In Las Vegas, Carbone Riviera Takes Over the Bellagio’s Legendary Picasso
Martin Brudnizki reimagines one of the resort’s most storied dining rooms with Vallauris-inspired mosaics, original Picasso artworks, and a seafood-forward menu set against the iconic fountains
The Fountains of Bellagio rank among the Las Vegas Strip’s most enduring attractions. For decades, their most coveted vantage point belonged to Picasso, the long-running restaurant whose picturesque terrace framed the nightly choreography of synchronized water and light—and even backdropped a memorable exchange in Ocean’s Eleven. But when chef Julian Serrano retired in 2024 after nearly 26 years, the French dining room entered a period of rare transition. It has since reemerged as Carbone Riviera, a brilliant new expression of Major Food Group’s Italian-American mainstay that introduces a seafood-forward focus flavored by coastal Europe and the singular setting of Lake Bellagio. Select VIPs can even step aboard an ultra-rare Riva yacht for a champagne cruise across the lake as an appetizing arrival.
Carbone Riviera occupies one of the Strip’s most storied dining rooms, and its restaurateurs approached that legacy with the utmost care. “It’s an extraordinary honor to serve as the new custodians of one of America’s most iconic dining rooms,” muses Jeff Zalaznick, co-founder of Major Food Group. “Drawing on a decade spent breaking boundaries, our intention is to create the greatest fish restaurant this country has ever seen.” Developed by Zalaznick alongside Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi in partnership with MGM Resorts International, the restaurant marks the inaugural seafood-driven concept under the Carbone name.
Further distinguishing Carbone Riviera is the space’s history, which carries a curious cultural weight for Las Vegas (beyond the Ocean’s Eleven cameo). When Picasso opened in 1998, it distinguished itself by displaying original Pablo Picasso works on its walls—an unprecedented gesture on the Strip. Over the years, the collection grew to encompass paintings, drawings, and ceramics, many of which remained on view throughout the restaurant’s run. In 2021, MGM Resorts auctioned 11 such works, earning nearly $110 million in sales. Several ceramic pieces, however, remained in the Bellagio’s possession and would later return to its hallowed walls.
Those surviving works form a conceptual bridge to Carbone Riviera’s overhauled dining room. Interior designer Martin Brudnizki dutifully referenced Picasso’s prolific years in Vallauris, the Côte d’Azur commune where the artist settled after World War II and enmeshed himself within the coastal town’s burgeoning pottery workshops. During that period, he produced thousands of plates, pitchers, tiles, sculptural vessels, and earthenware utensils, experimenting freely with clay and establishing the idyllic locale as a crucible of midcentury ceramic creativity. He even installed the monumental mural War and Peace in the chapel of the Château de Vallauris.
Brudnizki drew heavily from that fruitful chapter of Picasso’s story. “We wanted to take that period of Picasso’s creative life and make it our own,” he tells Galerie. Lustrous mosaics in wave-like gold, clay, and sea-toned blue patterns flow across columns, ceilings, and arches modeled after the shape of the Bellagio’s windows. Murano chandeliers glow above swooping banquettes upholstered in deep terracotta-hued leather, while framed works by Picasso, Joan Miró, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir again invigorate the walls. “There were ten ceramic pieces left from the original restaurant,” Brudnizki says, “and we put them all back.” Gilded touches abound, referencing the Côte d’Azur’s breathtaking vistas at golden hour. An onyx-topped bar, meanwhile, provides front-row seats to the spectacular fountains beyond.
“The energy is coastal, the room brighter and more open,” raves Mario Carbone. “From the moment you step inside, it feels like you’ve arrived somewhere timeless on the Riviera.” The menu appropriately responds to its waterfront setting. Daily selections of raw seafood are flown in from around the world. Nantucket Bay scallops arrive with brown butter and shaved white truffles, while Scottish langoustines appear in green acqua pazza. Classic red-sauce pastas remain a magnetic draw, though reframed by the sea; they include linguine vongole rosso, cappellini with crab, ricotta gnocchi finished with caviar, and a two-pound lobster arrabbiata served with hand-cut fettuccine. A whole-fish program offers nightly choices such as branzino, Dover sole, turbot, and red snapper, which can be prepared over Japanese charcoal, roasted al forno, or baked in salt crust and presented tableside by debonair captains trained in Major Food Group’s signature theatrics.
Few restaurants on the Strip arrive with this degree of history already baked into the walls, and Carbone Riviera wastes no time claiming that inheritance. From the outset, Bellagio pushed Major Food Group toward a version of Carbone conceived specifically for this sui generis setting, comfortably holding its own alongside waterfront fixtures such as Spago and Le Cirque. Outside, terraces extend toward the fountains and a glamorous yacht awaits invited guests at the dock for the dolce vita journey. As Carbone puts it, “[This] is a new chapter for Carbone—same DNA, completely fresh expression—on a stage unlike anywhere else.”