Smith & Wollensky plans new steakhouse on the Strip in 2019
When the massive 650-seat Smith & Wollensky steakhouse inside its own three-story building closed last summer after nearly 20 years of business on the Las Vegas Strip, it seemed to leave a big hole. There aren’t many free-standing restaurants on Las Vegas Boulevard, especially fine-dining destinations.
The Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group never really saw the move as a closing but more of a right-sizing. The company that began in 1977 in New York City wanted to stay in Las Vegas and recently announced a new steakhouse set to open in the spring at the Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian.
“When we opened the original on the side of the Mona Marie Motel on the Strip, there was really only the Bellagio. That was the only (resort) that had opened at that time that had started the transformation of dining on the Strip,” said Michael Feighery, Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group CEO and president, who in late 1998 was the opening general manager of the Las Vegas location. “The casinos really didn’t have those 11 or 12 dining options they all have now, so building 30,000 square feet with those immense private dining spaces was the right thing to do at that time.”
Feighery believes Smith & Wollensky has found the right location for the next evolution of the Vegas steakhouse in the high-traffic space formerly home to Zeffirino. The thousands of hotel rooms at Venetian and Palazzo and the connectivity with the Sands Expo convention center creates what he believes is the perfect home for the brand’s classic offerings.
The new restaurant will be two stories and 14,000 square feet with approx-