First look: One of the biggest names in Vegas restaurants opening a new spot

In Las Vegas, EDO has become shorthand for a certain precise focused food that braids the cooking of Spain (especially Barcelona) with international accents — first at the former EDO Tapas & Wine in Chinatown, currently at Anima by EDO in the southwest.

At Braseria by EDO, the latest restaurant from EDO Hospitality Group opening Monday on Paradise Road, diners will find the same focus and precision, the same deft twists on tradition, but not the EDO shorthand that many might expect.

“I didn’t want to make this Anima 2.0,” said Tayden Poha-Ellamar, corporate executive chef of EDO Hospitality, who fashioned the menu with Roberto Higuera, executive chef of Braseria. “I wanted to do a different take on French brasserie food, infuse Spanish flavors and Asian flavors with classic French dishes, while putting our spin on it.”

Braseria (braseriabyedo.com) also presents what is easily the most opulent EDO restaurant ever, combining signature brasserie elements like dark wood, black-and-white tiled floors, brass accents, stamped metal and globe fixtures with swagged chandeliers, a vaulted ceiling brightened by a hand-painted mural, and a terrace affording views of Sphere and a slice of the Strip.

“After doing La Loba in Seattle, as we’re growing as a group, these things Vegas is known for, we are now catching up to that,” Joseph Mikulich, a partner in EDO Hospitality, said of the approach at Braseria. “We needed a restaurant that had more of a vibe.”

Extensive renovation

That vibe has been two-plus years in the making, with the EDO Hospitality partners first walking Suite Z on the second floor of 3900 Paradise Road, the former Yolie’s Brazilian Steakhouse, at the end of 2023. The space in The Collective had been vacant for years.

Down-to-the-studs renovation followed, from new subflooring to a new roof, from a replacement grease trap to special permits for seven chandeliers hanging from the vaulted ceiling (the largest two costing $20,000 each).

“We knew this was going to be an overhaul,” Mikulich said of the 5,000-square-foot project. “Anything that could have been a problem was a problem.”

Design essentials

But perseverance paid off. Today, the vaulted ceiling rises to 24 feet, its mural by Brazilian artist Apolo Torres depicting caviar, an emblem of the Paris-Brest bicycle race, a vintage phonograph and women crowned with elaborate floral headdresses. Framed images of these women also brighten the restaurant walls below.

A service station in marbleized porcelain lies just beyond the open kitchen, whose service window is outlined in stainless steel plates with a brass finish. Marbleized porcelain also tops the front bar, which stretches beneath brass shelves across the room.

Banquettes upholstered in butterscotch vegan leather and giant curving power booths covered in a charcoal version populate the dining room. Low-slung wooden partitions divide the seating from the bar and kitchen at either side.

“Wanted the feeling to be very inviting, very sexy,” Roberto Liendo, another EDO Hospitality partner, said of the Braseria design. “We chose pony walls in the dining room to bring in the energy of the kitchen and the bar while also giving you some privacy so you can have a conversation.”

Rethinking French onion soup

Dinner at Braseria (5 to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays) might begin with scallops on the half shell that superficially resemble the tom kha scallops at Anima by EDO. But these scallops are rendered with Pernod vinaigrette (very French), grapefruit granita (Italian chill) and fines herbes (France again).

Pasta isn’t typically served at a traditional French brasserie, but chef Poha-Ellamar makes a winning case for bringing them into the French fold. Perfectly textured gnocchi, pillowy yet gently firm, rest in a sauce of Comté cheese and heavy cream, studded with chunks of French ham and finished with a flurry of shaved Comté.

Cappelletti (“little hats”) are plumped with a mix of Comté, Gruyère and Parmesan, set in a broth of charred onions cooked down over 24 hours, and topped with a Parmesan tuile broken into pieces to soak up the broth. The dish is Braseria’s version of French onion soup.

“I thought, ‘How can we approach a French onion soup different?’” the chef said. “One thing I’m always missing in French onion soup, I wish there was one more texture, so we landed on that with the pasta.”

Tableside tartare

For beef tartare, filet mignon trim, eye of round, an organic chicken egg, Casa Santoña anchovies from Spain, capers, shallots, chives, Dijon mustard, smoked Worcestershire, a quick stream of arbequina olive oil, and drippings from a torched trough of bone marrow are mixed on a tableside trolley.

“You want to make sure the marrow is integrated throughout the entire dish,” Mikulich said. “The marrow fat assists with the binding of the tartare,” which is molded into a puck before being plated with grilled olive oil coca bread, the Catalan flatbread.

Grilled skirt steak from O’Connor Beef of Australia arrives with fancy creamed spinach (crème fraîche, Comté) and a thick rich bordelaise.

Lobster Thermidor, a grand old dish, receives a makeover in Poha-Ellamar’s hands. The meat from a 1½-pound lobster is mixed with miso-lobster jus béchamel, tarragon and parsley, then returned to the split-open shell (without the usual Gruyère or Parmesan topping) and baked. A salad of pungent wasabi arugula grown in Vegas tops the dish.

“I love lobster Thermidor. I just wanted to do my spin on it and introduce subtle Asian flavors,” the chef said.

Also worth noting: the bread and butter service anchored by an 11-pound tower of Échiré butter through which a heated spoon is dragged upward to create curls.

Pours made by monks

Cigarettes After Sex, a dream-pop band formed in the Aughts, gives its name to a signature cocktail at Braseria that features an empty cigarette wrapper filled with wood chips. The cigarette is used to smoke the glass for Sazerac Rye 100 Proof whiskey chilled by a big cube. “Using eucalyptus makes it a menthol cigarette,” said Joseph Arakawa, corporate beverage director of EDO Hospitality.

In a highly distinctive aspect of its bar program, Braseria serves green and yellow Chartreuse on draft. The spicy herbal French liqueur made by Carthusian monks from a secret recipe of 130 botanicals is more difficult to obtain these days because, one story has it, the monks have increased their prayers, leaving less time for liqueur.

Whatever the reason, Mikulich has laid by at least 50 bottles of Chartreuse so that it can be served in 1-ounce draft pulls. Mikulich said he also planned to offer Chartreuse V.E.P., a limited release that is aged longer than standard Chartreuse, concentrating (while also smoothing out) its herbal character.

Chartreuse on draft feels like the ideal fit for the latest restaurant in the EDO family, where classics go for a glow-up.

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.