Le Thai restaurant owners opening second location in Las Vegas

The principals behind Le Thai in Fremont East in downtown Las Vegas have announced plans for a second location in the center at Charleston Boulevard and Rancho Drive.

The opening for the new restaurant, which hasn’t been named yet, is planned in three to four months.

COMING FULL CIRCLE

The new space is already quite familiar to chef/co-owner Dan Coughlin, whose first restaurant Mix Zone Café operated there before he set up shop on Fremont Street.

“It’s full circle,” Coughlin said of the opportunity, adding that the space became available at exactly the right time.

“Our landlord over there just called me about half a year ago and said ‘Would you ever consider coming back?’” he explained. “And we had just finished a conversation two weeks before about whether I wanted to do another full-on restaurant/bar on the west side, or the south side or Henderson. So I decided we should do a smaller one first, before we get ourselves in trouble.”

DO YOU DELIVER?

With only about 1,200 square feet to work with, he and his team are planning to use the new locale primarily for takeout and delivery, eventually funneling all of their delivery orders to that kitchen in an effort to speed up that service.

NEIGHBORHOOD EATS

Dine-in seating aimed at employees of the neighborhood will be limited to about 15 – 18 people at stools against the walls and window, or a large central communal table. All food will be served in takeout containers. But, all of the items from the original menu will be available, and they’re hoping that by relieving the pressure on the downtown kitchen, both teams will have more opportunities to experiment with daily specials.

ORDER UP!

“The reason we don’t do too much crazy stuff at Le Thai is because it’s heavy volume and only so big here,” Coughlin says of the current situation. “Every spot is already taken in our kitchen. So hopefully this will work out for both spots.”

Coughlin says this may be just the first of several expansions for the brand, calling it “possibly a formula for other smaller Le Thai’s.”

Review-Journal food critic Heidi Knapp Rinella contributed to this report.

Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com. Follow @almancinivegas on Twitter. Contact Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com. Follow @HKRinella on Twitter.