Salt Bae's Nusr-Et restaurant in Boston closed by city only days after opening

Restaurant opened on September 18 and is already in trouble with the Boston licencing department

Nusret Gokce (also known as ‘Salt Bae’) throws salt on to a piece of meat. YouTube

Within a week of opening its first restaurant in Boston, Salt Bae's Nusr-Et has been ordered to close by the city's licensing board after being hit with a number of health and fire violation notices.

Five days after the new restaurant opened in the US city’s Back Bay, attracting large crowds of diners, the Licensing Board for the City of Boston served the steakhouse with violation notices following two inspections.

A first inspection on Wednesday, September 23, failed the restaurant on nine points, including two refrigerators being too warm, a lack of space between hand-washing and food storage areas, and incorrect temperatures of dishwashers.

The report also noted "evidence that the [person in charge] is not overseeing day-to-day operations to ensure establishment is operating in compliance with the food code".

Inspectors returned to the site the following day, on Thursday, September 24, when they noted that a problem with the temperature of dishwashers had not been resolved. All other issues, however, had been fixed.

As well as the violations from the Licensing Board, the restaurant is also alleged to have violated a state order by allowing diners to queue outside the premises on its opening day, September 18.

The alleged violation was picked up by the Boston Police licensing detectives, and has caused the Boston Licensing Board to schedule a hearing for Tuesday, September 29. Hearing for violations of this nature usually take weeks to be scheduled, local reports say.

A second hearing for the same day will deal with a citation issued on September 23 over two blocked fire exits at the premises, located at 100 Arlington Street.

The restaurant, which has branches in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, was founded by Turkish butcher Nusret Gokce, who became known around the world as Salt Bae after going viral on Instagram for his serving theatrics.

The Boston branch of Nusr-Et is his 16th restaurant, and his third to open in the US after New York City and Miami.