He was born and raised in New York City and is a graduate of Cornell University. Everyone thinks theyre going to be a grand chefeveryone was going to be the four-star chef, the three-Michelin-star chef, the grand restaurateur, Carbone recalls. By the time COVID-19 broke out in 2020, the restaurant group had already expanded its book of businesses, adding a range of playful, glamorous and extravagant eateries, including seafood bar ZZs, brunch spot Sadelles, and steakhouse Dirty French. By . So, what exactly is the winning formula that has allowed Carbone to transcend the last decade in multi-city iterations, all the while remaining one of the most coveted dining destinations? Jay-Z and Beyonc came in early and often, as did other celebrities. The commenters kept at it too. However, they dont blink at forking over $50 for an 8-ounce filet of beef. An overpriced douchetrap, read another. We were three talented chefs in a 500-square-foot kitchen cooking as hard as we could, as creatively as we could, said Kulp, who later founded his own restaurant group, High Street Hospitality Group. From Leonardo DiCaprio, Rihanna, and Jay-Z to Kim Kardashian, Barack Obama, and secretive millionaires, its as if the rich and powerful simply are not aware that other places exist to get dinner. Its decisive moves like the swift Carbone opening that have made Major Food Group one of the most recognizable restaurant groups in the world. I owned the building, I loved the building, I didnt care for that attitude, he said. by FameRanker April 3, 2022, 1:11 am 2k Views. Throughout the madness, Carbone remained the tastefully five-oclock-shadowed big shot in chefs whites, an Italian American culinary god to every foodie with a black card. And Jeff Zalaznick, whod worked a bit in the industry, was looking for something new. Im terrified of this man. He enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America, the go-to incubator for kitchen stars. In addition to Dirty French, MFG opened Lobby Bar, a 100-seat indoor/outdoor cocktail bar and lounge at the hotel. "No one has done that," Zalaznick said. But you also get what you pay for, which a lot of times doesnt happen.. Throughout the trip, murmurs of a contagious virus spreading in China began to percolate. A hundred employees fritter around, trying to turn two closed restaurants into open ones. Zalaznick quickly made it back to New York, where he got ready to take his family on a ski vacation to Aspen, Colo. By then a case of the COV-SARS-19 disease had been detected in Europe. Someones got to do it. Jeff just brings a different level, through his relationships with people, through his eye for whats next.. 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. Out comes the lobster fra diavolo but also that famous veal Parm, cut tableside. Im terrified of this man. Design-wise, the sprawling dining room transports you to Miami in the 1950s lush mid-century Miami [+] glamour with an Italian-American twist, brought to life by the inimitable Ken Fulk. He wears his restaurant world celebrity with the well-groomed mien of a guy with a few menswear podcasts in the Spotify queue. They had spent all this time talking about their ideal menu, in their ideal spot. UPDATED, May 3, 11:55 a.m.: More than three years after listing his Miami Beach mansion, baseball Hall of Famer Mike Piazza caught a winning pitch for the waterfront property. Torrisi was this real juggernautit was a sandwich shop, it was this incredible multicourse restaurantand they were beside themselves with enthusiasm, says Ben Leventhal, a cofounder of Eater who went on to cofound the popular reservation service Resy, on which youll be hard-pressed to find a table at a reasonable hour at Carbones flagship anytime soon. Additionally, MFG manages all food and beverage operations for the hotel, including special events and 24-hour room service. Shortly thereafter, a family feud ended in a split between the real estate and finance sides of the business. Hed go to Bouluds four-sparkler East Side temple of Gallic haute cuisine and slip a rsum in his pocket to pass to the chef-owner. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. We had a test kitchen built; they tried a dish 30, 40, 50 times before it was perfected.. It was the 17th restaurant he'd opened in 16 months. 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. And my grandmother was his consummate doting sous chef. 1401 West 27th Street on the Sunset Islands (The Jills Photography by Luxhunters). Jeremiah Moss, the proprietor of an online historical concern called Jeremiahs Vanishing New York, accused places like Carbone of turning the Big Apple into an Epcot Center Jurassic Park of a city. Eater did a one-paragraph post about Mosss rant. MAJOR will feature 259 custom residences conceived as . As Carbone bends down to sign it, I get the uncanny feeling like this is something rehearseda Move. It doesnt look ready, but he is. 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. MFG then set their sights on the ambitious venture of resurrecting Italian-American fine dining. Zalaznick jumped into both, building and selling a food content site that started as a restaurant search portal called Always Hungry. Is it any wonder he and the former president are already locked in a 2024 cold war? You know I love the sound of the drill at 2 p.m. on opening day, he deadpans, leading me into the outdoor courtyard as a number of workers are eating into the earth and the beeping of a dump truck blares louder as it gets closer to us. It is simply impossible to get in unless you know who to ask, so much so that the Infatuation has penned a roundup of where to eat when the Carbone matre d expectedly turns you down.
Speaker: Jeff Zalaznick, A&S '05, Restaurateur | Cornell Nolan THE TEAM MARIO CARBONE RICH TORRISI JEFF ZALAZNICK Photos previous photo next photo Policies And then, for the remainder of the day, he has an apron on, watching TV, gardening, doing something outside, actually cooking, Carbone continues. Im originally from Brooklyn. So I walk up to him. Shes the only one in the family, before me, that could cook, Zalaznick said. Having planted their flag all over the city, Rich Torrisi, Mario Carbone and Jeff Zalaznick, the restaurateurs behind Major Food Group, are going back to their roots. Caf Boulud was intentionally difficult, Chang told The New Yorker in 2008.
Major Food Group To Open Miami Beach Outpost of World-Renowned Israeli Aside from their ritzy new zip code, they successfully opened their doors at the peak of New York to Miami migration. The Major Food Group team scored prime real estate in the exclusive South of Fifth neighborhood on 49 Collins Avenue a stones throw away from Miami mainstays, Joes Stone Crab and Prime 112, which Zalaznick professes was an absolute dream. Stepping into the Four Seasons took [Major Food Group] to another level.. Mario Carbone photographed for Vanity Fair, 2022. The managing partner of restaurant group Major Food Group . My dream was to go into restaurants and create incredible restaurants.. I met everybody in town who was great; people from Europe came, Rosen said I always gravitated back to Jeff., He liked the mix of creativity, chutzpah and business acumen that the three partners offered, and how Jeff complemented the two chefs. The expansive patio space can seat 50 people. They have a matter of hours. In looking for a replacement, Rosen needed someone who respected the space architecturally, and could take it in an exciting direction that wasnt too dramatic in its changes, retaining its classic elegance. Not all the time, but, I mean, that guy is acutely positioned to be a fan, Carbone says as he watches the two men walk away. But what if it actuallywas impossible to get a table at Carbone?). 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. Inside Wealth-Conference Con Man Anthony Ritossas Wild Web of Lies, Inventing Ivana Trump: Her Improbable Rise and Tragic Death. Then theres the recently announced private Carbone inside a members club set for some not-too-distant future in Hudson Yards. In 2014, a year after the original opened, young restaurateurs behind the dining group Black Sheep helped open Carbone Hong Kong. MFG represents a new breed of restaurant group with the aim to conceptualize and operate restaurants . First, there already is an outpost of Carbone in Miami, just a short drive down Collins Avenue, one thats large enough to pull off close to a thousand covers on a big night. 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. Prior to becoming a restaurateur, Jeff worked as an investment banker for J.P. Morgan and then a manager at the Mandarin Oriental. On the evening of Carbones first service in the Lone Star State, Lamborghini Murcilagos peel into the tiny Design District strip mall and their owners hop out, throw the keys to the valet, and walk into the cocktail party, which straddles both Carbone and the new restaurant concept next door, Carbone Vino, a wine bar that will serve Carbone staplesthe Caesar, the rigatonialong with, in a first, pizza. En route, news broke that a group of visiting Australians in the ski town were showing symptoms of the new virus. The outdoor patio feels more laidback, with rattan ceiling fans, eclectic furniture and lush greenery as a nod to Havana, bringing a distinct Miami flair to theCarbone experience. The restaurant takes its culinary cues from the timeless dishes and preparations of the classic French bistro and enlivens them utilizing modern techniques and bold flavors. Another Move is a capitan greeting the table in a tuxedo, handshakes all around, launching into an antipasti assault: gratis salami from down Bleecker Street; a Brobdingnagian basket of various carbs topped with a square of grandma bread the size of a stop sign; oily, pepper-flecked cauliflower giardiniera; and fist-size chunks of Parmesan. It has to be us to take it. 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. Ive never seen anything like it. Torrisi Italian Specialties closed in 2015, but Major Food Group held on to the space. In Carbones first two months of existence, the site published 25 stories about the place, often under the same rubric: Carbone Fever. It was one of those restaurants where they got everything right, Leventhal said. Ron DeSantis: The Making and Remaking (and Remaking) of a MAGA Heir. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. But this very often tends to be Italian Italian food, which means the food the wealthy eat in Milan or Genoa, not Italian American food. The space had an earned-through-the-decades patina that could actually fulfill the trios spaghetti-wrapped dreams. Miami is such an exciting place right now, and we love it down here. After a beat, the younger guy walks up. It was rampant in Westchester. ), Dallas doesnt like to pay high prices for Italian unless they are in New York or Los Angeles or Italy, Nancy Nichols, a longtime local food writer, wrote after the spot closed. It started as an ordinary work trip. He points out that, against all odds, the horror show of a construction zone hours earlier has been replaced by a distinctly Texan display of conspicuous wealth: rhinestone blazers, cowboy boots, and looks fresh off the runway from Paris. Torrisi and Carbone were intrigued. 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. In 2016, MFG took over the city's iconic Four Seasons Restaurant located in the historic Seagram Building, and restored this landmark restaurant space with the opening THE GRILL, THE POOL, The Pool Lounge and The Lobster Club over the course of 2017. 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. Jeff Zalaznick: ZZ's is about exclusivity and luxury. 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. From left, Rich Torrisi, Jeff Zalaznick and Mario Carbone in a 2013 photo. The pop-up went head-to-head not just with itself but with a hundred other global hot spots for customers during the jam-packed race weekend schedule. 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. You dont understand, the fan says. This is a BETA experience. But then the Move could not account for the fact that in the back rooms corner booth sat Aviv Vivi Nevo, the berwealthy Zelig-like investor with a self-fashioned mystiquefor years, his top Google searches said that he was ungoogleable. But for all DeSantiss bona fides and rocketing national profile, doubts about his own persona (calculated, aloof, cold-blooded) persist. People have a lot of fun atCarboneand if you mix all these things up, its why people come back again and again. And its true Major Food Group creates an environment that evokes the familiar elements you know and love, while devising an updated concept that feels local and inspired. The second I walked in I immediately felt it was the perfect location for Carbone, Zalaznick recalled. Its .
Jeff Zalaznick - Major Food | A NY Based Hospitality Company It was like a 16-year-old and Taylor Swift right there, Carbone says.
Major Food Group | LinkedIn 275 Mulberry Street (Jersey Street), majorfood.com. 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. And I became the kid. We knew we could tell the Carbone story the way we wanted to tell it in that space, Zalaznick said. Henry Kissinger, who reputedly spent decades of lunches at the same perch ordering the same baked potato with its own bottle of olive oil, complained to Rosen, as did Martha Stewart; the starchitects Robert A.M. Stern and Norman Foster reportedly urged him not to change a thing. At Torrisi wed work until 11 p.m., then wed meet at 8 a.m. at Richs apartment, with Jeff, culling over old menus, looking through archives in the New York library, trying to find gems of creativity, Kulp said. He then struck out on his own and conceived, developed and sold two highly . 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. And Carbone is perhaps best seen as video streaming on an app, capturing this Sinatra-washed rigatoni fantasia, one that unfolds as if on a New York back lot in an L.A. movie studio filling in for Greenwich Village. In fact, shovels were already in the ground in Brickell, ready to go, until the space that once housed Stephen Starrs Upland became available. 1155 Park Aven, New York, NY 10128-1209 is the residential address for Jeffrey.
Major Food Group, Michael Stern Plan Miami Condo Tower - The Real Deal And we can make shit happen on the fly.(Nota bene to the rich and famous: Advance warning is key. Zalaznicks only condition was that they be allowed to keep the glowing sign, which they left in place, tacking Carbone across the former lettering. But the two, Torrisi and Carbone, stayed close. He was going to do something.. And all three brought total dedication to the craft. Also a Move: that time the waiter handed over comically large menus and then rattled off the nights oysters, a list as long as the names of who begat whom in the book of Genesis, ending with New Brunswickand thats Canada, not Jersey! And he was going to preempt it. Were in the restaurant business 43 years, my parents. Then in Seattle. Then the restaurant opened in March 2013, and Eater couldnt stop writing about it. Since its opening, Sadelle's has become a New York brunch institution, serving more than 700 guests per day every weekend. We drove here just for a chance to meet you. Carbone had worked at Lupa right across the street. Youre there for a play; youre part of an act. Jeffrey Zalaznick is 39. They had some funds from their families and a few investors, they just needed a place, preferably somewhere downtown. In addition, Jeff and his partners believe strongly in giving back, and have pioneered an exciting charity partnership with the Robin Hood Foundation. The best food, the best drinks and the best people. Zalaznick, Torrisi, and Carbonewho together own the company Major Food Groupare also behind such iconic concepts as THE GRILL, Sadelle's, ZZ's Clam Bar, Parm, and Dirty French. It can be hard to put a finger on Major Food Groups magic, but certainly the attention to formfrom, Major Food Group Joins Pitch to Replace Nikki Beach Day Club. It wouldnt be an Italian American place leaning on modernist techniques to get insanely fancy. This sort of critical appraisal is something of an important marker in the evolution of fine dining in New York. May we all be rich enough to eat here more often.. That was a huge coup, said real estate lawyer Jonathan Mechanic, who used to frequent the Four Seasons. The previous workers had been working on wooden pallets on the kitchen line because the floors were so bad, and there was an open container of marinara on the counter with a ladle still in it, as if they had just walked out. 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. Instead, he took time off from running the free world to share veal Parm and the porterhouse with his daughters at Carbone in 2015then went back to Carbone again in 2017, this time after he departed the White House.). In time, a 27-year-old regular named Jeff Zalaznick approached them about getting drinks. They never left. We called [it] a 400-square-foot rocket ship, thats what we told each other in our apartment before we went to bed each night, Carbone says later. Then another Move: Carbone takes out one of the cigars gifted to him, looks me in the eye, and lights it as Sinatra hits the last high note in My Way. Torrisi is standing nearby, downing a glass of wine. 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. The family of Nelson Mezerhane has owned it since 1984. Jeff Zalaznick flew to Saudi Arabia to pursue the possibility of opening his companys first restaurant in the Middle East. The opening galvanized the surge in Florida-bound migration, and many more New York institutions began to follow Major Food Groups lead.
Milstein family honored at building naming ceremony 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.
The World's First Private Carbone Is Opening in NYC's Hudson Yards All weekend long in Miamiwhere he relocated with his girlfriend, the powerful TikTok star publicist Cait Bailey, during the pandemiche was personally plating the rigatoni and flipping the steaks on the grills while also playing politician, greeting VIPs, and introducing the talent onstage. In 2014, it was nominated as the Best New Bar in America by Tales of the Cocktail. That was our space.
Velvety jewel-tone nooks define the bar area upon entry before youre led into the main dining room, fashioned in a palette of terracotta and emerald green with damask-upholstered walls and leather banquettes. Carbone was born to Italian Americans in a residential part of Queens, and his grandparents, who came over from Italy as adults, were always around, always cooking. It was in California, New York, France. It would be a place that was both insanely Italian American and insanely fancy. "And they're all quite significant.". In the same year, MFG opened Sadelles, a bakery and restaurant that celebrates some of New Yorks greatest food traditions. Wouldnt it be interesting if we can figure out a way to bring what Jeff does in the hospitality and restaurant space into a residential property?. $135 per person for FUCKING SPAGHETTI??? This quickly became one of the most applauded and sought-after hospitality complexes in America, earning praises and accolades such as "Best Restaurant in America" from numerous national publications. When Zalaznick told his two new partners that he had heard about a space at 181 Thompson, both knew exactly what he meant. Maybe the grandparent he really takes after is Sadelle Cameron, the great-grandmother after whom the aforementioned restaurant is named. Instead, Zalaznick and Major Food Group shifted their focus to Miami, which had become a destination for Northerners freed from the office and fleeing lockdown. I was gonna do it, and I was gonna do the shit out of it.. I cant imagine we need it all, Carbone says. And people might not notice the Move, and thats the pointthe point is that you arent thinking about it because we got you, we captured your imagination, were pouring wine quickly and were getting you a cocktail and youre having a great time and thats why youre coming back. I said, Not only is this gonna be Carbone, I know how were gonna get this open in the fastest time anyones ever opened a restaurant.. Out comes the tableside-tossed Caesar but also a tire-size platter of extra-rich beef carpaccio speckled with ant-size chives. fashioned in a palette of terracotta and emerald green with damask-upholstered walls and leather banquettes. My grandfather was a great leader, a real estate guy, and hopefully I can honor his legacy, Zalaznick said. He has the bug and he had the money to do it, so he put his own money into his own place.. MFG's restaurants are conceptualized to uphold the highest level of food quality and fine dining service in a fun and inviting atmosphere for the guest. Out comes the spicy rigatoni vodka but also off-the-menu gnocchi slathered in fresh ramp butter. Generally it means unique service style moments, whether its the verbiage we use, how the captain guides you, the spiel they use to rattle off specials, Torrisi says. Here, though, are two variables that might get us closer to solving for Carbones gravitational force.
Q&A: Major Food Group Debuts ZZ's Club in Miami Design District And he goes, Who the fuck are you? Great question, chef. But it seemed as though all the young guys in Carmellinis kill-or-be-killed kitchen were comers, content to sweat out the rough times and earn the scars needed to open their own places. We walk out, and two guys, one older and one younger, have been standing on the restaurants asphalt. Theres also a renewed Torrisi, a collaboration with Kith in Paris, a hotel in Boston, and for its newest move: a branded condominium with Michael Sterns JDS Development in Miami. After postshift drinks late one night at the Sullivan Street chef hangout Blue Ribbon, Torrisi told his bud he needed a place to crash. So we drove three hours, the younger man says, stuttering a bit, clearly nervous. And they were hot.. Because updating the past is what they do best. Spaghetti and meatballs was invented here by Italians who saw their jobs eliminated as the Industrial Revolution spread down the boot, forcing them to come to America in droves until the National Origins Act of 1924 limited immigration. I dont want to see what theyve done.. Weve never seen demand like this, he said, referring to the restaurant and Miami itself. Estimated Net Worth: $770,000 Estimated Salary: $254,660. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. We are a fine dining restaurant but not in a formal setting. Property records show the Piazzas paid $10 million for the Tuscan-style home in 2008. New York was enraptured.
Inside Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner's Gilded Florida ParadiseFar I dont know if youd get in too much trouble, but I have some Our Lady of Rocco gear. These are for yousticks just to commemorate, and they should be right up your alley because I kind of know your profile, the man says. 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. The star-studded Carbone Beach is returning for the 2023 Miami Grand Prix. One would figure this opening was strategically expedited once Carbones core clientele starting flocking south, though the team already had Carbone well underway. But Il Mulinos prelaunch build-out was no match for the conceptual rigor girded to the opening of an Italian American juggernaut like Carbone. Tonights a little bit abnormal, but an opening nonetheless. Its a simple ribbed white tank for guys that has been called a wife-pleaser.. The roommates decided to join forces. A Carbone Captain filets the Dover Sole Piccata. There was definitely a large group of naysayers, all of a sudden, that had never existed, Carbone says.
Major Food Group, Michael Stern plan Miami culinary residential tower Since then, they have opened outposts of Carbone in Hong Kong and in Las Vegas. Our plan as Major Food Group is to not only expand geographically as a restaurant group, but to expand into other verticals, like hotels and real estate, where we thought that not only was there a huge opportunity for our style of hospitality, but also where we thought our restaurants would play a huge role in the value of those properties, Zalaznick said. Major Food Groups Miami adventure is just getting started. And we will be the ones to do it right. , Lambert eventually came around and had her 90th birthday in the space. Zalaznick soon quit JPMorgan and went to work at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in guest relations, which gave him a frontline seat to the hospitality business, before turning to his own ventures.