Miami food and beverage operator 50 Eggs Hospitality Group is partnering with Michelin-starred chef Tetsuya Wakuda on a new concept scheduled to open next year in both Las Vegas and Singapore.
Wakuda, known for his acclaimed restaurant Waku Ghin in Singapore and Tetsuya’s in Sydney, Australia, plans to call the new concept Wakuda. The first will open in Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands hotel in mid-January, and the U.S. version is scheduled to open in the Venetian on the Las Vegas Strip in the spring, said 50 Eggs founder and CEO John Kunkel.
According to Nation’s Restaurant News, the Wakuda concept has been three years in the making, and was first sparked by a trip Kunkel took to Japan, where he fell in love with the little bars of the Shinjuku Golden Gai area of Tokyo. “I wanted to do a Japanese concept that reflected the Japan I knew,” Kunkel said.
Later, Kunkel got to know the Japan-born chef Wakuda in Singapore, where the group also operates a location of Yardbird, and the restaurant Wakuda came together as a partnership.
In Las Vegas, the new Wakuda will be in the Palazzo Tower of the Venetian and will include about 12,000-square feet. 50 Eggs also operates locations of Yardbird, Chica and the poolside Spritz and Capri at The Venetian.
At the upcoming Wakuda, Kunkel said the main dining room will be a “very Japanese art-driven collision of old and new Japan.”
“Tetsuya is such an amazing culinary powerhouse in his own right and such a great guy all around,” said Kunkel. “Whatever we were aiming for, which was always very high … we are all on our toes. He is one of the best in the world and we all know what we’re signing up for to execute his level of quality and culinary vision.”
