Vegas’s New Neighborhood Steakhouse Butcher & Thief Brings Butcher Cuts to the Bend | Eater Vegas

"Big and bold in both philosophy and footprint, this 6,800-square-foot neighborhood steakhouse at the Bend opens December 16 with a wrap-around patio, a curved wooden doorway that resembles a wine barrel, army-green walls, floor-to-ceiling windows, and 180-plus seats including an eight-seat bar facing an open kitchen. Cory Harwell aims to bring affordability back to the American steakhouse: steaks run from $36 for a shoulder-cut petite tender to a 14-ounce Creekstone Farms ribeye at $56, with an average bill for two of $150 or less including gratuity; wine runs $8–$17 by the glass, most bottles are under $50, and one-liter house carafes are $40. Steaks go through a three-step prep—sous vide for tenderness, a sear on an 800-degree plancha, then the grill—and share the menu with butcher’s cuts like zabuton and bavette, branzino with smoky red pepper walnut romesco, steelhead trout with miso honey soy, and sausage rigatoni whose tomato sauce swaps vodka for gin. Playful appetizers and sides include a decadent six-cheese macaroni (cream cheese, sharp white American, smoked Gouda, smoked white cheddar, a touch of blue, and a snowfall of Parmesan), gluten-free, lightly fried calamari breaded in rice and potato starch, oysters on the half shell, a wedge salad with thick-cut bacon and spicy pickle ranch, Chicago clam chowder marrying New England and Manhattan styles, and Rockefeller-style creamed spinach punched up with Herbsaint. Desserts lean whimsical, from banana cream pie with a Nutter Butter crust and a throwback fruit cocktail cranberry jello “like your grandmother would make” to a shared “junk food platter” of cookies, chocolates, and colorful cotton candy in ode to Kerry Simon. Open for lunch on the same menu, with happy hour and brunch planned in the coming months, the space is meant to feel light and airy and, as Harwell puts it, deliver the one ingredient missing from the American steakhouse for the last 20 years: value." - Ryan Slattery