The Venetian Is Adding a New Sushi Restaurant With a Speakeasy-Style Lounge | Eater Vegas

"Part of a $1.5 billion reinvestment at the resort, a new sushi restaurant is slated to open this spring as a hybrid part-sushi counter and part-speakeasy, with a hand-roll bar located right at one of the property's most trafficked corridors. It will sit on Restaurant Row, the tiled corridor that is home to Delmonico Steakhouse, Yardbird, and chef Lorena Garcia’s Chica; the resort converted back-of-house office space to make room for the new venue, which will feature a sushi bar, lounge, and take-away options to address the convention-area gap in grab-and-go food. Patrick Nichols, the president and chief executive officer of the Venetian Resort, noted the paucity of quick options — “There’s only Starbucks.” The name is a mash-up of two Japanese words, meaning “to drink” and “to gather.” “It is said around coworkers and to celebrate. The word is perfect for Vegas and for the convention business,” Nichols says. Chef Setsuji Mitsui — formerly of Blue Ribbon Sushi — helms the bar where 20 customers can sit and order hand rolls, nigiri, and cocktails, and those rushing off to the Sphere or the convention center can order made-to-order boxes of sushi to take with them. The counter is expected to open in early spring, with the rear lounge opening a few months later and seating for about 35 to sip cocktails. This opening is one of several restaurants scheduled at the property in 2025, alongside Cote Korean Steakhouse, a new food hall that will welcome All’Antico Vinaio and chef Ray Garcia’s B.S. Taqueria (which closed in 2019 in Downtown Los Angeles), and Chef José Andrés’s Bazaar Meat relocating to a 10,000-square-foot Palazzo space beneath Lavo (a space that previously housed Dal Toro Ristorante before closing in 2016); Nichols says there are also plans for neighboring space that used to be the 40/40 Club, though he is keeping those plans close to the vest." - Janna Karel