Rock n Roll chef Kerry Simon’s legacy lives on at Carson Kitchen | Eater Vegas

"Opened in Fremont East in 2014 as one of Kerry Simon's final projects, I find Carson Kitchen carries on his Rock ’n’ Roll Chef legacy by translating the feel of Simon’s loft-style dinner parties into a lively restaurant: diners can sit at a bar in front of the open kitchen (complete with a swear jar), gather at a communal table made from 14-foot doors from his Hard Rock restaurant, and enjoy an atmosphere that emphasizes hanging out and conviviality. The menu balances comfort and surprise—reintroducing familiar dishes like shepherd’s pie reworked as a gnocchi-mashed-potatoes “shepherd’s 3.14” while using familiar vehicles to showcase fine-dining ingredients (foie gras blended into a meatball sauce, caviar on deviled eggs) and keeping Simon-era regulars such as wok-fired edamame, cauliflower, bacon jam, chicken skins, and mac-and-cheese riffs. A 2018 remodel moved the bar and added a rooftop patio, and the restaurant has shifted from mostly local to more tourist-driven traffic; expansion plans include locations in Atlanta and Salt Lake City. This summer the menu’s greatest hits list includes peach upside down cake, green eggs and ham flatbread, wild mushroom with carmelized onion, wok-charred edamame, broccoli crunch, watermelon salad, the FGT stack, Alabama white barbecue chicken thighs, a wild boar sloppy Joe, blackened catfish with spring pea slaw, and jala-pesto pork." - Susan Stapleton