They call it “Paella for the people.” Valencian Gold is a brand new speedy casual eating place housed in the Las Vegas Strip suburbs. It’s additionally the brainchild of a proud Mission College graduate, Jeffrey Weiss.
“[Mission College’s] facilities are better than rattling close to any cooking college,” said Weiss. “To me, Mission College is a gift…yes, you get the culinary foundation and education, so if you need to move that way you could pass that manner, however, past that, you’re additionally uncovered to the commercial enterprise practices and the kinds of matters that you need to know about the basics of business, and that’s big.”
Weiss took what he found out at Mission College and persevered in his schooling at Cornell University. After Cornell, he met his now enterprise companion, Chef Paras Shah, whilst the 2 of them studied in a specific culinary software in Spain.
The software invited cooks worldwide to live in Spain for a yr and immerse themselves in Spanish cooking. As the only Americans, Shah and Weiss were thrown a lot collectively.
“It was kind of like The Perfect Strangers component,” said Shah with a laugh. “I turned into Balki Bartokomous to Jeff’s Cousin Larry. The whole component changed into that we met over there, and we didn’t realize each different in any respect.”
But they grew near throughout that year abroad. The subsequent yr, they lower back to America and went their separate ways; however, they stayed constant. When Weiss called up Shah some years in the past with his concept for a fast-casual paella restaurant, Shah didn’t hesitate to mention, “I’m in.”
“I consider Jeff, a family member. He’s my brother,” stated Shah. “There’s no one else that I’d need to go through this loopy state of affairs with.”
Valencian Gold spread out on July 12. The concept is a build-your-personal paella bowl, together with your preference of paella, vegetables, protein, and other additions. Weiss and Shah desire it’s the beginning of a series of speedy informal paella restaurants.
Weiss says he and Shah desired to open in California; however, they couldn’t discover the proper region. When buddies instructed them Las Vegas became a superb choice, they were skeptical before everything. They came around to the idea once they started out traveling Vegas suburbs and determined a very supportive hospitality community.
“The greater we began talking to humans, the greater we met cooks, and we met people that work inside the commercial enterprise, we realized, that is in which these guys stay and whilst they arrive domestically at the cease in their shift, there isn’t plenty for them, and there’s this each want and choice for principles like Valencian Gold,” stated Weiss.
Weiss credits a first-rate deal of his success as a chef and his flow into this new enterprise mission to what he discovered right here within the Bay Area. While attending Mission College, Weiss also labored at Lion and Compass; the nicely-appeared Sunnyvale eating place closed in 2017.
Weiss worked along with Chef Steve Shannon at Lion and Compass, a person he now proudly calls his mentor.
“I became lucky enough to be in [Steve Shannon’s] kitchen and study on the elbow of someone who has been a master of the enterprise,” said Weiss. “He instilled in me a lot of the skills but also the passion for hospitality, and all the things that have been handiest being reinforced every day even as I become in training at Mission College.”
Valencian Gold is located at 7960 South Rainbow Blvd. In Las Vegas. While the eating place is in its first few weeks of existence, Weiss says he’s already happy with the effects.
“We’re setting out food and a product that we agree within and that we’re very passionate about, and that, to me, is the large part of what we worry approximately is ensuring that it’s something we can stand at the back of and love and all that and then the rest will come,” stated Weiss.