Hawthorne Opens on Dean Martin, and Southern Highlands' Holiday Fridays Fill In Around It
November 12, 2026
November 12, 2026
This year's holiday calendar around Southern Highlands is short and it lands on Fridays. The Southern Highlands Tree Lighting is Friday, Dec. 4. M Resort has scheduled free patio workshops on Dec. 4, Dec. 11 and Dec. 18, each running 6 to 8 p.m. And on Thursday, Nov. 12, a new place to end those evenings is scheduled to open, with hours running until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
That place is Hawthorne Craft Bar & Kitchen, at 10620 Dean Martin Drive, Suite 100. The rest of the season makes more sense once Hawthorne is on the map, because it is the one option on this calendar that runs every night.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal puts Hawthorne "where Dean Martin Drive meets Southern Highlands." In the same piece, restaurateur Robert Parekh, who is opening it with partners, described why they picked the location:
"Las Vegas has no shortage of places to go out, but we saw an opportunity to bring some of that energy closer to home."
The menu is casual and covers a lot of ground. There's a charcuterie board with three cured meats and artisan cheeses, plus a caramelized onion and tomato flatbread with roasted garlic cream sauce and provolone. The beer-battered cod comes with hand-cut fries and a remoulade coleslaw. The braised lamb sandwich has cucumber, pepperoncini, crisp shallots and tzatziki on a brioche bun. To finish, a sundae is loaded with hot fudge, caramel, Oreo crumbles, toffee and nearly everything else.
The cocktail list is short and specific:
The hours matter most for the holiday season. Hawthorne runs 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday. Happy hour is Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m., with a second window from 9 p.m. to close. Trivia, karaoke and live music rotate through the week, and the TVs are set up for game viewing. The full menu and lineup are at hawthornelv.com.
That late window lines up with the busiest night of the season.
The Southern Highlands HOA has published its 2026 Tree Lighting schedule, and it fills the late afternoon and early evening of Friday, Dec. 4, at the Southern Highlands Corporate Center. Laid out next to the other Friday options nearby, the evening looks like this:
The Pinot's Palette session starts half an hour after the tree is lit, and M Resort requires preregistration, with limited space for walk-ups. If you want both on the same evening, the lighting ceremony and the workshop don't leave much room for lingering at the vendor village.
This year's Tree Lighting has a Toy Story theme. Santa, Buzz Lightyear and Jessie pose for photos with a $10 family photo pass. There's a Forky craft, a Polar Express train ride, carolers, and a holiday vendor village. The food trucks are Mr. Big Stuff and Brownie Bar, and free hot chocolate is served in a Toy Story short film room. The HOA divides the activities into free and by donation:
The logistics are on the HOA page too. Parking is at the Corporate Center and at Olympia Sports Park, with an event shuttle running from Olympia. The event is billed as a family event, with no smoking, no outside alcohol, no weapons and no pets. Leave the dog at home that night.
After Dec. 4, M Resort keeps the same 6 to 8 p.m. slot on its patio for two more free workshops:
| Date | Workshop | Presented by | Registration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Dec. 11 | Candle Workshop, build a custom scent | Pieces of Luv | Preregistration required; details on Eventbrite |
| Fri., Dec. 18 | Artist Workshop | Pretty Done | Preregistration required |
Both have limited walk-up space, the same as the Dec. 4 painting session. The M Resort entertainment calendar has the registration links. With three Fridays in a row on the same patio at the same time, the resort is effectively running a holiday series. A workshop that ends at 8 still leaves four hours of Hawthorne's Friday hours on Dean Martin Drive.
The first date on the neighborhood calendar comes earlier. The HOA's toy drive for its charity partner, Operation Warm Heart, runs Nov. 16 through Dec. 7 and collects new, unwrapped toys.
The Dec. 7 deadline falls three days after the lighting. Anyone who misses the event can still bring toys to the management office until then.
Thanksgiving is Thursday, Nov. 26, and the Review-Journal's 2026 Thanksgiving dining guide lists two turkey dinners at M Resort, both served from 4 to 9 p.m.
The children's price at Anthony's brings a three-course holiday dinner close to home for a family of four to $176 at the listed rates, before tax and gratuity.
Hawthorne covers the evenings. The neighborhood's newest daytime counter opened late this summer. 8NewsNow reported in late August that Mama Tess's Artisan Kitchen had opened at 11350 Southern Highlands Parkway, Suite 125, with sandwiches, soups, salads, shakes and sweets. It's a soup-and-sandwich lunch spot inside the neighborhood, and a convenient stop on a day spent running toys to the management office.
In September, Food & Loathing reported that 595 Craft and Kitchen, the nine-year-old craft beer bar near Rainbow Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, was preparing a second location in Southern Highlands. Owner Van Nguyen said the new space would be nearly twice the size of the original. The original location added weekend brunch, opening at 9:30 a.m. Friday through Sunday, with dishes like Vietnamese steak and eggs and a loco moco made with both hamburger and Spam. Nguyen described the brunch rollout as "a live exercise for the upcoming project." The new location may also offer a larger selection of nonalcoholic drinks, teas and tonics.
If this season has you thinking about what your own home is worth, Gene Northup offers a free home valuation, handled with the same care and discretion as every client relationship.
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