Salt Bae, the Turkish chef and restaurateur whose real name is Nusret Gökçe, is launching a new restaurant concept, Retail & Leisure International reports.

The launch marks the first major format expansion for Gökçe since his Nusr-Et steakhouse chain turned him into a global hospitality brand. Details on the concept — its name, menu positioning, price points and first location — remain scarce, and the company has not yet published an opening timeline.

Gökçe built his business on spectacle as much as food. The Nusr-Et chain, which he owns through his restaurant group, operates high-check-average steakhouses across multiple international markets, including New York, London, Dubai and Istanbul. The restaurants became social-media fixtures for his theatrical tableside meat-salting gesture, and the brand has priced accordingly: Nusr-Et locations are known for some of the highest entrée prices in the cities where they operate.

That pricing power is the economic engine behind the expansion. A celebrity-driven concept with viral marketing built in lowers customer-acquisition costs dramatically compared with conventional fine-dining launches, and it gives the operator room to run premium margins on food and beverage sales without traditional advertising spend.

The question the new concept will answer is whether Gökçe's brand equity transfers beyond the steakhouse format that created it. Operators who expand from a single viral format typically face a choice: replicate the same high-price theatrical model in a new cuisine, or move downmarket to capture volume. Either path carries different labor and cost-of-goods structures, and neither the chef nor his group has signaled which direction the new concept takes.

For now, the industry will watch the first site closely. If the launch lands in a flagship market such as Dubai, London or Miami — where Nusr-Et already has footprint and brand recognition — the group can lean on existing supply chains and trained management. A debut in an untested market would raise the cost and risk profile considerably.

More details, including the concept's name and first location, are expected as the opening approaches.