Smitten Ice Cream, the ice cream counter inside the Sundry food hall closed earlier this month. The ice cream shop had a fun gimmick. After selecting your flavor and toppings, a staff member would combine the liquid ice cream base in a metal bowl and introduce liquid nitrogen to freeze it into a scoop in about 90 seconds. The process would flood its corner of the food hall in a chilled cloud of smoke for a few seconds. While Smitten is out, Salt and Straw is still open on the other side of the Uncommons courtyard for all your ice cream needs.

Chef Min Kim Goes off-Strip

Mizumi at the Wynn Las Vegas reopened in December 2023 after the restaurant closed temporarily for renovations. In the meantime, executive chef Min Kim had hosted a pop-up in the Wynn’s Jardin restaurant. But when the pop-up closed and Mizumi reopened, Kim was no longer affiliated.

AYYA Hospitality Group, the restaurant group behind Pine Bistro, Crust & Roux, and Thick & Thin Treat Bar announced on Thursday, May 23, that Min Kim has joined as a partner and head of food and beverage and global expansion and will oversee all things food and beverage for the group’s restaurants. Later this year, he’ll be involved in opening Siempre, J.B. at Uncommons.

Wynn Las Vegas

The Inventor of the Cronut Is Moving into the Paris

Dominique Ansel Las Vegas opened at Caesars Palace in October 2022 with display cases filled with delicately frosted doughnut croissant hybrids, whimsical pastries, and a robot that assembles cookie shots. The Caesars Entertainment company is now giving Ansel a second footprint, with 5,000 square feet for Dominique Ansel Marché at the Paris Las Vegas.

Marché will offer café-style and park bench seating for about 50 customers, with an ambiance of trees, flower stands, and hanging awnings. The new cafe will also bake croissants and viennoiserie each morning, offer made-to-order crêpes, seasonal fresh fruit tarts and cakes, and a new variety of savory items like rotisserie chicken and potatoes. Plus, it will still sell Cronuts, Dominique’s kouign amann, chocolate chip cookie shots, and frozen s’mores.

Dominique Ansel Marché will occupy the former JJ’s Boulangerie space near the Bedford by Martha Stewart and opens this fall.

Evan Sung

ShangHai Taste Gets a Taste of the Southwest

Xiao long bao destination ShangHai Taste is expanding to southwest Las Vegas. The Chinatown staple for soup dumplings stuffed with warm and savory Angus beef or shrimp with cucumber will open on Saturday, June 8 at 8060 S. Rainbow Boulevard, Suite 130. The menu will have chef Jimmy Li’s handmade dumplings and noodles, including dishes like spicy wontons in chili oil sauce, steamed crab yolk dumplings, and beef noodle soup.