BLT Burger Restaurant, Las Vegas, Ladies Cotton Tee

Venue History

BLT Burger was a popular gourmet burger restaurant located inside The Mirage at 3400 South Las Vegas Boulevard. Opened on July 1, 2008, the restaurant was created by acclaimed French chef Laurent Tourondel, whose BLT restaurant group included BLT Steak, BLT Fish, BLT Prime, and other chef-driven concepts. The initials stood for Bistro Laurent Tourondel, not bacon, lettuce, and tomato. BLT Burger occupied a particularly memorable piece of Mirage history: the space formerly occupied by Siegfried & Roy’s White Tiger Habitat near the resort’s south entrance. When the habitat closed in 2007, MGM Mirage announced that Tourondel’s stylish, casual burger restaurant would replace it. The transformation reflected changing tastes on the Strip, where celebrity-chef restaurants were becoming attractions nearly as important as casino entertainment. Tourondel approached the American hamburger with a chef’s creativity. BLT’s signature beef patty blended chuck, sirloin, and brisket, while alternatives included American Kobe beef, turkey, lamb, salmon, and more adventurous creations. One memorable specialty drew inspiration from the Vietnamese bánh mì, combining shrimp and pork with pickled vegetables, cilantro, and spicy mayonnaise. Fries ranged from traditional varieties to sweet potato and chili-cheese versions. Milkshakes became nearly as famous as the burgers. BLT offered both traditional and alcohol-spiked shakes, including Grandma’s Treat with Maker’s Mark, vanilla ice cream, and caramel, along with the toasted-marshmallow Stay Puft. By 2015, the restaurant offered approximately 18 varieties of regular and spiked shakes. Beer, cocktails, glass-bottled sodas, onion rings, and casual comfort foods completed the experience. BLT Burger also embraced a youthful, rock-and-roll atmosphere and stayed open exceptionally late, originally until 4 a.m., making it popular with gamblers, nightclub crowds, and visitors looking for a substantial meal after midnight. After nearly eight years, MGM Resorts and BLT Burger mutually ended their operating agreement in April 2016. The Mirage quickly converted the restaurant into its own LVB Burgers & Bar, which opened April 6. Today, BLT Burger is remembered as an important part of Las Vegas’s late-2000s gourmet-burger boom—a restaurant that combined celebrity-chef creativity, indulgent burgers, boozy milkshakes, and the energetic personality of The Mirage.