News
09/01/1998 - They Said It Couldn't Be Done
Sept/Oct 1998
Nevada Hospitality
by Jan Hogan
There were those who said it could not be done, those who predicted an early demise to Andre's French Restaurant, back when it opened in 1980. Although critics agreed the food was superb, Andre's had three strikes against it.
It was viewed as Las Vegas' only establishment to specialize in gourmet French cuisine. Hence, the market share seemed too select to support it.
Instead of full-color print ads and drive-time radio spots, advertising was kept at a bare minimum. Andre's relied almost solely on word-of-mouth÷a strategy that makes ad executives openly wince.
The restaurant had the unenviable position of being located downtown, which chef and proprietor Andre Rochat laughingly calls the "armpit of the city÷but it was all I could afford."
Even with those factors, 18 years later, the naysayers are eating their own words. Andre's, located at 401 S. 6th St., held on through an admittedly slow start, but gained a solid clientele. Now, it is viewed by many as serving the city's finest gourmet French cuisine. So fine, it has a sequel.
Last August, Rochat opened a second location at the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. He is in a class by himself÷the market share for gourmet French cuisine in Las Vegas has not seen any new competitors. Currently, only a handful of restaurants in Las Vegas even offer French food.
Andre's closest competition is George Le Forge's Pamplemousse, a small establishment which Rochat says serves good French food, but has a menu so restricted, it is recited to each patron. "We [still] don't have any competition," Rochat says with a shrug. But he now has a great location.
The $344 million Monte Carlo is a joint venture of Circus Circus Enterprises Inc. and Mirage Resorts Inc. Corporate vice president of merchandising Bill Uglow says the French restaurant is proving to be a terrific draw and is "right in line" with the hotel's upscale image. Although the resort offers another high-end dining establishment, Blackstone's, Uglow says there was a real "need for [Andre's] in the gourmet category."
The new restaurant serves only dinner. With an estimated patronage of 700 to 800 on a "good" week (500 when the town is slow), the new location is living up to Rochat's expectations. His food is living up to patron's expectations.
Andre's French Restaurant has consistently earned accolades for its cuisine. Awards include the Nevada Restaurant Association Restaurateur of the Year, Wine Enthusiast magazine's Restaurant Award, Distinguished Restaurants of North America Award, Travel Holiday Magazine Honors, Zagat Survey Award and the International Institute for Dining Excellence Award. Year after year, a readers' poll by the city's major newspaper votes Andre's the favorite gourmet dining establishment.
'Little Place Out of the Way'
To understand the success Rochat carved out for himself, one must look at the steps that brought his first restaurant recognition, and, ultimately, led to the Monte Carlo.
The original Andre's opened in June 1980, in a building that had begun as a modest Spanish-style cottage. It was the epitome of humble beginnings.refitted the building to bring it up to code, adding on rooms as the structure permitted, including a huge modern kitchen. What began with less than a dozen tables and a staff totaling seven blossomed into an establishment that now seats up to 180, with a staff of 40. It is open for lunch and dinner.
"Every city has a little place out of the way that is pecial," says Rochat. "We want people to come here and feel at home." He says that besides notable locals, the restaurant attracts wedding parties and has a solid clientele in affluent foreigners who frequent the city. "We get bookings from Europe÷Germany, France and Italy÷and South America. When people talk, they [tell their friends] to come to Andre's."
In concert with long-time business partner Mary Jane Jarvis, whom he credits with an eye for aesthetic details, they created a comfortable setting for diners÷comfortable, but with understated elegance. He likens it to a French country house.
In renovating the structure, Rochat proved his talents lie beyond the kitchen. He personally hand-hewed the wood beams for the ceilings. He mixed plaster with hay and layered it onto the walls to create a textured interior. Lace curtains, silk flowers, etched glass and antique cabinets lend to the charm, and Rosenthal china and stemware grace the tables. But it is not just in ambiance that Rochat strives for balance.
"There is a lot of misconception about French cooking," he says, citing the health-conscious public's wariness over heavy sauces. "We use a light sauce and keep it simple. That's what makes it a nice combination of flavors."
He is a firm believer in traditional food preparation and dismisses California-style nouvelle cuisine as utilizing so many strong garnishes that it overpowers the essence of the meal. "Garnishes and herbs should enhance the flavor of chicken, not [detract from it]," he says. "Nouvelle cuisine! It's ridiculous!"
But Van Heffner, president of the Nevada Restaurant Association, while rating Andre's as being on par with anything New York, San Francisco, Paris or New Orleans has to offer, says the trend in cuisine is shifting toward Italian, Mexican and Oriental fare. "We're seeing a lot of them," he says. "They are more in demand than a French restaurant."
Rochat is not fazed. "Those are trends," he says, "just a cycle." He likens a pasta house to mass food preparation, mostly concerned with its profit margin. He questions how much attention is paid to ingredients, saying he inspects fresh produce that's trucked in every day, and refuses to purchase anything that doesn't meet his standards. "We only prepare and use quality food. I don't look at price; my first concern is quality," he says.
He claims the big, bright, noisy eating establishments one sees these days are not the type of dining experience he wants to depict. "We take you back to the old, intimate gourmet room, small and classy, a special place."
Andre's menu is changed twice a year, featuring delicacies such as sauteed double breast of squab, chartreuse of muscovy duck stewed in merlot and grilled pave of provimi veal with sun-dried tomato gnocchi. Each dinner item runs about $30, with appetizers such as escargots de bourgogne or jumbo sea scallops wrapped in macadamia-nut crust running about $12.
A dessert cart displays an ever-changing selection. Breads and desserts are made fresh every day at the on-site bakery. A wine cellar holds 1,000 labels, the oldest being a Chateau Gruaud Larose, a red wine dated 1869.
Castle on the Strip
With the success of his location downtown, Rochat sought a new market for his second establishment. His first restaurant catered mostly to high-end locals, but missed out on the tourist market. It's a big market. In 1997, Las Vegas saw 30.5 million tourists. The city's Convention and Visitors Authority estimates that each person averaged a trip expenditure of $551 for a stay lasting 4.5 days, with $124 of that going toward food and beverages.
Besides upscale tourists and high rollers, Rochat eyed the conventioneers' market. A mainstay of the Las Vegas economy, 3,749 conventions last year drew 3.5 million attendees. (The largest draw is Softbank Comdex's convention, held each November, with 225,000 people. The next largest is the Consumer Electronics Show, held every January and pulling in between 100,000 and 110,000 people.) "There really is no slack time in Las Vegas," says Kevin Bagger, LVCVA's senior research analyst. "Hotel occupancy is strong year round with a dip in December [due to] the holidays."
Rochat and his partners chose their second location carefully, noting the constant convention crowds tend to stay on or near the Las Vegas Strip. Though other resorts approached him, Rochat declined.
He gave three reasons why the Monte Carlo appealed to him: the beauty of the hotel, its location and the fact that the Monte Carlo understood him and "was smart enough to see the value of a restaurant with [an established] reputation. They were willing to work with us. We have a wonderful relationship with them."
The initial contact was made two years ago, and the partners (now including Norbet Koblitz, chef and general manager at the new location) contracted 6,000 square feet of space, with a lease of 10 years. Once the papers were signed, construction moved quickly, and it was a mere five months to the grand opening on August 20, 1997.
Rochat says there were no unforeseen problems. While the first location demanded renovations before it could hold a restaurant, the Monte Carlo site was a clean slate. Only a few changes in the original plans had to be made, to work around existing duct systems.
Like its counterpart downtown, the new restaurant reminds patrons of the Continent. Rochat says its decor is comparable to an elegant French castle. The partners worked closely with Perry Dugal, a designer and architect from Pasadena, Calif., to create their particular brand of ambiance.
From the marble foyer, a grand staircase leads up to three private dining salons. The rooms seat as few as six or can be combined by means of sliding walls to accommodate groups as large as 40.
Also on the second floor is a Louis XVI cigar salon, complete with a huge fireplace, dark paneled walls and overstuffed chairs arranged in small groupings. Displayed in glass cases are port wines, Madeiras, brandies and cognacs.
A two-story, glass-enclosed wine cellar offers a selection of nearly 900 labels, many of them vintage selections. Sommeliers assist diners with wine selections. Rochat says that 99 percent of his diners enjoy wine with their dinner, and that they are becoming more knowledgeable about vintages.
Koblitz holds court as the general manager and chef of the new location. His culinary talents are described by Rochat as "excellent." He has worked in various restaurants and resorts, and spent a year cooking beside Rochat at the original Andre's restaurant.
Facing Success Again
The downtown location is considered "homier" and offers patio dining for 50 (shaded by a fruitless mulberry tree). It also boasts a museum-quality display of antique bottles near the long bar. There is the Prohibition-era whiskey bottle, with its demure "for medicinal use only" disclaimer. There's an 1802 bottle of Napoleon cognac, with ties to Emperor Maximillian. Then there's the Perfection cognac from the early 1800's costing $400 a shot.
Though Rochat places a high value on service, he leaves that to his staff. He is at his best in the kitchen, creating each labor-intensive dish with deft hands and an eye for presentation. One of his delights is to whip up delicacies not on the menu whenever a patron asks to be surprised. But don't call him out to say thank you. He is, he claims, shy.
Rochat was born in Savoie, France, during World War II. He spent three years in an apprenticeship to the Chez Leon de Lyon, a two-star Michelin Guide establishment, receiving a diploma of professional aptitude.
After being the personal chef for Commandant Hounot of the French Navy in Toulont, France, Rochat took several chef de cuisine appointments, moved to America and presided over the kitchens at various hotels on the East Coast. Rochat even spent time as United Airlines' executive sous chef, a job that he says did not challenge his culinary talents. "It was restrictive," he says with a shrug, "but a good experience."
Rochat came to Nevada in 1970 and fostered an entrepreneurial streak. Within three years, he opened Savoy French Bakery, a sidewalk-style bakery and eatery near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He ran it for five years before selling it and acquiring the downtown location for Andre's.
Not all of Rochat's endeavors are success stories. In July 1997, he opened Frogeez in the downtown Las Vegas Bank of America building. A low-priced French bistro, described as funky and casual, it included a bakery and night spot. Though expected to draw from the Fremont Street Experience crowd, it did not live up to Rochat's expectations and he closed it after a only year. "There was just not enough business," he says.
Heffner at the restaurant association says a number of factors "come into play on a restaurant's success rate. It depends on whether it's an established restaurant in another community that will open here, or a totally new concept. There are certainly a number of restaurants that fail during the first three years."
Judging from the business the Monte Carlo location is bringing in, Andre's latest venture faces only success.
Rochat is proud to be have brought fine dining to the city and is pleased to see major hotels bringing in award-winning chefs. He says it's a trend that lends credibility to the city and will demand recognition.
"I don't think Las Vegas was ever treated fair by the other major cities," he says. "They called us names like 'Sin City' and that. But when was the last time any of those food critics came to Las Vegas and tried us out and give us a fair judgment? Now, with big-name chefs coming to town, they have to [give us recognition]."