Stew's Stix Café is set to open at 330 W. Washington Ave. in Las Vegas' Historic Westside, with a menu of chicken lollipops with waffles and shrimp lollipops with cheesy grits, while also intended to serve as a paid training ground for the neighborhood's next generation of cooks. The breakfast-and-lunch spot is more than just a new place to eat — it's built around a workforce program that pays residents 14 and older to learn the restaurant trade from the ground up.
A Food Truck Dream Becomes a Brick-and-Mortar Classroom
The café traces back to chef Robert Stewart, known around town as Chef Stew, who launched the original Stew's Stix food truck and, according to news3lv.com, said his goal from the start was to open a restaurant and train others interested in becoming a chef or entrepreneur. Stewart described his vision as a small brick-and-mortar that could double as a job-placement program for the community, teaching people to run a food truck, a catering company or a restaurant of their own. Getting there wasn't easy — he told the outlet that inconsistent locations, along with the fees, licenses and permits tied to truck vending, made it hard to build steady revenue, and he eventually turned to a GoFundMe campaign after struggling to land traditional bank financing.
That persistence paid off in August 2026, when the Las Vegas City Council approved a partnership with the Transition Kitchen Foundation and Stew's Stix to run paid culinary training on the Historic Westside School campus, according to the café's own website, stewsstix.com. Under the program, residents 14 and older will earn $12 an hour while learning on the job and working toward ServSafe certification inside the café itself. A free 30-day culinary-arts program was planned for East Baltimore's Midway community.
Ribbon-Cutting Set With Mayor and Council Member
According to FOX5 Vegas, a formal ribbon-cutting for Stew's Stix Café is set for Tuesday, October 13, at 9:30 a.m., with Mayor Shelley Berkley, Ward 5 Councilwoman Shondra Summers-Armstrong and Stewart himself expected to take part. Stewart, who FOX5 Vegas describes as a Baltimore-born chef, entrepreneur, motivational speaker and author, won Food Network's Cutthroat Kitchen — Season 8, Episode 9, back in 2016, according to news3lv.com — and has worked as a personal chef for celebrities and professional athletes.
The café sits near the ShareWestside apartments and the Westside Education and Training Center, per FOX5 Vegas, positioning it inside a stretch of the Historic Westside that the city has been steadily building out as a workforce hub. The training program tied to the café gives participants hands-on experience in basic culinary skills, hospitality and customer service, while teaching them what's expected of them in a working commercial kitchen — all connected to an actual, functioning workplace rather than a classroom simulation.
Part of a Bigger Westside Push
Stew's Stix isn't operating in isolation. College of Southern Nevada students are also training at the nearby Westside Education and Training Center for new careers, FOX5 Vegas reports, and that center — a partnership between the City of Las Vegas and the college — was created to connect residents with high-demand, high-wage work, according to 8newsnow.com. Future healthcare workers, construction professionals and tech experts are getting hands-on training there, the station notes. The center targets in-demand jobs.
The broader push around Las Vegas culinary training extends even further afield. At the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, new training cohorts start every two weeks rather than following a traditional academic calendar, with multiple groups running at once, according to vegasinc.lasvegassun.com. That academy runs its own student-operated food-service spots, including the West Side Bistro and the 710 Coffee Bar, the latter open to the public and giving students real experience in specialty coffee prep, guest service and daily operations. Courses there range from two-week programs for guest-room attendants and kitchen stewards up to a 12-week professional-cook track, and the academy recently added 15,000 square feet to its Historic Westside facility.
For now, Stew's Stix Café is set to become the Historic Westside's newest breakfast-and-lunch option, while aiming to build out a pipeline meant to turn neighborhood residents into trained cooks, servers and, Stewart hopes, future restaurant owners in their own right.
