By pure chance, chef Shawn McClain and mixologist Tony Abou-Ganim were paired together on an episode of "Iron Chef America" in 2012.
They squared off against another chef/mixologist duo to create food-and-drink pairings. Despite having never met before, they won, taking down Iron Chef Marc Forgione and Charlotte Voisey. McClain and Abou-Ganim had immediately hit it off as a team.
"Tony and I shared a kindred spirit and kept in touch," McClain said. "We were eager to do something together."
Four years later, the right project finally popped up. McClain, the James Beard Award-winning chef behind Sage and Five50 in Aria, was asked by MGM Resorts to come up with a restaurant concept for Mandalay Bay.
The result was Libertine Social, a next-generation gastropub with multiple seating areas, two bars, modern pub fare and a robust list of eye-catching cocktails, which opened on Aug. 8.
"From the beginning I knew the beverage program would be really important, because we wanted a large lounge and big bar," McClain said. "Once the idea really crystallized, Tony was the first person I thought of for the drink program."
Abou-Ganim, also known as the "Modern Mixologist," is well known in circles that can tell the difference between a martini glass and a coupe glass. Abou-Ganim has served as the director of judging for the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and has consulted on or crafted the cocktail menus at bars up and down the Strip.
One cocktail highlight at Libertine is the "social swizzles," large, four-person cocktails that would look at home on a Caribbean beach and feature a swizzle stick made from the Quararibea turbinata tree, a plant that is better known as the swizzle stick tree. There are also bottled cocktails and others on tap.
The restaurant has several different spaces, including an outdoor patio, a smaller second bar and a communal seating space.
"One thing I love about the restaurant as a whole is there are so many ways to experience it," McClain said. "You see it differently depending on where you are sitting, and it can really change each time you're in. There's the lounge, there's kitchen seating at the chef's counter and we have the back bar, which is a cool, moody, dark and intimate setting."
For the menu, McClain got creative with pub grub. The scotch olives come with lamb and feta, ahi tuna cones are adorned with whipped pink peppercorn and creme fraiche, the flatbreads are baked in a wood-burning oven and the burger comes with bordelaise sauce and caramelized onions.
"I've had a much broader canvas at Libertine to really explore easy, fun, casual dining," McClain said. "It allows us to play with a lot of ideas, and we offer everything from sharable small plates all the way to great steaks off the grill."
Visit www.mandalaybay.com/en/restaurants/libertine-social.html.