Esther’s Kitchen owner plans to expand into Tivoli Village

Esther’s Kitchen has been open less than six months, but chef/owner James Trees is already looking to expand. Trees is heading to Tivoli Village to take over the Waffle Bar space, which was previously home to Radio City Pizza. While there’s no official name for the new project, we’re told it will offer the chef’s signature pizzas, ice cream and a bar featuring one of the valley’s largest selections of gin. Expect to be able to enjoy a gin and tonic while taking the kids for a cone as soon as late summer or early fall.

Cease and cerveza

Henderson’s Crafthaus Brewery got into some hot water for the name of its annual release Jean Claude Belgian Golden Strong Ale. It was named after the brewmasters’ recalcitrant van, dubbed Jean Claude Damn Van. Following a cease-and-desist letter from an attorney for action star Jean Claude Van Damme, it will henceforth be known as Not That Jean Claude.

Remembering Bourdain

Amid the hundreds of special menus for Restaurant Week, a fundraiser for Three Square food bank that runs through June 29, Andre’s Bistro & Bar, 61151 S. Fort Apache Road, offers a menu dedicated to the late chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain and inspired by his time at Brasserie Les Halles in New York. The three-course menu, with entree choices of steak frites, duck a l’orange, beer-steamed mussels with merguez sausage or lobster thermidor, is $50, with $5 for each menu sold going to the food bank.

New chef at Andiron

Grady Parker has taken the reins in the kitchen of Andiron Steak & Sea in Downtown Summerlin. Parker, who most recently worked at Girasol in Studio City, California, may be familiar to Las Vegans from his time in the kitchens of Bouchon, Joel Robuchon and Aureole.

The Table may return

It looks like Project Dinner Table may be gearing up for a re-launch. The dining series, which ran from 2010 through 2014, regularly brought over 100 guests to a single massive table, usually in an outdoor venue, to enjoy a meal by top Las Vegas chefs and raise money for charity. On June 16, a tweet on the official Project Dinner Table Twitter account stated: “Met w/ Tivoli about a hosting a fall Project Dinner Table. Date is forthcoming. Thank you for your persistence & patience as we plan for some people, food and purpose.” No more details are available, but PDT founder Gina Gavan recently told a UNLV class that she’s interested in hosting smaller, more intimate meals where people could have “deep, uncomfortable, difference of opinion, problem-solving conversations.” (You can find that on the Project Dinner Table Facebook page.)

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