When most local foodies think of Ada’s in The Arts District, they think of its award-winning wine list and how well it pairs with the menu’s creative, shareable plates. On July 23, however, James Trees’ intimate Arts District restaurant will temporarily set the wine glasses aside in favor of rum.
Why should wine have all the fun?
The five-course Spirits + Supper experience may be the restaurant’s first exploration of rum, but it’s really just an extension of what has always made Ada’s unique. Known to many as Trees’ most experimental concept, the restaurant has built its reputation by exploring how beverages and food interact. This time, instead of pairing dishes with Burgundy or Barolo, the team is collaborating with Las Vegas Distillery to show guests what rum can bring to the table.
For sommelier Kat Thomas—better known to many local wine lovers as “The Wine Goddess”—the idea began with a simple question: Why should wine have all the fun?
“I love wine more than everything,” Thomas recently told the Food & Loathing podcast. “But I wanted to see if we could entice a few different ideas and events into the space. Rum was something that has such a range of possibilities and styles, and I knew we could create a fun summer menu with those.”
Caribbean flavors
Chef Jackson Stamper didn’t approach the project by simply swapping rum for wine. Instead, he and the guest bartender—his wife—developed the menu and cocktails together, adjusting each as the ideas evolved.
“You want to throw in the acidity to cut through the sweet, but you don’t want to lose the identity of the rum that you want to shine,” Stamper said.
That philosophy pushed the menu toward Caribbean flavors. Guests can expect dishes inspired by Cuba and Jamaica, including a Cuba Libre-inspired pork preparation and what Stamper expects will be the night’s standout: Jamaican curry goat agnolotti.
The inspiration isn’t culinary school or a cookbook. Stamper explained that one of his closest childhood friends was Jamaican, providing an early introduction to that nation’s flavors.
“One of the highlights of going to his house [was that] his mom would make this Jamaican goat curry.”
A chance to learn something
Las Vegas Distillery embraced the collaboration by supplying all four of the rums in its growing catalog: white, dark, spiced and overproof. And representatives of the distillery will guide guests through the spirits during dinner.
Brand representative Kari Richardson hopes the evening encourages diners to think differently about rum.
“People don’t honestly think of rum and pairing it with food,” she said. “But you absolutely can.”
While rum is known to most as the spirit behind frozen tropical cocktails and rum-and-Cokes, this dinner is intended to show how much more it can do. The team plans to demonstrate how it can complement savory dishes, elevate desserts, and offer many of the same pairing opportunities diners traditionally expect from wine.
Spirits + Supper promises the best of what a pairing dinner can be: creative people from different corners of hospitality challenging one another. If that sounds good to you, you’ll be happy to hear that tickets are still available and reasonably priced
The dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 23. Tickets are $75 and include five courses with cocktails, pours and presentations from Las Vegas Distillery. Reservations are available through OpenTable.
For more on the event, click here. To make a reservation, click here.
You can hear the complete interviews with Jackson Stamper, Kat Thomas and Las Vegas Distillery’s Kari Richardson on the July 17, 2026 episode of the Food & Loathing podcast.
