Young Chefs Launch High-End Gourmet Restaurant in Remote Mitzpe Ramon Desert Town
Mitzpe Ramon, a desert town in southern Israel, has long aimed to become a tourist and cultural hub, including culinary offerings. Despite many failed attempts, two young chefs, Tal Ashkenazi and Omer Salzer, opened a gourmet restaurant called Butz about a year ago that defies local expectations. Butz serves an exclusive tasting menu priced at 450 shekels per person, with an optional wine pairing adding 160 shekels, a cost considered high even in Tel Aviv. The restaurant operates only on weekdays, Tuesday through Thursday, challenging conventional business logic in a town where visitors typically seek simple, affordable food.
To sustain the venture, Ashkenazi and Salzer also run an adjacent café and small shop. Their menu features creative, experimental dishes inspired by local desert ingredients, such as lamb tartare with apple and lavender smoke, and a watermelon salad with Asian influences. The chefs emphasize their commitment to the Negev region and believe there is a market for upscale dining experiences among affluent tourists visiting luxury desert resorts nearby.
Ashkenazi, with experience in Michelin-starred kitchens across Europe, and Salzer, a local entrepreneur and IDF veteran managing post-trauma challenges, met in Mitzpe Ramon and combined their skills to create Butz. They acknowledge the restaurant is not designed to be profitable initially but rather to pioneer high-end peripheral Israeli cuisine. They also prioritize work-life balance by limiting their opening days to spend time with family.
Despite skepticism about the viability of such a concept in a remote desert town, the chefs remain optimistic about the future. They see Butz as part of a broader vision to elevate the Negev's culinary scene and attract discerning visitors seeking unique gastronomic adventures alongside the natural landscape. Their passion and resilience reflect a belief that innovation and optimism can transform the region's cultural and economic prospects.
