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Food · Today in Vegas · November 4, 2026

Mario Batali's Name Came Off the Venetian Signs in 2017. By July 2018, All Three of His Strip Restaurants Were Gone.

By Pace Lattin · November 4, 2026

The short versionAll three Las Vegas restaurants Mario Batali shared with Joe Bastianich closed on July 22, 2018, five days early, and their rooms at the Venetian and Palazzo have since gone to Matteo's, Brera Osteria and, after a David Chang run, Eyal Shani's HaSalon. Batali sold out of the company in 2019, joined Bastianich and the company in a $600,000 settlement with New York's attorney general in 2021, and was acquitted by a Boston judge in 2022.
Neon sign of a fork of spaghetti and a chef's hat falling off a hook

In June 2017 Pace Vegas reported that Babbo, the New York flagship of Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich, was coming to Las Vegas for one night. The June 23 pop-up at B&B Ristorante at the Venetian ran four courses with wine pairings for $150 a person, cooked by Babbo executive chef Frank Langello, as part of a guest chef series the Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group had started that spring. Culinary director Nicole Brisson told us guests would taste Langello's food "right here, in Las Vegas, for the very first time."

Six months later the story changed. On December 16, 2017, Pace Vegas reported that staff at B&B Ristorante said Batali's name had come off the sign that Friday night and that his products and images were being pulled. A Bastianich spokesperson said Batali held no ownership stake in the hospitality group, though he co-owned each restaurant. Bastianich had been at Carnevino's 10th anniversary the week before. That month Batali stepped down from daily operations and from "The Chew" after four women accused him of inappropriate touching, and he apologized for those encounters. The restaurants still carried the B&B Ristorante, Carnevino and Otto names when they closed.

On May 25, 2018, Pace Vegas reported that Carnevino Italian Steakhouse, B&B Ristorante and Otto Enoteca e Pizzeria would close July 27, and that Bastianich had sent a letter to nearly 300 workers. Las Vegas Sands, which owns the Venetian and Palazzo, confirmed it was ending the relationship. Bastianich told Wine Spectator that "The Sands Group decided that they no longer wanted to continue their collaboration with us," called it "a sad day," and said he hoped staff would find work at the Eataly he was opening in Las Vegas as a partner. The closings followed a woman's account on "60 Minutes" that New York police said they were investigating; Batali denied assaulting her and no charges were filed in that case.

The rooms did not make it to July 27. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the three restaurants would close on a Sunday, five days early, with Brisson saying the change allowed "a smooth transition out of The Venetian and Palazzo." Vital Vegas put the last service at July 22, 2018. Staff held a farewell party at Carnevino the following Monday, the Review-Journal reported, and Brisson went on to lead the Eataly project on the Strip.

A fourth Venetian room never made the closing list. B&B Burger & Beer, which Las Vegas Weekly reviewed as a new opening in January 2014, was already gone: by February 2018 the Weekly reported that Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer had taken the Strip-fronting space "formerly occupied by Rattlecan and B&B Burger & Beer."

The replacements came fast. The Review-Journal's Heidi Knapp Rinella reported in September 2018 that The Factory Kitchen, with chef Angelo Auriana, would take the B&B Ristorante space on restaurant row and that Sixth + Mill would take Otto's space in the Grand Canal Shoppes. The Factory Kitchen opened at the start of 2019 and became Matteo's Ristorante Italiano on October 4, 2019, and the Venetian still lists Matteo's today. In 2021 the same team replaced Sixth + Mill with Brera Osteria, the Review-Journal reported. At the Palazzo, David Chang opened Majordomo Meat & Fish in Carnevino's former room on December 30, 2019. It closed on June 6, 2022, and Eyal Shani's HaSalon opened in the former Majordomo space on July 15, 2023, VegasChanges reported.

Batali's exit from the business was finished by March 2019, when Nation's Restaurant News reported that Bastianich and his sister, Tanya Bastianich Manuali, had acquired all of Batali's interests, with Tanya Bastianich overseeing day-to-day operations. The company, whose name stood for Batali and Bastianich, was renamed; by 2021 it was called Pasta Resources.

The court record followed. Batali was charged in Boston in 2019 with indecent assault and battery and pleaded not guilty. On July 23, 2021, Batali, Bastianich and the company agreed to pay $600,000 to at least 20 former employees to resolve a New York attorney general investigation, which found violations of state and city human rights laws at Babbo, Lupa and Del Posto; Bastianich called the period "transformative." On May 10, 2022, after Batali waived a jury, Boston Municipal Court Judge James Stanton found him not guilty, saying the complainant "has significant credibility issues" and that Batali "did not cover himself in glory in the night in question," The Washington Post reported. In August 2022 Batali settled two civil suits in Boston; a docket entry marked one case "settled," and the plaintiffs' lawyers said confidentiality kept them from saying more. Batali has denied the allegations.

The New York flagships changed hands too. In January 2025 What Now New York, citing Eater, reported that Stephen Starr was taking over Babbo and Lupa from Bastianich, and Wine Spectator reported that Starr had bought them from the Bastianich family and brought back chef Mark Ladner from the 1998 opening team. Bloomberg reported in October 2025 that Starr holds a majority stake and that Babbo is back, with Ladner in the kitchen.

Pace's takeIn 2017 the crisis plan was a screwdriver: unbolt the name, keep the steaks. Sands decided the second B was still one B too many and pulled the plug before the date it had announced. Eight years on, Carnevino's room has cycled through David Chang to Eyal Shani, and the only place Batali still headlines on restaurant row is our archive. Vegas does not do redemption arcs; it does remodels.

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