Be one of the first to welcome Josh Kougl to Las Vegas. It was just six days before sitting down for this interview and photo shoot that he moved to town to take the position of general manager of Zuma, a modern Japanese restaurant, at The Cosmopolitan.
Kougl, however, has been a part of the Zuma brand for almost five years. Zuma has locations all over the U.S. and abroad, and Kougl began working with Zuma in Miami as the assistant general manager. From there, he helped launch the Boston location as the opening general manager, and now he’s running the Vegas outpost. “Las Vegas is the mecca of hospitality in the U.S.,” says the Indiana native. “I knew that it had to be on my career path.”
Kougl’s career spans two decades in the hospitality industry, starting with positions like dishwasher, busser and server in California, then moving into bartending and eventually management in cities like Phoenix, Los Angeles and even Playa del Carmen, Mexico. “But I always knew that I’d make it to Las Vegas one day,” he says. “I knew that I had to work here to get that key experience on my résumé.”
It’s safe to say that Kougl has arrived, literally and figuratively. As the general manager, he explains his job with this analogy: “The GM is the brains of the operation. You have managers that are essentially the shoulders, then the rest of the team that are the arms and the fingers. And I provide direction and culture for the restaurant and manage the business as well.”
While Kougl settles into his new role at Zuma, he can’t wait to settle into this new city he now calls home, and the first thing on his to-do list is, “No joke, eating and drinking,” he says with a smile.
“I’m so enamored by the amount and the caliber of the restaurants in this city. My wife and I are ecstatic to get out and try all these amazing restaurants.”
Libation: Burning History
One would be remiss not to start with a cocktail at Zuma’s bar. “I always encourage our guests to try our cocktails,” says Kougl. Specialty cocktails are all handcrafted with a Japanese-inspired twist, and all ingredients are freshly sourced. One perfect example of Zuma’s cocktail creativity is the Burning History, which is completed tableside. Mixed with Suntory Whisky Toki, honey water, ginger syrup, yuzu juice and egg whites, it’s infused with a Scotch barrel smoke and then poured over ice.
Benefit: Zuma is inspired by informal izakaya dining, meaning guests enjoy a family-style dining experience.
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