Award-winning, internationally acclaimed pastry chef Claude Escamilla has opened an entirely reimagined pastry shop, SWEET SIN by Claude Escamilla, at The LINQ Promenade. With an enormous, handcrafted chocolate fountain as its centerpiece, the location represents the first eponymous European-style pastry shop for Escamilla, who previously served as executive pastry chef on the Las Vegas Strip for 17 years. SWEET SIN by Claude Escamilla is situated between the entrance to The LINQ Hotel + Experience and Chayo Mexican Kitchen + Tequila Bar on the Promenade.
SWEET SIN by Claude Escamilla boasts new décor, featuring a sleek, white pastry display case handcrafted in Italy and a brilliantly polished, towering chocolate fountain custom-made by elite artisans in France. The chocolate fountain is composed of three, 7-inch-diameter, curvilinear pipes that cross the ceiling, culminating in three taps behind the pastry case. Each tap dispenses a different, irresistible variety of confectionaries—dark chocolate, white chocolate or caramel—which is poured before customers’ eyes onto menu items such as crepes, chocolate-dipped strawberries and hot chocolate.
From the ceiling, more than 50 whisk-shaped pendant lights hang suspended above guests as they browse the shop’s offerings. Adorning the walls are cheerful polka dots in bright hues of raspberry, tangerine, lemon, lime, turquoise and plum, as well as playful phrases spelled out in neon script. Meanwhile, an elaborate, rotating case displays an artistic assortment of 400 handmade macarons in every color of the rainbow, as well as sweet souvenirs and other SWEET SIN by Claude Escamilla merchandise.
In addition to macarons and crepes, the shop offers 13 flavors of gelato, omelets, breakfast sandwiches, sweet and savory pastries, a tempting array of homemade European desserts and traditional coffee beverages as well as cold brew coffee on draft.
“SWEET SIN by Claude Escamilla elevates the typical pastry shop concept to a new level with the addition of the crowd-pleasing chocolate fountain, and we are excited for our guests to stop by and enjoy the shop’s unique offerings,” said Tonia Chafetz, General Manager of The LINQ Promenade.
“This pastry shop represents my dream come true,” adds Escamilla. “It incorporates years of imagination and planning, and I am grateful to see my vision come true and share it with everyone who visits The LINQ Promenade.”
Escamilla grew up in the south of France, where he began his pastry arts career while studying at La Chambre des Metiers in Perpignan. He graduated with a professional aptitude certificate in 1995 and a master’s degree in pastry in 1998. During school, he regularly interned with renowned French chefs and spent weekends creating pastries in his father’s bakery. While still in France, he gained further experience developing pastries and menus for a large-scale catering company and decorating for a pastry shop helmed by one of France’s most celebrated pastry chefs.
In 1999, Escamilla arrived in Las Vegas, where he worked as assistant pastry chef at Bellagio, before being promoted to assistant executive pastry chef for the resort and overseeing all pastry shop production and 65 employees. In 2009, he became executive pastry chef for Bellagio Patisserie and Aria Patisserie, where he managed 115 employees spanning the kitchen and front-of-house locations.
In addition to holding executive roles at top-tier patisseries, Escamilla’s career includes several national and international championship titles. He is a two-time World Pastry Champion and two-time U.S. Pastry Champion, and he was named one of the Top Ten Pastry Chefs in America by Pastry Arts Design magazine and Pastry Chef of the Year by the Nevada Restaurant Association.
