Chef Salt Bae (real name Nuslet Götze), who gained fame for his unique performance of sprinkling salt with his elbow when seasoning food, closed his New York handmade burger store after three years. The reason for the failure, seen locally, was that the milkshake was sold for 99 dollars (130,000 won) by sprinkling gold powder on it, but the taste was insufficient and the price was unreasonable.
According to the New York Post and The Guardian on the 17th (local time), Salt Bae’s handmade burger store near Union Square Park, ‘Salt Bae Burger’, stopped operating in June.
When ‘Eater’, a food and beverage magazine, visited the store in June, there was a ‘location relocation’ notice attached to the store. The new address was that of Saltbae’s main restaurant, Nuslet Steakhouse. In effect, ‘Salt Belly Burger’ is closed, meaning that it will continue to sell burger menus here.
Salt Bae gained fame by sprinkling salt with a unique motion when cooking, and now has 52 million Instagram followers. Based on this popularity, he runs Nuslet Steakhouse in 20 cities around the world, and at the end of February 2020, he opened an additional ‘Salt Bae Burger’ saying, “I will find the best burger.”
After opening, there were business difficulties, such as New York going into lockdown due to the corona pandemic, but local experts believe that the안전놀이터 lack of taste and outrageous prices are the decisive reasons for failure.
Salt Bae Burger sold a milkshake with gold dust for $99 (about 132,400 won) and a gold burger with gold leaf on bread for $100 (about 134,000 won). However, criticism poured in, saying that the taste was terrible compared to the price.
Food critic Scott Lynch of Godamist, a local New York media outlet, commented, “The fact that Salt Bae Burger is in New York is an insult in itself.” The media criticized that the salt belly burger’s food was “designed solely for SNS uploads” and said, “It doesn’t taste better than the hospital food I ate a few weeks ago.”
There was also a controversy about gender discrimination. This is because, under the name of Lady Burger, a small burger made with only vegetables in pink bread is provided to women only for free. Food critic Scott Lynch insisted that he paid $14.5 for the burger and ordered it separately, saying, “Isn’t it illegal (to give only to women) for free?”
There were also comments that the atmosphere of the store was not special. Food critic Robert Sisima of Eater, a local media outlet, pointed out, “I thought there would be fun elements like Nasret Steakhouse, but it’s no different from an airplane hangar.”
Meanwhile, Saltbae became a hot topic in Korea when the Korean national soccer team, which confirmed its advance to the round of 16 at the Qatar World Cup last year, visited his restaurant in Doha, Qatar. At the time, Salt Bae took a video of himself cutting meat and putting it in Son Heung-min’s mouth, and Son Heung-min following his salt-sprinkling performance, and posted it on his Instagram.
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