If it’s possible for a restaurant to transcend its genre, that’s definitely the goal at Elio.

It’s the first Mexican restaurant ever to open inside Wynn or Encore, the connected luxury resorts that have sculpted the tone of fine dining on the Strip for 15 years. Also contributing to anticipation and expectations are its origins. Elio comes from Enrique Olvera, Daniela Soto-Innes and Santiago Perez of the ATM Group, the international company behind the acclaimed Cosme and Atla in NewYork City and Pujol in Mexico City.

Located in the Encore space formerly known as clubby Asian eatery Andrea’s, Elio is designed to be simple and maybe minimal, warm and comfortable with understated flourishes of 1950s glamour. It’s intended both to complement the nightlife experience at Encore Beach Club next door and to serve as a grown-up alternative to it. It certainly doesn’t fall into stereotypical descriptions of vibrant and fun Mexican restaurants, but it’s definitely both of those things.

“One thing we like about ourselves is we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Olvera says.

Elio was originally scheduled to open on March 19. Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak ordered the closure of all casinos statewide by March 18, but Wynn Resorts had already announced three days earlier that it would close its Las Vegas properties, making Wynn and Encore the first Strip resorts to shutter in response to the coronavirus.

Instead the restaurant opened June 18 for a sort of summer preview. It hosted a special event with luxury tequila brand Casa Dragones over what was surely the most subdued Mexican Independence Day weekend in modern Las Vegas history, but it just isn’t possible for Elio to splash into the local dining scene the way it deserves during the pandemic and the Strip’s slow recovery efforts.

“We’re here for the long run, so we’re not so concerned with how we’re performing financially right now,” Olvera says. “In a sense, we have a greater opportunity to make early adjustments to make sure we have the restaurant that we want to have. I like to focus on positive things, and I think it’s a positive to open with a little less people so we have time to make those adjustments. And then hopefully we flow into normality next year being better prepared for that push of hundreds of covers.”

The pre-pandemic plan had Elio kicking off a year of dining innovations at Wynn. The glamorous supper club Delilah was slated for a late-spring arrival, followed by a new Thomas Keller concept at the former Country Club space in the fall. Many other Wynn and Encore restaurants were set to receive various levels of renovation in 2020, including some complete rebranding projects.

Those developments are on hold, but the company sounds committed to proceeding with its plans when the time is right. The dedication to keeping Elio on track demonstrates as much.

“I think Elio now is very true to the concept we first talked about 18 months ago. The thinking then was good thinking, and it will be again. We built our restaurant for 50 years, not one,” says Matt Safchik, Wynn’s vice president of food and beverage development. “There are some short-term tweaks for the customers in Las Vegas right now, but Vegas isn’t Vegas yet. We’re looking past the pandemic.”

Industry outsiders might consider opening a new restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip in the age of COVID an impossible task. But experienced restaurateurs know how to make quick changes, stay nimble and hone in on the guest experience during the first few months of a new operation. That’s the business.

“I think the direction is exactly the same,” Olvera says. “We are adjusting the menu, but that happens. It happened when we opened Cosme and it will happen here, because you start to see how people are going to behave in the restaurant and you make little adjustments.”

At Cosme, the New York City Flatiron District institution where the ATM Group built the blueprint for a new kind of sleek, contemporary Mexican restaurant, there were separate opening menus for the bar and the restaurant.

“Everybody wanted to be in the restaurant and nobody wanted to be in the bar, so people kept asking for the restaurant menu at the bar,” Olvera says. “Four or five weeks in, we decided to tear out the wall that separated those spaces and serve the same menu everywhere. Here, what’s happening is a little of the opposite. The bar menu is something people are enjoying more, so let’s take a little bit of that into the restaurant.”

Snacking could include herb guacamole with homemade tostadas; an aguachile dish with Hawaiian kampachi, cucumber and avocado; tuna tartare served with crispy potatoes; or carrots “al pastor” with pineapple and searing serrano chilies. Of course, cocktails are mandatory, and Elio’s signature margarita—made with Casa Dragones Blanco tequila, Giffard triple sec and Combier, the original triple sec liqueur, fresh lime and herb salt—might just set a new Strip standard. The colorful and exotic Trickle Down, with Charanda Uruapan rum, epazote, mint and red fruit salad, is another intriguing option, and Elio is also emerging as one of the best places in Las Vegas to enjoy mezcal. There’s a small tasting room housing the restaurant’s carefully curated collection of the smoky spirit.

At the core of Elio’s cuisine are traditional Mexican flavors and ingredients, with each dish achieving elevation by virtue of the respect and passion held for those traditions. Chef de cuisine Sarah Thompson previously served as executive sous chef at Cosme after working at NYC icons like Marea and Alder, so she’s well-versed in pushing boundaries in the kitchen. Tuna tataki is rubbed in adobo and served with tender nopales and scallions in smoked soy sauce. Tortillas are a very serious thing here, and you’ll eat a bunch with whole grilled fish, maybe red snapper with crispy scales, plus ginger mojo and fresh herbs.

Elizabeth Blau, the hall of fame restaurateur who developed restaurant lineups for Bellagio in 1998, Wynn in 2005 and Encore in 2008 and has returned as a consultant to help the Wynn dining team in 2020, calls it “a new level of Mexican cuisine for this city. You can’t compare it,” she says.

Olvera takes it further: “It’s true not only for Las Vegas but in Mexico, where the idea of refined Mexican food in restaurants doesn’t have more than 30 years of history. It’s groundbreaking, because people didn’t think the tortilla is something that is sophisticated. If you start thinking about where the corn comes from and start speaking of corn the way you do coffee or wine—how it’s not just a glass of wine but it’s white or red and from which region and which producer and what’s the weather like—that’s exactly the same conversation now with corn.

“A tortilla now is not something that comes in a bag at the supermarket,” Olvera continues. ”It’s actually a product that reflects the terroir, that carries a lot of culture and the technique that it’s cooked with. We’re not trying to say this is something previous that shouldn’t be touched. It’s actually quite the opposite.”

Elio wants to keep Mexican food fun and accessible. Duck carnitas with radish and cilantro. Enfrijoladas, which are like enchiladas in a creamy, rich black bean sauce, spiked with ricotta. Dreamy flan with figs and orange or churros with chocolate and thick cajeta, Mexican caramel made with goat’s milk. It’s not what you expected, yet it’s still familiar.

“I don’t think the plan changes. If you think what is the DNA of a Mexican restaurant, I would say warmth is one thing. Warmth and service,” Olvera says. “The other is just a happy, fun restaurant. You think of a margarita, and you think, let’s party. It’s part of who we are as a culture, and that’s something I don’t think COVID will change. And when we are out of it, whenever that is, that part will become even stronger.”

ELIO Wynn, 702-770-7000. Thursday & Sunday, 6-10 p.m.; Friday & Saturday, 6-11 p.m.