Ivana Marie Zelnkov escaped from behind the Iron Curtain to storm New York City and help create the twisted miracle of Donald Trump. Headed by restaurateurs Mario Carbone, Jeff Zalaznick, and Rick Torrisi, Major Food Group will be in charge of branding and hospitality . It was booked solid for the rest of the year. He has also been named 40 under 40 by Crains and a Rising Star Restaurateur by Star Chefs. In Miami when youre hot youre hot, and when youre not youre not. Jill Hertzberg of Coldwell Bankers The Jills Zeder Group represented the Piazzas, and Danny Hertzberg of the same team brought the buyer, according to Realtor.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. Carbone is very significant, because its the food of the poor immigrants, and its fighting against the Northern Italian disdain, said Ray. And were all listening to Frank. It was a young generation of people, ourselves, not doing something youthful, Carbone says. The World's First Private Carbone Is Opening in NYC's Hudson Yards Roccos dated back to 1914, containing within its walls nearly a century of Italian American cooking and culture. No end date. Beside us is a stack of about 500 loaves of bread. In time, a 27-year-old regular named Jeff Zalaznick approached them about getting drinks. $135 per person for FUCKING SPAGHETTI??? 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! Rich Torrisi, Jeff Zalaznick and Mario Carbone on the patio of newly opened Carbone Miami. 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. 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. At one point, a friend who represented the building at 181 Thompson Street told Zalaznick about the site, that they were renting the retail space, which for 90 years had been held by a legendary but bygone Greenwich Village red-sauce joint called Rocco Restaurant. About as intimidating a human being as youre going to find, Carbone says of Lee. First up was the flagship space of Boulud, who is in Carbone parlance one of the LeBron Jameses of this thing. Carbone had a surefire plan to get a gig. 2023 Cond Nast. Major Food Group is changing the Miami restaurant game and fast. In December 2021, the two companies confirmed that they would be collaborating on MAJOR, a 259-unit condo in Miamis Brickell where Major Food Group would curate the entire lifestyle aspect of the property, as well as operate its food and beverage options. We saw our clientele shift, Jeff being so well-connected, plugged into the New York elite if you will not that hes an elitist, Kulp said. 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. Then in Seattle. Prior to becoming a restaurateur, Jeff worked as an investment banker for J.P. Morgan and then a manager at the Mandarin Oriental. Legendary in the family for her cooking, the Brooklyn-born Cameron, serves as inspiration for the eaterys menu. Major Food Group And JDS Development Part Ways at MAJOR, Rebranded As 888 Miami. In the week before the opening, the place got more press than a visiting pope. 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. While MFG grows, it continues to celebrate the history of New York. Carbones like a MOVIE SET, where every waiters like an actor, says Daniel Boulud, who ONCE EMPLOYED Carbone and Torrisi at his own Caf Boulud. 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. It was devouring Italy. In addition, Jeff and his partners believe strongly in giving back, and have pioneered an exciting charity partnership with the Robin Hood Foundation. Zalaznick jumped into both, building and selling a food content site that started as a restaurant search portal called Always Hungry. About | DIRTY FRENCH | Major Food Group | New York Bistro Major Food Group Returns to the Old Neighborhood Weve never seen demand like this, he said, referring to the restaurant and Miami itself. He said pandemic restrictions made it impossible to maintain the restaurants approach bringing in chefs from elsewhere and having them interact with customers. Carbone Las Vegas was a no-brainer, so by 2015 there was an edition at the Aria. In 2014, it was nominated as the Best New Bar in America by Tales of the Cocktail. When I started thinking about what kind of brand partner we would want to have to develop this building with us, I immediately thought of Jeff, Stern said. Rocco provided the space that could be the canvas on which Carbone and his partners could create a postmodern red-sauce joint that could seize the zeitgeistseize it not with Momofuku Kos Donald Juddinspired minimalism or wd~50s thing-that-looks-like-another-thing neo-surrealism, but with a novel pour of self-aware nostalgia. Torrisi and Carbone knew the guy, they had grappa after tasting-menu meals at the restaurant sometimes, so it wasnt all that strange. Sadelle's Dallas The Hottest New Brunch Spot in Highland Park Village "And they're all quite significant.". First order of business was finding a space for their dream restaurant, their temple to Southern Italian comfort food as slick as a summer blockbuster. The 9,600-square-foot mansion on Sunset Island II has eight bedrooms, nine bathrooms and one half-bath on a 20,000-square-foot lot. Get the latest chatter, from Kensington Palace and beyond, straight to your inbox. Jeff said something interesting about people in New York, Torrisi says. New York, NY 12,295 followers Major Food Group is a company that is very passionate about food and very passionate about New York. It would be a place that was both insanely Italian American and insanely fancy. I name a lot of different restaurants, and for whatever reason, they just latched on to Carbone, its become so synonymous with the account, one of the founders of @deuxmoi tells me on a phone call. Mr. Zalaznick joined them later. 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? Dramatic crystal chandeliers and Murano sconces light the space with detailed Malachite beams that stretch across the ceiling. This is not a deli. He and his wife, Alicia, listed their waterfront home at 1401 West 27th Street on the Sunset Islands for $18.5 million in late 2017. That went back to their early days together. It was rampant in Westchester. What is the present address for Jeffrey C Zalaznick? Were very blunt, borderline offensive blunt, when we dont like something.. The expansive patio space can seat 50 people. You can expect a deli and restaurant, highlighting our approach to cuisine, he said. They never left. Jeff Zalaznick Net Worth. I was the gofer. 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. CARBONE | Major Food Group | Miami Restaurant 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. And the assumption was at that time that he would go on and do his own thing and I would do my own thing. Inside Wealth-Conference Con Man Anthony Ritossas Wild Web of Lies, Inventing Ivana Trump: Her Improbable Rise and Tragic Death. Exclusive: Inside the S--tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition. We dont have to be those guys, were these guys now. I was like, I dont shine shoes no more. . I was gonna do it, and I was gonna do the shit out of it.. And I cant explain it sometimes., So pitched was Carbone Fever that within a few years, Major Food Group had a shot at the Mount Olympus of the restaurant world: the space in the Seagram Building that housed the Four Seasons. Three months after the restaurant opened its doors in March 2013, the picture-sharing behemoth first allowed users to add video to their feeds. Did this sort of thing happen all the time? ), Try as he might to not confirm A-list fans by name, Carbone was at times unable to not mention celebs who have transcended from regulars to family. Since restaurants gradually started to reopen in the fall of 2020, theres been no spot on earth more perennially celeb-packed than Carbone. That story got more than 100 comments from angry anti-gentrifiers and supporters alike. New revelations about how one Trump staffer helped preserve the transfer of powerfrom the forthcoming book on the Biden White House. The walls are accented with Venetian glass mirrors and artwork curated by long-time collaborator and gallerist, Vito Schnabel, who selected artists like Robert Nava, Gus Van Sant and Harmony Korine. And I became the kid. Even if this was set to be a huge weekend for the Magic City, this kind of ambitionthe kind that prompts one to prop up a cathedral of carbs in South Beachhas been in somewhat short supply since the pandemic crippled large swaths of the restaurant industry. In 2010, Jeff met his match in visionary chefs Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi at Torrisi Italian Specialties. THE TEAM MARIO CARBONE RICH TORRISI JEFF ZALAZNICK Photos previous photo next photo Policies I cant imagine we need it all, Carbone says. So when they were watching me, I was always in the kitchen.. Some of them we know through the years now. It was in California, New York, France. My names Mario Carbone. He is the co-founder and co-owner of Major Food Group (MFG). Within hours of dinner, the Daily Mail and @deuxmoi had each reported that Rodrigo had been at Carbone on the night before the Met Gala, complete with Thompson-Street-as-runway snaps of her in a see-through chain-mail dress. Another Caf Boulud employee was Torrisi, whom Carbone had met back at CIA, on the first day of orientation. 275 Mulberry Street (Jersey Street), majorfood.com. So I walk up to him. It should be us. Led by Co-Founders Mario Carbone, Jeff Zalaznick, and Rich Torrisi, MFG established roots in Miami at the beginning of 2021 with two smash successes: CARBONE in the South of Fifth neighborhood and the private membership venue ZZ's Club in the Miami Design District. People in this city love Italian American food so much that theyre willing to eat it badly, but they dont care. Carbone was made for Miami, said Jeff Zalaznick, as we chat outside on the patio of the newly opened restaurant. It was rampant in Westchester. Literally, the second I stood in front of it and saw the sign, I said, Well take it, Zalaznick recalled. What was next was the original Carbone. July 22, 2022. 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. Our hope is to create a vibrant space and an anchor for the neighborhood, he said. Jeff has served as the Cornell Hotel School's Entrepreneur-in-Residence and has been listed in 30 Under 30 by Zagat and Forbes. 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. (It already seems like its impossible to get a table at Carbone. He also said there is enough space for them to expand their fund-raising effort, Major Good, a series of dinners and other events to benefit Robin Hood, which they have been running from the original Torrisi location. When I asked Carmellini what he made of the Carbone concept when he first heard of it, he suggested it was ambitious to say the least. When Jeff has an opinion, all sorts of etiquette about the way that you should break the news [when] you disagree with somebody are off the table, he said. You may opt-out by. My grandfather was a great leader, a real estate guy, and hopefully I can honor his legacy, Zalaznick said. It received a glowing two-star review from The New York Times and was named one of GQ's Most Outstanding Restaurants of 2015. One last Move: placing a Tesla-size basket of chestnuts and other unidentifiable shells on the tableThis is a nutcracker, and ladies, you only use them on these nuts.. Soon it was nine cases, then 14. During the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix in May, the owners of Carbone, the decade-old temple to red-sauce dining in Greenwich Village, opened a pop-up underneath a gigantic tent on the beach. 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. The Hidden Gem Of the Food Hall Called The Hugh, Mothers Day Gift Guide: The Best Travel Products For Frequent Fliers, An Apple AirTag Can Be Indispensable On Your Next Road Trip, Walt Disney Worlds Secret Elite-Level Vacation Experiences Revealed, France Travel: Gainsbourg, Picasso And BernhardtParis Current Must-See Exhibits, Ride-In, Ride-Out Mountain Biking From The Four Seasons Scottsdale, Mothers Day Gift Guide: The Best Digital Photo Frames For Displaying Travel Pictures, Foodies Flock To These Florida Restaurants For Fabulous Fare. Because updating the past is what they do best. Finding creativity by looking back.. 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. fans, eclectic furniture, and lush greenery, nods to Havana, bringing a distinct Miami flair to the Carbone experience. 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. Its decisive moves like the swift Carbone opening that have made Major Food Group one of the most recognizable restaurant groups in the world. 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 at the end of one service, he looks down the line at me. Jeff Zalaznick - Major Food | A NY Based Hospitality Company Jeffrey C Zalaznick, New York Public Records Instantly Ron DeSantis: The Making and Remaking (and Remaking) of a MAGA Heir. Its . Carbone is akin to this centurys DEUX MAGOTS, with Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson FILLING IN for Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. The space had an earned-through-the-decades patina that could actually fulfill the trios spaghetti-wrapped dreams. For Carbone, that was a project with Chang, but things got scuttled during the Great Recession. 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. 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. 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 . 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. I basically decided to get rid of them.. 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. 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. Since its opening, Sadelle's has become a New York brunch institution, serving more than 700 guests per day every weekend. MFG is a New York based restaurant and hospitality company founded in 2010 by Jeff, and his partners, Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi. Thats where this comes from, not from a lifelong dream of going into real estate. By signing up you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. Shes the only one in the family, before me, that could cook, Zalaznick said. Thats a Move.. 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. Jeff Zalaznick is a restaurateur and entrepreneur. 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. What Carbone coming to South Beach did was validate that Miami was a vibrant community and a foodie scene, Ellis said. In a way, with the condo project, Zalaznick has come full circle, returning to the family business. 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. 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. A Carbone in the Mansard Riyadh, a Radisson-backed hotel in the capital of Saudi Arabia, will open later this year. 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. 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. 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. To date, MFG has received 2 nominations for Best New Restaurants in America by the James Beard Foundation, holds 18 New York Times Stars and 3 Michelin Stars. But the two, Torrisi and Carbone, stayed close. 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. 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,. The creators know this and relish the hell out of it. He was born and raised in New York City and is a graduate of Cornell University. 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. My kind of mentors were Italians who hated Italian American cooking, because it wasnt Italian.. MFG co-founders, Jeff Zalaznick, Mario Carbone, and Rich Torrisi with Michael Stern and renderings of their planned Brickell Tower at 888 Brickell Avenue (JDS, Getty) May 25, 2022, 2:40 PM By In the following weeks, the 160 seats of the Miami branch of the New York concept, known for its theater as much as for its food, were fully booked as the pandemic death toll hit new records, cresting 5,000 deaths per day in early February. Batali asked Carbone to join the team at his new spot Lupa, on Thompson Street. Rich and Mario would have been successful on their own. With [Jeff], it was quite the opposite. 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 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. 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. And hes sitting next to Jay-Z. At the time, the kitchen was run by Andrew Carmellini, who would go on to open Locanda Verde in Robert De Niros Greenwich Hotel, The Dutch in SoHo, and the sprawling French bistro Lafayette in NoHo. 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. Jeff Zalaznick May 14, 2017 "The most famous restaurant space in America." Jeff how many restaurants do you and your partners in the Major Food Group have today? Carbone and Torrisi both eventually moved on: Carbone to wd~50, the Lower East Side mecca where Wylie Dufresne was cooking on the bleeding edge of molecular gastronomy, and then to Del Posto, the citys first Italian Italian restaurant in decades to score four stars from the Times, courtesy of then critic Sam Sifton. This sort of critical appraisal is something of an important marker in the evolution of fine dining in New York. 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. The team continues its Florida expansion with ZZs Sushi Bar: a Japanese restaurant and membership club in the heart of the Miami Design District, slated to open later this month. Then there was the little issue of the cost. They are masters of showmanship. That sign was etched in my brain from eating in my early 20s, he says. Torrisi and Carbone were intrigued. 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. Its as if the rich and powerful simply are not aware that other places exist to get dinner. It was built in 2001 and has a library, home office and a master suite with a private balcony. The commenters kept at it too. Then in Seattle. One particular Rocco item might be the key to inner Mario, an item thats retrograde but forward-thinking, smile inducing, and thoroughly meta-Italian. When talking about the restaurant, Carbone and Torrisi often bring up a concept they have dubbed The Move. The Moves are wink wink mini performances pulled off by the servers that weave together into a narrative, a series of over-accommodation that will charm and overwhelm and crescendo until you have been pomodoro-pilled. 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. Rihannas pregnancy announcement was bookended by visits. 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.