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Over the weekend, social media sensation Nusret “Salt Bae” Gökçe descended on Dallas to open the doors to his lavish Arts District steakhouse, Nusr-Et.
In the days following the restaurant’s debut on Thursday, March 4, Nusr-Et Steakhouse was booked solid. Photos shared to the chef’s Instagram stories reveal an elaborate affair, with Salt Bae himself walking around to carve — and, of course, shower with salt — gold-covered ribeyes, ridiculously thick filet mignons, and whole racks of lamb. It even earned the attendance of a few minor local celebrities, including Dallas rapper Yella Beezy and former Bravo reality star Courtney Kerr.
Scope out video of the presentation for yourself below:
Each night, lines snaked around the building as crowds eagerly waited to get inside the restaurant, despite the fears of the COVID-19 pandemic that have kept many Dallasites from dining out in recent months. Photos from the weekend indicate that tables were spaced apart inside the restaurant and most staffers were wearing masks inside the large space.
The key exception to that rule was Gökçe himself, who is pictured in a number of Instagram posts approaching tables and posing for selfies without a mask — or with his mask only covering his mouth — as seen here in this video shared by Central Track on Twitter:
The Salt Bae has landed in Dallas! His Nusr-Et Steakhouse opened in Uptown this week -- and, despite lawsuits surrounding its construction, the man himself is in the building, slicing and seasoning meats tableside. (And not wearing a mask, which... .) : @storybyjankarlo. pic.twitter.com/KHRdJXnuLk
— Central Track (@Central_Track) March 6, 2021
It would appear that Nusr-Et’s Dallas debut was extremely successful, too. Via his Instagram account, Gökçe shared a screenshot of a graph titled “Revenue,” with a series of bars allegedly indicating that the Dallas steakhouse besting revenues for all of Nusr-Et’s locations in Dubai, Miami, New York, Doha, Boston, and the original in Turkey.
After a busy weekend of carving steaks, Gökçe summed up his thoughts on the city thusly: “I love Dallas, Texas,” Gökçe said. “Sometimes Kansas.”
