Las Vegas Weekly

A house of spirits

Caña dig it?!

Cana’s raw (bulb) bar

Photo: Xania Woodman

Town Square’s date-night domination is complete now that Rave Theater, Yard House, Blue Martini, Louie Bar and Cadillac Ranch have been joined by yet another dining/drinking/mingling establishment. Caña Latin Kitchen & Bar opened to the public on January 19 above the Grape and behind Johnny McGuire’s.

A tiny, 132-seat boîte with three (count ’em) balconies overlooking the Town Square bustle, Caña—“sugarcane”—offers South American-inspired cocktails using spirits derived from every sugarcane spirit GM Cory Harwell can get his hands on: rum, pisco (Peru), cachaça (Brazil), aguardiente (Columbia, Chilen, Ecuador), seco (Panama) and guaro (Bolivia) will all get a moment in the spotlight.

Behind the naked bulb bar, two kinds of ice—pellet and cube—lend themselves to more than a dozen signature cocktails, including a rum-based, white-peach sangria and a blackberry-thyme margarita. “Drew breathed life into it,” says Harwell of the contributions Wirtz Beverage’s Drew Levinson made to Caña’s cocktail menu.

Sating the hunger that will likely be inspired by all that drinking, chef Kevin Lew (formerly of Bradley Ogden fame) is serving up what Harwell calls sashimi’s “Latin American cousin.” With ceviche, one “cooks” raw fish using acid rather than heat, which preserves the integrity and flavor. “It’s such a prominent thing in South American countries,” Harwell says. And Caña serves it up 10 ways “bocadillo”-style (similar to tapas) along with Lew’s “piggy-back” dates and chorizo corn dogs, until 2 a.m.