For all the changes Las Vegas has seen over the past few decades, Mon Ami Gabi has remained remarkably consistent. But the French bistro at Paris Las Vegas is trying something it has never done before: happy hour.
L’Apéro Happy Hour is now available from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday in the restaurant’s Pavilion and Pavilion Bar, with food starting at $2.50 and cocktails beginning at $10.95.
“As bizarre as it sounds, we’ve never, per se, had a happy hour here at Mon Ami Gabi,” Executive Chef Vincent Pouessel recently told the Food and Loathing podcast. But after seeing increased interest from guests in the afternoon, he decided the time was right.
Rather than simply discounting items from the regular menu, Pouessel created new dishes specifically for L’Apéro, inspired by what you might find at a terrace café in Paris.
Take, for example, the four tartines (open-faced “sandwiches” built on toasted baguette slices). The chef offers a saucisson (sausage) version with rosette de Lyon salami, cornichon and butter; one with chicken liver pâté, red wine mustard and Pineau des Charentes gelée; avocado toast with breakfast radish and crispy shallot; and a tribute to the croque monsieur, made with French ham, Gruyère and Mornay sauce. They’re $5.95 each or $20.95 for all four.
Pouessel says the variety was important to him.
“I didn’t want to run a happy hour with, like, three items, for the sake of having a happy hour,” he explains. “This is something that we do not have on the menu, so it’s totally different than what we’re currently serving.”
Other options include oysters on the half shell for $2.50 each, baked goat cheese for $8.95, a $7.95 saladette and deviled eggs topped with smoked whitefish caviar for $10.95.
The most substantial offering is $13.95 for prime cheeseburger sliders and Mon Ami Gabi’s signature hand-cut frites. Burgers and sliders aren’t exactly what the restaurant is known for, which is part of why Pouessel wanted them on the new menu.
“We’re not exactly the house of sliders and burgers,” he jokes. But he wanted something “petite” and savory, the right size for an afternoon bite.
Drinks are similarly priced for happy hour. Five cocktails range from $10.95 to $12.95, including a French 75, Aperol Spritz and the red wine-based Frangria. Wines by the glass range from $10.95 to $12.95, while Sam Adams Seasonal, Stella Artois and Michelob Ultra are $6.95.
And while plenty of Las Vegas happy hours are designed primarily to get locals through the door, this one comes with one of the Strip’s best people-watching locations.
Pouessel describes the Pavilion as an opportunity to enjoy some wine and “kill the afternoon” in the heart of The Strip.
“I feel like it’s the quiet, and yet in-the-middle-of-the-action, opportunity that we have,” he says.
You can hear the entire Vincent Pouessel interview on the October 9 episode of the Food and Loathing podcast.
