearthstone’s a good example of that,” he adds, referencing the local favorite from Clique Hospitality that closed in 2023 after a decade but was brought back into the same space this year.

“We’re going after owners and operators that love what they do and that provide an awesome food experience for our guests. … That’s become absolutely a priority,” Seager says.

Next up, the third location of Good Pie will open in the Red Rock food court May 11, followed by the third location of the smashburger joint With Love, Always on May 16.

“It was wildly intentional on their part, looking back at it now,” With Love, Always co-founder Drew Belcher says. “They hand-selected these concepts because they’re built entirely by locals for the community.”

“It’s embracing the past, present and future of pizza, all in the current moment we’re in,” pizzaiolo Vincent Rotolo says of his Good Pie. “And I think Drew’s doing the same thing with burgers.”

A classic American cheeseburger

Belcher went from experimenting with smashburgers on his rooftop Blackstone griddle to cooking for Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III in the “fully built-out, crazy, James Beard kitchen” at the Red Rock Resorts corporate offices in less than five years.

“Lorenzo gets, like, steaks flown in from Italy and fresh seafood from the Mediterranean, like the craziest s---, and they wanna try our smashburgers,” Belcher says, his voice amplifying the disbelief.

In between, the With Love, Always team put on four pop-ups to test the concept, then got sidetracked launching Sorry, Not Sorry Creamery, which they’re about to franchise.

“It’s not gonna win a James Beard award. There’s no crazy foie gras foam or tweezers with little lettuce hits,” Belcher says. “It’s a classic American cheeseburger using super fresh, high-quality ingredients.”

The sauces are made in-house. Patties, almost 3 ounces of premium Black Angus each, are formed fresh every morning. Two of them are nestled inside a Martin’s Famous Potato Roll with every order.

“It’s the quintessential roll for a smashburger,” Belcher explains, “just because that potato roll, especially being hinged in the back, if you leave it hinged like we do, it soaks up all the juices. … The coolest experience, in my opinion, is those last three bites of a smashburger.”

With Love, Always opened in October 2024 in a tiny corner of a strip mall at 6441 N. Durango Drive and quickly went viral. The cramped location — seating for 12, maximum occupancy of 20 and a continuous dance between customers waiting to order and those hoping to access the fountain drinks or the restroom — sent lines out into the parking lot, only adding to the frenzy.

A second location came around in December at The Bend, 8670 W. Sunset Road. Belcher says the company is looking for a spot in Henderson, possibly one in the Arts District and might end up franchising it, too.

The Red Rock opening, though, feels personal. As a Las Vegas native, Belcher says he’s always looked up to the Fertitta family and Station Casinos.

“Then coming to find out they were actually doing an entire revamp of the food court,” he adds, “I was like, ‘That makes it even more special for us.’ ”

With Love, Always will replace the casino’s Fatburger. The Inglewood, California-based Randy’s Donuts will open its fifth valley location in the former Federal Donuts & Chicken stall. And Good Pie will take over the spot previously held by Side Piece.

“Vincent’s a very good friend of mine. We’ve known each other for years,” Belcher says of the pizzaiolo. “So I’m ecstatic to be going in there the same time as Good Pie.”

Bringing the heavy hitters

For someone who grew up in an apartment above the legendary John’s of Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village and made his first pizza in its coal-fired brick ovens when he was 12, Rotolo did everything he could to outrun his heritage.

At a very young age, he realized the real money in restaurants was made outside the kitchen, so he took a detour through various front-of-house positions in New York. It wasn’t until after relocating to Las Vegas in 2011 and managing an outpost of his hometown’s Circo at Bellagio that Rotolo had the epiphany.

“I’m masquerading as a fine dining guy with a tie bar, suits and cufflinks and polishing my shoes,” he thought. “But inside, I’m a pizza guy with a baseball cap and jeans.”

Rotolo was encouraged by Metro Pizza co-founder John Arena, whom he considers a mentor, to get back into the pizza business. When he did, Rotolo brought that sense of elite quality to everything that followed: 800 Degrees at the former Monte Carlo, Flour & Barley at the Linq Promenade, Dom DeMarco’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar, consulting with Evel Pie.

Finally, he went out on his own in 2018, opening Good Pie in Pawn Plaza before moving it to its current home, 1212 S. Main St., in late 2020. A second location, at 835 Seven Hills Drive in Henderson, came along in 2024.

“I didn’t think I was a good enough pizza maker to be an elite New York pizza maker, and I was wrong,” Rotolo says of why he only embraced his roots once he left the city. “I doubted my pizza ability because I was in awe.”

Rotolo refers to the Arts District location as a pizza bar. The one in Henderson is a pizzeria, “bigger tables, more large group- and family-friendly,” he explains. “And then when you go to Summerlin, it’s a different thing. It’s a counter. It’s a pizza shop.”

The Red Rock counter will have a “streamlined menu,” Rotolo says, but not to worry. “The heavy hitters, the signature dishes are all gonna be there.”

He’s launching two new pizzas for that counter. The first is a fresh mozzarella New York pie.

“We’re keeping it simple,” Rotolo says. “Just cheese, tomato, basil and olive oil — but done on the thinnest crust you can get. We even overstretch our dough to make it thinner, so it’s razor-thin and really crispy.”

Then there’s the White Pie Remix, a veritable cheesemonger’s delight with Pecorino Romano, whole milk mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, burrata, ricotta, stracciatella and Grana Padano aged 30 months.

“We finish it with lemon zest, fresh lemon juice, red pepper flakes, olive oil, Mike’s Hot Honey,” Rotolo teases. “What I learned about competing on ‘Chopped’ … is, you gotta get ’em in one bite. This one bite is everything. It’s heat. It’s sweet. It’s fat. It’s acid. It’s all the things that you want in a delicious bite of food.”

As he takes a break from overseeing the renovation at Red Rock a couple of weeks before opening day, Rotolo is struggling to contain his excitement.

“I already have different yeasts fermenting in the room while the place is still under construction, so I can get the yeast strains in the air,” he says. “I’m geeking out.”