The Next Best Thing to Being Martha Stewart's Dinner Guest
Martha Stewart The Bedford
The Bedford

The Next Best Thing to Being Martha Stewart’s Dinner Guest

The mega lifestyle mogul has a new Vegas restaurant

The day after the grand opening of the Bedford by Martha Stewart at Paris Las Vegas, the self-made lifestyle mogul herself is seated across from me at a media lunch, commanding attention in her gold-splashed sweatsuit in a room full of reporters. 

Holding court at an impeccably set dining table in the restaurant—a replica of her 1925 farmhouse in upstate New York—Stewart points out some of the spot-on details, like the faux-wood-grain finishes, crystal entertaining pieces and copies of her Sotheby’s sconces.

Martha Stewart's Las Vegas restaurant
The Bedford is a replica of Stewart’s longtime upstate New York home. Photo: The Bedford

Stewart owns several properties, but she’s lived and entertained in the elegant, grey-themed “Winter House” for more than 20 years. It’s where she spent the early part of the pandemic mixing up cocktails that got her through quarantine. The menu at the Bedford—from oysters Rockefeller to frozen pomegranate “Martha-ritas”—is inspired by some of her favourite recipes.

The Bedford by Martha Oysters Rockeller
The Bedford’s menu is inspired by Stewart’s favourite dishes, like oysters Rockeller (above). Photo: The Bedford

The 81-year-old diva of domesticity is the first to admit that most people didn’t expect this from her: “It’s a rather strange time for me,” she says in her trademark hushed and plummy way before sitting down to a bowl of halibut and corn chowder with clams. At an age when her peers are either well into retirement, or shuffling off the mortal coil, she’s opening a restaurant. 

Which makes perfect sense to her. “I’ve always wanted a restaurant, and this opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.” Stewart’s mind is always spinning with ideas of “how we can make money while having so much fun.” The former model, stockbroker and caterer has also recently launched her own line of meal kits, a podcast and CBD gummies. She’s full of surprises, too, like her sultry Instagram thirst-trap selfies and close friendship with Snoop Dogg (they hit it off making green brownies on her show).

Martha Stewart Snoop Dog
Martha Stewart and buddy Snoop Dogg clink Meyer Lemon Drops at the Bedford’s opening. Photo: Denise Truscello / Getty Images for Caesars Entertainment

It turns out, Stewart had been coming to Vegas for “a very long time” before making a deal with Caesars Entertainment. She certainly looked very Vegas at the opening party, decked out in a feathered yellow Valentino number while clinking glasses of Meyer Lemon Drops and her eponymous 19 Crimes Martha’s Chard with Snoop and Ellen Pompeo. 

She tells us that in the past she’s decorated the Bellagio for Christmas. She knows her way around a Blackjack table. She “loves” Cirque de Soleil and has watched every show. She wants to come back for Christmas and see Adele, and maybe one day, Snoop. “Snoop’s looking for a residency.”

She also fancies the billboards, “especially the [ones] that I’m on,” she says, shortly before she orders us all to stop peppering her with questions and start enjoying the meal, in true boss fashion. 

As incongruous as all that seems, what does make sense is that Stewart would want to bank on what Vegas arguably does better than any other city: splashy celebrity restaurants that can feed big crowds and do it very well. In fact, Vegas is a slamming food destination where restaurant sales top non-gaming revenues.

The world’s biggest celebrity chefs—from Wolfgang Puck to Nobu Matsuhisa—are in the Mojave desert because flush Vegas hotels have both the space and the resources to build restaurants that feed egos as well as customers. 

As José Andrés told Anthony Bourdain in the 2014 Vegas episode of Parts Unknown, you can also have the restaurants helmed by other chefs who “are as good if not better than the guys that have the name on top with neon letters.” 

With so much conspicuous consumption and options, foodies also love Vegas because it’s way easier to get a table at a buzzy restaurant here that seats 300 people than it is to get a seat at a New York City eatery that only takes 30. Proof: The Vegas location of Rao’s steakhouse (now shuttered) could fit 350 people; the only way to get a table at the ultra-exclusive Rao’s in N.Y.C. is to inherit one.

When I was invited to Stewart’s restaurant opening, I admit my first thought was skepticism. Her farmhouse experience faithfully recreated in a French-themed hotel that boasts a half-size Eiffel Tower and fake Parisian “sky”? I’d never been to Vegas before and perhaps didn’t appreciate how much work (and casino revenue) goes into creating over-the-top, smoke-and-mirror facades. 

Here, big-name chefs can be playful and larger-than-life with their concepts (Stewart’s restaurant is three times bigger than her actual home). Yet the food, including coveted ingredients like Stewart’s Maine Aroostook County potatoes and golden Osetra caviar, is no joke.

Amalfi by Bobby Flay
Another celebrity chef venture, the Italian Amalfi by Bobby Flay. Photo: Amalfi

Everyone in Vegas has a schtick. Gordon Ramsay does his fiery British thing with a recreation of Hell’s Kitchen, a spinoff of the show—flaming pitchfork and all. Giada (De Laurentis) is beachy, bright and airy California cool. Amalfi by Bobby Flay channels the Italian coast with an in-house fishmonger and market where you can pick your own catch from blue-mosaic displays. Vanderpump à Paris is a whimsical and gothic cocktail funhouse. 

What I learned is that if you’re not expecting Vegas to be over the top, including its celebrity restaurants, you’re kind of missing the point. This is a place where Guy Fieri and Guy Savoy can happily co-exist and you can walk around nearly naked with a boozy 32-ounce slushie on the way to a Michelin-star meal. 

Vanderpump à Paris
Vanderpump à Paris by Bravo star Lisa Vanderpump is modelled after an old Parisian courtyard. Photo: Ernesto Garrido

Back at the Bedford, there’s kitsch, but it’s Martha-style. Fake boxwood planters, ferns and climbing clematis are meant to mimic Stewart’s winding farmhouse pergola. LED window frames in the Brown Room are lit up with images of faux sun-dappled pin oaks and paddock, to evoke the essence of Stewart’s peacock-roaming country paradise.

From the “Bedford gray” paint colour to the hanging copper pots and minimalist table lamps, every detail is thought out—and many are for sale on martha.com. In the middle of the luncheon, the silver spoon in my caviar is replaced with a proper mother-of-pearl one. 

Chilled out on CBD gummies or not, Stewart is a stickler for details: Caviar absorbs the bitter flavour of metal, a sacrilege. After our hostess leaves the dining area, I overhear her handler warn one of the restaurant’s staff: “It better be shining.”

 

How to get there

Air Canada, WestJet and Flair operate non-stop flights from Toronto to Las Vegas (about five hours).

Where to stay

Nobu, the Japanese-Peruvian restaurant empire created by Robert DeNiro and chef Nobu Matsuhisa, opened its first five-star boutique hotel in 2013 within one of the original Caesars Palace towers. You can snag a Zen-inspired deluxe room on an off-season weekday for less than $125. The hotel also offers more baller suites, such as the 10,300-square-foot, three-bedroom villa with a rooftop onsen and massive patio overlooking the Strip.

What else to do

When in Rome, why not live like Caesar? The “swimming pool” at Caesars Palace, which is open to the public, is actually a seven-pool complex called Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis, where you can party with the people, rent a quiet cabana or play blackjack at a swim-up table. 

Caesars Palace Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis
Caesars Palace’s Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis. Photo: Caesars

No Vegas experience would be complete without a hedonistic buffet (think Bacchanal or the Buffet at Wynn Las Vegas) and a live show. There are too many brilliant acts to list, but John Legend’s Love in Las Vegas left me weak in the knees and returns in October.

Writer Claire Sibonney travelled as a guest of Caesars Entertainment, which did not review or approve this article.

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