Crush American Grill, the modern American restaurant that has anchored a corner of MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip for more than a decade, will close for good after service on September 12, 2026. The restaurant, known for woodfired pizzas, steaks, and shared small plates, opened in 2013 and belongs to the Morton Group, the husband-and-wife hospitality portfolio run by Michael and Jenna Morton.
Crush announced its closure and thanked MGM Grand Hotel & Casino for the partnership, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which first reported the closing. The restaurant is inviting guests to return during its final weeks before shutting down after serving customers for more than a decade. Crush's dining room seats 200 across distinct architectural zones, including an entry designed to emulate natural sunlight and a dining cellar topped with a white-brick, barrel-vault ceiling, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
A Second High-Profile MGM Grand Exit This Year
Crush is the second major independent restaurant inside MGM Grand to announce a closure in 2026. Nellie's Southern Kitchen, operated by the Jonas family, permanently closed after service on May 25 as its lease came to an end, a departure Hoodline detailed in its coverage of the Jonas Brothers' Vegas exit. MGM Grand also permanently shut down its long-running resort buffet on May 31, part of a broader post-pandemic shift on the Strip in which casino resorts are swapping all-you-can-eat buffets for specialized dining concepts and food halls, as Hoodline has reported. The number of operational buffets remaining on the Strip has dwindled to roughly a dozen. MGM Grand has not announced replacement tenants for either the Nellie's or Crush footprints, or for the shuttered buffet space.
Rapid turnover among prime Strip real estate is not unique to MGM Grand. LPM Restaurant & Bar at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, which occupied a prime terrace facing the Strip, closed on March 31, 2026, after less than three years of operation, a shutdown Hoodline covered when the Cosmopolitan quietly pulled the plug. Multi-year lease cycles routinely expire and reshuffle Strip dining, but Crush's 13-year run made it one of the longer tenancies among MGM Grand's independent restaurant partners.
Vegas Restaurant Royalty Behind the Morton Group
Michael Morton comes from one of the country's most prominent dining dynasties. His father, Arnie Morton, co-founded Morton's The Steakhouse in Chicago in 1978, and his brother, Peter Morton, co-founded Hard Rock Cafe and later opened the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, per background compiled by Wikipedia. Before launching the Morton Group with his wife Jenna in 2010, Michael Morton co-founded N9NE Group in 1999, pioneering the high-energy club-steakhouse model in Las Vegas by operating N9NE Steakhouse, Ghostbar, and Rain Nightclub at the Palms Casino Resort, the Review-Journal has reported. Morton sold his stake in N9NE Group in 2011 to focus on traditional restaurant development.
The Morton Group's culinary direction across its restaurants, including Crush, La Cave, and One Steakhouse, is overseen by Corporate Executive Chef William “Billy” DeMarco, a Long Island native and Florida Culinary Institute graduate who previously worked as executive chef for restaurateur Sam DeMarco in New York, according to City Lifestyle. La Cave Food & Wine Hideaway, the group's first concept, opened inside Wynn Las Vegas in December 2010 and remains active with a modern American small-plates menu and an outdoor patio featuring a living succulent wall, per the Vegas Voice. La Cave is ranked among the Review-Journal's Top 100 restaurants for 2026, as is Nudo Italiano, the group's Southern Highlands restaurant in the southwest valley that opened in May 2024 as the Morton Group's first neighborhood-focused concept, per Las Vegas Weekly.
With Crush's closure, the Morton Group's remaining Las Vegas footprint includes La Cave at Wynn Las Vegas, One Steakhouse at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas, and Nudo Italiano in Southern Highlands.
A Family Announcement Amid Personal Loss
Crush's closure announcement arrives just ten days after Michael and Jenna Morton publicly shared the death of their 25-year-old son, Elijah “Eli” Zane Morton, who passed away in Las Vegas following a battle with addiction, according to the Review-Journal. The couple remembered Eli as a creative young entrepreneur. The dossier does not indicate that Crush's closure is directly connected to the family's loss, and no such link has been stated by the Mortons or reported by the outlets covering the closure; the timing simply places two significant Morton family announcements within the same two-week span.
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