Having been closed for several months, chef Michael Mina’s Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence–winning Stripsteak in Las Vegas reopened Dec. 30 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, with a revamped menu and a new design.
“We opened Stripsteak 17 years ago. In fact, it was my very first steakhouse!” Mina, the founder and executive chairman of his namesake restaurant group, told Wine Spectator. “We’ve been lucky to enjoy a successful run, one that our talented team has maintained since opening, but it was time for a refresh of the interior design and culinary menu.”
Executive chef Kyle Johnson spearheads the new menu, which received an overhaul; about 70 percent of dishes are new or reimagined, with the creativity on display in plates such as caviar jelly doughnuts. “A doughnut is filled with yuzu jelly, then topped with caviar and chives,” Mina explained. “They are small bites that are packed with flavor and designed to be shared, which adds to the fun, social experience.” Other small plates include hamachi nori tacos, a modern take on the traditional Japanese hand roll, with fresh Pacific yellowtail wrapped in crispy seaweed and topped with soy-cured ikura, wasabi tobiko and green onions. One of Mina’s favorite additions is the truffle cornbread. “Truffles and cornbread are such a perfect combination. I can’t believe we haven’t used it before!”
Per Mina, the Stripsteak team is also introducing elevated takes on classic dishes, including a riff on chicken and dumplings, in which the dumplings are filled with foie gras. Another highlight is the duck fat prime rib. “This dish stands out with its unique cooking process of covering the wagyu in duck fat, aging it for 45 days, then roasting it whole,” explained Mina. “Duck fat has a high smoke point, so you get a deep caramelization and a really great flavor.” The dish is served with black truffle jus and a popover filled with aerated blue cheese.
Wood-fired steaks, ranging from ribeye to filet mignon, remain a mainstay at the restaurant. Mina noted that the kitchen has been upgraded and now features specially designed butter baths to heat the steaks “just below rare” before grilling, enhancing their char. “The result is an incredibly flavorful and succulent steak, as the shortened time on the grill ensures the juices stay inside the meat,” the chef said.
The robust wine list includes more than 400 offerings, with many selections from California. This includes top-tier by-the-glass options like Shafer One Point Five 2018 ($64 per glass). There are also plenty of splurge-worthy, steak-friendly choices by the bottle, including multiple vintages of Joseph Phelps Insignia and Opus One.
As for design, the restaurant draws inspiration from the surrounding Mojave Desert, embracing warm tones of sage, gold and burgundy alongside mid-century furniture and modern accents and art pieces. Its open dining room also contains more intimate seating options, like the half-circle, sage-green upholstered booths that line the restaurant’s perimeter. A private dining room is moldable to several configurations and allows for large parties up to 72 guests.—A.R.
Daniel Rose and Boka Restaurant Group Open Le Select in Chicago
On Jan. 28, Chicago became home to Le Select, a new brasserie from acclaimed chef Daniel Rose and the team at Boka Restaurant Group. Rose is well-known for his celebrated New York restaurant, Le Coucou, a former Wine Spectator Restaurant Award winner that shut its doors temporarily in 2020 before reopening in late 2021. Boka—founded in 2002 by Rob Katz and Kevin Boehm—is the group behind several Windy City mainstays, including Girl & the Goat and Best of Award of Excellence winner Swift & Sons.
“Chicago is a city with a very distinct character. It is a great source of inspiration,” Rose, a Chicago native, told Wine Spectator via email. “Boka Restaurant Group is synonymous with success in Chicago and the pieces fall into place from there.”
Located in the River North neighborhood, Le Select offers a menu of French-cuisine classics from Rose. Dishes include the likes of vol au vent, steak au poivre, pâté en croute and other hallmarks of brasserie dining. “Every restaurant opening for me is a creative obsession to try to prove my hypothesis that the French have tapped into universally pleasurable ways to enjoy time at the table,” said Rose.
Rose and Le Select’s beverage team oversee a wine program based around French selections, with a wide range of prices and styles, with the drink offerings spread across the dining room, two restaurant bars and Bar 504, on the space’s second floor. “[The wine list] is intended to be one whose wines are exceptional representations of their respective appellations, with an emphasis on artisan methods, quality, depth of bottle age and maturity and relative value,” Rose explained. Burgundy and Bordeaux sit at the core of the 250-label program, joined by picks from Alsace, the Loire Valley, Roussillon and more that include a range of noteworthy domaines, such as Ostertag, as well as 20 wines served by the glass. Per Rose, the list’s selections will change regularly “to ensure its diversity and approachability.”
Conceived by design firm AvroKO, Le Select’s interior draws from French brasseries and train stations—with terrazzo ceilings, archways, antique mirrors and Maison de Verre glass—mixed in with more industrial-looking metal elements.
Rose previously worked with Boka on their French-cuisine Café Basque on the ground floor of the Hoxton hotel in Los Angeles, which opened Aug. 2022. “It is a very exciting and privileged moment to watch something grow from an instinct or an idea to a living restaurant,” the chef said of their latest collaboration. “I am excited to share the fruit of a dynamic team’s hard work with the other excellent part of Chicago—the world-class diners.”—C.D.