Vegas’s New Neighborhood Steakhouse Brings Butcher Cuts and Carafes of Wine to the Bend

Eleven Hospitality chief executive officer and chef Cory Harwell’s philosophy has always been big and bold. In the case of Butcher and Thief, Eleven Hospitality Group’s new neighborhood steakhouse opening at the Bend (a collection of bars and restaurants in the southwest) on December 16, big comes in the form of a massive 6,800-square-foot restaurant that includes a wrap-around patio, which will bring the imaginative flavors diners have come to expect from the team behind downtown’s Carson Kitchen. 

With Butcher and Thief, Harwell’s intends to bring affordability back to the American steakhouse. Steaks range in price from $36 for a shoulder-cut petite tender to a 14-ounce Creekstone Farms ribeye for $56, leaving opportunity for the average bill for two to be $150 or less, including gratuity. Harwell says he will also keep wine costs down by offering glasses ranging from $8 to $17 with most bottles under $50 and one-liter house carafes for $40. 

“The one ingredient missing from the American steakhouse for the last 20 years is value,” says Harwell. “The steakhouse has priced themselves so far away from the average diner. They don’t have a corporate card. They’re not going out for a birthday or an anniversary every night of the week. And, unfortunately, a majority of our phenomenal steakhouses have turned themselves into that type of venue. I think there’s a massive opportunity to bring value back.” 

Located in a strip mall in the southwest valley, Butcher and Thief’s curved wooden doorway resembles a wine barrel. With walls painted army green and large floor-to-ceiling windows, the 180-plus seat restaurant feels light and airy. In addition to the main dining room, guests can sidle up to an eight-seat bar that faces the open kitchen or have drinks and snacks at the bar or on the large patio.  

The restaurant’s steaks will be prepared using a three-step process: First, sous vide to impart tenderness, then seared on an 800-degree plancha, and finished on the grill. The restaurant will serve both traditional cuts of beef alongside butcher’s selections, like zabuton and bavette. Other mains include branzino dressed in a smoky red pepper walnut romesco, steelhead trout with miso honey soy, and sausage rigatoni that replaces vodka with gin for its tomato sauce.

Harwell’s playfulness comes through with appetizers and sides. For the restaurant’s decadent six-cheese macaroni, he bathes and cooks noodles in a mixture of cream cheese, melty sharp white American cheese, smoked Gouda, and smoked white cheddar, adding a touch of blue cheese before it all gets covered in a snowfall of Parmesan. There are steakhouse staples like gluten-free, lightly-fried calamari breaded in rice and potato starch, oysters on the half shell, and a wedge salad (his version with thick-cut bacon and a spicy pickle ranch dressing for zing), but also Chicago clam chowder — uniquely marrying the New England and Manhattan styles — and Rockefeller-style creamed spinach using anise-flavored liqueur Herbsaint for punch.  

“Of all the spinach I’ve ever had in my life, the one I loved the most came in the oysters Rockefeller,” Harwell says. “So, I’m making the spinach in the same vein.”

Equally whimsical are desserts such as banana cream pie with a Nutter Butter crust and a throwback fruit cocktail cranberry jello “like your grandmother would make,” he says. And in an ode to Harwell’s Carson Kitchen partner and friend Kerry Simon, who died in 2015, the restaurant will serve a “junk food platter” of sweet treats like cookies, chocolates, and puffy orbs of colorful cotton candy. 

“I just don’t think there’s a better shared dessert opportunity than the junk food platter that he created so many years ago at Simon at the Hard Rock,” Harwell says.  

To capitalize on businesses in the area, Butcher and Thief will be open for lunch, serving the same menu; Harwell says he plans to introduce a happy hour and brunch service in the coming months.