Celebrity chef bringing restaurant to new boutique hotel in Arts District
After Todd English moved to Las Vegas a year and a half ago, the celebrity chef says he kept going to a particular area of town: the Arts District.
He went there for meetings, for coffee, to walk his dog or just to hang out, including when there wasn’t much going on after the pandemic hit, he said last week.
Now he’s set to open a restaurant in the neighborhood, in a hotel named for him.
The English Hotel, a newly built four-story property at 921 S. Main St., at Coolidge Avenue, is scheduled to open this year, General Manager Steve Dennis told the Review-Journal.
His team will have a better idea in late fall of when exactly the $30 million-plus project will debut, he added.
Developed by Z Life Co., The English Hotel isn’t the only small hotel in Las Vegas. But it’s a rare boutique property in a market dominated by chain resorts that often have thousands of rooms, sprawling casino floors, and lengthy lists of restaurants, bars, and entertainment.
Dennis said the 74-room hotel is close to the Strip and downtown and would attract guests who, among other things, don’t want a long walk to their rooms.
English, a partner in the business, said that Las Vegas needs a spot with more of a locals’ feel as the city keeps changing, and that people don’t always want a big casino experience.
“I think Vegas is ready for it, I really do,” English said.
According to English, his restaurant at the hotel will be a “spicy, jazzy, loungey” place with oysters, sushi and the like and is called The Pepper Club.
English, who said he lives in Turnberry Towers and is building a house in Southern Highlands, said he’s been involved with the Arts District venture for about a year, maybe a little less. He had been looking to get involved in a hotel project, he said, adding that a few previous efforts didn’t work out.
As outlined in a June news release, developers of the Arts District project used a “pre-engineered modular wall system that provides the building’s entire structural support,” describing this as a “cost-effective, sustainable, and time-efficient” construction process.
It also said the hotel offers more than 70 “sexy guestrooms” and provides visitors a unique option that is “in stark contrast” to the megaresorts and “grandeur” of the Strip.
English, who boasts restaurants in New York, Manila, Dubai, the Bahamas and elsewhere, is no stranger to Las Vegas’ dining scene. His restaurant Olives had a two-decade run at the Bellagio and recently debuted at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas. He also has a food hall-style eatery, The Beast, at entertainment complex Area15.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.