‘Top Chef’ Star Serves Wagyu Meatballs at His New Las Vegas Restaurant

Fabio Viviani didn’t win season five of Top Chef, but as the show’s crowned “Fan Favorite,” he’s among the series’ most prolific alumni. Now he’s making his Las Vegas debut, bringing his signature charm — and a meatball upgraded with wagyu — to Summerlin with Ai Pazzi at JW Marriott Las Vegas. Opening Thursday, July 3, the new Italian restaurant joins a sprawling portfolio of nearly 40 restaurants the chef has opened, co-owned, or lent his name to since his breakout television moment in 2009. “I love to work with resorts,” Viviani says. “And this is about the food and building something in the community to feed the Las Vegas clientele.”

That food is traditional Italian with touches of Vegas glitz thrown in. Dimpled, homemade orecchiette pasta gets tossed with spiced duck sausage, charred fennel, white wine, and a hint of chile for heat — all savory, textured, and warming. In a frutti di mare, squid ink pasta is served in a briny mix of clams, mussels, and shrimp in lobster broth. Mozzarella is hand-pulled tableside, draped over heirloom tomatoes while soft and warm. The chef’s signature meatball — now upgraded with wagyu, ricotta, and rich tomato sugo — arrives juicy and fragrant with basil.

Dessert at Ai Pazzi looks like layered jars of espresso-soaked tiramisu and sticky lemon ricotta cake with strawberries. Cocktails include the Montenegro Nights with bourbon, vanilla and caramel syrups, bitters, and a toasted marshmallow. Viviani’s own Fabrizio di Rienzo wines — exclusive to his hospitality group — round out the beverage list.

The restaurant is part of JW Marriott and Rampart Casino’s sweeping $75 million renovation, which also includes a new pizza counter adjacent to the restaurant that will serve Neapolitan slices and an Oyster Bar slated to open later this summer in a new food hall. Vivianni says the Oyster Bar will be like those found in other Las Vegas off-Strip casinos — like the iconic Oyster Bar at Palace Station — but with an Italian twist. He describes it as “an oyster bar on the Amalfi Coast.” The counter will serve seafood pots, terrines of steamed clams, shellfish-laden seafood towers, and Champagne. 

Since his Top Chef appearance, Vivianni has become something of a mogul and pitchman — publishing cookbooks, returning for Top Chef: All Stars, fronting San Pellegrino and Dr. Oetker frozen pizzas, and launching Jars, a dessert-in-a-jar chain now in seven states. Ai Pazzi translates to “to the crazy ones,” which Viviani says he intends to mean as “crazy as in obsessed.” 

It’s an obsession he comes by honestly. “I want it to be the best Italian food not in Italy,” Vivianni says.

Ai Pazzi at 221 North Rampart Boulevard is open Sunday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.