Lamar Moore

The Climb

Training at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School gave Moore a formal base before the work hardened into habit. From 2003–2010, he was a cook at McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants in San Jose, California, where the daily demands of service would have reinforced speed, consistency, and clean execution. As Sous Chef at Chicago Bears in Chicago, Illinois, Moore worked in a setting where timing and coordination matter as much as flavor. By 2020–2020, he had moved to Executive Chef at Bugsy and Meyers Steakhouse at Caesars Entertainment at Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, and he has also served as Executive Chef at Bugsy & Meyer’s Steakhouse in Las Vegas. The progression shows a chef moving from training into greater responsibility without changing the core demands of the job: run the line, hold the standard, and keep the room moving. Since 2024, Moore has been chef and owner of ETC. Restaurant, a role that puts the day-to-day decisions of the kitchen under his control. Ownership here is less a title than a working position: the place, the pace, and the menu direction all sit inside the same set of choices.

Today

At etc. In Chicago, Moore is steering the food toward a more communal format. He put the direction plainly: “We’re going to go more family-style.” That kind of service changes how a table eats: dishes are built to be shared, not isolated, and the meal becomes a coordinated exchange rather than a sequence of individual plates.

In Their Words “We’re going to go more family-style.”

Recognition

Beef cooking is the specialty attached to Moore’s work. In trade terms, that specialization is often where a chef’s reputation gets fixed: not by doing everything, but by doing one area with enough control that it becomes identifiable.