Together, the trio formed Major Food Group (MFG), a new breed of restaurant group seeking to operate restaurants that are respectful of the past, exciting for the present, and sustainable for the future. This was early internet 2.0 days, the heyday of recommendation engines and the blogosphere. He wears his restaurant world celebrity with the well-groomed mien of a guy with a few menswear podcasts in the Spotify queue. Prior to becoming a restaurateur, Jeff worked as an investment banker for J.P. Morgan and then a manager at the Mandarin Oriental. Expansion of a global nature has, unsurprisingly, been an entire chapter of the Carbone playbook almost since day one. 275 Mulberry Street (Jersey Street), majorfood.com. but my parents are from Sicily, he says, turning toward his dad. Here, though, are two variables that might get us closer to solving for Carbones gravitational force. Dramatic crystal chandeliers and Murano sconces light the space with detailed Malachite beams that stretch across the ceiling. I dont know if youd get in too much trouble, but I have some Our Lady of Rocco gear. Rich Torrisi, Jeff Zalaznick and Mario Carbone on the patio of newly opened Carbone Miami. Theres a comfort in the familiarity of what we do that I believe is part of why people keep coming back to us.. After a beat, the younger guy walks up. In January of 2015, MFG opened Santina, a coastal Italian restaurant located underneath the High Line in a structure designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano. The space had an earned-through-the-decades patina that could actually fulfill the trios spaghetti-wrapped dreams. The NIMBY crowd was particularly incensed that Carbone had a hand in elbowing out of New York the very element to which it was supposedly paying homage. One particular Rocco item might be the key to inner Mario, an item thats retrograde but forward-thinking, smile inducing, and thoroughly meta-Italian. Thats what you were doing at Torrisi. We drove here just for a chance to meet you. When looking for an externship, Carbone sent letters to all of the restaurants on a local magazines top 50 list and heard back from very few. Inside Wealth-Conference Con Man Anthony Ritossas Wild Web of Lies, Inventing Ivana Trump: Her Improbable Rise and Tragic Death. But Carbone did manage to find a spot at the less formal Caf Boulud, which, while still a world-class joint, wasnt as stuffy as the four-star dining room off Park Avenue. Mario and Rich, theyre New Yorkers, and they have this nostalgia for classic New York, and it gives it this joie de vivre.. We walk into the kitchen, where young guys in oil-slicked chefs whites are hammering away at their stations. Is it any wonder he and the former president are already locked in a 2024 cold war? And were all listening to Frank. Milstein family honored at building naming ceremony The red-sauce joint on Thompson might be just one of the 30+ restaurants on three continents under the Major Food Group umbrella, but Carbone is the flagship restaurant and the one that bears his name. I have zero issue with coming off as a villain in the press, he told Town & Country. hahahahaha!!! China was locking down. Zalaznick jumped into both, building and selling a food content site that started as a restaurant search portal called Always Hungry. Sadelle's Dallas The Hottest New Brunch Spot in Highland Park Village For a lot of reasons Carbone Beach seemed particularly hubristic. Even deposed princelings Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were there, enjoying a rare night out insulated from sneering restaurantgoers who cant afford to drop three stacks to get into dinner. Celebrities are just fucking people toothey might not be normal people, but they are people like anyone else, he says. Jeff lives in Soho with his wife Ali and their children Poppy, Leo and Zoey. Thats a very strange thing for all of us. He has the bug and he had the money to do it, so he put his own money into his own place.. The whole thing bordered on a work of performance art, with Carbone as a backdrop, seen on phone screens the world over. It was a young generation of people, ourselves, not doing something youthful, Carbone says. In Boston, Major Food Group worked with the developers of the Newbury Boston hotel, located in a historic downtown building on Newbury Street, to curate the food, beverage and other lifestyle elements of the hotel, including a rooftop bar called Contessa that opened last July. What Carbone coming to South Beach did was validate that Miami was a vibrant community and a foodie scene, Ellis said. The new as-yet-to-be-named project will move into the back of the Puck Building in the former location of Chefs Club, which closed during the pandemic. Torrisi describes it as the trios oh shit moment. Mr. Torrisi said he and his partners were happy to be returning to NoLIta and to be part of what they see as a resurgence of restaurant activity in the city. Jeff said something interesting about people in New York, Torrisi says. Yes. Of Major Food Groups more than 20 restaurants in several cities, the only New York locations that are open and have been during the pandemic are Carbone, Sadelles and two of the Parms. Its decisive moves like the swift Carbone opening that have made Major Food Group one of the most recognizable restaurant groups in the world. (That places moment, it seems, has passed. and Alex Von Bidder, the Four Seasons was a bastion of power in New York, where the whos who of media, finance and politics mingled, and regular guests could count on being courted. About as intimidating a human being as youre going to find, Carbone says of Lee. About | DIRTY FRENCH | Major Food Group | New York Bistro You may opt-out by. We believed it was missing from the fabric of New York., When I asked Carbone to explain the X factor that brings in boldface names more reliably than any eatery on earththis is based on inexact science, to be sure, but its believed to be true by many experts of A-lister rubberneckinghe slipped into a pose that was maybe knowingly clueless, trying not to sound disingenuous while also protecting the discretion of his clientele. Inside Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's Gilded Florida ParadiseFar Only one item on the menu is a direct recipe that Sadelle herself made, and thats the coleslaw. Would you mind signing it?. In the lofted lobby of the Jane Hotel, the place that once hosted survivors of the sunken Titanic, an idea was born for a new kind of restaurant that would build on the buzz of Torrisi Italian Specialties but take it one step further by going two steps back. It received a glowing two-star review from The New York Times and was named one of GQ's Most Outstanding Restaurants of 2015. They had some funds from their families and a few investors, they just needed a place, preferably somewhere downtown. Art dealer Vito Schnabel curated the work in the space, commissioning a series of paintings by the critic and poet turned artists artist Rene Ricard. You might want to peel back, Carbone says. All rights reserved. Chef Ed, whats going on with our great wall of bread?. They became roommates and spent each morning getting ready for work, bitching about their jobs, perfecting dishes by woodshedding on the tiny stovetop, and communing with the cooking god on the television, Bobby Flay. Read the latest edition of the Commercial Observer online! Stepping into the Four Seasons took [Major Food Group] to another level.. We recently caught up with Jeff Zalaznick, one of the managing partners of Major Food Group, alongside Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone the team behind Sadelle's. Piazza and his wife also own a unit at the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Miami Beach, which they acquired in 2019 for $5.6 million, according to property records. I dont think we had any idea how it was going to happen, Carbone says to me. What was next was the original Carbone. Maybe the grandparent he really takes after is Sadelle Cameron, the great-grandmother after whom the aforementioned restaurant is named. The three young chefs served their interpretation of classic Italian deli sandwiches for lunch, and a seven-course prix fixe dinner in the evening, in a dining room that could barely seat 20 people. After a few days during which Carbone passed as a legit employee, the executive chef made eye contact with a young Mario, a man he had never hired, standing in the kitchen. Wait a minute. We kind of shared this Italian American background, and we joked that red sauce wasnt quote-unquote real Italian, Carmellini says. Its laid-back aesthetic, consisting of rattan ceiling [+] fans, eclectic furniture, and lush greenery, nods to Havana, bringing a distinct Miami flair to the Carbone experience. Q&A: Major Food Group Debuts ZZ's Club in Miami Design District Miami is such an exciting place right now, and we love it down here. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. In the 1980s, the brothers developed a Madison Avenue building for Bank of America, were instrumental in revitalizing Times Square, and branched out into finance, acquiring the Emigrant Savings Bank New Yorks oldest savings institution. It was also credited by The New York Times for ushering in a new age of raw eating in New York City and serves as the hub of cocktail creativity for the group. My kind of mentors were Italians who hated Italian American cooking, because it wasnt Italian.. Zalaznick began searching for second-generation restaurant space, so that Major Food Group could move quickly. THE TEAM MARIO CARBONE RICH TORRISI JEFF ZALAZNICK Photos previous photo next photo Policies Mr. Torrisi said Wednesday that they plan to evoke the original Torrisi Italian Specialties. Major Food Group and its founders Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick has made a big impact in South Florida since opening Carbone in Miami Beach during the height of the pandemic,. And people love Carbone., A secret reservation list does not hurt: Weve created systems by which reservations happen, Carbone says. Throughout the trip, murmurs of a contagious virus spreading in China began to percolate. Ive never seen anything like it. A friend from New York who relocated to Dallas for a job in the art world says that in her experience, Texans are very set in their ways, and the New York imports dont really work here. (Il Mulino New York lasted all of two years in Dallas and closed in 2006. My dream was to go into restaurants and create incredible restaurants.. Jeff Zalaznick is a restaurateur and entrepreneur. You can expect a deli and restaurant, highlighting our approach to cuisine, he said. Upon opening, Carbone received a dazzling five out of five stars from Time Out New York, four and a half stars from Bloomberg three stars from The New York Times, and has received one Michelin star every year since 2014. MFG has since opened outposts of Parm on the Upper West Side, in Battery Park and inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. I landed in an incredible place that was making a shit ton of noise, he says. They know that what youre eating isnt good food, but you have such a place in your heart for it that you love it anyway. But with better quality food came bigger price tags. But entering real estate now is a natural extension of his vision of hospitality, not the other way around, he said. Jeff Zalaznick | Crain's New York Business Part of the appeal is that after decades of putting up with mediocre Italian food just because its still homey and comforting to tuck into a plate of sauce-and-cheese-slathered carbs, New Yorkers were ready for a concept that understood what makes those kinds of restaurants so appealing while upping the food quality. Soon they found a former blue jeans store on Mulberry Street, spent months gutting it, and opened Torrisi Italian Specialties. The restaurant opened its doors to the public that week, in late January 2021, just as the first winter wave of COVID-19 was reaching its peak. This new property will offer high-caliber cuisine with a traditional omakase experience and la carte menu spanning Tokyo-sourced seafood and premium beef. For Carbone, that was a project with Chang, but things got scuttled during the Great Recession. "And they're all quite significant.". Everything else is an interpretation through the Major Food Group lens. When Zalaznick told his two new partners that he had heard about a space at 181 Thompson, both knew exactly what he meant. Major Food Group (MFG), led by the creative forces and Co Founders Mario Carbone, Jeff Zalaznick, and Rich Torrisi of some of America's most celebrated restaurants, is partnering with powerhouse developer and builder JDS Development Group, led by Chief Executive Michael Stern, to conceive, build, and operate MAJOR. Then there was the little issue of the cost. The trio set about transforming the space into Carbone, an upscale red-sauce joint that paid homage to Carbones Italian American roots. As we walk through the cramped kitchen, Carbone tells me that the nights crowd will be made up mostly of investors and friends and family, an elaborate cocktail party, he says. Most importantly, it had drama. Major Food Group, Michael Stern Plan Miami Condo Tower - The Real Deal Rich Torrisi, Mario Carbone and Jeff Zalaznick will open a restaurant in the Puck Building loosely based on Torrisi Italian Specialties. I was like, Dude, I know that, of course, that space across the street with the epic sign outside, Carbone says. It was rampant in Westchester. Since its opening, ZZ's Clam Bar has received three stars from GQ Magazine and Bloomberg. Major Food Group Is Opening A Torrisi Italian Specialities Inspired A Carbone Captain filets the Dover Sole Piccata. The family of Nelson Mezerhane has owned it since 1984. He was there every night. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. It can be hard to put a finger on Major Food Groups magic, but certainly the attention to formfrom napkin and menu design, to the uniforms of the waitstaffis paramount. Zalaznick rerouted his family to Miami, where they checked into the Surf Club resort. Speaking of the Kingdom: Theres also a new edition of Torrisi Italian Specialties, simply called Torrisi, opening in 2022 in the Puck Building, which is owned by Kushner Companies, the real estate empire once run by Jared Kushnerwhose firm recently took a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabias sovereign wealth fund. The creators know this and relish the hell out of it. In 2011, MFG opened Parm, a casual dining experience that celebrates classic Italian-American food. After the meeting at the Jane, all three of them got together, this time at the Mulberry Street playground across from the bar Spring LoungeCarbone called it Shark Bar, like any legit SoHo dweller doesand agreed to form a partnership that would turn into Major Food Group. Major Food Groups Miami adventure is just getting started. The couple sold the property to Major Food Group co-founder and co-owner Jeffrey Zalaznick and his wife, Alison, who were renting the mansion prior to closing on it in mid-April, records show. Shes the only one in the family, before me, that could cook, Zalaznick said. As for Chefs Club, Stephane De Baets, an owner, said he had to close because of the pandemic, notably because the company was foreign-owned and did not qualify for government support. With The Grill, we fucking put our balls on the table, Carbone says. When Rocco started serving pasta a century ago, the South Village was a nexus for immigrants from the Mezzogiornothe southern part of the old country. Several South Florida projects are forthcoming in Brickell and the Miami Design District, so we can expect a flurry of news from the group through the rest of 2021. Carbone had worked at Lupa right across the street. Carbone Beach. As a scion of the Milsteins, the prominent New York real estate family, Zalaznick initially followed the typical track for monied heirs of his generation: he went into finance, landing an investment banking job at JPMorgan after graduating from Cornell University in 2005. Its this sort of amazing thing that happened along the way, theres no way to put the pieces together to create that as a result, he says. The cocktail party becomes a full-on party, Ol Dirty Bastard and Biggie Smalls blasting on the speakers, and eventually Carbone joins Torrisi and Zalaznick by the front, and they tell me that the place is booked out already for two months. May we all be rich enough to eat here more often.. The Four Seasons had operated in the space since it opened in 1959, and had hosted regulars like Jackie Kennedy and Henry Kissinger, and, once, Princess Diana. And its like, Were going to do it. In December, Pete Wells at the Times named it the second-best new restaurant hed reviewed that year, bested only by Sushi Nakazawa, a now-faded fancy sushi joint. Restaurants seldom accomplish this successfully. After a spell serving sandwiches at lunch to modest returns, some press accompanied one of their first dinner services, and soon they were drawing lines around the block. As Carbone bends down to sign it, I get the uncanny feeling like this is something rehearseda Move. He said pandemic restrictions made it impossible to maintain the restaurants approach bringing in chefs from elsewhere and having them interact with customers. Its a rocket ship. A hundred employees fritter around, trying to turn two closed restaurants into open ones. Get regular updates from NYT Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice. The opening galvanized the surge in Florida-bound migration, and many more New York institutions began to follow Major Food Groups lead. Major Food Group (@majorfoodgroup) has become synonymous with dining like royalty.From its superior food and beverage programming to its ultra-exclusive status as some of the hardest reservations to secure in each of its given cities, the dream teamMario Carbone, Jeff Zalaznick and Rich Torrisihave the golden recipe to bring their inimitable flair to dining destinations all over the . And, always willing to play with the intersection of food and experience, Major Food Group had several collaborations on its roster. "No one has done that," Zalaznick said. Another Caf Boulud employee was Torrisi, whom Carbone had met back at CIA, on the first day of orientation. But in 2011 the landlord reportedly informed Stanziano's grand-nephew Antonio DaSilva that his rent would be jacked from $8,000 to $18,000 per month, and the family balked. Youre doing something very old, when youre young. Designed by the architectural giants Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson, it featured soaring 22-foot-tall windows, walnut paneling and an indoor pool. In @deuxmoi world, Carbone is akin to this centurys Deux Magots, with Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson filling in for Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. Once it was announced that Major Food Group would take over the countrys most famous restaurant and turn it into The Grill, the criticism leapfrogged several social strata up from the comments section. MAJOR will feature 259 custom residences conceived as . This had been building for years; Carbone was the rare room that Leonardo DiCaprio could enter and maybe not be the most famous guy present. Its going to be a very hedonistic experience.. And then we came out with $50 veal Parms and tuxedos and they were like, Wait a minute. That was a huge coup, said real estate lawyer Jonathan Mechanic, who used to frequent the Four Seasons. Run by Julian Niccolini and Alex Von Bidder, the Four Seasons was a bastion of power in New York, where the whos who of media, finance and politics mingled, and regular guests could count on being courted. With celebrities, I think that we do a good job of preaching anonymity, and we welcome them and try to do our best to keep them in their own little world and bubble and take care of them as we would anybody else, as best you can. He then struck out on his own and conceived, developed and sold two highly . In March 2013, they opened Carbone, an homage to the great Italian-American fine dining establishments of mid-century New York. Carbone Las Vegas was a no-brainer, so by 2015 there was an edition at the Aria.