Jennifer Barios didn’t know what she would do after high school as a recovering addict, until she was approached by Samantha Steele, co-founder of The Blooming Bistro.
Barios, 19, had two felony-related drug charges by her sophomore year of high school.
She almost dropped out until she enrolled at Mission High School, a secondary school designed for students in recovery from substance abuse.
“I kept thinking, like, ‘Oh, what am I gonna do after? Like, what if I go back to drugs?’ That’s when Sam came,” said Barios, who graduated from Mission High School as valedictorian.
“It was like, the universe heard me or something.”
Now, two years sober, Barios spends her days working front of house at The Blooming Bistro, a restaurant serving meals and “serving hope” for at-risk youth.
Located at 860 S. Rancho Drive, the restaurant employs at-risk youth and second-chance adults, equipping them with soft and hard skills to go forward in the job market and build sustainable lives.
For most of them, these are their first jobs.
“When we talk about four cornerstones to recovery, it’s home, health, community and purpose,” Steele said.
“You think about those four things, and really that’s what employment is, right? It encompasses all four of those cornerstones for somebody to build, hopefully long-term shot at recovery.”
The restaurant has been open since March 3 and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 10 with multiple city, county and state officials present.
For sibling founders and Las Vegas natives Samantha and Mark Steele, the restaurant business is the family business.
Their parents formerly owned The Aristocrat in the same shopping center as The Blooming Bistro.
Mark Steele owns Restaurant Hospitality Institute and trains employees in front-of-house operations.
He has over 40 years in the industry, starting as a busser at his parents’ restaurant, eventually managing and opening up restaurants across the Las Vegas Strip.
Program director Samantha Steele has a background in nonprofit work and is in long-term recovery herself.
“I am very passionate about it (recovery) for personal and professional reasons,” she said, adding that she has lost 37 people close to her to accidental overdoses.
To start the restaurant, the duo received grant money from State Opioid Response and donations from the University of Nevada, Reno’s Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies for the build-out of the restaurant and kitchen spaces.
Community members such as S&M Electric also helped out.
Currently, the restaurant is sustained and funded via food sales and donations, as well as community partnerships.
While anyone is welcome to apply to work at The Blooming Bistro, the restaurant mostly employs people from partner organizations such as Mission High School and soon St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, which serves young people who are aging out of foster care.
The restaurant provides a wide range of training from culinary to social skills.
They hope employees build confidence they can take with them to other jobs, the Steeles said.
“For a lot of these kids, you know, they’ve never had a job before,” Mark Steele said.
“So to be able to kind of teach them the glossary and the lingo and how to deal with the guests and proper verbiage, it’s really rewarding.”
Chef Calvin Shiflet, who left the corporate culinary industry to work for the bistro, trains employees in back-of-house operations and cooking.
Shiflet has over 50 years in the culinary industry, working at Elaine’s in the Golden Nugget under Master Chef Gustav Mauler, in Beverly Hills, and has opened up three of Greens and Proteins locations.
“When this was presented to me, I resigned my job and became a part of the mission here,” said Shiflet, who most recently worked at Masterpiece Cuisine.
“I have a lot of gratitude to be here, and a part of this, bringing some young adults to the kitchen.”
Barios said she has gained confidence working at The Blooming Bistro and has gone from sitting in the back of a classroom to speaking in front of crowds of people about the restaurant’s mission.
The Steeles said typical employees will only work for them for around three to six months before moving on to more full-time employment through partner agencies such as EmployNV and iFoster.
They want to connect them to jobs where they can obtain health insurance, a retirement plan, and more skills.
After working at the restaurant, Barios hopes to get into coding.
After speaking on a panel, she said she was approached by someone willing to help her achieve that goal.
The Steeles said the goal of the Bistro is to “feed the body and nourish the soul” through its menu and mission.
All of the meals are cooked without seed oils, and the menu includes many gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan options, as well as housemade sauces.
“I’m about holistic wellness, body, mind and spirit, and that’s really what we want to vibrate within and throughout the community,” said Samantha Steele.
Looking down the menu, locals might notice some familiar names, like the Councilman Knudsen Bowl, named after Las Vegas City Councilman Brian Knudsen, which has zucchini spinach, green bell peppers, carrots, green beans, fresh ginger, and turmeric.
Or Dani’s Brown Derby Sandwich, named after Danuelle Shiflet, founder of recovery program Thrive Solutions and Chef Shiflet’s daughter; a pretzel roll sandwich with tri tip and celery root mash.
Or maybe the Scotch 80s Bowl, named after the surrounding neighborhood the siblings grew up in, with sautéed mushrooms, pineapple, ginger, carrots, and a teriyaki glaze.
The restaurant’s main dish is The Root Cause, which comes from Alcoholics Anonymous.
The dish contains a pound of root vegetables, fresh herbs, veggie stock, turmeric, and ginger, with braised chicken and thyme.
There are also typical offerings on the menu, like a three-cheese sourdough grilled cheese, cobb salad, wild caught salmon, and roasted chicken.
All come with a crave-worthy spin from Shiflet.
“It’s about the people that you’re uplifting,” Shiflet said.
“That’s what it’s about.
It’s not about any individual.
It’s about us as a team and to keep the safe place for the kids.”
Contact Emerson Drewes at [email protected].
Follow @EmersonDrewes on X.
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