Charlie Trotter Closes Las Vegas Restaurant

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Mar 19th 2010 at 8:02PM

Las Vegas is losing one of its celebrity chef restaurants. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Charlie Trotter has closed his two-year-old Restaurant Charlie in the Palazzo Las Vegas. Trotter, who is a Chicago institution, won his first Michelin star at his seafood-centered Las Vegas restaurant. The sushi bar inside the restaurant, Bar Charlie, was selected as one of the nation's best sushi spots by Bon Appetit last year. Alas, the numbers just weren't working for the Las Vegas restaurant. The Chicago Sun-Times quotes Trotter's wife and spokeswoman, Rochelle Smith Trotter, who said that they lowered prices three times and tried a pre-theater menu . She makes a mention of the "level of clientele that seemed to be the frequent guest that Las Vegas is now seeing" a reference to the fact that the high-spending tourists seem to be in short supply in Las Vegas lately.

Trotter's Las Vegas restaurant offered a Grand Tasting Menu for $175 (with a $100 wine accompaniment). Items on the menu included Muscovy duck breast with Thai basil and Yuba, Elysian Fields lamb loin with cumin, smoked ricotta and buckwheat, Peekytoe crab salad with sake and rice milk and Nantucket bay scallops with guava and macadamia nuts.

Trotter is still hoping to open a restaurant in New York. It had been announced that it would be at One Madison Park but it may end up being at another New York property. He is also looking at other options and continues to delight dinners at Charlie Trotter's in Chicago.

Tags: charlie trotter, charlie trotters, las vegas nevada, palazzo las vegas, PalazzoChupi, restaurant charlie, restaurant closings, restaurant closures