Carversteak, one of the best and liveliest meateries on the Las Vegas Strip, will make its New York debut when it opens on West 48th Street on Friday, March 20.
Like the Las Vegas original, the New York location will feature branded dry-aged tomahawks, wagyu cheesesteak bites, ice-cold martinis and custom “choose your weapon” boxes with an assortment of steak knives. But there will be plenty of new offerings as Carver Road Hospitality CEO Sean Christie considers how to balance Las Vegas razzle-dazzle with New York refinement and bring his own sense of theater to the Theater District.
Instead of the caviar poppers that Carversteak has in Las Vegas, executive chef Daniel Ontiveros will serve caviar-and-potato popsicles that are a playful nod to McDonald’s hash browns with a different shape. Other new dishes at New York’s Carversteak include short rib croquettes, uni toast, French onion short rib and lobster rigatoni alla vodka. Famed mixologist Francesco Lafranconi, who has showcased a martini cart and a spritz bar at Carversteak in Las Vegas, will have a freezer martini bar and an Old Fashioned cart in New York.
Christie plans to add brunch service in New York soon, and he’s envisioning different treatments for a dessert cart and a Bloody Mary cart that can flip into a Champagne cart. But to be clear, there are no sparklers whatsoever at Carversteak, which once had a cookie dessert with sparklers in Las Vegas and is now sparkler-free.
“I always tie it to things like music,” Christie says. “Music is defined by decades, usually. I really feel like hospitality is moving so quickly, and sparklers feel very 2010 to 2020 now. I feel like people are coming up with new ways to create that same emotion.”