Crossroads Kitchen Opens First Upscale Vegan Restaurant in Vegas

Crossroads Kitchen, the upscale LA restaurant from Chef Tal Ronnen, just announced it would roll the dice on a new plant-based restaurant in Las Vegas. It will be the first upscale vegan restaurant on the "Strip." The new location will open inside of Resorts World Las Vegas hotel, offering innovative plant-based dishes to tourists and locals alike.

Ronnen and executive chef Paul Zlatos will introduce specialty dishes including its Beet Tartare and Tagliatelle Bolognese to Las Vegas while also creating new specialty items that intend to truly impress plant-based and non-vegan diners. Crossroads Kitchen will also hold a monopoly on the city’s most iconic street, offering a permanent plant-based menu built to attract anyone to the innovative Los Angeles eatery.

“As we expand our dining portfolio, we continue to seek unique concepts that can appeal to food lovers and culinary novices alike, and Crossroads does just that,” Vice President of Food & Beverage of Resorts World Las Vegas Bart Mahoney said in a statement. “We are thrilled to be working with Chef Tal and his talented team to offer an approachable yet refined take on plant-based cuisine to our guests and visitors.”

Ronnen – author of Crossroads: Extraordinary Recipes from the Restaurant That Is Reinventing Vegan Cuisine and formerly a personal chef to Oprah – partnered with Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker to open the first Crossroads Kitchen in 2013. Since then, the restaurant has propelled plant-based cooking to new heights, attracting the attention of the culinary world and a favorite of vegan and vegetarians such as Joaquin Phoenix and Zendaya.

Crossroads Kitchen’s signature cuisine is distinguished by its experimental takes on classic dishes such as artichoke oysters with kelp caviar or Fettuccine with Truffles. Now Ronnen plans to split time between his two locations and has plans to introduce CB | Crossroads Burgers – to serve plant-based burgers, sausages, milkshakes, and other casual food.

“Chef Paul Zlatos and I are thrilled to return to Las Vegas where we first met 11 years ago adding plant-based options to the Strip,” Ronnen said. “My intention with CB |Crossroads Burgers is to create a space for accessible yet elevated plant-based cuisine within the lively atmosphere of Resort World Las Vegas.”

While CB | Crossroads Burgers is Ronnen’s inaugural fast-casual eating, the renowned chef tested the water in recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the plant-based chef opened a temporary pizza ship and a pop-up kitchen Crossroads Tacos. The two vegan kitchens prepared fast-casual food for people at affordable prices, incorporating Ronnen’s cooking into the fast-casual sphere.

Although Ronnen’s Crossroads Kitchen and CB | Crossroads Burgers will stand as unique fixtures for the Las Vegas strip, the iconic line of casinos and hotels have seen expert vegan cooking in the past. Last November, The Venetian announced that it was going plant-based for World Vegan Month, and introduced 50 plant-based dishes at its three upscale restaurants – Mott 32, Majordomo Meat & Fish, and Bouchon.

Besides vegan fine dining, The Venetian has paved the way for plant-based fast-casual in Las Vegas. The New York City-based Black Tap Craft Burgers and Beer’s remote location unveiled a Vegan Nashville Hot portobello burger and a Vegan Black ‘n White CakeShake. Located within The Venetian, Truth & Tonic became the Las Vegas strip’s first vegan restaurant in January 2020. Now, the fast-casual restaurant will be followed by Ronnen’s new fast-casual concept, providing more vegan options than ever for Vegas tourists, gamblers, locals, and diners.

Fast-food restaurants have finally got the memo that their customer base isn’t just coming through for a burger, fried chicken, or a beef taco. Many now have plant-based foods and are coming up with creative, delicious ways to get more greens on the menu. Here are the 6 best fast-food chains with plant-based options on the menu.

Turns out there’s a lot more to rely on than a salad if you’re eating plant-based. Burger King has the Impossible Whopper featuring a meatless patty as well as a few secretly vegan options such as the French Toast Sticks and Hashbrowns.

Known for its mini square-shaped sliders, this hamburger chain jumped on the plant-based bandwagon at some participating locations. You can find an Impossible Slider on some White Castle menus.

This was the first national Mexican fast-food chain to offer Beyond Meat at the company’s 580 restaurants across the country. Del Taco has the Beyond Avocado Taco on the menu along with the Epic Beyond Original Mex Burrito and Avocado Veggie Bowl.

Another brand synonymous with beef burgers, Carl’s Jr. offers several plant-based options for veggie and plant lover such as Beyond Famous Star Burger and Guacamole Thickburger.

This fast-food restaurant may have been one of the first you frequented while transitioning to plant-based eating. That’s because Taco Bell has eight million vegetarian combinations and sells 350 million vegetarian items a year through menu substitutions or ordering off their vegetarian menu. In fact, they were the first quick-service restaurant to offer American Vegetarian Association (AVA) certified food options.

From the time it started offering breakfast sandwiches in 2006, the coffee conglomerate became a competitor in the fast-food space. You can get your favorite hot and cold beverages made with almond, coconut or oat milk but there are also plant-based food options available such as the Baja Black Bean Veggie Wrap, bagel with vegan cream cheese and Impossible Breakfast Sandwich.