Emmitt Smith’s Steakhouse Closes at Fashion Show Mall Due to $407,000 Back Rent

By Scott Roeben, on September 23 2025
3 min read 0 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Restaurants

Emmitt’s Vegas, a steakhouse at Fashion Show Mall on the Las Vegas Strip, has shuttered due to a massive amount of delinquent rent.

Specifically, $407,730.88.

The involuntary closure was a humiliating end to an inauspicious run for Emmitt’s, a red-flag-palooza of Vegas proportions.

If you never heard of it, it’s not your chronic traumatic encephalopathy. They sucked at marketing.

We were initially tipped off to the closure of Emmitt’s by @ryslattery on Twitter.

Calls and e-mails to Emmitt’s went unanswered, so we naturally did some reluctant journalism and visited Fashion Show Mall, despite our deep-seated aversion to malls or anything resembling shopping.

There were legal notices on the doors of the restaurant, but they were not accessible to the public.

We are not the public.

We risked life and limb to get closer to the documents to suss out the tea or whatever our fellow kids are calling it now. Also, it’s the other kind of “suss.” Words are so complicated now.

The landlord, Brookfield Properties, changed the locks. Awkward.

To get new keys for Emmitt’s, operator Clarkway Entertainment, would have to pay the back rent in its entirety.

Translation: Not happening.

Another document was issued by the lawyer for Fashion Show Mall.

Admit it, lawyers: Putting deadbeats on blast is one of the perks of the job.

The letter shows there were issues dating back to May 2025.

This seems like a good time to roast the shit-for-brains staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Actually, it’s always a good time to roast the shit-for-brains staff of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

If you’re not familiar with our local rag, this might help.

Ignoring journalistic ethics since at least 2015.

After seeing our original reporting, the Las Vegas Review-Journal rushed to the phone to confirm our story and “break the news” without attribution, a pattern of the publication for a decade now (since it was purchased by the Adelson family and all the quality editors and writers wisely jumped ship). Now, it’s woefully inexperienced high school yearbook writers excited to lift stories from social media because it’s not “real journalism,” a misinformed perspective supported by so-called editors.

Yeah, not much of a roast, but it sort of feels like we’re punching below our weight class. Suffice to say the Review-Journal did not have a way of seeing the documents it shared other than in our Tweet, so F them, their ongoing thievery and institutionalized mediocrity.

Anyway, Emmitt’s had a rocky start, so it’s not particularly surprising it went south.

The restaurant cost about $18 million to build out. It was announced in December 2021. It was supposed to open in spring of 2022.

As Emmitt’s slogged toward its delayed opening, there was a high-profile lawsuit involving Chef Rainer Schwartz, the restaurant’s original executive chef. He claimed there was a “conspiracy” to keep him from operating the restaurant, a gig that would earn him $67 million. If Schwartz ever got a settlement, good luck collecting.

Ain’t no drama like chef drama.

Emmitt’s eventually opened on February 26, 2024 and pretty much disappeared from the Las Vegas conversation entirely.

The location was visible (it was previously Sugar Factory), but it’s at a freaking shopping mall.

In addition, nobody is walking past SW Steakhouse at Wynn or Delmonico at Venetian to get to a steakhouse with a retired athlete’s name on it.

Ultimately, the restaurant failed due to poor marketing and what we can only surmise was even poorer management. We also blame F1.

On the bright side, we were told several members of the Emmitt’s kitchen staff moved to the nearby Benihana.

Emmitt’s is a cautionary tale of big dreams, too little marketing acumen and resources, along with rents being a smidge steep on The Strip.

Opening a restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip isn’t for the weak. “If you grill it, they will come” isn’t a thing.

We’re pretty sure Fashion Show Mall gets to sell off the contents of the restaurant to try and recoup some of its rent, so watch for lots of Emmitt Smith memorabilia on eBay soon.