Martha Stewart Is Hitting The Vegas Strip, Baby
Her new restaurant, The Bedford by Martha Stewart, will bring country farmhouse dinners to Vegas.
Update, January 7, 2021: Martha Stewart is officially headed to Vegas. This spring (presumably in her down time between hitting the tables for Texas Hold'em and cashing in at the slot machines), she will be opening a new restaurant at the Paris Las Vegas hotel, Caesars Entertainment announced in a recent press release.
The 80-year-old cookbook author and all-around homemaking queen will be opening The Bedford by Martha Stewart, a "fully-immersive restaurant concept" inspired by Stewart's New York farmhouse residence. It will serve a menu of Martha's signature home cooking, because what else could you possibly want from this place?
"Our menu will be delicious, depicting the very same kinds of foods I serve my friends and family," Stewart said in the press release. "The architecture and decoration of the spaces cleverly exemplify the beauty and atmosphere you might find at my beautiful farm in Bedford, New York."
If you have ever been asked which celebrity (either living or dead) you would want to have dinner with and answered "Martha Stewart," this is probably as close as you can get. "Dining at The Bedford will be immersive, fun, unexpected, and utterly delectable," Stewart added.
The specifics of what these "utterly delectable" items will actually be remain top secret for now, but seasonal menus for dinner, weekend brunch, and holidays are in development and will include personal favorites of Stewart's choosing.
For now, all I can think about is the stark contrast between the country farmhouse aesthetic of Martha Stewart's lifestyle brand and the high-stakes, fast pace atmosphere of Las Vegas. Whenever this restaurant opens, I hope there's at least one photo of Martha Stewart sitting at a poker table, drink in hand, pushing all her chips to the center just ready to risk it all.
Original post, October 5, 2021: Martha Stewart is a woman of many talents. She's a domestic extraordinaire, a truly bizarre Instagram follow, a collaborator with one of the best rappers in the biz, and a bona fide weed queen. Now, she's flirting with Lady Luck: Eater Las Vegas reports that Stewart will debut her first restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip at Paris Las Vegas in 2022.
Eater confirmed plans for the new restaurant via a construction permit filing. The VitalVegas blog published early rumors of the concept back in July, hinting that Stewart's bosom buddy, Snoop Dogg, was somehow involved. However, per Eater, the paperwork only names the locale as the "Martha Stewart Restaurant." Eater also explains that Caesars Entertainment, the parent company of Paris Las Vegas, "previously chose not to confirm or deny any speculation about a restaurant from Martha Stewart opening at the French-themed casino and hotel."
Stewart's new concept will join a few other celebrity restaurants at the resort, including Gordon Ramsay Steak and Vanderpump à Paris, a forthcoming concept from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star and restauranteur Lisa Vanderpump. Will Stewart's spot lean into the resort's French theme, or will it venture into the upscale like Ramsay's concept? We're not sure. There's no word yet on the restaurant's opening date or menu.
Of course, this isn't Stewart's first time as a restaurateur. She owned a New York counter-service spot simply known as the Martha Stewart Café until it closed in 2019. But Vegas does seem like a weird fit for Stewart's relatively domestic persona. When I think of Martha Stewart, I think of tasteful cardigans and dreamy bundt cakes. Still, I guess if Stewart's recent endeavors are any indication, she's leaning into a second act that involves fewer backyard chickens and more diamond-crusted champagne bottles. More power to her.