1st look inside the wild Strip restaurant inspired by hit Netflix shows — PHOTOS

To enter Netflix Bites, the restaurant collaboration between the streaming giant and the MGM Grand that opens Tuesday, you pass through glistening red lips, opening wide just off the casino floor, then proceed up a gentle incline.

As you crest the summit, a large image of Beth Harmon, Anya Taylor-Joy’s character from “The Queen’s Gambit,” hangs to the right. Harmon nestles in a giant martini glass, a chess piece held aloft, chess boards above and below.

Other images from the titles that inspired Netflix Bites hang throughout: a surfer riding a slice of pepperoni ’za that nods to the Surfer Boy Pizza chain in “Stranger Things,” Queen Charlotte from “Bridgerton” literally spilling all the tea as she reads Lady Whistledown gossip, the “One Piece” pirate ship asail with a cargo of musubi, and several more artworks.

These images, rendered in saturated colors, owe something to cartoon stills, something to pop art, even a little something to posters by Toulouse-Lautrec. Their aesthetic appeal joins with the game of identifying the shows “behind” the art — yes, that’s a manager from “Squid Game” shown as the frank in a hot dog — and with favorite memories from watching these shows.

The result is a crisscross of visual and cognitive signals in which the diner becomes pleasurably enmeshed, even before the first dish is ordered.

“How can we give our fans new ways to experience their favorite shows on Netflix?” asked Josh Simon, Netflix vice president of consumer products. “We wanted to bring our shows to life in a way that was fun and whimsical and over-the-top, and Vegas is certainly the city to embrace that.”

Simon went on to use the word “immersive” to describe the restaurant experience. Now, immersive (and its handmaidens, “curated” and “bespoke”) is typically a ravening cliché in entertainment and hospitality. But in the case of Netflix Bites, it fits.

Eggos, pizza, pancakes

Netflix Bites Vegas, a one-year residency, follows the inaugural Bites that ran for more than six weeks in Los Angeles in 2023. The L.A. restaurant occupied part of a renovated midcentury motor lodge; the MGM Grand is, well, a bit roomier.

“In L.A., we had to limit the menu from a logistics standpoint,” Simon said. “Here at MGM, working with the team, we have access to world class operators and skill sets to develop the menu on par with what we try to do as storytellers.”

The menu features items celebrating about 30 Netflix titles.

For Eleven from “Stranger Things,” Eggo waffles provide an object of obsession. Eleven’s Feast features classic chicken and Eggo waffles on the Upside; spicy blood-red chicken and black waffles from the Upside Down lie beneath. Hellfire Honey and other pies arrive in a branded Surfer Boy Pizza box, again from “Stranger Things.”

“Pizza is done so many ways here, but nobody was doing a Detroit-style pizza, so we decided to do a pan pizza,” said Russ Hurry, executive chef of the MGM Grand. “There’s a number on the box you can call, and it gives you a Surfer Boy message.”

Pancakes tip their stack to “Sugar Rush,” a baking competition show, with pink icing coursing down their flanks and spatters of candy sprinkles everywhere and a thicket of doughnuts and other sweet treats shooting from the top.

Tea with Whistledown

To summon a Regency tea from “Bridgerton,” a curate of three tiers is provisioned with slim sandwiches, macarons, lemon madeleines, shortbread cookies with Lady Whistledown cameos, strawberry pistachio cream puffs and other finger foods.

“We’re going to bring that afternoon with the ladies feel,” said Cynthia Inguanzo, executive pastry chef of the MGM Grand. “I feel like it’s a good place to come with your girlfriends, have some tea, have some mimosas, a couple of cocktails and go about your day — in Vegas.”

The Dessert Is Lava is modeled after the “Floor Is Lava” competition in which contestants try to overcome obstacles without falling into slime “lava.” For the dish, gummy bears are placed on a chocolate mountain heated so its slopes become molten chocolate — which gummy player will survive?

Shaking with sharks

A “Now Pouring” sign angles above the back bar at the Netflix Bites bar and lounge, a space accomplished in tones of teal, goldenrod and hunter green (elsewhere in the restaurant, bands of burnt orange and light apricot hold sway). The wet work incorporates both cocktails and mocktails.

The Mind Flayer, after the lord of the Upside Down, combines a bourbon base with a towering thunderhead of cotton candy set with flickering lights to create a storm effect.

Luffy at Sea, named for the star of the “One Piece” manga series, mingles spirit-free blue curaçao with pineapple juice, coconut water, Sprite and coconut foam; a blue gummy shark and chewy Swedish Fish swim in the drink.

A dalgona candy garnishes a Dalgona Rum Buzz, the garnish recalling the dalgona challenge in “Squid Game” in which players attempt to remove a candy shape from a honeycomb without breaking the shape.

House heat

Cotton candy, gummy animals, candy shapes — these are not typical elements in a cocktail program on the Strip, acknowledged Zoey D’Arienzo, executive director of food and beverage for the MGM Grand. Still, because the drinks draw inspiration from Netflix titles, “we got to go further than we normally do,” she said.

Too Hot to Handle, a reality show populated by hot-body singles, lends its name to the signature bloody mary in which house habanero-infused vodka and bloody mix canoodle with cayenne candied bacon, olives and pepperoncini. The cocktail only works when the bloody mix holds its ardor.

“We found that 24 hours was our sweet spot,” said Edith Castro, senior general manager for Netflix Bites Vegas. If the mix rests any longer, she said, it becomes too hot (er, spicy) to handle.

‘New ways of thinking’

A menu that draws significantly on popular entertainment might easily have become a gimmick. James McBride, vice president of food and beverage, retail and spa for the MGM Grand, cheerfully swatted away the suggestion, at least as it pertained to Netflix Bites.

“These are definitely not gimmicks. We obviously wanted something that was cool and creative, but guests should also leave here satisfied. There’s a big mouth for the front door and cool things are happening inside, but they should feel that they got what they paid for in the dish.”

In fact, McBride added, the partnership with Netflix gave the MGM culinary team a new perspective on their usual approach to menu creation.

“Oftentimes, food and beverage things are only about food and beverage. This forced us to look at new ways of thinking about dishes, It got our juices flowing. We had to stretch ourselves.” And the collaboration might inspire food and drink doings at the MGM Grand beyond Netflix Bites.

Could a Mind Flayer caviar omakase party brunch be next?

Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.