This James Trees-owned restaurant deserves a higher profile. But does it want one?

You would not call Ada’s Food + Wine the forgotten child, the underdog, in the Las Vegas restaurant family of chef James Trees. Not exactly.

But it is fair to say that Ada’s, in a back corner of Tivoli Village, has a lower public profile, a more modest silhouette, than its siblings: much-lauded Esther’s Kitchen, the downtown flagship of the group, and Al Solito Posto, a neighborhood trattoria (on the main drag in Tivoli) that draws diners from far beyond the neighborhood.

At Ada’s, which opened in summer 2022, chef de cuisine Jackson Stamper cooks seasonally, fearlessly, idiosyncratically. Kat Thomas, lead sommelier and soi-disant wine goddess, helms a wine list that ranges globally, thoughtfully, showcasing sustainable producers. The restaurant is intimate, about 30 seats, with a balmy ease from billows of natural light.

So, why does Ada’s seem to draw less attention than it otherwise might, given the food, wine and vibe? Part of that is likely its back-corner location. “It’s not one of the marquee spots. You could drive right by and not know it was there,” Trees said.

But at least an equal part is the menu and wine list deliberately resist easy summary and change frequently. That approach lies in tension — fruitful tension, the Ada’s team would say — with the work of brand and profile elevation.

“I would love to have a bigger spotlight on us, but we’re an experience you can’t really understand by looking at the menu and pictures online,” Stamper said. “We’re the fun test kitchen in ways. We’re given the freedom to do what we want when we want.”

Thomas also spoke to balancing the bottom line with that freedom.

“There’s a fine line,” she observes. “I sometimes want it to be chaotically busy, and then I go to Esther’s, and I think, ‘I don’t want to deal with that.’ People say, ‘We haven’t heard of you.’ But we are building slowly but surely. It seems the slow and steady is going to work out for us.”

‘Not my first love’

Expectations also play into Ada’s profile, at least for new customers.

“I think they are expecting much more of a James Trees-slash-Esther’s experience,” Stamper said. “If people have an idea of a James Trees restaurant, and it’s Esther’s in their mind, I think they’ll be surprised at how different the food is here.”

Consider pasta, one of the headliners at Esther’s, and a particular love of chef Trees. Though pasta appears from time to time on the Ada’s menu, “pasta’s never been my first love,” Stamper said. “I’m not a traditionalist with pasta. I’ve never been a huge lover of making pasta.”

Unexpected dishes

This summer, the chef sent out bay scallops ceviche heaped to one side atop corn panna cotta. On paper, the dish sounds odd, especially the texture. But in hand, the scallops deliver sweet briny pops, combining with creamy panna cotta to conjure something light yet substantial.

Elsewhere on the menu, mussels bathe in their liquor and coconut milk with jabs of ginger. Corn ribs arrive elote style, rubbed with Tajín and backed by aji chile and sour cream dipping sauce.

Lamb ribs (as opposed to lamb chops from the back half of the animal) are an underrated cut, Stamper said. He swaddles his Argentinean lamb ribs in a red wine and Coca-Cola glaze.

“I used to work for Argentinean chefs who drank red wine and Coca-Cola all the time. They cook down to a wonderful sauce.”

As summer yields to cooler weather, the influences and inspiration at Ada’s will shift, too. “Who knows? This winter, we might do Danish,” Stamper said, in keeping with the independence Trees encourages.

“James is much more of an adviser to us than anything else. He leaves Kat and I to run the ship and do things how we do them. If we feel strongly about something, the wine list, the menu, he is willing to defer to us.”

World wine win

In London in August, Ada’s won the Most Original Wine List category at the World’s Best Wine Lists awards presented by The World of Fine Wine, a leading publication covering global wine culture. Ada’s bested restaurants from Hong Kong, Sydney, London, Abu Dhabi and Playa del Carmen in Mexico to take the prize.

“This is the greatest acknowledgment I’ve ever gotten in my career,” Thomas said. “Honestly, I’ve never cared about awards before. Now I care.”

This international recognition comes as Thomas follows her palate and passion to develop notice for Ada’s wine list back home.

“People ask, ‘Oh, you have a Serbian pinot noir? What the hell?’ That is always going to be Ada’s: intentional wines. I pick wines that are made in a sustainable fashion, that are coming from regions or winemakers that do not have the big voice and money behind them. They taste well-made, and they are done with the same intentional pride that we take.”

Intentional pours

Consider 3B Blanc de Blancs, a bone-dry sparkling wine made from two indigenous Portuguese varietals. The winemaker, Filipa Pato, is the daughter of Luis Pato, a leading Portuguese winemaker

Or have a go at Granbazán albariño from Rías Baixas, the coastal Spanish appellation famous for the wine. This one is traditionally racy, with a seam of zesty apple.

Orange wines, made by leaving white wine grapes in contact with their skins during fermentation, have become trendy in recent years, sometimes annoyingly so because the wines can taste unfinished, with an off-putting unedited funk. But Thomas urges customers not to dismiss the entire category.

She points to Longaví Glup Naranjo, an orange wine from Chile that is aromatic and spicy. “Try it and trust that we’re not going to give you something bad,” Thomas said, smiling. “It’s a good business model to pour great wine.”

An equal partner

The wine goddess also pulls from big-name parts of the wine world, but in unexpected ways. Take the ’19 Château Cantemerle, a fifth growth Bordeaux whose estate dates to the Middle Ages. Bordeaux reds typically need aging to soften, but the medium-bodied ’19 is ready for sipping now, Thomas said. “It drinks great right out of the gate.”

At many restaurants, the sommelier isn’t entirely in charge of the wine program, or the wine plays second chair to the food. Thomas said she was grateful that at Ada’s, whether paired by the glass, by the bottle or at a wine dinner, wine ranks as an equal with food.

“It’s so cool as a sommelier to be able to say that. A little travel around the planet is what I want to bring you. I like seeing the world through the glass.”

Menu play

Ada’s began life in 2018 as a high-end pizza and ice cream spot. “That went over just about the way you think it would,” Trees said of the restaurant, which closed during the pandemic. “We had a lease — what should we do with it?”

Stamper, who had once been a line cook at Esther’s, suggested to Trees a wine bar where the wines and the food would share equal billing; Stamper would lead the kitchen. Soon after, Thomas came aboard to helm the wine program.

“It was serendipity they found each other,” Trees said. “We have these people, we have this space, let’s find out what it can be.”

And what Ada’s has become, he said, is an “incubator for other dishes and for social media things we have never done before. We do all the tastings there. At Ada’s, it’s what do you want to try? Test out? Play with? What do you want to cook? What do you want to pour?”

Commerce vs. cool

And yet, the question of profile persists.

“I wish it could be busier,” Trees said, while also acknowledging that Ada’s “doesn’t fall within the lines of every other wine bar that’s opened or every other seasonal kitchen. We could play it straighter and make more money, but it would not be as special.”

But even with this challenge — the tussle between commerce and cool — Trees said he was committed to the freewheeling approach at Esther’s and to its creative team.

“If we didn’t have Kat and Jackson there, delivering this excellent food and wine experience, we might as well not keep it open.”

Perhaps the better queston, then, is not how much of Ada’s character is it willing to change for a higher profile? Perhaps the better question is how does that character ideally fit into the Vegas restaurant scene?

“Our role is to give Las Vegas the restaurant it needs. Not necessarily to be the restaurant it wants but the restaurant it needs,” Trees said. “If Las Vegas wants to be a top-tier culinary destination, it needs restaurants like Ada’s to round out things.”

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.

This story has been updated from the original version.