Dos Caminos, Las Vegas
Two guacamole stations, refrigerated prep rooms, a high-capacity kitchen with two hot production lines and a coldline, and designated beverage sections support the restaurant staff's efficiency as they produce a Mexican-inspired menu.
By Donna Boss, Contributing Editor -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 7/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
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As the first Dos Caminos to be built outside New York City, this Las Vegas restaurant brings the glitz and over-the-top design that is the hallmark of this rapidly growing Western metropolis. Owned by B.R. Guest, four establishments now carry this name.
Las Vegas guests enter at the casino floor level in the new Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino, located next to the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, both of which are owned by the Sand Corp. After walking through an entrance that will soon feature a waterfall and hand-hammered gates designed by the restaurant's designer, the David Rockwell Group, guests step into the bar and lounge. The 200-seat, 3,800-square-foot area divides into sections by snakeskin leather banquettes and contains a natural edge wood bar positioned above an iridescent gold and fuchsia tile wall. An abstract nightscape of a Mexican village frames the bar. The serpentine-shaped bar features margarita machines, 150 different varieties of tequila and Mexican beer, along with contemporary equipment and supplies. The bar and lounge stays open until 2 a.m., and offers a limited menu.
The adjacent 300-seat restaurant invokes a Mexican bazaar through the use of panels, taken from Mexico's markets, covering walls and the ceiling. A candle-lit serpentine chandelier of glowing glass gems hangs in one dining area. An ancient stone-carved Mayan temple of fire connects the main dining room to the rear private dining room lit with flickering candlelight reflecting off copper-colored glass. Another striking element in the dining room is the textured plaster walls covered in cast sugar skulls, in tribute to Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a ritual celebrated in Mexico to honor deceased relatives.
“Customers have never seen anything like the décor here, which is an attraction,” says Tony Fisher, general manager of Dos Caminos. “Also, the menu introduces customers to a new way of thinking about Mexican cuisine. We offer ahi tuna, sea bass and New York strip steaks, which many don't associate with Mexican cuisine. In addition, we're approachable. You don't have to spend $100 per person for dinner.” This is in stark contrast to some of the new restaurants in the Palazzo.
In the back of the house, a 5,065-square-foot kitchen bustles with activity as staff prepare a Mexican-inspired menu created by Scott Linquist, corporate executive chef, who has overseen the openings of all Dos Caminos locations. “The production kitchen for such a high-capacity restaurant had to be very efficient,” says Jennifer Safran, project designer, JEM Consulting Group. “Staff need designated production areas for each type of menu item in order to move quickly and productively.”
“The layout works well,” Fisher agrees. “There is no overlapping in production areas and every function has its own place. Even pastry has its own space.”
Deliveries arrive at a loading dock in the Venetian. Staff transport food and supplies to a receiving area at Dos Caminos and store it in walk-ins designated for dairy, produce, meat, fish, margaritas and beverages, as well as a small walk-in freezer. A day box holds all prepped items such as sauces, salsas, on-site-made tortillas, empanadas and quesadillas. A dry storage/ripening room contains avocados, tomatoes, fruit and 20 varieties of dry chiles.
Each day, staff clean and portion meat, fish and seafood in a butcher room refrigerated to 50°F. “This room is used for any raw, potentially hazardous food,” says Fisher.
A separate, non-refrigerated area for salad and vegetable prep contains a large vegetable cutter, a salad dryer, spray system and blenders.
One of the chefs' favorite pieces of equipment, a blast chiller, sits across from the cold prep room, walk-ins and managers' and chefs' offices. “I like this equipment because it is so efficient for cooling products rapidly,” Linquist says. “Health departments are stringent about cooling within a certain amount of time. We use probes to monitor how quickly foods' temperature drops and print out a receipt, which is placed on containers so the health department can easily see what we're doing.”
Another favorite piece of equipment is a packaging machine that staff use for meats and fish with their respective marinades. It sits on a table next to the receiver desk outside the butcher room. “The pressurization gives a better shelf life,” Linquist says.
Nearby, the pastry prep area with a floor mixer, ingredient bins, baker's racks, a worktop refrigerator and a worktop freezer allows staff to make all pastries on the property. Staff make ice cream in a batch freezer with a pasteurizer. Pastries bake in one of two double-stacked convection ovens that sit near the prep lines in order to fit underneath the hoods covering other hot cooking equipment.
For large-quantity production of sauces, moles, rice and beans, staff work on the hot prep line with a mixer/blender and two steam-jacketed kettles to make lobster and chicken stock, cajeta caramel sauces and black and pinto beans. Two tilting skillets prepare Mexican red rice, coconut rice, black bean chili, carnitas, braised brisket and borracho beans. A double steamer reheats rice and heats vegetables. A fryer sits at the end of the line.
For entrées and hot appetizers, two cooklines were necessary to accommodate the large volume of customers' orders, Safran explains. The two lines run parallel, with a cold garde manger and salad/dessert prep stations connecting the two. “The U-shaped configuration provides organization and efficiency to the operation,” Safran says. “We honed in on best practices of B.R. Guest in terms of production efficiency within a specific layout.”
On one main cookline, staff make tortilla-based menu items, including grilled shrimp quesadillas and roasted chicken enchiladas served with chihuahua cheese and sauces. Steaks and grilled fish also come from this line. Equipping the line are a fryer, a charbroiler, three six-burner ranges, drop-in hot wells and two flat griddles with refrigerated drawers beneath. Cheesemelters hang above. The convection oven roasts vegetables, fish, meat, chicken, tomatillas, chilies and chicken. “We also roast whole pigs overnight at very low temperatures,” Linquist says.
“This is the busiest station on the line,” Linquist says. “We run out of space at lunchtime when most guests want quesadillas, so we need two side-by-side griddles to accommodate the orders.”
Parallel to this line sits another hot cookline, which produces tacos and hot appetizers. Equipment includes a four-burner range, a flat-top griddle that heats and crisps pre-roasted meats, fryers for empanadas, drop-in hot wells, a six burner range with a conventional oven below, and a charbroiler. One of the double-stacked convection ovens used for bakery items roasts meats and vegetables.
The four-burner range, one fryer and grill actually serve as an auxiliary line on occasion. “All the equipment needed for a large party is on this line,” Linquist says. “It is positioned so it doesn't disrupt the lines serving regular dining room guests.”
Across the aisles from both lines' hot equipment are food warmers, cold rails and undercounter refrigerators. Microwave ovens heat enchiladas, the No. 1 selling entrée.
Also on the counter, slide rails with a lip that juts out to keep the fiberglass trays from slipping onto the floor, run the length of the counters. Stainless-steel lids on plates allow staff to stack up to nine entrée plates onto one tray.
The meal components come together at the horizontal station in between the two cooklines. The expediter manages production from this point.
Though most production takes place in the kitchen, in the dining room, two guacamole stations allow staff to produce this signature item while customers watch. “B.R. Guest didn't want tableside stations in a restaurant of this size, because the demonstrations could easily interfere with the waitstaff,” Safran says.
Service bars also hold prominent positions in Dos Caminos. “We worked to design the service bars to be tight so one person can work at each with everything within an arm's reach,” Safran says.
Considerable attention is also given to the dishwashing stations. “We have a huge drop-off table because we learned in New York that if you don't have enough space for drop-off, the entire area becomes congested and plates are broken,” Linquist says. One machine washes dishes and pots, while another cleans glasses only. Linquist says that separating glass protects the more fragile tableware from breakage and also cleans them better than when they are mixed with dishes.
The potwashing area has its own room adjacent to bulk production. It contains an agitator, the first one used in Dos Caminos restaurants. Linquist appreciates the action of the circulating water, which loosens food before pots reach the dishwasher.
Among the challenges facing designers and kitchen staff is too much air circulating through the kitchen, a problem many restaurateurs would love to have. “The return air blows too hard because it is on the end of a ventilation line in this section of the building,” Linquist says. “We're getting more pressure than we want, so there's a wind blowing through the kitchen that makes it difficult to keep hot food hot. Also, the POS tickets need to be secured so they don't blow around.”
When asked to cite the top attributes of Dos Caminos in Las Vegas, each member of the design team mentioned the symbiotic nature of their working relationship. What came together is a restaurant that is distinctively unique in a city where vying for customers' attention requires exceptionally creative competitive strategy. Behind the scenes, the kitchen layout and design playsa crucial role in allowing staff to be efficient while producing anambitious menu for large numbers of guests.
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