A Downtown Restaurant Suddenly Closes — and 13 Other Closures to Know About

The first restaurant closures of 2023 have hit restaurants and bars in Summerlin, downtown Las Vegas, and Henderson. While the Las Vegas Valley continues to see frequent openings, other businesses have closed or scheduled their final days of service. Check back as this list is updated regularly.

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May 2023

The Smashed Pig Gastropub

Located on Fremont Street, the Smashed Pig Gastropub has closed suddenly, posting on its Instagram page that “the unfortunate time has come,” but hinting that something else may be in the works. The downtown bar and restaurant opened in 2015, next to the Griffin and what is now Flippin’ Good Chicken, Burgers, Beer. The restaurant operator could not be reached for comment. The Smashed Pig is closed as of May 31.

Sweets Raku

The dedicated dessert cafe, Sweets Raku, is closing its doors after nearly ten years of serving delightfully delicate dishes of vanilla cream puffs, mango sorbet, and chestnut cream cakes. The tiny Chinatown cafe, located in the same plaza as its sushi and charcoal grill sister restaurant, Aburiya Raku, will close its doors permanently on June 30.

Old Homestead Steakhouse

Celebrity chef Bobby Flay is opening a third Las Vegas restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip — inside the space that is currently Old Homestead Steakhouse at Caesars Palace. The steakhouse is widely regarded as one of Las Vegas’s best steakhouses, lauded for its tender, heaping cuts of meat, including New York Strip, porterhouse for two, the 24-ounce Gotham rib-eye steak on the bone, and a 10-ounce rare Japanese A5 wagyu. Its massive glass wine cellar holds 15,000 bottles. The restaurant will close and change over into Flay’s Brasserie B later this year.

The Dorsey

One of the best cocktail bars on the Las Vegas Strip, the Dorsey, is recognizable for its sultry library-inspired interior, tall metal birdcage-like structure, and inventive cocktail offerings. It’s closing to make way for a new bar, called Juliet Cocktail Room, to debut in the space. The 81/82 hospitality group partnered with the Venetian in March and is reinventing three bars, which the resort calls the cocktail collective — including the Dorsey, Rosina, and Electra Cocktail Club. The Dorsey closes on June 25.

April 2023

Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant

The Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant on Paradise Road is closing after 26 years. The restaurant opened in 1997 and serves bar fare like soft pretzels and deviled eggs, salad, pizza, burgers, and entrees like chicken schnitzel and fish and chips. A spokesperson confirmed the closure, calling it “a strategic decision based solely on business demands.” It will close permanently on Sunday, April 30.

Big Wong

The Chinatown restaurant known for affordable entrees and Chinese comfort food is closing permanently so its owners can retire. Located in the same shopping center as Kabuto, Raku, and Trattoria Nakamura-Ya, the small, casual restaurant has offered affordable and home-style Chinese cooking, noodle soups, and fried chicken for 12 years. Big Wong is expected to close in early May.

Guerrilla Pizza Co.

The Hard Hat Lounge has closed for renovations and when it reopens later this summer, Guerrilla Pizza Co.’s Detroit-style deep dish pies won’t be returning. Founder Robby Cunningham says he made the decision to move on and part ways with friend and Hard Hat business partner Frank Sidoris after “a lot of contemplating and conversation.” He’ll spend the next couple months working to develop a pizza concept back in his home state of Michigan, while searching for a new landing spot in Las Vegas to give Guerrilla and the square pies with crispy bottoms, chewy edges, and two stripes of sauce a bigger kitchen. Guerrilla Pizza Co. closed on April 24.

Vegas Test Kitchen

In the past two and a half years, nearly 70 chefs have cooked inside the Vegas Test Kitchen on Fremont Street. Its been home for both amateur and professional chefs who have popped in for one-time events or cooked in the kitchen regularly. The Test Kitchen came to fruition during the pandemic in collaboration with DTP and neighboring Fergusons Downtown. This summer, the incubator will close for good, going out with an outdoor food festival hosted by dozens of chefs in early June.

Genting Palace Lounge

Resorts World Las Vegas is permanently closing the lounge that leads into its high-end Chinese restaurant, Genting Palace, to turn the space into the only tiki bar on the Las Vegas Strip. Genting Palace and the Genting Palace Lounge debuted when Resorts World opened in June of 2021. The Genting Palace Lounge was bold and modern, with a white marble bar top behind a row of bold red velvet bar stools. Walls of jade shelves and windows led to the glossy black jewel-box entrance. On April 17, the bar will reopen as the Golden Monkey Tiki Lounge.

Genting Palace

Stripburger & Chicken

For 16 years, Stripburger & Chicken occupied the highly visible space on the first floor of Fashion Show Mall, facing out to Las Vegas Boulevard. Stripburger made some of the best burgers on the Strip, piled high with toppings like bacon, cheese, crispy onion strings, and mushrooms. Chef Rick Moonen once called Stripburger the best hangover cure he ever experienced. Stripburger is owned by the Lettuce Entertain You Hospitality Group, which also owns the adjacent El Segundo Sol Mexican restaurant. The group plans to debut a new restaurant in the space in fall 2023. Stripburger closed on Sunday, April 2.

March 2023

Aureole

Aureole and the gravity-defying Wine Angels who floated to the top of the restaurant’s 10,000-bottle tower are leaving the Mandalay Bay Las Vegas for good to make room for a new restaurant by Michael and Bryan Voltaggio. After more than 20 years of serving artful cuisine inside one of Las Vegas’s most recognizable restaurants, chef Charlie Palmer is closing Aureole and the two celebrity chefs are moving into the 9,000-square-foot space with a one-year residency. The restaurant will close on April 13.

Bradley Martin

Hearthstone Kitchen & Cellar

As Red Rock Casino continues to roll out changes to the Summerlin resort, its next big move is to permanently close the Hearthstone Kitchen & Cellar. Hearthstone opened in 2014 with a robust wine collection, wood-burning ovens, and a popular brunch. Red Rock says that it is closing to make room for a new restaurant to enter the space. The last day to visit Hearthstone before it closes will be April 30.

Amelinda B Lee

Banger Brewing

The downtown brewery opened at Neonopolis on Fremont Street in 2013 with a custom-built brushed stainless steel brewhouse with three barrels and five seven-barrel fermenters that brew the beer. The 3,000-square-foot brewpub offered pints and growlers, plus fun drinks for holidays. “As life moves on, Banger Brewing will too. We are closing our chapter in the brewing scene,” Banger Brewing announced in a post on Facebook. The brewery will keep its taps flowing through March 31.

Bodega Bagel

Just six months after opening her New York-style bagel spot, chef Sonia El-Nawal has shuttered the Henderson restaurant. During the pandemic, Bodega Bagel started as a recurring stall inside the Vegas Test Kitchen pop-up in downtown Las Vegas. “Bringing New York to Las Vegas has been a dream of mine for a long time,” El-Nawal had said at the time of opening the brick-and-mortar at 10075 S. Eastern Avenue. El-Nawal, who described Bodega as a love letter to New York, served bagels, spreads, and fish toppings like house-cured gravlax, sturgeon, housemade whitefish salad, and smoked salmon. Bodega Bagel closed its doors on March 7.

Bodega Bagel