We’re sitting with Bobby Flay exactly 24 hours before
he opens his first seafood restaurant ever, and for the
record, he does not seem nervous. He’s in the bright
courtyard-like patio at his newest restaurant, Shark, in the
renovated Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, chatting and
laughing with fellow Food Network star Michael Symon.
They’re making plans to meet up at a poolside cabana
tomorrow to celebrate opening day. “I like to keep Michael
as close to me as possible,” Bobby jokes, before explaining
that Michael was actually the one who got him into the
Palms in the first place. Michael had signed on to put a
spinoff of his Cleveland barbecue restaurant, Mabel’s BBQ,
in the hotel (see page 146), and the operators were looking
for a chef to run a seafood restaurant. Bobby jumped
at the chance: He loves Vegas (he runs Mesa Grill in
Caesars Palace and an outpost of Bobby’s Burger Palace
on the Strip), and he really loves seafood.
Shark
The only part of the project that seemed daunting was
the sushi. “I know from years of working with Morimoto
on Iron Chef that making sushi is its own art form, so I
brought in an expert, Japanese chef Kiyo Asano,” Bobby
says. Bobby is multitasking as he tells us this, recounting
the story while he walks around the dining room,
making sure everything is ready for service. Despite all
the anticipation, the space—like the chef—seems calm,
even as servers get ready for opening night and a throng
of reporters waits to talk to the man in charge. The
restaurant was designed to feel like an escape, which
does beg one question: Why the ominous name? Bobby
gestures outside the restaurant to the casino floor,
where a 13-foot preserved tiger shark sculpture by artist
Damien Hirst sits above the lobby bar. Bobby heard about
it the first time he toured the space. The name, he says,
was just meant to be. palms.com/eat-and-drink/shark
P
Bobby
Flay
Turn the page for a
recipe from Shark.
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NOVEMBER 2019 ●FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE 143