INTERVIEW: Michael Jordan

Update: Rosemary's has closed.


Michael Jordan and his wife Wendy are chef/owners of the acclaimed Rosemary's Restaurant.

What's new at Rosemary's?

Michael Jordan: Well, we just got new ratings from Zagat, a 28 in food and a 26 in service, so we're pretty proud of that. Also, we recently opened up our catering division. We used to do all catering in house, but it got bigger and bigger and so we had to get another kitchen. We had always done private parties and special event dining in our private room at the restaurant, which we call the West Wing. But our outside catering jobs just kept growing and growing and so we had to bite the bullet, and now we have a brand new facility to handle those needs.


There are many fine dining restaurants off the Strip these days, but that wasn't necessarily true when you opened Rosemary's. What do you think about the growth and competition among restaurants like that?
I think fine dining in our neighborhood, Summerlin, and other Las Vegas neighborhoods away from the Strip is moving along at a snail's pace. Casual dining is doing much better, and there is certainly the clientele that seeks that. I think there's really just a lot of room for everybody right now. New places open all the time but they haven't made much of an impact on us. We continue to grow each year, year after year. We want to see growth but we really just try to focus on what we do.


You started out in Vegas working at Emeril's restaurant at the MGM Grand on the Strip, so you've had plenty of experience catering to both tourists and the local diners.
We walk such a fine line at Rosemary's. People are surprised to find out just how much tourist business we do. But the meat and potatoes for us is locals. They're not on vacation, they're just out to get something to eat or maybe they're celebrating a birthday or anniversary with us. We're most proud of what we do because we don't have to charge Strip prices, because we have more control of our overhead. We certainly see those tourists who want to go crazy, have a great meal and order wine and do it all, but it's a nice mix with our local customers who just want to have a quiet dinner, a little salad and a nice piece of
halibut. The tricky part is that we have to gauge what each table wants. We have to be aware of our guests and the kind of experience they're seeking, and I think being used to seeing different guests has heightened our ability to get to know them and give them what they're looking for.



Rosemary's is known for having a very friendly, versatile menu, stocked with plenty of favorites like the great Hugo's BBQ Shrimp dish. That's one of our favorite dishes in Vegas. How do you go about making additions or changes to the menu?
I'm not the type that says we have to change things every so often just to do something new. I'm really just watching the market, talking to our purveyors, seeing what's new and what's missing and what's coming up and then making adjustments based on those factors. Our products are driving our menu. I try to take a pretty flexible approach. The BBQ shrimp, that's not going anywhere. Same with the halibut because that's another of the dishes people love, but we only buy wild Alaskan so we have to make adjustments based on what's available and what's in season. We have daily specials and we try to do a lot with those, really check on what's getting people excited. We've had to add some things to the menu that started out as specials. Honestly, it's not really about me or my ego or what can I do. We're just trying to make them happy. If there's something our regulars want to see back on the menu, we're bringing it back. A perfect example of that would be the parmesan soufflé. This is just something I was playing around with. We baked it twice to get it real crispy and crunchy, and every time that thing comes out into the dining room people are just blown out of the water. There's another dish we're doing now that will probably make its way to the menu. We take a brioche roll and hollow it out, fill it up with grilled wild mushrooms, crack a fresh egg over it and then bake it. It's unbelievable. That's probably going to come out soon.


It sounds like you're very easily influenced by your regular customers, which I'm sure has become a large group.
We have quite a few regulars. We call them family. Actually, we have a lot of regulars from here and from out of town. We try to stay in contact with as many of them as possible, send e-mails and stuff like that so they know what we're doing. We just had a group come in from California just to come to a wine dinner. I'm still blown away by things like that, that people would do that, go out of their way to be with us.


What's coming up for Rosemary's? Any plans for further growth, expansion or anything like that?
There's always talk about potential future projects but talk is cheap. We're always listening. We're consistently hosting special events and we have a beer pairing dinner coming up, but as far as bigger plans, we'll see. It would be great to be able to make an announcement before the year is out. We'll let you know.