Specialty Food Magazine

PHOTOS: CAESARS ENTERTAINMENT Stanton Social Prime also offers a global wine list and an eclectic cocktail menu, with drinks such as the Doors Have Eyes, made with Roku Japanese gin, lemon, yuzu soda, iced tea ice cubes, Thai basil, and lemonade ice cubes. Where There's Oak, meanwhile, features Elijah Craig bourbon, BLiS maple syrup, and cherry bark bitters, smoked with applewood and served in a metal-and-glass box. The restaurant seats 200 in the main dining room and 10 at the bar. It also includes two private dining rooms.—Mark Hamstra Lemon Tree Cafe & Market 6111 SOUTH BUFFALO DRIVE, LAS VEGAS Lemon Tree Cafe & Market: European-style Shopping & Noshing Patrick Littlejohn, after years of operating high-end restaurants that were owned by others, decided a few years ago that he wanted a business of his own. He chose to develop a European-style, gourmet retail market/cafe for a mixed-use development in Las Vegas, stocking the shelves with specialty items from around the world and offering a cafe menu of casual, elevated cuisine in an environment that encourages people to linger and socialize. Littlejohn, who had managed the Il Mulino restaurant in Las Vegas for 15 years, partnered with local pastry chef and former cafe operator Emily Palmer to open Lemon Tree Cafe & Market last December at Evora, a 42-acre, resort-style residential, retail, and business complex in southwestern Las Vegas. "I wanted to do my own thing," said Littlejohn, in an interview on the Food & Loathing podcast. "I like good food, but in Vegas it was hard to find it all under one roof." Littlejohn, who is originally from Scotland and also spent four years as the food and beverage manager for the king and queen of Jordan and managed restaurants at high-end hotels in New York, says he wanted to recreate the kind of experience food shoppers enjoy in Europe. "You shop, you sit down, you have your lunch, some light bites, you have some wine," he says. "Essentially this is what I have created here." The space includes 3,500 square feet for the retail market area and 2,500 for the cafe, with an ample, airy dining room/lounge that includes tables, chairs and couches, with seating for about 50-60 customers. It is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Steaks are the centerpiece of the menu, and include a flaming, 64-ounce Super Tomahawk steak prepared tableside dangling from a trellis. Like many of the items on the menu, the massive slab of cognac-flambéed meat is meant to be shared. "The concept of food bringing us together has shaped a lot of what I do; it's the universal language," Santos said in an interview with Authority Magazine about his love for family-style dining. Other shared dishes on the menu include whimsical creations such as Black Truffle Ribeye Cheesesteak Sliders, Crab Cake Corn Dogs, Dirty Tots with caviar and lobster crème fraiche, and a Grand Dame Seafood Tower with oysters, lobster, crab claws, and shrimp cocktail. In addition to the Super Tomahawk, the steak menu includes an 18-ounce, 28-Day Dry-Aged Bone-In New York Strip, and a "Pretty in Pink" 10-ounce filet served with pink peppercorn sauce, and pink oyster mushrooms. Steaks are seasoned with house dry rub, rested in a bath of beurre de baratte, finished with pink Himalayan salt, and served with roasted black garlic. Diners can also choose from a selection of sauces served in vintage perfume bottles to drizzle onto their steaks, such Eau de Poivre and Chanterelle No. 5. Desserts include the Strawberry Blond "Milkshake," which is not a milkshake at all, but a colorful, edible sculpture made with strawberry mousse, vanilla sponge cake, and Chantilly cream, built to look like a classic strawberry shake, complete with an edible white chocolate cup and straw. Another sweet showpiece from the dessert menu is the Movie Theater Sundae, featuring a movie theater-style popcorn box filled with dulce de leche ice cream, caramelized banana, and toasted popcorn. 14 SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM STORE & RESTAURANT TOUR

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