Palate interior. Photo courtesy of Palate

Art of the Meal

Restaurant Roundup of Palate, Aqua Seafood & Caviar Restaurant and Social Station

By Stacey Gualandi

From Painting to Plating, Palate is a Masterpiece

How many of you remember being told as a kid, “Don’t play with your food?” Sterling Buckley, executive chef for Palate Las Vegas, is lucky. He never got that message.

“The plate is your canvas, so I like to have a little fun with it,” Chef Buckley says. “I always say my food is playful, like my kids, and sexy, like my wife.”
After a decade in Las Vegas, mastering the art of the meal under many of the culinary world’s most famous chefs—including Kim Canteenwalla (Honey Salt), Gordon Ramsay (Gordon Ramsay Steak) and David Chang (Momofuku)—Buckley is now at the helm of the kitchen inside Palate.

“I’ve worked for all these celebrity chefs, but this is the first project where it’s all me,” Buckley says. “I think the whole off-Strip scene from Chefs Roy Ellamar and Jennifer Murphy to Brian Howard and James Trees, we’re all trying to show that, ‘Hey, we’ve all worked for the big guys, but we’re somebody special.”

Bar-Kada Hospitality owners (and good friends) Marisa Martino and Rudy Aguas say their concept for Palate was to seamlessly combine art and food in the heart of the downtown Las Vegas Arts District. Martino lives by the philosophy, “Food is art.” “When Marisa said that, I was hooked,” Buckley says.

After an unpreventable pandemic pause in 2022, Bar-Kada finally unveiled its minority, woman, and locally-owned masterpiece this June with a huge grand opening party that celebrated the artist in all of us.

Palate is part exhibit and eatery. The walls surrounding the studio-like space—filled with royal red and purple velvet-colored furniture, a massive chandelier and floor-to-ceiling trees—are covered with works on display by local artists (including Martino’s mom).

“Our staff bought into what we’re doing here, and we’re doing something very unique,” Buckley boasts. “I don’t know any restaurants doing what we do right now, especially here in Las Vegas.”

The menu is modern Southern cuisine mixed with multicultural influences. It reflects Buckley’s own abstract and romantic style and, with one swift brush stroke, he has already made a lasting impression.

I recommend you clean your palate first with The Rose signature craft cocktail. For me, the tiger-style scallops and shrimp gnocchi were the perfect prelude to dishes like the soy-charred short ribs. His signature banana bread-filled dessert is also a true work of art.

“I’ve already thought about doing some new creative things, like putting octopus on the menu, cooking it in squid ink so it’s like jet black and calling it the Kraken,” Buckley says. “I think of crazy stuff like that, and Palate has given me the ability to do that.”

The Los Angeles transplant and Le Cordon Bleu Las Vegas alum first had dreams of being a performer and songwriter. “I was signed, sealed, delivered and headed for a music career and you couldn’t tell me anything else,” Buckley admits. He came by performing naturally—his mom Hazel Payne gave us “Boogie Oogie Oogie” as a founding member of the musical group A Taste of Honey—but ultimately, at 18, he went from writing music to writing menus.

“Martin Heierling [at Silk Road] was the first chef to teach me about creative cuisine and multiple cultures,” Buckley says. “I loved him. He is such a great chef. Big energy. Great dude. I still hear his voice in the back of my head. I would love to see Martin again. I’d love to thank him.”

After appearing on TV shows like “Chopped” and “Beating Bobby Flay” and working his way up to his first executive chef job at 27, Buckley only recently learned just how deeply food runs in his family. “My grandfather was high up at a bank in Little Rock and would entertain all their major accounts at his house by making this beef tenderloin dish,” Buckley explains. “My aunt was also a popular pastry chef in Little Rock known for her apple pie…My [landscaper] grandfather on my mom’s side owned a quick service restaurant in Compton and decorated cakes on the side.”

Buckley, whose brother is also a local Wolfgang Puck sous chef, credits his ascension to his inspirational idols, Kobe Bryant, Chef Michael Mina and Chef Marcus Samuelsson.

“Marcus Samuelsson, of course, because I’m African American. There’s not a lot of African American celebrity chefs out there,” Buckley says. “Marcus Samuelsson was the first one from whom I wanted to learn more.”

But the best advice he says he ever got came from his father. “It’s something that I remember all the time. He said, ‘Aim for the stars. You might just hit the roof.'”

(Well, his biscuits are certainly selling through the roof!)

It’s advice well-taken, and Buckley says he’ll continue to follow his God-given talent wherever it takes him. After all, as American artist John McNeill Whistler once said, “An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.”

“This is thoughtful cooking,” Buckley emphasizes. “I don’t just put things on a plate just to put things on a plate. I think about it…and at the end of the day, I think my vision as a chef is to make great food that’s always very well balanced.”

To learn more, visit www.palatelv.com.

Aqua Seafood & Caviar Restaurant Offers World Class Delights at Resorts World Las Vegas

When Shaun Hergatt, executive chef for Aqua Seafood & Caviar at Resorts World Las Vegas, is not collecting Michelin stars, “Best Of” honors and almost perfect Zagat reviews, the one-time rugby player collects belts in jiu jitsu. Blue, to be exact.

“I avidly work out,” Hergatt says. “It’s about mental health, and especially for me, the reason why I continue to do it is not necessarily just for aesthetics… It’s about maintaining a very sound mind.”

“Sound mind, sound body” is the belief that people are happier when they push themselves, and no one exemplifies that better than this world-renowned chef. With a well-earned reputation for “technically precise cooking” and seasonally driven premier dining destinations, Hergatt continues reinventing.

“I don’t replicate; that’s not what I do. I look at [my restaurants] as my children,” Hergatt says. “I try to come up with concepts that the market needs, that I’m going to have some fun with, and that people will enjoy. It’s all creative, and I think that’s the part I love the most.”

Hergatt learned classical French culinary skills as a teen in Queensland, Australia. He perfected them in New York (SHO, Juni, and now Vestry and REN) and then transported them to Las Vegas, his first West Coast location.

“[That] taught me how not to remotely run a business, but how to set up a new market, a new hotel, all that sort of good stuff,” Hergatt says. “It was quite rewarding.”

In fact, Aqua (and Hergatt’s Caspy Caviar) is celebrating its third anniversary at Resorts World Las Vegas by introducing a new “Evening Kickoff” menu exclusively for hotel guests and a twist on new dinner selections including shellfish, seafood and steak!

“This started as a caviar restaurant, and then I opened it up a bit more with a new brand because Aqua is a seafood restaurant,” Hergatt says. “I was serving a lot more than just champagne and caviar.” I’m sure it has been said, but my champagne wishes, and caviar dreams came true on my first visit.

It began with a smoking display of Kaluga, followed by bluefin toro and salmon tartare, continued with Alaskan black cod and Kataifi scallops, and ended with a Basque cheesecake soufflé. This pescatarian was in seafood heaven inside the boutique-sized space, and I quickly learned how to appreciate (not avoid) caviar from the chef himself.

“I think many people think it’s very expensive and very affluent, but it’s not. It’s something you can have regularly,” Hergatt emphasizes. “I’ve been passionate about caviar for the last 25 years. It’s a unique, specific thing, and eating it is just one of life’s great pleasures.”

Hergatt loves expanding as much as he loves caviar. He has new concepts in the works in Atlanta and Miami and teases “a lot of stuff happening for Aqua” by the end of the year. (Sorry folks, that’s all he’d say!)

“I’m in this business for the people,” Hergatt says. “From my perspective, I owe a lot to my partners, staff, clients and the people in my life. You have to work every day to maintain some sort of integrity.”

But if the restaurant world gave out belts for success, Hergatt would be a black belt. “When I’m successful, I’ll let you know.”

To learn more, visit www.aqualv.com.

Buy Local: Social Station is a Hit in Henderson

Social Station in Henderson, Nevada, is a restaurant locals didn’t know they needed. It offers an intimate space, elevated comfort food and al fresco dining in a convenient location. As an added twist, the menu features specialty craft cocktails named after nearby communities like Inspirada and Seven Hills.

For owner Kelley Jones, his concept was simple. “We want to make it for those hundreds of thousands of people who live within a two-mile radius,” Jones says. We want it to be a place—hence the name Social Station—where people could come over and over again. It’s the modern-day “Cheers,” if you will, where everybody knows your name.”

With a rich background as a former chef, restaurateur and consultant, Jones has significantly impacted the hospitality industry. He’s also the founding partner of Leverage Hospitality Group, which opened Emmitt’s Vegas on the Las Vegas Strip earlier this year with Hall of Fame running back Emmitt Smith.

Social Station is his 109th restaurant opening. “Our unofficial tagline is ‘For Locals by Locals’ because we wanted to create a space that we wanted to go to,” he says. “We” refers to Jones and his Leverage Hospitality Group friends and partners, Steve Mannino and Todd Parmelee, who live nearby. Like a good neighbor, Jones made his latest venue accessible, affordable and approachable.

Jones is very conscious of the price point. He wanted a Strip-level menu without the Strip-level prices. “We talk about the Strip all the time, where you go out to eat and have a great experience, and you’re like, ‘That was really good.’ Then you get the check, and you’re like, ‘Ah, that was not that good,’ Jones says. “We want to make sure that whether you walk out of Social Station or out of Emmitt’s Vegas, you feel good about spending money with us.”

So, with 109 restaurant openings under his belt, is Jones ready to relax and dine locally? He says no; retirement isn’t on the menu. “I hope at the end of our careers we can be known for a quality product and making people feel good,” Jones says. “That’s what we do. We sell an experience.”

To learn more, visit www.socialstationlv.com.