9 Celebrity Restaurants in Las Vegas That Flopped

Posted: January 9, 2025, 11:00 am.

Last updated: January 9, 2025, 11:02 pm.

Name recognition is not enough to carry a restaurant to Las Vegas success. The novelty of a familiar name may initially draw a crowd. But it takes something really special beneath the hype to keep them.

The recipe for longevity on the Strip – where rent, labor and other operating costs are among the highest in America – is innovation, exceptional quality and more than a drop of good luck.

Here are the most notable celebrity restaurant flops in Las Vegas history.

9. Guy Fieri's El Burro Borraco

rio
2016-2020 (6 years 5 months)

As far as lifespans of Las Vegas restaurants go, six years isn't embarrassingly short. But casino resort companies expect a lot more from their celebrity chef licensing deals, and this is certainly an exception for Fieri. Of the five joints the spiky-haired grillmaster has opened in Las Vegas since 2014, this was the only one that is still not open.

Fieri's Vegas fortunes took a turn for the worse when Caesars Entertainment – ​​which runs all of Fieri's restaurants because celebrity chefs only pretend to operate their own restaurants – decided to sell the operating rights to the Rio to Dreamscape Companies in 2019.

Although Dreamscape didn't officially take over until 2023, the writing was on the wall. Changes in ownership almost always force a reconsideration of the previous owner's pre-existing restaurant and entertainment contracts, which probably also explains why Chippendale's Men's Revue divested the Rio in November to link back up with Caesars. .

There has never been an official explanation for why El Burro Borraco did not reopen after the pandemic – reasons for closure are rare, and they almost never are. sincerely – If Fieri Restaurants or Chippendale Restaurants were still performing as well as they did when they initially signed their contracts with Caesars, both would still be operating at the Rio.

In Las Vegas, the golden rule is that things that are successful never close – unless there's a sex scandal with their celebrity owner.

8. International Smoke by Michael Mina

mgm grand
2019-2025 (5 years)

This is the only restaurant on our list that is still open. This will change after January 19.

International Smoke was a partnership between James Beard Award-nominated “Iron Chef America” ​​challenger Michael Mina, who previously operated Pub 1842 at the same location, and Ayesha Curry, wife of NBA superstar Stephen Curry.

The main challenge was to maintain consistent patronage. (check out Vital Vegas' Brutally titled story about International Smoke's closure.) But this doesn't seem to be a Vegas-isolating incident.

When Mina's Vegas venture opened in December 2019, International Smokes also served San Francisco, Del Mar and Miami. After the Las Vegas closure, only the San Francisco location will remain.

But Meena is absolutely fine. He recently opened Bourbon Steak at the Four Seasons and is Michael Mina at the Bellagio.

7. Eva Longoria's Beso Steakhouse

Crystal at Citycentre
2009-2012 (2 years 8 months)

Beso was a Latin-inspired steakhouse (“beso” is Spanish for “kiss”) co-owned by “Desperate Housewives” star and celebrity chef Todd English. It offered a menu combining traditional Latin flavors with modern culinary techniques.

Initially, Besso found success due to Longoria's star power, which attracted her Hollywood friends to dine and party in the upstairs nightclub. But Basso faced many challenges, including negative reviews, a legal battle between Longoria and English, and poor management.

According to , by 2011, the nightclub was losing over $76K per month, and had accumulated $5.7 million in debt. New York Daily News. This forced the entire operation to declare bankruptcy in 2011 and close a year later.

6. Majordomo Meat and Fish by David Chang

Venice
2019-2022 (2 years 5 months)

5. Moon Palace by David Chang

Venice
2020-2022 (2 years 4 months)

David Chang still owns Momofuku Las Vegas and Bang Bar at the Cosmopolitan. But the James Beard Award-winning star of Netflix's “Ugly Delicious” struck two sour notes in Venice.

Both Majordomo Meat & Fish and Moon Palace closed with the sale of the Venice property to corporate landlord VICI Properties.

However, if both of these restaurants had been celebrating success, like Guy Fieri's El Burro Borraco, they might have survived. And perhaps it's not irrelevant to note that of the 16 restaurants Chang has opened since opening Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York in 2004, 11 have closed.

4. Eva Longoria's SHE by Morton

Crystal at Citycentre
2012 -2014 (1 year 4 months)

So much for learning her lessons. Longoria, this time partnering with parent company Landry's, reopened Besso in the same location as a women-focused version of Cosmopolitan's STK.

He showed fashion shows that focused on “little things that attract women” and dessert menus with mirrors to reapply lipstick.

But she never returned after she was shut down by the Southern Nevada Health District in April 2014 for 32 health-code demerits, mostly related to food temperatures.

3. Maceo Osteria by Scott Conant

Red Rock Resort Casino
2018-2019 (1 year 3 months)

The decision to close Maso Osteria (Italian for “Boulder Tavern”) after more than a year was attributed by industry observers to a combination of market saturation with Italian cuisine, its off-Strip location and the cooling off of celebrity heat on Scott Conant. Was held responsible for. ,

Conant has been a regular judge on Food Network's “Chopped” since 2009, but by the time he arrived in Las Vegas, three of his other restaurants had closed within a two-year period: Ponte in L.A., and Impero Café and Fusco in New York.

The closure of Maso Osteria was regarded by both Conant and Station Casinos as an amicable change rather than a failure of the restaurant. Because of course it was.

2. My Asia by Martin Yan

Horseshoe Las Vegas
2023-2023 (159 days)

Yan, a James Beard Award winner and star of PBS-TV's “Yan Can Cook,” opened his first Las Vegas restaurant in March 2023 and closed it five months later. Unlike most Celebrity/Caesars licensing deals, My Asia was four-walled, meaning that its owner, ATM Hospitality Group, was responsible for the extraordinary costs of building, operating and maintaining its own restaurants, not Caesars.

So when the expected revenue did not come, the money was gone.

1. Elio by Enrique Olvera

encore las vegas
2020-2020 (153 days)

Enrique Olvera, the highly acclaimed head chef of Mexico City's Pujol, opened the restaurant with fellow celebrity chef Daniela Soto-Inés, who was named the World's Best Female Chef by the World's 50 Best Restaurants in 2019.

what could go wrong?

Well, that's a lot when your Opening Day is scheduled six days after Las Vegas is closed due to the pandemic. Located in the former Andrea's space next to Encore Beach Club, Elio finally opened on June 18, 2020. But a sharp decline in travel due to travel restrictions and health concerns resulted in insufficient patronage to sustain operations. The restaurant lasted only five months.

While the pandemic provided an excuse for many casino resorts to close restaurants, they were starting to second-guess themselves anyway – especially Buffets – This closing was possibly caused by the worst luck ever.