Where to eat this weekend: Other Mama

Dan Krohmer, who opened Other Mama in March, is a native of Northern California who has been working in sushi restaurants since he was 18 and trained in Japan. He also worked for Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and was a chef for music tours before coming to Las Vegas almost two years ago.

The restaurant's name refers to his great-grandmother, who raised Krohmer's father and his brothers and sisters and was always called "Other Mama." Plus, he said, "I don't like the way that sushi is going, especially in Vegas now, with the all-you-can-eat stuff. I didn't want it to sound like a sushi bar. I wanted something totally neutral, and comfortable and inviting."

He and his father did the restaurant's interior themselves.

"We spent seven months building every piece of carpentry," he said. "I wanted something that was family-oriented." He thinks of the restaurant as an "American-style raw bar." "I grew up eating sushi and ceviche," he said. "I don't think we have to have cultural boundaries. I believe this is modern American cuisine. It has a Japanese influence, but I won't put something Japanese in the food just to make it Japanese."

Here's a sample of the menu:

Raw bar: Spicy tuna tartare, $13; big eye tuna poke, $15; amberjack crudo, $13; sashimi combination, $21.

Seasonal: Roasted shishito peppers, $9; oysters Rockefeller foie gras, $15; deviled eggs with fried oyster and pickled peppers, $11; spicy yuzu chicken wings, $13; grass-fed beef carpaccio, $15; PBR seafood hot pot, $21; half organic chicken, $21; grilled prime rib-eye, $27.

Hours are 4 to 11 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays. Call 702-463-8382 or visit www.othermamalv.com