A man in a sky-blue jacket and white shirt, unbuttoned by the collar, glides quickly through the dining room with the tray in his hand. He stops at a table and clears the rest of the glasses from a couple who have just left. Moving faster than the waiters and bus drivers in the room, he seamlessly greets a new table and oversees the situation on this busy Wednesday evening with guests waiting at the door to order the Italian food inside.
Anyone who has had dinner at the Spago in the Forum Shops at Caesars during his 25-year reign recognizes at least Carlos Perez, the long-time maître d ‘, who apparently found tables where none were, kidnapped celebrities into private dining areas and took the tour The ones in front of the house look simple and hardly break a sweat. Perez began working for Wolfgang Puck at Spago in West Hollywood in 1987 and followed him to Las Vegas in 1992 when he ushered in the celebrity chef era on the Las Vegas Strip. When Spago closed in 2018 before moving to the Bellagio, Perez left. Disappeared. When asked about Perez when Spago reopened the Bellagio, Puck said he didn’t know where he was going.
Now, after a three-year hiatus, the best maître d ‘is back in Las Vegas, this time in Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano, Restaurant Eater 38 in the Venetian, and meets with co-owner Matteo Ferdinand and chef Eduardo Perez, who all worked together at Spago in West Hollywood, Puck’s first restaurant. Over the years, Eduardo Perez, no relative, worked on the line and rose to head chef positions at Puck, eventually ending up as head chef at Spago before moving to Lupo from Wolfgang Puck at Mandalay Bay for four years. After a stint in Miami with Smith & Wollensky, he returned to Las Vegas to lead Matteo’s.
Ferdinandi joined the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group at Spago in Las Vegas as general manager before returning to Los Angeles to lead Cut in Beverly Hills as the inaugural general manager. He reunited with his chef friend Angelo Auriana, who worked at the prestigious Valentino by Piero Selvaggio in Los Angeles, and they decided to start the Factory Place Hospitality Group and opened Factory Kitchen in the Arts District of Los Angeles at the Venetian and changed in 2013 2019 the name in Matteo’s Ristorante Italiano. Ferdinandi lured Perez to the restaurant that same year. And now that Carlos Perez takes over the front of the house, what Ferdinandi calls “the Holy Trinity” is back.
“On Saturday evenings I have 430 people in Brera,” says Ferdinandi of his Brera Osteria restaurant on the upper floor of Matteo’s, a revised version of his Sixth + Mill area in the Grand Canal Shoppes. “I [work] the door, and the door is everything. But I’m not even close to doing what he’s capable of. “
Call it a gift, find tables where there aren’t any, seat guests in a crowded space, seat 20 without notice, and cater to clientele from locals to celebrities looking for a place, all with no sweat or a furrow on the forehead. Perez found places for Celine Dion and her husband René Angélil at Spago, where he played with their children over dinner. And while celebrities were popular there, he estimates 90 percent of the guests at Spago were locals, and everyone seemed to know his name.
“I’ve spent the 25 years with them,” says Perez of his time at Spago in the Forum Shops at Caesars. “I opened and closed it. In the end, I got pretty tired. I think I worked for her for 30 years and said, ‘You know what? This is the end. ‘”Note that Perez spent five years at Puck in West Hollywood before moving to Las Vegas.
So he took a well-deserved break. He stayed home and spent time with his wife and daughter. His phone kept ringing for former customers who still turned to him to get a place at Spago. After a while he stopped answering those calls, but kept the phone number just in case.
And after three years he decided to come back and work at Matteo. “He told me that he would never work for anyone, but if he ever works in the restaurant business again, he will work with me,” says Ferdinandi.
Perez returned in June when Las Vegas conventions resumed and attracted thousands of business travelers. A lot of people are waiting to take a seat at Matteo’s this Wednesday night and Perez, who says he sometimes feels like an actor who transforms into another person when he steps through the doors of the restaurant, leaves the restaurant hum gracefully as the busy 6 o’clock hour approaches.
“Carlos is by far the best maître d ‘manager I have ever worked with and he is second to none,” says Ferdinandi. Because of the many different gifts he has. It’s pleasant. It’s marked. He understands the flow. He understands business better than anyone else. He knows how to deal not only with guests, but also with employees . He understands how the flow has to be to make a place profitable and beyond. “
Perez goes to Matteo for another night to take care of new and old friends. In contrast to Spago, Matteo’s is small with 152 seats in a room with Art Deco lights, concrete walls, and gray benches and does not have a private dining room. Still, Perez will make it work. “That’s what I miss, you know, doing that for people,” says Perez. “I want you to know I’m here.”
