In what some are calling the beginning of the end of the reign of celebrity chefs in Las Vegas, both David Burke and Charlie Trotter have stepped away from the restaurants that bear their names.
And late last year, famed chef Daniel Boulud said he would be closing his Daniel Boulud Brasserie at the Wynn Las Vegas Resort and Country Club when the lease is up in April.
Elsewhere on this city’s glittering Strip, however, chefs like Rick Moonen of rm seafood at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino have reinvented their concepts to create a more distinct upscale experience, and high-end venues such as Joel Robuchon are planning to raise prices in light of a more optimistic outlook for 2010.
Burke last week announced the end of a joint venture with E Brands Restaurants, based in Orlando, which opened the restaurant David Burke at The Venetian more than two years ago.
EBrands chief executive Rashid Choufani blamed the breakup on the economic downturn, which has been particularly hard on Las Vegas. Economists have reportedly placed Las Vegas second among U.S. cities most devastated by the Great Recession, after Detroit.
Choufani said big name chefs that flooded the city over the past decade, including Burke, tended to create venues with price points that don’t make sense anymore.
“Celebrity chefs in restaurants there today, with this economy, it’s a little hard,” he said. “It was hurting our concept.”
Instead, E Brands plans to recreate the space as E.B.’s Timpano Tavern, a more moderately priced variant of the Timpano Chophouse and Martini Bar concept the company operates in Rockville, Md., and in Orlando, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Charly Robinson, E Brands' president and chief operating officer, said the more “tavern-esque” version in The Venetian will be a more contemporary take on the Italian chophouse concept, with a $40 to $50 average check, lower than what was typical at David Burke, where dinner entrees range from $32 to $56.
The restaurant will remain open under the David Burke name until it is converted to E.B.’s Timpano Tavern within the next four to six weeks, Robinson said. The restaurant is not expected to close.
EBrands operates 13 restaurants in six cities, including Aquaknox, Taqueria Canonita and Canonita Express, also at The Venetian, as well as the Samba Room and Paradiso 37 concepts.
In a statement, Burke did not explain the split, but said his Burke in the Box restaurant at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport “continues to thrive,” and that his company, The Burke Group, is evaluating other opportunities in and around Las Vegas.
In New York, The Burke Group operates David Burke Townhouse, David Burke at Bloomingdale’s and Fishtail by David Burke. Elsewhere, the company operates David Burke’s Primehouse in Chicago; David Burke Fromagerie in Rumson, N.J.; and David Burke Prime in Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.
Trotter reportedly closed his two-year-old Restaurant Charlie and Bar Charlie, both of which were in the Palazzo hotel and casino, a sister property of The Venetian.
Rochelle Smith Trotter, the chef’s wife and spokeswoman, told The New York Times that they considered changing the concepts to adapt to the economic downturn, but decided not to compromise the integrity of the operations that bear his name.
Trotter, who also operates Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, is developing a restaurant in Manhattan that is scheduled to open next year.
Meanwhile, Moonen, who was nominated for a James Beard Award on Monday, this week announced the reopening of the dinner-only upstairs of rm seafood, a higher-end space that is maintaining its $36-to-$75 entree range. Downstairs, rm seafood offers a more affordable menu with entrees at dinner ranging between $22 and $46. The lower level is also open for lunch.
Together with executive chef Adam Sobel and chef de cuisine Gerald Chin, Moonen recreated the upstairs menu to “push the boundaries of fine dining and bring it to a new level,” Moonen said. “The dishes we’ve produced are innovative, playful and even interactive -- part of the Vegas dining experience I felt was missing.”
Dishes include the Spider Crab, described as an artichoke, sunchoke and ruby red grapefruit surrounded by Dungeness crab which clings to the rim of the bowl like a spider; and Onion Soup 3000, a deconstructed version of the French classic with Gruyere custard and onion veloute served on a caramelized onion chip.
Across The Strip, even the most high-end restaurants over the past year have tweaked their concepts to offer more approachable options to appeal to cash-strapped consumers.
When it opened in 2005, Joel Robuchon in the MGM Grand, for example, initially offered multi-course prix-fixe menus that started at $135 for five courses and climbed to $295 per person for 16 courses. Last year, the restaurant altered its menu to allow diners to select as few as two courses for $89, in light of the economic climate.
Alexandre Gaudelet, MGM Grand’s vice president of food and beverage, said the restaurant recently decided to raise prices of all the prix-fixe menus by $20, in part to cover the increased cost of a caviar amuse-bouche all diners receive, as well as the offer of limo service included in the meal.
The two-course menu, for example, will be $109 when the changes are put in place within a couple weeks.
Despite the economy, Gaudelet noted, the 16-course menu, which had climbed to $365 per person and will soon be $385, is ordered by about 30 percent to 40 percent of the restaurant’s guests.
Other venues, such as Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak, also have dropped lower-priced menu offerings in recent weeks, including a smaller portion “half steak” offered in the lounge. For the first two months of 2010, Craftsteak’s sales are up 20 percent over the same period last year, Gaudelet said.
MGM Grand has not seen any restaurant closures in recent months, he said, in part because the resort owns and operates its restaurants in partnership with the chefs, rather than leasing.
Despite an unemployment rate above 13 percent and record foreclosure rate, tourism indicators reportedly show signs of hope. Gaudelet and others say the city has seen the worst of the downturn.
“We believe very strongly in Vegas,” said Robinson of E Brands. “In our opinion, the bottom has been seen and things are getting better.”
Contact Lisa Jennings at [email protected].
