5 new restaurants to start 2024 in Vegas

In the first Las Vegas restaurant reconnaissance of 2024:

■ 85 C Bakery Cafe (rendered stylistically as 85° C), a Taiwan-born chain with more than 1,000 shops across the globe, has opened its second Las Vegas location, this time at 673 N. Stephanie St. in Henderson. The bakery takes its name from 85 degrees Celsius (185 Fahrenheit), a temperature it describes as ideal for brewing espresso.

Dozens of sweet and savory breads and pastries anchor the menu, including milk breads, custard buns, danish, brioche, cheese breads, muffins, tarts, cookies, and cakes sold whole or by the slice. Visit 85cbakerycafe.com.

■ Flor Kitchen & Cocktails — a steakhouse, hookah parlor and ultralounge combo — has opened at 1405 E. Sunset Road, just south of Harry Reid International Airport. Chef Miguel Martinez is sending out a menu of globally influenced Latin dishes. Bottle service in lowrider cars is offered later in the evening when Flor becomes an ultralounge.

Follow the restaurant at instagram.com/florlasvegas. Flor occupies the former Pure Indian Cuisine & Bar.

■ Piroshky Piroshky, the longtime Eastern European bakery from Pike Place Market in Seattle, is again popping up for one day in Vegas. To get your paws on piroshki, visit piroshkybakery.com, cursor over Order on the toolbar, click on Event/Pre-Order Pickup, then click on the red Vegas dot on the map.

Place order ($50 minimum) by 2 p.m. Jan. 14. Items will be prepared fresh, then flash-frozen for pickup. Retrieve orders between 5 and 7 p.m. Jan. 16 at Bad Beat Brewing, 7380 Eastgate Road, Suite 110, Henderson.

■ Sala 118, a Venice-inspired bar and lounge, is now open in the lobby of The Venetian. The bar takes its name from the 118 islands on which the city is built. The cocktail menu, in three chapters, features aperitivos, negronis, and classics with a twist. The bar uses a house blend of bitters and vermouth dispensed from a lion fountain.

■ Sorry, Not Sorry Creamery, the Vegas-born ice cream purveyor named after a fauxpology, just opened a third location, this one at 3239 Bicentennial Parkway, Suite 100, in Henderson’s Inspirada community. SNS has developed an enthusiastic following for its use of hormone- and antibiotic-free milk and its seasonal and signature flavors.

The current winter seasonal offerings: milk and cookies, gingerbread crunch, cherry amaretto chip and spiced eggnog sugar cookie. Among the 16 classic flavors are mangonada spiked with Tajin, camp fire s’mores and whiskey bananas Foster.

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Florida stone crab returns to Siegel’s 1941 in El Cortez. On Fridays and Saturdays, the restaurant is serving a pound of flown-in stone crab claws with cottage fries and coleslaw for $55. Florida stone crab season runs through May 1.

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Carson Kitchen, 124 S. Sixth St., Suite 100, has introduced new winter menu items created by chef-owner Cory Harwell.

The selections encompass about 20 dishes and cocktails, including root vegetables with gochujang miso ($14), a bok choy wedge with miso bacon ($14), shrimp campanelle with hemp seed pesto ($18), ga pao-style duck tacos with basil cream ($16), molasses-glazed pork meatloaf ($18), and a Shut Up, Cory! cocktail made with vodka, spiced cranberry syrup, lime and ginger beer ($15). Visit carsonkitchen.com/las/index.html.

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Crush, from Michael and Jenna Morton of Morton Group, is celebrating its 10th anniversary at MGM Grand in January. To mark the milestone, William DeMarco, executive chef of the group, is offering this month some dishes on the original Crush menu from 2013.

Appetizers, for $24, are a sea scallop and quail-egg Benedict with chorizo and chipotle hollandaise and red-wine veal Bolognese with creamy polenta. The artichoke and date wood-fire pizza returns, for $24. Entrées are cavatelli with Italian sausage and broccolini, for $32, and a 2-pound pepper-crusted bone-in braised short rib with Asian pear salad, for $45.

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