Celebrity chef and heavy metal music enthusiast Chris Santos has a new restaurant at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip that offers an experience akin to a Metallica guitar riff—both elegant and over-the-top.
With flaming tomahawk steaks served dangling from a hook over the table, sculptural desserts, and a glitzy decor, Stanton Social Prime is the Las Vegas reincarnation of Santos’ famed former Lower East Side steakhouse in New York City, Stanton Social, which closed in 2019 after 15 years.
Santos, a graduate of Rhode Island cooking school Johnson & Wales, said his global travels have had a big impact on his culinary creativity.
“It was eye-opening, whether it was walking down a street in France with a baguette or having an ahead-of-its-time molecular gastronomy dinner in Spain,” he said in an interview with Inked Magazine.
In addition to Stanton Social, Santos is known for his Beauty & Essex restaurant chain, which has locations in New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. The restaurants feature elevated, multi-ethnic dishes such as Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup Dumplings, Tuna Poke Wonton Tacos, and Oven Braised Chicken Meatballs.
Santos was also a judge on the Food Network TV show Chopped for 15 years, and still makes guest appearances on various TV cooking shows.
With Stanton Social Prime, located in Caesars Palace Las Vegas, Santos and Tao Group Hospitality, the restaurant/nightclub company in which Santos is a partner, have created a venue that seeks to capture the ambiance and excitement of the Las Vegas Strip. It features an art deco-inspired design by renowned architecture firm Rockwell Group, complete with velvet curtains, bold colors, and flourishes that evoke Las Vegas floorshow costume design.
Steaks are the centerpiece of the menu, and include a flaming, 64-ounce Super Tomahawk steak prepared tableside dangling from a trellis. Like many of the items on the menu, the massive slab of cognac-flambéed meat is meant to be shared.
“The concept of food bringing us together has shaped a lot of what I do; it’s the universal language,” Santos said in an interview with Authority Magazine about his love for family-style dining.
Other shared dishes on the menu include whimsical creations such as Black Truffle Ribeye Cheesesteak Sliders, Crab Cake Corn Dogs, Dirty Tots with caviar and lobster crème fraiche, and a Grand Dame Seafood Tower with oysters, lobster, crab claws, and shrimp cocktail.
In addition to the Super Tomahawk, the steak menu includes an 18-ounce, 28-Day Dry-Aged Bone-In New York Strip, and a “Pretty in Pink” 10-ounce filet served with pink peppercorn sauce, and pink oyster mushrooms. Steaks are seasoned with house dry rub, rested in a bath of beurre de baratte, finished with pink Himalayan salt, and served with roasted black garlic. Diners can also choose from a selection of sauces served in vintage perfume bottles to drizzle onto their steaks, such Eau de Poivre and Chanterelle No. 5.
Desserts include the Strawberry Blond “Milkshake,” which is not a milkshake at all, but a colorful, edible sculpture made with strawberry mousse, vanilla sponge cake, and Chantilly cream, built to look like a classic strawberry shake, complete with an edible white chocolate cup and straw. Another sweet showpiece from the dessert menu is the Movie Theater Sundae, featuring a movie theater-style popcorn box filled with dulce de leche ice cream, caramelized banana, and toasted popcorn.
Stanton Social Prime also offers a global wine list and an eclectic cocktail menu, with drinks such as the Doors Have Eyes, made with Roku Japanese gin, lemon, yuzu soda, iced tea ice cubes, Thai basil, and lemonade ice cubes. Where There’s Oak, meanwhile, features Elijah Craig bourbon, BLiS maple syrup, and cherry bark bitters, smoked with applewood and served in a metal-and-glass box.
The restaurant seats 200 in the main dining room and 10 at the bar. It also includes two private dining rooms.
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Image: Caesars Entertainment