At Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, certain rooms come with mythology attached. For nearly three decades, the space that housed the legendary Picasso restaurant was one of the Strip’s most storied dining destinations — the kind of place that didn’t need to explain itself. Picasso closed in August 2024 with the retirement of chef Julian Serrano, after almost 26 years at the helm.

Now, that same address begins its next life as Coal Rivieraa restaurant designed to feel unmistakably Carbone, but calibrated for what this particular location, with its front-and-center view of the Bellagio fountains, demands: seafood, ceremony, and a sense of occasion.

the و to و with – تفاصيل مهمة

Mario Carbone, the chef and Major Food Group cofounder behind the concept, says the idea wasn’t a sudden pivot so much as a long-held itch that finally found the right stage.

“I’ve always wanted to play with the idea of a fish-forward menu,” he says. “This is a very historic space. And it’s, in my opinion, the best location, the best space in all Vegas. I tried to put the right thing in the right place, and this space wanted that.”

A new steward for a legendary room

To understand why Carbone Riviera is being positioned as a new chapter, you have to understand what Carbone is in the first place: an Italian-American restaurant built as a high-glam homage to mid-century New York dining, where the classics hit hard and the room does its own kind of theater. The original Carbone opened in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 2013, and its founders modeled the menu, décor, and atmosphere on the mid-century Italian restaurants that once defined the city.

the و in و a – تفاصيل مهمة

It’s also one of the brightest gems of Major Food Groupthe hospitality company Mario Carbone cofounded with Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick. Since its founding in 2011, Major Food Group has grown into an impressive portfolio of restaurants known for high-end experiences and elaborate design, with than 50 restaurants and private dining clubs around the world.

Carbone Riviera isn’t trying to shed its identity. It’s trying to refocus it. As Carbone puts it, the goal was to preserve the brand’s emotional frequency — the swagger, the polish, the pleasure — while giving the Carbone formula a seafood-first spine.

“I wanted (the diners) to still feel Carbone,” he says. “It still needs to come from the same sort of place and point of origin. It’s an Italian-American restaurant — Italian-Americans’ fine-dining restaurant. It needs to be fun. It needs to be delicious.”

The difference is that Carbone Riviera begins at the waterline. Inside the Martin Brudnizki-designed room leans into that lakefront energy: light catching on glassware, captains moving with purpose, tables settling into the rhythm of a flowing space built for long dinners and big reveals.

the و to و Carbone – تفاصيل مهمة

The Riviera rhythm: Start raw, end with fish

Instead of positioning one single dish as the headline, Carbone describes Riviera as a menu you’re meant to move through, like a playlist where the pacing matters. “I would recommend that people touch all the categories of the menu,” he says.

The first stop is “Delicacies of the Sea,” a well-defined section that emphasizes the natural beauty of the fare. “The first category we call ‘delicacies’ is almost entirely raw,” says Carbone. “It’s either raw or very lightly cooked.”

the و of و a – تفاصيل مهمة

From there, Riviera plays a balancing act between what Carbone loyalists want — Caesar salad, the famous rigatoni — and what this new kitchen wants to show off.

“Similarly, when you get to pasta, if you haven’t been here before, certainly have your rigatoni,” says Carbone. “But then, along with that, you may want to have a lobster fettuccine. We make the gnocchi with caviar. We do a beautiful shrimp ravioli.”

And then comes the point of it all: the fish.

you و the و to – تفاصيل مهمة

The whole-fish moment

Carbone describes Riviera’s whole-fish program as the restaurant’s signature act, the part that’s meant to feel “Riviera style” the way spicy rigatoni feels “Carbone style.”

“We put a lot of effort into our whole-fish program here,” he says. “So, as your main course, if you’re really doing it in Riviera style, I would encourage that you touch the whole-fish category.”

The details are intentionally visual and deeply chefy. The lineup ranges from smaller fish meant for grilling to larger, table-cracking presentations. “The smallest whole fish we have are dorade from Spain,” says Carbone, noting that “it’s a beautiful fish to grill” and the fish’s high fat content helps the skin “get really crispy.”

Then it scales up. “It goes all the way up in size to like a four-and-a-half-pound wild branzino that we bake in salt crust,” says Carbone. “The salt crust that we do, we blend herbs into the salt crust and the crust is green.”

the و that و we – تفاصيل مهمة

That green crust matters because it’s where the flavor starts. The herb-salt crust locks in moisture and seasons from the outside in. “As it bakes, it also perfumes the whole fish and then it gets cracked tableside,” says Carbone.

It’s the kind of dish that makes sense in Las Vegas, not because it’s a spectacle, but because the moment reads instantly: the salt crust cracking, the rush of steam, the clean reveal. You don’t have to be a seafood obsessive to get it when a captain breaks open that shell tableside. You just have to be paying attention.

the و it و crust – تفاصيل مهمة

From Scotland, Hawaii, and Portugal… to the Strip

Behind the show is the unglamorous reality of supply chains, and Carbone is direct about how specific the logistics are.

“It can only happen in certain cities,” he says. “This restaurant, with this ingredient list, can only happen in a city that has major international routes of delivery. We get langoustines alive from Scotland. I have tiger prawns alive from Japan. I have dorade and branzino from Spain, turbot from Portugal. We have oysters from Montauk. We have fish from Hawaii.”

That level of ambition has practical demands, which includes literal infrastructure. “Okay, we have live king crab — we have to keep the king crab alive,” says Carbone. “Okay, we need a fish tank. Okay, put a fish tank in the kitchen.”

Beyond ingredients, there were plenty of other logistics to consider when building the restaurant out. Getting the space prime-time ready required practice and patience, including mock services, role-switching, and practice runs that lead up to opening night.

from و have و the – تفاصيل مهمة

“It takes about a year, if you include the time spent in the kitchen here,” says Carbone. “It starts with just the beginnings of training the team. You’re not cooking for anybody.”.

A wine list built to keep the table drinking

If the menu is seafood-driven Carbone, the wine list is meant to match the setting: celebratory, flexible, and not needlessly hostile to anyone who doesn’t want to drop four figures on Burgundy.

Douglas KimMaster Sommelier and executive director of wine for MGM Resorts International, says the list starts with a unique advantage: it “falls from Picasso,” meaning the cellar and the standards were already strong.

the و to و wine – تفاصيل مهمة

“We had kind of a great base to start off with,” he says. “But we kind of took pages from what Carbone did at Aria.”

The goal isn’t to impress you with obscurity — it’s to keep the table drinking. Kim built the 1,400-strong wine list around seafood ( whites) without turning it into a niche tome.

“We want to make sure everyone feels inclusive in terms of food and wine,” he says. “It’s always difficult and kind of hard when you go to a restaurant when the bottle starts at $500… We want people to drink wine here, right? I mean, especially if you’re sitting on that dock, who doesn’t want a glass of Champagne? For me, whenever I think about Vegas, it’s always like, let’s have something for everybody.”

He puts it even plainly. “When someone opens a wine list, it shouldn’t be foreign to them. We want them to see some labels that they’re familiar with.”

to و a و want – تفاصيل مهمة

There’s also a wink-to-the-regulars layer, including a Champagne that functions like an in-the-know handshake. “We have the Billecart-Salmon, the Cuvée 2015 Rosé, which is exclusively for Carbone Riviera,” says Kim. “We bought all of it that was available.”

The Carbone promise, waterfront edition

With the mid-century glamour, the “fun,” the captains and the dining room choreography, Carbone Riviera is still clearly Carbone, but pointed seaward, designed for a dining room that already has a built-in spectacle outside the windows. It’s still the same book, just a different chapter.

“It’s very mid-century,” says Carbone. “It has an old world charm, an old world flair to it. And it’s just pulling from the sort of aquatic place of the seafood cookbook than the traditional Carbone menu. But I want people, certainly those that are very familiar with the Carbone brand, to leave and feel like it is a fresh version of the brand that we know so well.”

the و Carbone و a – تفاصيل مهمة