Fantasy – and incredible seafood – await at Carbone Riviera, now open at the Bellagio in Las Vegas

Whether you’ve dreamed of it or not, chances are you can find it at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, from its world-renowned musical fountain to a gigantic poison dart frog in the indoor botanical gardens. Starting today, you can also take a trip to the Mediterranean, thanks to a new incarnation of the globally renowned Italian restaurant Carbone. It’s called Carbone Riviera and will offer a seaside twist on the eatery’s beloved red-sauce classics.

‘Our intention is to create the greatest fish restaurant this country has ever seen,’ Major Food Group co-founder Jeff Zalaznick said in a press release.

To create a restaurant of that calibre, Zalaznick and his team needed a designer with chutzpah. Martin Brudnizki, the founder of the powerhouse interiors firm Martin Brudnizki Design Studio, was the man for the job. Not only had he worked on two prior projects with the Bellagio’s operator, MGM Resorts, but he’s gained a reputation for interiors that balance audacity with refinement (see: the prancing unicorn at legendary London club Annabel’s).

The empty space the restaurant would occupy offered no shortage of precedent; up until last year, it housed Picasso, Julian Serrano’s pioneering fine-dining concept that not only contained authentic Picasso paintings and made a cameo in Ocean’s 11, but also brought haute cuisine to the Strip.

‘The space was famous and they wanted someone to treat it with the respect it deserved,’ Brudnizki tells Wallpaper*. ‘I wanted to pay homage to the past, but then really make it all about the future.’

Brudnizki and his team were captivated by the original tenant’s namesake, Pablo Picasso. They were drawn, in particular, to the artist’s years spent along the Côte d'Azur in Vallauris, France, a fruitful period during which he produced thousands of ceramic designs. Like those whimsical plates, vases and pitchers, ‘the space we did for Carbone Riviera is quite playful’, Brudnizki says.

The design team softened the existing blank-slate interiors by introducing a series of rounded arches echoing the Bellagio’s windows. Diners walk through an arched passageway that glimmers with a swirling mosaic-tile floor, and past an arched niche containing a seashell sculpture overflowing with lemons and artichokes before entering the grand, main dining room.

Here, Picasso’s beloved French Riviera was the muse, with an ocean-blue carpet underfoot, columns clad in more glittering mosaics and curved wine-red banquettes, where diners can choose from dishes like truffle-sprinkled scallops, grilled octopus or an arrabbiata made from a two-pound lobster. A series of snug dining alcoves feature framed artworks by Joan Miró, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and, of course, Picasso. Crowning it all is a whirling ceiling mural evoking the movement of Mediterranean waves and Picasso’s meandering brushstrokes.

Diners can also opt to sidle up alongside an onyx-topped bar, which offers a front-row view of the Fountains of Bellagio and its famous lightshow from a central window. Or, they can relax on the outdoor patio, perched upon Riviera-inspired striped cushions and take in the Bellagio’s very own Riva yacht.

In a less deft set of hands, all of these elements might feel a little, well, Vegas. But, according to Brudnizki, creating an elegant-yet-exuberant interior is ‘all in the detailing.’

‘It’s all very elevated,’ he continues, ‘and that's what makes it work at the end of the day.’