Palate Las Vegas

Palate opened in spring 2024 at 1301 South Main Street, inside the Colorado building in the Las Vegas Arts District, and describes itself as minority-owned, woman-owned and locally owned. It is led by managing partners Rudy Aguas and Marisa Martino of Bar-Kada Hospitality, with Sterling Buckley as executive chef. Buckley grew up in Los Angeles, moved to Las Vegas in 2000, and has cooked at the Stratosphere, Le Cordon Bleu Las Vegas, La Cave at the Wynn, Gordon Ramsay Steak, Honey Salt and Momofuku; his cooking fuses Southern food with Latin American, Pan-Asian and European influences across dishes like the Duck Dynasty charcuterie board and an American Wagyu flank steak. Martino brings three decades in food and beverage, graduated with honours from UNLV's William F. Harrah College of Hospitality and sits on the board of the Epicurean Charitable Foundation; Aguas spent more than twenty years across Wynn and Encore and the Venetian-Palazzo. The restaurant was created, in its own words, to pay homage to the Arts District, and it does so literally: local artists' work hangs throughout the room, live music runs Thursday through Saturday, and the team partners with neighbourhood trades, vendors and suppliers.

The house line is that the food is art and the cocktails are art, and the zero-proof drinks are held to that same standard rather than parked at the bottom of the menu. A standing section titled FREE SPIRITED carries five crafted non-alcoholic cocktails: Kiss From a Rose (Empress N/A indigo gin, hibiscus, elderflower, lime, lemonade, rose), Pineapple Express (pineapple-jalapeno-infused N/A mezcal, lime, agave, pineapple, smoked), Whiskey '0' Sour (zero-proof whiskey, lemon, demerara), Zero Plane (zero-proof whiskey, Lyre's Orange Aperitif, Lucano N/A amaro, lemon), and Valerie (Empress N/A indigo gin, lemon, ginger). Non-alcoholic beer is stocked alongside them, including Athletic Brewing's Atletica and Free Wave. The program also gives back through the glass: for every free-spirit cocktail sold, one dollar is donated to the Vegas Stronger foundation, which works on addiction recovery and homelessness in the city. Dinner runs Wednesday through Sunday, with brunch at the weekend.