Relish

After a five year run (and a five year lease) Burger Bar, Master Chef Hubert Keller's gourmet burger joint at Lumière Place, will close at the end of service this evening. 

According to Candice Coleman, PR director for Lumière Place, the decision to not renew the lease was "mutual and completely amicable." Coleman added that all Burger Bar employees have been reassigned, so zero jobs were lost. 

Keller owns restaurants in Las Vegas and San Francisco, and owned two in St. Louis, both at Lumière: SleeK, a contemporary steakhouse-his first (it closed almost a year ago); and Burger Bar, the second outpost of an idea he launched in Las Vegas, literally while waiting to begin construction on another restaurant at the Mandelay Bay hotel. 

Burger Bar was--and still is--wildly popular in Sin City,  so why it never gained traction here remains somewhat of a mystery. Keller (right) even wrote a book with recipes and his secrets to making the perfect burger (I know I learned a few things).

Coleman says that as yet no new tenant has been selected for the space, but the "burger void" at  Lumière will be filled by Stadium Sports Bar & Grill, where the burger program will be expanded. No word whether they'll replicate Keller's $60 Rossini burger (with Kobe beef, black truffles, and foie gras), but according to Coleman, Lumière's Exec Chef John Johnson is already "dreaming and scheming," and we're betting an offering similar to his Stadium Challenge (aka Man vs. Reuben) may be in the works.