Las Vegas Weekly

September 29, 2009 · 3:32 PM

Photo Gallery: Emeril kicks it up a notch with Lagasse’s Stadium

By Robin Leach

Emeril Lagasse.

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

The dream for celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse was more than a year in the making, but truth be told, it probably lurked in the back of his mind ever since he first fell in love with sports and cooking! Emeril is so passionate about food and such a fanatic about sports, he’s cooked up the perfect recipe for success in his new, hip hangout.

Not only that, but he’s installed 109 huge HDTV screens, so wherever he and his guests go, a game is on from somewhere in the world! It’s probably one of the largest sports bars anywhere in the world, and for Las Vegas, it’s a real first to have a betting book right in a restaurant!

As we reported yesterday -- click HERE for our story and photo gallery -- the “kick it up a notch” and “Bam!” star chef had an all-star turnout of Hollywood and sports stars and VIPs for his opening gala festivities of the new Lagasse’s Stadium sports book, bar and grill in the Palazzo.

Before he walked the red carpet, Emeril gave our contributing photographer Tom Donoghue and me a private tour of the new sporting stronghold. Then Emeril, who I first met years ago when he worked at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans even before I put him on The Food Network, sat down with me for a private chat.

Robin Leach: Exactly a year ago at the 2008 Andre Agassi event, you told me that you had a dream. Now the dream has come true -- we are sitting in the middle of that dream -- did it turn out the way you wanted?

EL: And more so. As you know, our good friend Rob Goldstein, the president of The Venetian and Palazzo, asked me to take a look at the space. Then he asked what would I do with it. I banged my head and said we can’t do a restaurant. It has incredible access space to the Strip, probably the best on the Strip, but it’s too big! It is 22,000 square feet. Unless you are going to do a multiple concept restaurant or make it a Chinese banquet hall, I don’t know what you do.

Then I said to him jokingly, you could make it a sports bar and flip Las Vegas upside down. Make it the greatest sports bar that has ever been seen. Rob said it was a great idea and wanted me to do it, but I turned him down. That’s not what I do. Eventually, he talked me into it and I gave in, but I told him there had to be a few changes. I knew he’d spent a lot of money on televisions, but I wanted them all to be in high-def. So he bit the bullet, and we have 109 of them now. Nobody else has that many in a restaurant anywhere!

I am not a gambler, but I know that if people want to place a bet, they are not going to want to walk very far, so I said I’d do it if he put a sports book in front of the restaurant. He said OK, and that’s how we now have our own sports book here, right inside of Lagasse’s Stadium. It’s a world’s first.

So if you come here at 9 a.m., 10 a.m., the place is packed. It will be a frat house in here. Then for Sunday football, that’s a much more reserved crowd -- not as wild and crazy. But that row right there, which used to be the main bar, we have turned that into the sports book. It is so exciting -- it’s changing all the time. I wanted a lot of fun with the food, and I went to my culinary team and said Brooklyn pizza, sugar shakes or even be able to order caprese salad and antipasta. Everybody threw their thoughts and ideas into the hat. Then we Emerilized it, kicked it up a notch and kept our New Orleans flavors and tastes. We wound up with great po boys, barbecue shrimp. We’ve even got a Creole Reuben and great chicken wings.

We kept it New Orleans, and it’s all turned out OK. We got the best chicken wings. We got the best burgers with the best grade meat. No processed crap. Even our hot dog cart in the burger bar has homemade condiments and Zapp’s Potato Chips from Louisiana. You can get a French dip to a pizza to stromboli to a cheese steak to a shrimp remoulade salad, crab cakes to a shrimp po boy.

RL: Is your passion more for sports or for cooking?

EL: The passion is for both, but, first of all, I confess I am a sports junkie. My wife and I are football freaks. We still have season tickets to the Saints. We still support the Hornets and have season tickets at the Hornets. We love sports. We just love sports. So for me, this was a natural. I can’t believe I’m sitting here into this game right now! It’s like I have never seen Nevada or Missouri play, but it’s on live. I’m sitting in a private booth with Robin Leach. This is bigger and better than I ever dreamed. We have a decent kitchen, and we converted the shoebox that was there into four times what it was. I might even put TVs in the kitchen so I can cook and watch!

RL: So you’ve kicked it up way more than a notch with the stadium?

EL: Robin, it’s fun when we are having fun. We are gonna have a great time. For the first time in my life, opening a restaurant, opening night, and I’m not worried that food critics will find their way through the door and try to rip my head off because I don’t have the right Riddell glasses or the right flatware. Or I have a lack of expensive china, and this vegetable was way too much for the crab tonight. Lagasse’s Stadium is just about fun, and we are just gonna have fun. It’s a great weight off your shoulders when you know any critic here will be watching sports, too!

We even put more TVs in the private boxes. We have five of those, plus all the stadium seating. It’s pretty much first come, first served. On big game days, there will have to be minimums, but I’m not gouging anybody. However, I can’t encourage people who just want to order a Coca-Cola to be here for six hours, either. If people want to have a cigar, they can go outside and enjoy a cigar. I think we’ve got the best indoor and outdoor space on the Strip. There is something for everybody here.

We even do breakfast. So we have breakfast sandwiches -- really, really creative stuff. Poke your head in here tomorrow, and you’ll see a line at 7:30 in the morning. Some people have gone to bed, some people haven’t gone to bed. But the thing is they want to start with breakfast. They want to have a Bloody Mary or a mimosa. Then they move on to order beer. Then they are happy and the day progresses. We have customers that literally come in for 12 hours around the clock. It’s unbelievable, and it’s not only football. It’s baseball, it’s golf, it’s horse racing, it’s cricket, it’s soccer, it’s basketball. It is sports from around the world, as well. Not only American sports. It’s 24 hours, so when America stops playing, Australia starts playing. It is amazing!

That’s the one problem with this kind of place. Sleeping! People aren’t going to sleep because they are too busy watching the action. So we’ve got comfortable couches. They can grab an hour’s nap, wake up and watch the next game. It’s crazy, but it’s happened already.

RL: I have always bet on you as a chef. Do you bet on games?

EL: The first time I ever bet at a sports book, I was here in Las Vegas when I watched Eli Manning win the Super Bowl. I set the kitchen table up at Delmonico’s Steakhouse and had somebody bring in a TV. My wife and I had a few relatives and a few friends over for chicken wings and jalapeno poppers and steak sandwiches, and we watched the game. And just before kickoff, I said, “Ya know what? I don’t know why I am doing this. I don’t do this!” But … I had a runner. I called my runner to go down and place a couple of bets for us, and it was a winning day. I made money, and I haven’t done it since. Once and once only. A one-shot deal.

RL: This is all a long way from your early days in Commander’s Palace.

EL: I love it. I am amazed. Ten years ago, I moved my parents to New Orleans. My brother and my sister are in New Orleans. It became our home. It’s almost back on its feet now after the hurricane. We’ve still got work to do. The Mississippi Gulf Coast still needs help and a lot of work.

RL: You’ve spearheaded that effort.

EL: We’ve tried. It’s been four years if you can believe it, Robin. Insurance is still not paid. We lost our beach house, my wife and I. We haven’t settled with the insurance company, but the French Quarter is back and fine. Like Vegas, the tourism is still struggling. It’s just not like how it used to be. So you gotta change your game and adjust. We’ve had to make a lot of adjustments.

For me, opening this Lagasse’s Stadium has been a breath of fresh air. We even have a dugout where you can order salmon or a steak with a great bottle of wine. Nothing crazy, but at another level. Truly it can’t be any better -- the best food and the best sports nonstop around the clock. I’m in heaven! Really and truly!

When I ran into Emeril the next night at the Andre Agassi Grand Slam event, he told me that crowds had started lining up even earlier than 7:30 a.m. He said: “We were serving breakfast to them by 6:30 a.m., and I don’t know if they’d gone to bed yet or they’d just woken up, but they wanted to eat and watch the games. The dream worked and came true.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

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