Salt Licks headed for the bright lights of Vegas
Casino thinks local joint will be a ringer out West
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Owners of the Salt Lick are making a big bet on Las Vegas as they prepare to open replicas of their Hill Country institution in three hotel and casino properties in Sin City.
The new Las Vegas eateries will mimic the Salt Lick's original barbecue restaurant near Driftwood. The first will open April 18 in Station Casino Inc.'s $925 million Red Rock Casino, Resort & Spa in Summerlin, Nev., a new luxury community about 10 minutes west of the strip.
Matt Rourke
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
The Salt Lick is going places – Las Vegas, for one, but co-owner Scott Roberts has big local plans, including this vineyard near his Driftwood restaurant. Expansion plans also include a general store near the Driftwood site and new barbecue restaurants in Texas, including one in Round Rock near the Dell Diamond.
Matt Rourke
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
'Everything has to be approved by us,' Roberts said of the three Salt Lick restaurants opening in Las Vegas. Roberts, whose father founded the Salt Lick, said he wants the restaurants in Nevada and several new ones planned for Texas to keep the nostalgic flavor and feel of the rustic barbecue joint in Driftwood, above, where Ignacio Grimaldo, left, slathers sauce over meat. The first Salt Lick in Las Vegas is scheduled to open April 18.
Other Salt Lick locations will follow by mid-2007 in Station Casino's existing Santa Fe Station Hotel & Casino in northern Las Vegas and its Sunset Station Hotel & Casino in southern Las Vegas.
Station Casino executives estimate that each of the three 275-seat Las Vegas restaurants will serve more than 200,000 carnivores a year and cost several million dollars to develop. The company isn't disclosing revenue projections.
"Obviously we feel these can do an enormous amount of volume, or we wouldn't have made a commitment for three of them without having opened the first one," said Jeff DiVito, the casino chain's corporate vice president of food and beverage development.
A typical Saturday at the Salt Lick's original location attracts 2,000 meat eaters, necessitating a sheriff's deputy to direct traffic, owner Scott Roberts said.
Along with his wife and daughter, who are co-owners, Roberts will open a new Texas location in Grand Prairie, southwest of Dallas, by early 2007.
It will be followed by a new Salt Lick in Round Rock, adjacent to the Dell Diamond, that will feature the restaurant's trademark weathered limestone, rock patios, windmills and splitwood fences, along with children's play areas.
Roberts is also in early talks with Leander officials to lease land for a restaurant there.
The Robertses will own and operate the Texas locations. They will lend the Salt Lick name to the Las Vegas restaurants, which Station Casinos will build, own and manage. But to ensure the restaurant mirrors the feel and flavor of the original, "everything has to be approved by us," Roberts said.
Founded in 1968 by his father, Thurman, the Salt Lick has undergone several expansions, transforming it from a single-pit smokehouse into a 275-seat restaurant that draws locals and tourists alike. It has been featured on cable television's Food Network and in The New York Times, Southern Living, Bon Appetit, People and Gentle- men's Quarterly.
DiVito canvassed the country, sampling barbecue from Texas to Tennessee before choosing the Salt Lick for Station Casino's properties. He liked the Salt Lick's dry-rub style as well as the vinegar-based sauce.
"Scott's concept is the best, bar none," DiVito said. "There's nothing else like it in Las Vegas."
Based on the performance of the Salt Licks in Las Vegas, Station Casino has "an ongoing commitment to Scott to give him the first opportunity to develop more restaurants," DiVito said.
In the meantime, Roberts has his hands full with other projects surrounding the original Salt Lick.
A new 9,000-square-foot building houses the company's headquarters and additional wedding and banquet space. Then there's the first phase of a vineyard that eventually could encompass 65 to 100 acres.
Roberts also plans to build a specialty smokehouse to supply the mail-order business and a future general store, and he's tilling dirt for herb and vegetable gardens.
He's applying for permits to build a 200-room resort and spa, and he hopes to open Salt Licks in Houston and San Antonio.
"We got kind of busy," he said, laughing.
snovak@statesman.com; 445-3856
