30 of Las Vegas’s Most Exciting Off&Strip Chefs Want to Feed You in One Night

UnStripped food festival downtown. | UnStripped Plus, a coffee shop goes downtown and Bojangles takes its biscuits to Vegas Chefs from some of Las Vegas’s biggest off-Strip restaurants are returning this spring to UnStripped, where they will both cook and hand-serve one-night-only dishes to festivalgoers. In its fourth year, the local food festival is all grown up, migrating from a stretch of pavement in the Las Vegas Arts District to the pool deck at the Palms Casino Resort. The nearly 30 chefs include the likes of James Beard Award finalist Steve Kestler of Aroma Latin American Cocina, Beard finalist and Top Chef contestant Bruce Kalman, and Chopped winner Johnny Church. In years past, participating chefs have aimed high, using the fest to flex their creativity. In 2023, chef DJ Flores of Milpa created mushroom tamales with squash blossoms. Gina Marinelli of La Strega and Harlo Steakhouse & Bar served pasta with green apple-braised goat and black truffle and Adam Rios of Al Solito Posto enrobed Singaporean crab and chili in crispy empanadas. Flores, Marinelli, and Rio are all returning this year, along with chefs including Roy Ellamar of Fine Company, Oulay Fisher of Calabash African Kitchen, Marty Lopez of Scotch 80 Prime, and Yuri Szarzewski of Partage. Last year, the event grew to attract 1,000 ticketholders. And more are anticipated now that the event has moved to the off-Strip casino. An after-party is planned — but no details are available yet. UnStripped hits the Palms Casino Resort from 7 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, May 18. Tickets are $150 and include all food, cocktails provided by favorite Las Vegas bars, and entertainment. Coffee Shop With High Tea Heads to Henderson and Downtown Coffee Religion, a local coffee shop that serves an afternoon tea service, will expand with two new locations. In about four weeks, Coffee Religion will open at 515 South Las Vegas Boulevard, near the Writer’s Block and the Beverly Theater. Downstairs, the coffee shop will sell merch from local artists and a tea room upstairs will serve finger sandwiches with views over downtown. A Henderson location is planned for near the intersection of Eastern Avenue and Horizon Ridge Parkway. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Coffee Religion- Las Vegas (@coffeereligionlv) Bojangles Eyes Southwest Vegas Last summer, Bojangles announced that 20 restaurants are planned for southern Nevada. The southeast fast food brand has submitted paperwork to Clark County for a parcel of land for its first restaurant at the intersection of South Rainbow Boulevard and Blue Diamond Road in southwest Las Vegas. It joins the likes of other regional fast food restaurants that are getting in on the Las Vegas market, like Whataburger, Zippy’s, and maybe, possibly, one day, Portillo’s. Seoul-Based Korean BBQ Is Coming Soon Near H Mart Sookdal Premium Korean Steakhouse has a sign on the wall in the same shopping center as the not-yet-open H Mart and fellow Korean restaurant Daeho Kalbijjim & Beef Soup. Sookdal has a location in Garden Grove in California, where it has earned a reputation for its wet-aged pork belly, stew, and sides including risotto with cream sauce and grilled cheese. Sorry, no new updates on H Mart.