Sin City

Chicago’s Shawn McClain Opening Five50 Pizza Bar in Vegas

Five50 Pizza Bar
Five50 Pizza Bar Photo: Aria/Rockwell Group

Chicago chef Shawn McClain, the 2006 winner of a James Beard for “Best Chef in the Midwest,” Esquire’s 2001 “Chef of the Year,” and one of the only Windy City chefs to claim victory on Iron Chef, is opening his second Las Vegas restaurant this spring. Though the San Diego native still holds down a vegetarian fine-dining restaurant named Green Zebra in Chicago, his career is increasingly focused on Sin City as of late, where he operates Sage at The Aria Resort. McClain’s next project is Five50 Pizza Bar, a Rockwell Group-designed Italian concept combining small plates, charcuterie, and handmade pastas with his take on wood-fired Sicilian and New York-style pizza, along with a showcase of craft beer.

In typically excessive Vegas-style, City Center, home to Aria, already has a Wolfgang Puck-branded pizzeria, possibly setting the stage for a high desert version of a second Austro-Piedmontese War.

Chicago’s Shawn McClain Opening Five50 Pizza Bar in Vegas