Just three months after opening chef Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, one of the biggest restaurants in San Diego County, Harrah’s Resort Southern California is set to debut a second new restaurant later this month.
Salt & Fin, a seafood-focused 136-seat restaurant, will open Dec. 19 in the former Fiore Steakhouse and Oyster Bar spaces. Salt & Fin will specialize in serving poached and chilled shellfish, seafood towers, whole grilled fish and traditional fish fillets. It will also have an oyster bar.
Bradley Burkett, director of restaurants at Harrah’s Resort Southern California, said the concept for Salt & Fin was inspired by the L.A.-based restaurant chain Water Grill, which opened a local outlet in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter in 2015. Salt & Fin has no connection with Water Grill, but the experiential dining it offers and its vast menu of fresh seafood are elements that Harrah’s SoCal wants to bring to Salt & Fin.
“We will be sourcing local, sustainable products for our menus,” Burkett said. “We have built relationships with local farms and fishermen. For example, one of our purveyors is a third-generation fisherman based out of Oceanside who catches fantastic local seafood right off of the California coast.”
Burkett said that diners today are looking for an immersive dining experience, so Salt & Fin’s Oceanic Shellfish Towers are expected to be the biggest sellers. Designed to serve groups of either two to three people or four to six people, the towers will feature heaps of West Coast and East Coast oysters, little neck clams, lobster, Jonah crab claws and poached shrimp.
“In this day and age, dishes must appeal to all of the senses, and it’s especially true in of presentation,” he said. “Knowing this, we expect Salt & Fin to be known for its stunning seafood towers, as it will satisfy the taste buds and draw the eye. We also think the seafood cioppino with Calabrian chile broth or whole grilled fish with fennel and organic Grogs Hollow pear salad will become go-to’s for our guests.”
For non-seafood eaters, there will be multiple vegetarian dishes on the menu, as well as a couple of land proteins, like a chicken entrée and a flat-iron steak. But the goal of Salt & Fin is not to duplicate anything diners will find inside Hell’s Kitchen, which is best known for Ramsay’s beef Wellington. Also, unlike Hell’s Kitchen, Salt & Fin will not take reservations.
“We aim to provide our guests with a variety of experiences, especially when it comes to dining offerings,” Burkett said. “With Salt & Fin, we’ll now be able to offer guests another upscale dining experience at a lower price point with more flexibility, as it’s first come, first serve. We also wanted to ensure our guests felt a sense of place with high-quality seafood, given the property’s close proximity to the ocean.”
The pandemic was challenging for all of the region’s casinos, which closed for an extended period of time. And when they all reopened last year, their self-serve buffet restaurants did not. A few local casinos still operate restaurants in their buffet spaces, but the all-you-can-eat menu is now brought to diners’ tables on plates by servers.
Harrah’s SoCal turned its former buffet space into the massive, 400-seat Hell’s Kitchen. Harrah’s is one of only two San Diego County casinos to have opened a new sit-down restaurant since the pandemic hit, and — with the opening of Salt & Fin — the only county casino to have opened two restaurants since 2020.
Burkett said creating new dining options for guests is an important part of offering a well-rounded experience for visitors. He also said that guests visiting the resort now are hungry for something different after eating most of their meals at home over the past 2-1/2 years.
“The pandemic undoubtedly changed the dining experience for a while, but now that we’re able to safely gather again, people are yearning for those intimate and special dining experiences,” he said.
Salt & Fin’s executive chef is Eric Mickle, a Colorado Springs native whose first exposure to the food industry was working part-time at Legoland California theme park in Carlsbad when he was a high school sophomore. That led to a kitchen job at the former Four Seasons resort (now Park Hyatt Aviara) in Carlsbad.
After working for a while at the Carlsbad resort’s Vivace restaurant, Mickle moved to Las Vegas, where he was on the opening culinary team for three restaurants at the Venetian Las Vegas hotel. He later worked for the Michael Mina restaurant group and for Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant company before returning to Southern California a few years ago to serve as corporate chef for Specialty Restaurants, a company with 10 Southern California restaurants.
“Eric Mickle is a renaissance man in the culinary world,” Burkett said. “Since moving to California, his affinity for seafood has grown and he’s excited to share his creations with guests.”
Salt & Fin
Hours: Salt & Fin will open to the public on Dec. 19, initially for dinner service only. Hours have not been announced. Walk-ins only.
Where: Harrah’s Resort Southern California, 777 S. Resort Drive, Valley Center
Online: harrahssocal.com/dining