Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/692319
TesT Kitchen The ciTy's newesT culinary incubaTor? a dive bar-adjacenT kiosk downTown. by tess eyrich 118 vegasmagazine.com photography by jeff gale This box rocks! Before SLO-Boy moved in, the kiosk outside Dino's served as a launchpad for Downtown success stories Naked City Pizza, Viva Las Arepas, and the Goodwich. It's easy to overlook the closet-size kiosk outside 50-year-old Downtown lounge Dino's. Get a little closer, though, and you'll be overcome by the smell of tri-tip cooked by Justin Kingsley Hall of SLO-Boy, the latest culinary endeavor to take up residence inside the blink-and-you-might- miss-it space. A former Comme Ça chef, Hall moved into the kiosk on the heels of his friend Josh Clark, whose Goodwich sandwich shop recently relocated to a brick-and-mortar spot on the ground floor of the nearby Soho Lofts building. Clark and fellow Goodwich proprietor Theo van Soest continue to oversee the kiosk but have transformed it into a short-term incuba- tor for chefs to actualize experimental concepts for up to six months each; as their first tenant, Hall already has established the venue's potential, drawing daily crowds for his rustic French-American fare (pork belly, Cornish hen), as well as daily specials like salmon tartare, beef tongue, and banh mi. "This is about giving chefs opportunities if they don't necessarily have the money for a turnkey space, or money for PR like bigger restaurants on the Strip do," Hall says. "It's a way to get face to face with a lot of people—and get some real numbers behind your concept." 1516 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702-327-3192 . SPACE SPOTLIGHT