The Black Sheep is a

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

restaurant in

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. In 2017, the Black Sheep was named restaurant of the year by ''

Eater Las Vegas ''Eater'' is a food website by Vox Media. It was co-founded by Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal in 2005, and originally focused on dining and nightlife in New York City. Eater launched a national site in 2009, and covered nearly 20 cities by ...

''.

History

Andy Hooper, Jon Schwalb, and chef Jamie Tran opened the Black Sheep after DB Brassiere, where Tran served as executive sous chef, closed at the Venetian, freeing up Tran. The three wanted to open a restaurant away from the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of ...

. They decided to open up a restaurant in a

strip mall A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...

on the southwest side of Las Vegas, in an area where few casual fine dining restaurants existed and where Schwalb and Hoover live. They began renovating the space, which was formally occupied by Soulfish Poke, in February 2017 and opened in May. The restaurant was named the Black Sheep because Tran identifies as the

black sheep In the English language, black sheep is an idiom that describes a member of a group who is different from the rest, especially a family member who does not fit in. The term stems from sheep whose fleece is colored black rather than the more comm ...

of her family.

Design

Hooper, Schwalb and Tran co-designed the restaurant, which is located in a strip mall. The dining room is 1,350 square feet in size. The walls are painted different levels of gray and a large panoramic photograph of a sheep farm is placed on one wall. The entry was is decorated with various sized mirrors.

Cuisine

The Black Sheep serves

fusion food. Tran, who is

Vietnamese American Vietnamese Americans ( vi, Người Mỹ gốc Việt, lit=Viet-origin American people) are Americans of Vietnamese ancestry. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American ethnic group after Chinese ...

, pulls inspiration from traditional Vietnamese food she ate growing up. She uses French cooking techniques, which she learned while cooking at

Aureole An aureola or aureole (diminutive of Latin ''aurea'', "golden") is the radiance of luminous cloud which, in paintings of sacred personages, surrounds the whole figure. In Romance languages, the noun Aureola is usually more related to the d ...

and DB Brassiere. The idea to make Black Sheep a Vietnamese-American restaurant was inspired by the

family meal A family meal or staff meal is a group meal that a restaurant serves its staff outside of peak business hours. The restaurant provides the meal free of charge, as a perk of employment. Typically the meal is served to the entire staff at once, with ...

s Tran would prepare when working at DB Brasserie, which were often Vietnamese-inspired. Andy Hooper enjoyed the meals and suggested that be the focus for the Black Sheep and Tran would be chef.

Food

Appetizers at Black Sheep include an imperial roll stuffed with pork, shrimp, pickled heirloom carrots, daikon radish, and frisee and a bao with pork sausage, fried quail egg, fried shallots, herbs and aioli made of jalapeño. The menu may include an heirloom beet salad with two types of beets, citrus and goat cheese yogurt, walnuts, black radish, watercress and "beet dust"; salmon skin tacos; and fried beef crisps Entreés include braised Duroc pork on top of cauliflower puree, sautéed kabocha squash and fried pig ear "salad" and a whole fried trout. Vietnamese curry chicken features a chicken thigh sitting atop roasted carrots, marble potatoes, and beluga lentils. The brunch menu includes

eggs Benedict Eggs Benedict is a common American breakfast or brunch dish, consisting of two halves of an English muffin, each topped with Canadian bacon, a poached egg, and hollandaise sauce. It was popularized in New York City. Origin and history There a ...

served with lemongrass-braised

short ribs Short ribs are a cut of beef taken from the brisket, chuck, plate, or rib areas of beef cattle. They consist of a short portion of the rib bone and the surrounding meat, which varies in thickness. There are two major types of cuts: the "flanke ...

. The most expensive meal on the menu, at $31, is an eight-ounce

rib eye The rib eye or ribeye (known as Scotch fillet in Australia and New Zealand) is a boneless rib steak from the Beef ribs, rib section. Description Ribeye steaks are mostly composed of the longissimus dorsi muscle but also contain the complexus ...

Beverages

The restaurant has a full bar and a wine list. It offers a flight of

Japanese whiskey Japanese whisky is a style of whisky developed and produced in Japan. Whisky production in Japan began around 1870, but the first commercial production was in 1923 upon the opening of the country's first distillery, Yamazaki. Broadly speaking, t ...

. The cocktail menu changes with the menu. In the past, cocktails have included The Pink Sheep, in which proceeds benefitted the

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...

and a martini made with

Thai basil Thai basil ( th, โหระพา, , ISO: hōraphā, ; km, ជីរនាងវង, ''chi neang vorng''; vi, húng quế) called ''káu-chàn-thah'' () in Taiwan, is a type of basil native to Southeast Asia that has been cultivated to pro ...

. The signature house cocktail is The Black Sheep, comprising coffee,

Jim Beam Jim Beam is an American brand of bourbon whiskey produced in Clermont, Kentucky, by Beam Suntory. It is one of the best-selling brands of bourbon in the world. Since 1795 (interrupted by Prohibition), seven generations of the Beam family have be ...

creme de cacao Chocolate liqueur is a chocolate flavored liqueur made from a base liquor of whisky or vodka. Unlike chocolate liquor, chocolate liqueur does contain alcohol and is often used as a sweetening ingredient in mixology, baking, and cooking. His ...

, vanilla creme syrup, and Uinta Baby Black Lager with Fernet-Branca infused whipped cream.

Reception

In December 2017, the Black Sheep was named Restaurant of the Year and Tran was named Chef of the Year by ''

Eater Eater may refer to: * Eater (band), an English punk rock group * "Eater" (''Fear Itself''), a 2008 episode of the NBC television horror anthology ''Fear Itself'' * ''Eater'' (novel), a 2000 science fiction novel by Gregory Benford * ''Eater'' (w ...

'' Las Vegas. The Black Sheep was named as having the best

offal Offal (), also called variety meats, pluck or organ meats, is the organs of a butchered animal. The word does not refer to a particular list of edible organs, which varies by culture and region, but usually excludes muscle. Offal may also refe ...

dish, deep-fried tendon crisps, in 2018 by ''

Las Vegas Weekly ''Las Vegas Weekly'' is a free alternative weekly newspaper based in Henderson, Nevada, covering Las Vegas arts, entertainment, culture and news. ''Las Vegas Weekly'' is published by Greenspun Media Group. The paper was founded in 1992 by James P ...

''.

The Infatuation The Infatuation (formerly known as Immaculate Infatuation) is an American New York-based restaurant recommendation website and messaging service, created by former music industry executives Chris Stang and Andrew Steinthal in 2009. They are most ...

touts the restaurant's casual ambiance and gourmet food: "Usually, food this good means putting on your dry-clean-only clothes and making a reservation a month in advance. Thankfully, this place feels way more casual - you won’t be out of place in jeans - and reservations aren’t hard to come by." '' 10Best.com'' calls the Black Sheep food "crafted carefully to be both delicious and a new version of Vietnamese comfort food." Regarding service, the ''

Las Vegas Review-Journal The ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' is a daily subscription newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1909. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada and one of two daily newspapers in the Las Vegas area. The ''Review-Journal'' ...

'' critiqued the restaurant's method of not bringing new utensils to replace used utensils during service and the use of paper napkins versus cloth. In contrast, the newspaper had praise for the food and cocktails and described the ambiance as "vaguely industrial" while "adding an air of urban sophistication."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Sheep Restaurants in Las Vegas, Nevada Restaurants in the Las Vegas Valley Restaurants established in 2017 American companies established in 2017