Chef Paul Bartolotta says that at least a ton of seafood fresh from the Mediterranean is flown in weekly for the restaurant.

“Only Steve Wynn and I are crazy enough to do a Mediterranean seafood restaurant in the middle of the desert,” he says.

No doubt, Bartolotta's idea to fly in thousands of pounds of fish and seafood fresh from Mediterranean waters and prepare simple, traditional Italian dishes raised plenty of questions. Would American diners embrace the rusticity of whole roasted fish filleted tableside? How would they react to buying seafood by the gram, an approach more familiar to Europeans, rather than in set portions? Would a public accustomed to paying less for Italian fare than for French haute cuisine accept the lofty prices that the premium products commanded?

Even Wynn himself—who earlier helped guide Las Vegas' evolution from buffet bonanza to world-class culinary center by luring some of the country's top chefs to the Mirage Hotel and Casino and Bellagio—opposed the plan at first. With guidance from the food-and-beverage team of Elizabeth Blau, Kevin Steussi and Grant MacPherson, Wynn had recruited Bartolotta for his $2.7-billion Wynn Las Vegas Resort and Country Club with the idea of opening a sophisticated Italian restaurant similar to the Maccioni family's Osteria del Circo at Bellagio. A final, impassioned argument from Bartolotta after weeks of debate changed his mind.

“I said to myself, 'Why am I arguing with this man? This is precisely the kind of passion from a person of excellence that results in a great restaurant. It's right here in front of me; I surrender,'” Wynn says.

Three years after the resort's opening, their gamble is paying off big. Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare ranks as the second-highest-grossing of the Wynn Hotel's 10 high-profile restaurants, and nearly every night finds the vivacious restaurant brimming with guests.

“It's like every day is Saturday, because we are always busy,” Bartolotta says. “Some nights we might start with 150 reservations, and by time it's over, we've done 320 [covers]. It's amazing.”

A typical meal at Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare begins with servers leading guests on a guided tour of the menu (antipasti, house-made pastas, and seafood and nonseafood entrées) and presenting the day's fresh fish selections, showcased whole and pristine over ice on silver carts and trays. A given day might find 40 to 60 varieties on hand—99% of which are wild and line-caught, Bartolotta emphasizes—including such species as orata (sea bream), rombo (turbot), dentice imperiale (imperial snapper) and sogliola (Northern Adriatic sole).

On any night, Bartolotta's menu might feature grilled Sicilian langoustines (top) and baked Ligurian scorpionfish in white-wine-mussel broth.

Ironically, Bartolotta says, the restaurant's simple, ingredient-driven approach means the menu reflects less of his own culinary imprint than have most of the restaurants over which he has presided.

“If the central ingredient is the quality of the seafood you buy, why do more than that?” he says. “Why not take thousands of years of Italian food culture along the coast and instead of having this desire to reinvent it or make it something it isn't, just bring it in its most authentic, purest form as you would find it in Italy?”

Although he takes a light touch with recipes, Bartolotta plays a dynamic and highly visible role in the restaurant. His day-to-day presence in the kitchen and dining room is an undeniable factor in how well the novel concept resonates with diners.

“That's why Steve Wynn was so brilliant,” Bartolotta says of the hotel's unique policy to require every marquee-name chef who signed on to reside full time in Las Vegas (the only exception being Daniel Boulud, to whom Wynn promised a venue before putting the rule in place). “I spend a ton of time in the dining room. I'm in and out of the kitchen all night long, because first of all, we have a certain level of visibility. People think it's a big deal to meet you. But more importantly, it allows me to talk to the customers, to engage them, to get them to see the passion I have for my food. They see the enthusiasm, and it creates that trust.”

Bartolotta instills the same dedication to professional but personal service in the restaurant's management and staff—an approach that has helped him win more regular customers at Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare, despite its tourism-driven locale, than he developed in nine years at highly regarded Spiaggia in Chicago.

“I want people knowing our managers by name, calling their cellphones and saying, 'Can you give me a table tonight?'” he says. “That makes them feel good, like they're part of the inner circle. That's the business we're in, the business of creating relationships.”

Bartolotta trained at such legendary French restaurants as Paul Bocuse, Taillevent and Troisgros before being named chef de cuisine at Ristorante San Domenico in Italy at age 24, and later he opened San Domenico's New York City outpost. The seed for opening an Italian seafood concept was planted early in his career during time spent cooking in restaurants along the Italian coast and taking opportunities to head out on local fishing boats. When he saw Roger Thomas' seaside-inspired design for the Wynn Las Vegas space, already set in motion when the chef agreed to come on board, he knew it was the place to make his vision work.

Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare's dramatic décor sets a striking stage as unique as the dining experience itself. Inside, vibrant reds and golds lend a warm, hospitable ambience to the bilevel dining rooms, which are separated by a graceful spiral staircase. Outside, the hotel's gleaming copper exterior frames an elegant terrace that is nestled in a cove of the hotel's manmade mountain. Guests can dine in private cabanas and pergolas overlooking a glassy lagoon where ethereal, reflective spheres float.

“When you go to Las Vegas, you're going to live large, aren't you?” Wynn says. “That's why I'm paying so much attention to the environments of these restaurants. It's all about the dining experience.”

Yet while one-of-a-kind design is a crucial part of the formula for getting noticed in a city that hosts nearly 40 million visitors a year and is a spectacle in itself, Wynn believes that when all is said and done, the ability to earn diners' accolades and patronage comes down to the chef.

“Now every place that opens has a restaurant with a famous name on the menu—whether the food is famous is another story,” he says. “When it comes down to it, it's really about who's cooking dinner.”