In addition to Le Café du Sud, opening soon in Southern Highlands, a new Le Café du Vegas location will also be coming to Summerlin.
The chain of French cafés has gotten off to a roaring start in the Las Vegas Valley since Le Café du Val in Henderson’s Green Valley opened last year.
“We’ve grown in a year more than we ever imagined we could,” co-owner Carmen Barbur told What Now Las Vegas in a Friday morning phone call. The chain is the brainchild of Barbur, who hails from Romania, and her husband, David Gazzano, from Nice, France. Both have worked extensively in luxury service-based industries like dining and retail, with Gazzano getting his start as an apprentice in a Parisian patisserie at the age of 14.
“We’ve always dreamt of having something of our own,” Barbur said. “We’re both immigrants, and we never imagined we’d have that opportunity.”
The chain serves a sumptuous menu of French café dishes: crepes in varieties like La Sucre, La Caramel au Beurre Salee and La Snickers; galettes (savory buckwheat crepes) including La Bacon Galette and La Artichoke Galette; along with breakfast and a variety of sandwiches and paninis.
If the names seem confusing for a moment, it’s only because each outlet has a name bespoke to its location: Le Café du Val (valley) in Green Valley, Le Café du Lac (lake) in Lake Las Vegas, and the upcoming Le Café du Sud (south) in the Southern Highlands, which is expected to open in January, after the sort of pandemic-related delay that has been common in the last year.
Barbur also confirmed the news of the Summerlin location in the works.
Describing what she thought accounted for Le Café du Vegas’s success during a year that has been so difficult for the hospitality industry, Barbur laid out a three pronged philosophy:
“People will come for the food. They will stay for the atmosphere. They will return for the service,” Barbur said. “If you’re a foodie, even if you’ve been to a place three times, you won’t go back if you’re disappointed on the fourth time.”
In addition to quality service, the café chain places a strong emphasis on community involvement, working to support the Grant a Gift Autism Foundation and Lighthouse Charities, which works to support refugees arriving in the country.
The location at 11350 Southern Highlands Pkwy Suite 155 is part of a building that also currently houses Kidz Kidz Kidz Preschool & Early Development Center, Highlands Nail & Spa, and Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop.
The opening date for the Summerlin location has not yet been announced.
