Steakhouse famed for $2.4K chops closes on Las Vegas Strip
The Turkish chef and butcher Nusret Gökçe — better known as Salt Bae, his nom de meme — developed a signature style of seasoning steaks in which he bounced grains of salt from his fingertips, off his forearm and onto the meat below.
Whatever the effect of this method on flavor, the effect of Gökçe’s career was remarkable, with his performance viewed millions of times online starting in early January 2017. That virality led to the opening of the first Nusr-Et steakhouses in the U.S., with the restaurant name a play on Gökçe’s first name.
A Vegas outpost debuted in February 2022 in The Park, next to T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip. Nusr-Et ended its almost three-year run Jan. 28, the restaurant said in a Wednesday announcement that described the shuttering as a temporary pause in operations, “with plans to reopen at a new location.”
A representative for Nusr-Et said there was “no additional information” on where that new location might be and when it might launch. The restaurant also shut its Dallas location this week and its meatpacking district location in New York City in May. The company has framed these closings as a shift in concentration to international markets (though, from a certain point of view, few markets are more international than New York and Vegas).
Big meat, big prices
When Nusr-Et landed here in 2022, the brand arrived with some baggage, including lawsuits (now settled) alleging workplace discrimination, unpaid overtime and stiffing of tips at the first New York Nusr-Et in Midtown. The critic for the New York Post called the restaurant “Public Rip-off No. 1.”
Still, Nusr-Et seemed made for Vegas, with its flamboyant globe-trotting owner, social media bona fides and dinner as spectacle. And certainly the prices took a go-big-in-Vegas approach: $1,100 for a 32-ounce tomahawk steak, $1,250 for a 32-ounce rack of lamb and $2,400 for a 70-ounce wagyu striploin, each wrapped in 24K gold foil.
The Wednesday announcement also said Nusr-Et was planning to open restaurants in Mexico City, Rome, Milan and Ibiza.
Contact Johnathan L. Wright at jwright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @JLWTaste on Instagram.
