Smith and Wollensky Steakhouse to Close on Las Vegas Strip

By Scott Roeben, on April 20 2017
2 min read 6 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Restaurants

A fixture on the Las Vegas Strip, Smith & Wollensky restaurant, is set to close on May 26, 2017.

The three-floor steakhouse, with its distinctive facade, is located across from Monte Carlo resort.

Smith & Wollensky
Thanks a lot, Smith & Wollensky, for photobombing our picture of these palms trees.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, there are plans in the works for Smith & Wollensky to open in another location, but no specifics been provided by the restaurant.

The Smith & Wollensky steakhouse on the Las Vegas Strip is one of nine locations throughout the U.S. and U.K. The chain was founded in 1977 by partners Alan Stillman and Ben Benson. Stillman is best known for creating T.G.I. Friday’s.

Surprisingly, Smith & Wollensky isn’t named after people. Those names were chosen randomly from a Manhattan phone book. (Note to millennials: Yes, people used to look up phone numbers in books.)

The announcement of the very first Smith & Wollensky restaurant used the names Charlie Smith and Ralph Wollensky, but founder Alan Stillman later confided Charlie and Ralph were the names of his dogs.

Dog
This is neither Charlie nor Ralph. We just like dogs.

Smith & Wollensky opened on the Las Vegas Strip in December 1998. The restaurant chain changed hands in March 2016.

A rep for Smith & Wollensky said it’s anticipated the company will share information about their new location closer to the restaurant’s closing date, but that remains to be seen. Smith & Wollensky is a rare free-standing steakhouse on The Strip (we can’t think of another one that’s not inside a hotel-casino), and we’ve never heard much about it, good or bad.

The reason for the restaurant’s closure is unknown, but a good rule of thumb is financially successful restaurants don’t tend to close in Las Vegas.

Update (8/18/17): Our source says Smith & Wollensky will re-open at Venetian-Palazzo.

Update (6/19/18): Our scoop about the re-opening of Smith & Wollensky has been confirmed officially. The restaurant will open at Grand Canal Shoppes in spring 2019.