Why a beloved chef is leaving Las Vegas for California

Roy Ellamar is leaving Las Vegas — for 12 acres and a rooftop.

The celebrated chef — who most recently founded, then departed, Fine Company in Downtown Summerlin — is opening a rooftop restaurant (still unnamed) at Graton Resort & Casino in the Sonoma County town of Rohnert Park, north of San Francisco. The project, for which Ellamar will be executive chef, includes a 12-acre farm, adjacent to the resort, that will supply the restaurant and the property with fresh produce.

For Ellamar, whose seasonal approach calls on Asian traditions and other influences from his native Hawaii, having a restaurant garden allows him to practice true farm-to-table cooking.

“That’s been a huge dream of mine,” Ellamar said of an on-site farm. “I’ve always championed produce and knowing where the food comes from, and now it’s going to really happen.”

Time for new challenges

After he left Fine Company in May (it launched in September 2023), Ellamar said executives from Graton Resort recruited him for the restaurant, part of a $1 billion expansion to the property that broke ground in June 2023. Graton Resort is owned by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.

Ellamar said he would leave for Rohnert Park on Sept. 21; his wife, Jennifer Murphy, is also taking a position at the resort, as vice president of culinary operations. The new restaurant should be completed by late 2025 or early 2026.

“I could stay in Vegas and do something else, but it was time for a new beginning. It was a hard decision,” Ellamar said, noting that his son (also a chef), his sister and part of his extended family still live in Vegas. “But I feel it’s now the time to see how it is to cook again in a different market and try a new arena.”

Produce from the farm “will really dictate the menu and be the start of everything,” Ellamar said, “using my years of cooking experience, with my influences of where I’ve grown up, to showcase the best of the product.”

Live fire cooking will also help anchor the menu. This being California wine country, Ellamar said he’d also help create a top-notch wine program.

Filipino meets Italian

On Monday, Amari Italian Kitchen & Wine Shop in UnCommons is joining with Ellamar to present Pamilya x Famiglia, a Filipino-Italian menu meld at Amari. Among the nine or so dishes being served family style are okoy sweet potato fritters with bottarga, mafaldine pasta palabok with shrimp broth and chicken chicharrón, and banana lumpia for dessert.

The chef said he and Jason Rocheleau, a partner in Amari, had been planning a series of pop-up dinners anyway, so “we decided to make it a farewell and last hurrah.” (Details/tickets: amarilv.com.)

As he prepares to leave the city where he’s cooked for almost 20 years — where his resume beyond Fine Company includes Harvest by Roy Ellamar at Bellagio and Michelin-starred L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand — Ellamar said he was “thankful for all the opportunities I’ve had here. I still hope there are more opportunities to do things here. Off Strip is becoming even more robust.”

Just remember, chef. The city has plenty of rooftops. And a 12-acre farm in the desert? That’s nothing for Vegas.

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