Distinguishing yourself in the restaurant business is quite the challenging task when the field is as competitive as it is in this Vegas. Sometimes it takes more than great food and great service to make customers choose your establishment over another. Sometimes it takes an added touch of personality. Enter Chef/DJ Steve Martorano and his unique take on dinner and nightlife entertainment. As a precocious entrepreneur, the young Steve Martorono eschewed mob life for the food business, selling hoagies out of
his mother’s basement in the 1980’s. His first real restaurant went bust with the ‘90s real estate collapse. With the help of a
relative he was able to take over a small eatery in Ft Lauderdale Florida and turn it into the first Café Marotorno, taking
its profits from $500 dollars week to annual gross revenues of $6 million in just a few years.
In Las Vegas there are so many choices when it comes to dining, just deciding which restaurant to go to on any given night can be overwhelming. Factor in drinks and entertainment and you’ve got yourself a conundrum that could have you shuttling across the Valley to multiple establishments, racing to meet reservation and curtain times, only to be held up by an epic journey through a parking lot,
or an interminable wait in the valet lane. Not so, if your destination happens to be Italian restaurant Café Martorano. The most recent addtion to the Rio-All Suite Hotel & Casino. With an elegant yet casual bar welcoming guests as
they arrive and an enormous moon-roof overhead allowing light to cascade into the cruise ship-like main dining room,
the design and layout of the restaurant certainly add to up to a festive atmosphere. But the elements that really give this venue its transforming ability are the open view kitchen, the DJ booth at its head, and Chef Steve Martorano at the helm.
The man loves to have a good time. He knows how to throw a party and he definitely is not inhibited about telling
you exactly why Café Martorano is a one-stop night out on the town. “The idea of Café Martorano is that
you don’t come here, have dinner and go to a show. You don’t come here and then go to a nightclub. The idea
is that you come and you hang, and you stay and this is the show. From the food, to the music, to the video.
You don’t leave us unless we all get tired cause its 2 AM. I mean we have a DJ booth inside the kitchen which is
unheard of. It’s part restaurant, part night club, all entertainment.”
Martorano knows his business well and he should. His infamous uncle Ray “Long John” Martorano owned the restaurant Cous’ Little Italy in South Philly. The eatery was recently mentioned in an article entitled “The Sleep Wit’ the FishesTour,” on Philadelphia’s Breakin’ Balls Magazine.
All I can say is wow.
- Buscemi