Jeff Zalaznick

He was born on August 15, 1983, and was born and raised in New York City.⁠[1][2]

In The Real Deal’s interview of November 2024 the questions call his parents Barbara and David and give his mother’s full name, in an editorial bracket, as Barbara Milstein Zalaznick; a question states that his mother’s family has strong ties to real estate through the New York-based Milstein Properties and Ogden CAP Properties, and in his answer an editorial bracket identifies the grandfather he mentions as Paul Milstein.⁠[1]

Commercial Observer’s profile of February 2022 calls him a scion of the Milsteins, a New York real estate family, and writes that Morris Milstein, an immigrant, founded a flooring company in 1919 that laid floors at Rockefeller Center and Lincoln Center; that his sons Paul and Seymour moved the business into real estate in the 1950s and, in the 1980s, developed a building on Madison Avenue for Bank of AmericaBank of AmericaBank of America Corporation is a bank holding company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with four segments: Consumer Banking, Global Wealth & Investment Management, Global Banking and Global Markets.Open the full entry, took part in the revival of Times Square and bought Emigrant Savings Bank; and that The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American morning daily newspaper published in New York City. Founded in 1851, it is published by The New York Times Company.Open the full entry put the family’s holdings at about $5 billion around 2000, after which a family feud separated the real estate and finance businesses.⁠[3]

The same profile writes that his great-grandmother, Sadelle Cameron, was born in Brooklyn and was the family’s cook; he called her “the only one in the family, before me, that could cook.” Major Food Group’s brunch restaurant Sadelle’s is named after her, and only its coleslaw is a recipe taken directly from the family.⁠[3]

He recalled that he grew up in New York City and was obsessed with restaurants and food from childhood; at 10 he was watching cooking shows on PBS, and while other children watched cartoons he watched, after school, what was then the only cooking show on PBS.⁠[4][4][4]

He said that for New Yorkers who cared about restaurants at the time, the most aspirational one was the Four Seasons in the Seagram Building, which has no connection with the hotel of the same name; he remembered having been in its pool room, for what he thought was “my grandmother’s 75th birthday.”⁠[4][4]

He said that in high school he spent a semester at a cooking school; at the time he treated eating, cooking, drinking and bringing people together as a hobby, as did the people around him, and it was hard for him to see that it could become his profession.⁠[4][4]

In The Real Deal’s interview he said that as a child he was much as he is now: from a young age he loved bringing people together over food, drink and cooking, and he was an avid fan of basketball, football and sports in general.⁠[1]

He graduated from Cornell UniversityCornell UniversityCornell University is a private research university in Ithaca, New York, and a member of the Ivy League. It is New York State's federal land-grant university, a distinction unique within the Ivy League. Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White founded the university in 1865, and it opened in 1868. In addition to its Ithaca campus, Cornell operates Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Tech in New York City and a medical college in Qatar. It enrolled 26,793 students in fall 2024. Its president is Michael I. Kotlikoff.Open the full entry in 2005 with a major in psychology; the speaker page of the university’s hotel school labels him “A&S ’05,” that is, a member of the class of 2005 of the College of Arts and Sciences. Cornell Alumni Magazine wrote in its March/April 2017 issue that he was an avid cook throughout college and served as steward (head of food service) at his fraternity; the magazine added that Major Food Group then had a dozen restaurants and more than 1,700 employees, and that all three partners are natives of the New York metro area.⁠[3][5][6][7][8]

The Cornell Chronicle writes that in an undergraduate entrepreneurship class he developed a business plan for “The Fryer’s Club,” a restaurant based solely on fried food, whose menu items shared many similarities with those later served at Parm.⁠[6]

His first job after graduation was in investment banking at JPMorganJPMorgan Chase & Co.JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company headquartered in New York that operates investment banking, consumer and small business financial services, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management under its J.P. Morgan and Chase brands; its roots trace back to the Manhattan Company of 1799.Open the full entry. He recalled that he was 21, an investment banking analyst in the technology, media and telecom group; he did not know what he wanted to do and knew only that it was the highest-paying job a college graduate could get.⁠[6][3][4][4][4]

He said that he had not been to business school and had never opened an Excel spreadsheet before he started, and that the firm taught new analysts everything in the first six months, which proved useful to him. In The Real Deal’s interview he said that he had no financial background whatsoever beforehand, that he learned the financial basics there and that this gave him many skills, on coming to the restaurant business, that most people do not have; he also said that he did not like the job at all, because he is an entrepreneur.⁠[4][1]

He recalled that while the other analysts read The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is a U.S. news publication founded in 1889, with a focus on business, finance and economics. It is published by Dow Jones, part of News Corp.Open the full entry and the Financial TimesFinancial TimesThe Financial Times (FT) is a London-based English-language business and financial news organization, known for its salmon-pink newspaper and its motto “Without Fear and Without Favour.” It was owned successively by the British Pearson group and Japan’s Nikkei Inc., and today digital subscriptions are its main source of revenue.Open the full entry, he read travel and cooking magazines in the office; he had memorized the Zagat guide that New Yorkers then used to choose restaurants, could give the rating of any restaurant someone named, and spent the money he earned on eating at restaurants. The Cornell Chronicle writes that while at J.P. Morgan he built a large Excel spreadsheet of the restaurants he had visited and wanted to visit.⁠[4][4][4][6]

He said that because he had become friendly with many restaurant owners, he could get hard-to-book tables for the managing directors whom everyone was afraid to speak to, and that this showed him what access to restaurants meant to people; he also saw that the most senior and best-paid people in his group were miserable and that he would never be the best in that field, whereas he could be the best in a business built around food and people.⁠[4][4][4]

He said that he walked out of the job on his birthday, in August of the second year of the two-year analyst program; in The Real Deal’s interview he said that he was an investment banker at JPMorgan for two years.⁠[4][1]

He recalled that going into restaurants then seemed too risky to others, so he went to a hotel first: on his lunch break, in his suit, he walked into the Mandarin Oriental, which had recently opened at Columbus Circle, to ask for work, was sent from the front desk to the service entrance at the back and was turned away for lack of an appointment; he asked that the head of human resources be given the message that he was an investment banker at JPMorgan and would take any job the hotel offered. The next day the hotel called to say that the head of guest relations had just quit and asked whether he wanted the job, and he agreed to start two weeks later.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

The Cornell Chronicle’s account is that he walked across the street to the new Mandarin Oriental and asked for a job, got a call the next day and took a position as a guest relations manager at slightly more than the minimum wage. The biography on Major Food Group’s website states that he was a manager at the Mandarin Oriental.⁠[6][2]

He said that guest relations at this hotel meant VIP services: he handled everything for its most important guests, from rooms and restaurants to check-in, and so quickly learned how a hotel at the highest level and its food and beverage outlets are run. He added that his parents thought he was crazy to leave what was held to be the best job available for a business in which, it was then believed, no one could make money.⁠[4][4][4]

He recalled that for the hotel’s VIP guests he had compiled an Excel database of restaurants: the ones he liked, what to order, which table to ask for and whom to speak to at the door. At two o’clock one morning the doorman of his apartment building introduced him, in the lobby, to a programmer who was a student at NYUNew York UniversityNew York University is a private university in New York City, founded in 1831, and one of the largest private universities in the United States.Open the full entry, and he described on the spot his idea of turning the database into a website; this became the content site Always Hungry, on which a reader could look up, by cuisine and neighborhood, the restaurants he recommended and their signature dishes, and through which he came to interview the best chefs and restaurant owners in New York. Hospitality Design gives the address as alwayshungryny.com; Commercial Observer writes that it began as a restaurant search portal.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][9][3]

He said that the second site, Dine Private, was a venture with Joe Bastianich, whom he called one of the most famous restaurateurs of the time and a partner of Mario Batali. By his account Joe Bastianich came to him and explained that his new restaurant, Del Posto, had about seven private dining rooms that were often unbooked and that he wanted an OpenTable for private dining rooms, so that they could be booked online. He had little interest in building another website and agreed so that, as a partner, he could meet Joe Bastianich three times a week, sit in his restaurant over wine and talk through every detail, and learn how restaurants are run; he said that Joe Bastianich never knew that his motive was to become like him. CityRealty wrote on October 16, 2009, that Joe Bastianich and he, as partners, had launched Dine Private, a reservation service for large parties in New York City, and described him as the man behind AlwaysHungryNY. Hospitality Design gives the address as dineprivate.com.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][10][9]

He said that at about 25 he was already convinced that he could run restaurants as well as these peers, if not better. After talking to a friend in venture capital he sold Always Hungry within a few months and then sold Dine Private as well, and with what he called the very small amount of money he made from them he began looking for a restaurant space. The biography on Major Food Group’s website states that he developed and sold two restaurant websites.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][2]

Commercial Observer writes that by 2010, at 27, he had decided to open restaurants of his own; he said: “I realized that I didn’t really want to be talking about restaurants, I wanted to be doing my own.” He recalled that he never planned to be the chef and did not intend to hire one either, because he had seen that restaurants often fail over conflict between owner and chef, so from the first day he looked for chefs who would be his partners.⁠[3][4][4][4]

Torrisi Italian Specialties, the restaurant of Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi, stood on Mulberry Street in New York City’s Little Italy, selling sandwiches by day and a prix fixe menu at night. Commercial Observer dates its opening to 2010, while Hospitality Design, Robb Report and Haute Living give 2009; he himself said that the two opened in January and that he joined them that summer. Commercial Observer writes that its kitchen measured about 500 square feet, that its dining room could barely seat 20 and that the evening prix fixe ran to seven courses; Resy writes that the two chefs’ initial tasting menu cost $50. Haute Living calls him a regular patron of the restaurant.⁠[3][9][11][12][13][4][4]

He recalled that a restaurant owner he knew took him there, at a time when he had no restaurant of his own; by his account the place sold a five-dish prix fixe for $35 in the evening and a line stretched outside. He said it was the best of the hundreds of meals he had eaten and was cooked in exactly the vein he had in mind while looking for a space, and that he talked for a few minutes that night with the two chefs working at the pass. The Real Deal quotes him: “I thought it was the greatest food I’d ever had.”⁠[4][4][4][4][1]

He said that on getting home he let his girlfriend at the time, who later became his wife, know that he had found the people he wanted as partners; he then called to book a table for two and was asked to come at 10 p.m., because Mario Carbone finished service then and happened to want to talk to him as well. He said that Mario Carbone had once worked at Del Posto, Joe Bastianich’s restaurant, and had seen him sitting in its dining room with Joe Bastianich. After dinner the two went for drinks at the Jane Hotel and talked until four or five in the morning: he described his idea for an upscale Italian-American restaurant, and Mario Carbone said that it was exactly what they wanted to do; they also talked about making more than Italian restaurants and about his ambition to build the biggest and greatest restaurant company in the world and to move into hotels. He said the road map set in that conversation is the one followed to this day. The next day he met Rich Torrisi, the three decided to become partners, and he soon started working at Torrisi.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][10]

Two years are given for the company’s founding: two Cornell University pages, of 2014 and 2019, and Resy state that he formed Major Food Group with the two chefs in 2010, and the biography on the company’s website likewise says the three met at Torrisi Italian Specialties in 2010 and formed the company; the company history on the same page of that website, Restaurant Business and a Carbone Fine Food press release give 2011. In The Real Deal’s interview he said that the three partners were about the same age and all from New York.⁠[5][7][13][2][14][15][1]

The Cornell University announcement states that the partners opened Parm in 2011. He recalled that while the three waited patiently for the right space for Carbone and developed its food, they decided to move the sandwiches out of Torrisi and build a sandwich shop next door called Parm; it was the first restaurant he built from scratch and had only about 18 seats. Hospitality Design writes that Parm, a casual Italian-American restaurant and sandwich shop, grew out of Torrisi’s daytime menu.⁠[5][4][4][9]

Resy writes that in 2011 Torrisi became a slightly nicer and more expensive version of itself; the Cornell University announcement says that it was renovated and reopened as a boutique tasting room.⁠[13][5]

The Cornell University announcement of October 2014 states that Parm had received two stars from The New York Times, that its second location was at Yankee Stadium, and that locations in Williamsburg, Park Slope, Battery Park City and the Upper West Side were planned for 2015.⁠[5]

He said that an upscale Italian-American restaurant was his idea: his favorite places to go were New York’s old-style, expensive Italian restaurants, whose ceremony he loved while finding the food not good enough; he imagined cooking those dishes with the care for ingredients given to French cuisine, for example a veal parmesan made from a whole chop of the best veal instead of a cutlet pounded so thin that the diner tastes only breadcrumbs.⁠[4][4][4][4]

He said the search for a space took more than a year, because it had to be exactly the right one. Then an acquaintance mentioned a space nearby and walked him onto Thompson Street, and on seeing the old sign from a distance he said he would take it; Commercial Observer quotes him: “Literally, the second I stood in front of it and saw the sign, I said, ‘We’ll take it.’” Commercial Observer writes that the premises had been the restaurant Rocco’s, which dated back to 1914.⁠[4][4][4][3]

It was the first large lease he negotiated. He recalled that the previous operator had not paid rent for about six months; he proposed that the man stay until the end of the year and that he take over on January 1, and he wrote into the lease that the neon sign had to remain. Before signing, the man demanded a further $10,000 to leave the sign, a sum that the three then had to discuss seriously, and in the end they paid it. When he arrived on New Year’s Day he found that the operator had smashed all the neon tubes of the sign the night before. He was angry at first and a few minutes later changed his mind: the sign would stay, with “Carbone” in neon mounted over the old name. He said the sign later became the emblem of every Carbone.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

Carbone opened in March 2013. He said that fine dining at the time favored tasting menus of a few dishes with no substitutions and that the three deliberately went against it: he made Carbone’s menu the biggest in Manhattan, with 70 items, and had it state at the top that guests could have whatever they wanted; he also said that, through the nature of what they built and the kind of captains he hired, they created the category later called “experiential fine dining.”⁠[3][4][4][4][4][4][4]

The Cornell University announcement of October 2014 states that Carbone had received three stars from The New York Times, that Carbone, Torrisi and ZZ’s Clam Bar had each been awarded Michelin stars, and that Torrisi and Carbone had both been nominated by the James Beard Foundation as best new restaurant in America. Commercial Observer writes that The New Yorker described it as a reservation that became impossible to get almost at once. He said that Carbone was the company’s first real big success and put it on the map.⁠[5][3][4]

Artnet News writes that the art collector Vito Schnabel is an investor in Carbone.⁠[16]

On September 9, 2014, Restaurant Hospitality placed Major Food Group on its RH 25 list for that year, giving it 8 units, annual sales of $30 million to $50 million and, as managing partners, Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and him; its concepts were Torrisi Italian Specialties, the raw bar ZZ’s Clam Bar, the French bistro Dirty French, four units of Parm, and Carbone with one unit in New York City and one in Hong Kong, and its upcoming projects were a restaurant near the High Line and a bakery and restaurant in partnership with the bagel specialist Melissa Weller.⁠[17]

The Cornell University announcement of October that year states that the company had recently opened Dirty French in the Ludlow hotel on the Lower East Side, where it also ran the Lobby Bar, a 100-seat indoor and outdoor cocktail bar, and that the two projects in preparation were a restaurant designed by Renzo Piano underneath the High Line and Sadelle’s, a bagel-centered bakery and restaurant.⁠[5]

Haute Living writes that he is “the ZZ of ZZ’s.”⁠[12]

At 5 p.m. on October 23, 2014, he spoke to students about his career in Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall; the announcement names the series the Arts and Sciences Munschauer Career Series, and the Cornell Chronicle calls him the Arts and Sciences Career Services Munschauer Speaker. The Cornell Chronicle writes that the company then owned and operated seven restaurants and planned to open five more within a year.⁠[5][6]

In the talk he said, “Confidence is key,” adding that one then needs the drive and the ability to back that confidence up with knowledge and execution; of his change of career he said: “I realized that I loved food and hotels and needed that to be what I did with my life.” The Cornell Chronicle writes that he described the company’s method as a liberal arts approach: researching old menus at the New York Public Library and elsewhere and working on the details of décor, service and above all the menu, for which he drew on skills gained as a psychology major.⁠[6]

The Cornell Chronicle writes that his workday starts at about 9 a.m. and usually does not end until the early hours of the next morning. He said: “I’m a big believer in the idea that everything happens for a reason”; and he advised the students: “You need to work hard and follow your passion and put yourself in a position to succeed.”⁠[6]

Resy writes that Torrisi Italian Specialties closed on January 1, 2015; Restaurant Hospitality writes that after closing in early 2015 it was turned into a test kitchen.⁠[13][18]

On July 25, 2015, The Real Deal wrote that Aby Rosen, owner of the Seagram Building, had chosen Major Food Group, led by Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and him, to take over, once the Four Seasons restaurant’s lease expired in July 2016, the space that the Four Seasons had long occupied, including the landmarked Pool and Grill rooms and the Brasserie space on the East 53rd Street side; relaying the New York PostNew York PostThe New York Post is a daily newspaper in New York City, published by New York Post Media Group, a News Corp company.Open the full entry, it wrote that the annual rent for the restaurant space would rise to $3 million after the lease ended.⁠[19]

He recalled that it began with a rumor in the New York Post’s Page SixPage SixPage Six is the celebrity gossip column and media brand of the New York Post, started in the mid-1970s after Rupert Murdoch bought the paper and later expanded into a website, a magazine, a television show, a video studio and a radio program.Open the full entry column that Aby Rosen was going to remove the operators of the Four Seasons; he and one of his partners read it on a flight back to New York and at first could not believe it. He knew Aby Rosen only slightly and had his number in his phone, so he sent a text message consisting of the restaurant’s name and a question mark, and the reply came at once, asking to talk as soon as possible. He went straight from the plane to Aby Rosen’s office, which was then across the street from the Seagram Building.⁠[4][4][4]

He said that Aby Rosen, unhappy that the previous operators had stopped reinvesting for years and let the restaurant run down, decided to hold a selection of his own, much like a municipal request for proposals, inviting different operators to submit plans; the competitors were the best restaurateurs in New York, each established for more than 20 years, while his own company was young, had fewer than half the restaurants it has now and was best known for Carbone. He believes that what won Aby Rosen over was the three partners’ energy, their knowledge of New York restaurant history and a counterintuitive proposal: in a place that had been the home of the power lunch for 60 years, the new restaurant would open for dinner only and serve no lunch, because lunch customers do not drink and restaurants do not make money on lunch.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

Commercial Observer’s profile of February 2022 quotes Aby Rosen’s assessment of him: “He has the bug and he had the money to do it, so he put his own money into his own place.” Aby Rosen also said: “He knew the food, and he loved the food, but he was there to make money.”⁠[3]

Artnet News, relaying Page Six, writes that it was Vito Schnabel who had introduced Aby Rosen to the three partners a year earlier, and that the fare would change while much of the interior would be preserved thanks to a ruling of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.⁠[16]

The Daily Meal carries a remark of his published by The New York Times: “The idea is to restore and reinvigorate the greatest restaurant space that’s ever existed”; it adds that the restaurant would get a new name, not yet decided.⁠[20]

On December 8, 2015, The Real Deal wrote that Aby Rosen was raising $30 million for the new restaurant in the Seagram Building from up to 100 partners, each investing at least $300,000, and that the restaurant would be run by a company led by Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and him; relaying Crain’s, it wrote that the investors would first receive a return of 120 percent of their investment and then 40 percent of future profits, the remaining 60 percent going to Aby Rosen and the restaurateurs.⁠[21]

The Daily Meal, relaying the New York Post, writes that before the new restaurants opened, Anvil NY, the company of the chef Marc Murphy, filed suit in federal court in Manhattan, alleging that “The Landmark Rooms,” the name planned for the former Four Seasons space, was phonetically identical and confusingly similar to his Landmarc restaurants and infringed his trademark, and asking the court for an immediate halt to its use; neither Major Food Group nor Anvil NY responded to The Daily Meal in time for comment. The two restaurants opened in 2017 under the names The Grill and The Pool.⁠[22][23]

On November 5, 2015, Restaurant Hospitality wrote that Carbone had an outpost at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NevadaNevadaNevada is a state in the western United States bordered by Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and California; its capital is Carson City. It was admitted to the Union on October 31, 1864, as the 36th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 3,104,614.Open the full entry; he said that the new restaurant would embody the glamorous era of Las Vegas, a period in which Las Vegas and New York had a synergy.⁠[24]

Nation’s Restaurant News wrote on July 15, 2016, that the Four Seasons restaurant would serve its last meal on July 16 and that the lease on the space expired that month; Aby Rosen had enlisted Major Food Group the year before to take over the space and create a new concept.⁠[25]

On October 14, 2016, Hospitality Design published an interview with Major Food Group that lists the restaurants the company had opened since 2010, among them Santina, a coastal Italian restaurant underneath the High Line park, and Sadelle’s, a bagel-led bakery and restaurant, and that states the company was working with the architect Annabelle Selldorf on the restoration of the former Four Seasons space in the Seagram Building and was designing, with Peter Marino, a new restaurant for the same building. Nation’s Restaurant News writes that Sadelle’s debuted in New York in 2016.⁠[9][26]

The magazine states that it was he who answered its questions; to the question of what he wanted to create with Major Food Group the answer reads: “Our company goal is to create food that is delicious, to create places that are fun, and to tell a complete story.”⁠[9]

Restaurant Hospitality writes that The Grill, a meat-focused restaurant, opened in May 2017, that The Pool, a seafood restaurant, opened in late July of that year, and that The Lobster Club, a Japanese restaurant in the Seagram Building, was scheduled to open that October. A Robb Report preview writes that The Lobster Club was scheduled to open on November 1 in the space formerly occupied by The Brasserie, designed by the architect Peter Marino, with Tasuku Murakami as chef.⁠[23][18][27]

He said that the company spent more than $40 million restoring the space, covering the Grill room and private rooms, the pool room, the pool lounge, The Lobster Club downstairs and the kitchen, which had not been renovated since 1959 and was rebuilt entirely; the pool room is an interior landmark and had to be returned to its condition of 1959. He said that the wall panels were black from 50 years of smoke when the company took over and proved to be gray once cleaned, that the chairs were remade by the original manufacturer to Mies van der Rohe’s design of 1959, and that a former storage room above the pool room was turned into a lounge.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][3]

He said that the restaurant kept the name “The Grill” and dropped “Four Seasons” to avoid confusion with the hotel; The Grill serves only dishes that could have been ordered from a menu in 1959, chosen after the three partners went through old menus, and its menu includes a cream of asparagus pie in memory of the cream of asparagus soup that John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy (1917–1963) was an American politician who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 to 1963. The youngest person elected president and the first Roman Catholic to hold the office, he was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.Open the full entry asked for at his birthday dinner there. He called The Grill probably his favorite of the company’s restaurants and said it is now one of the busiest fine dining restaurants in New York, while the pool room is used for events, where a dinner for 200 is cooked to the same standard as an à la carte meal.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

Tasting Table wrote in March 2021 that the year before, The Grill had “eclipsed” The Pool in the former Four Seasons space.⁠[28]

Nation’s Restaurant News writes that Sadelle’s expanded to Las Vegas in late 2018; Robb Report writes that it took the place of the two-decade-old Café Bellagio at the Bellagio.⁠[26][29]

A speaker page on the website of Cornell University’s hotel school, dated June 24, 2019, for the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series at Statler Auditorium, states that Major Food Group operated twelve restaurants: Carbone in New York City, Hong Kong and Las Vegas, ZZ’s Clam Bar, Dirty French, Santina, Parm in SoHo, at Yankee Stadium, on the Upper West Side, in Battery Park and in Williamsburg, and Sadelle’s; that it had received two James Beard Foundation nominations for best new restaurant in America and held 12 stars from The New York Times and 3 Michelin stars; and that it was restoring the former Four Seasons space in the Seagram Building, where it planned to open three fine dining concepts.⁠[7]

Commercial Observer writes that as the pandemic began to spread he was on a work trip to Saudi Arabia, scouting a first Middle East restaurant for Major Food Group; back in New York he planned a family ski trip to Aspen, ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state classified as one of the Mountain states, with Denver as its capital. It was admitted to the Union on August 1, 1876, as the 38th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 5,773,714.Open the full entry, and when word came that visitors from Australia there had shown symptoms he rerouted the family to the Surf Club in Miami. The Real Deal writes that in March 2020 he was in Miami with his family for spring break, that the lockdowns began the day after they arrived and that the family decided to stay for a while, renting a waterfront house in Miami Beach; by October 2020 the family had moved its domicile from New York to Miami, and in 2021 it bought the house it had been renting.⁠[3][1]

He said that he had planned to spend only one year in Miami and open a couple of restaurants, and that within four months of renting the house he had decided not to leave. He recalled that New Yorkers used to go to Miami only for a weekend and that after six months there he found it an excellent place to live; everyone there, from officials to ordinary residents, was pulling in the same direction, so that something good could be done quickly, whereas in New York every plan meets opposition. Miami was then almost the only city still open and everyone went out every night, yet he had no restaurant there; within a few months he called his partners to say that it was the biggest opportunity he had ever seen.⁠[1][4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

He said that he held a town hall meeting at which he invited every employee in New York who was furloughed or out of work to come to Miami, promising each of them a job; many people, from busboys to senior executives, moved there and are still there, and Mario Carbone moved to Miami as well.⁠[4][4][4]

Tasting Table wrote in March 2021 that the company’s Santina had remained closed through the pandemic and that The Lobster Club, ZZ’s Clam Bar and The Polynesian had been closed as well; it placed the company’s restaurants in New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Tel Aviv.⁠[28]

Commercial Observer writes that in September 2020 he went to see a vacant space in South Beach that had been Upland, a restaurant run by Stephen Starr; just three months after the lease was signed, the 160-seat Carbone opened to the public in late January 2021. The Real Deal writes that by November 2020 Major Food Group had signed three leases and that Carbone Miami Beach was the company’s first restaurant in South FloridaFloridaFlorida is a U.S. state occupying mainly the Florida peninsula, with its capital at Tallahassee; its most populous city is Jacksonville. It entered the Union on March 3, 1845, as the 27th state, and had a population of 21,538,187 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry; he had seen a gap in the local market for a much more sophisticated product that was fun without being a “clubstaurant.”⁠[3][1]

He said that only 100 days passed between the signing of the lease and the opening. The premises were a fairly new restaurant that had closed during the pandemic, about 100 yards in either direction from two of the highest-grossing restaurants in the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States is a federal country in North America made up of 50 states, the District of Columbia as the seat of government, and territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam; its capital is Washington, D.C. The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted a resident population of 331,449,281, and the 435 seats of the House of Representatives are apportioned among the states on the basis of the census.Open the full entry, which convinced him that the location could not be bad. He summoned his team from around the country, and the designer Ken Fulk from San Francisco, to Miami and set these terms: they could spend as much as they liked, but nothing could be moved, so that every light, outlet, the kitchen, the bar and the bathrooms stayed where they were, and the work had to be finished in 90 days. He said that the previous restaurant, with the same floor plan, had taken in about $7 million a year and that as Carbone it brings in more than $30 million a year.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][30]

Commercial Observer writes that about a month after Carbone Miami opened, Sadelle’s opened inside the Paris flagship of the streetwear brand Kith, a three-story space in Pershing Hall designed by Snarkitecture.⁠[3]

On March 9, 2021, Tasting Table wrote that sources confirmed Major Food Group had taken over the former Chefs Club space in the Puck Building, which it called “Kushner-owned,” and that no concept for it had yet been announced.⁠[28]

Commercial Observer writes that the company handled food, beverage and concept work for The Newbury Boston, a hotel in Boston, MassachusettsMassachusettsMassachusetts (officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital and largest city is Boston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on February 6, 1788, the sixth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 7,029,917.Open the full entry, whose rooftop bar, Contessa, opened in July 2021. He said this was the company’s first real step beyond restaurants and into hotels: the group building the hotel brought the company in to help with a luxury project, and the company took part in everything from design to execution and branding, became a partner in the concept and owns a piece of the brand.⁠[3][4][4][4]

Time Out wrote on April 16, 2021, that Major Food Group’s ZZ’s Sushi Bar, a two-story Japanese restaurant and membership club, was set to open that month in the Miami Design District and that details of the membership had not yet been released. Robb Report writes that in 2021 Major Food Group opened the first ZZ’s Club in Miami’s Design District; Commercial Observer writes that with ZZ’s the company premiered its first members-only club.⁠[31][30][32]

Commercial Observer writes that in December 2021 JDS Development and Major Food Group confirmed MAJOR, a 259-unit condominium tower in Miami’s Brickell district, for which Major Food Group was to curate the lifestyle offerings and operate the food and beverage; he and Michael Stern of JDS Development had met in the spring of 2021 on one of Stern’s visits to Miami, and the magazine wrote in May 2022 that the two planned it as the tallest condominium building in Miami. The Real Deal’s interview of November 2024 states that the project later became a tower branded by Dolce & Gabbana; he said that the two sides found they were not the right fit for each other and went their separate ways.⁠[3][32][1]

Commercial Observer’s profile of February 7, 2022, writes that by the time COVID-19 broke out in 2020 Major Food Group had branched out to Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Paris, and that at the time of writing it had eight new restaurants in South Florida alone and another 20 in the works globally.⁠[3]

On April 21, 2022, Nation’s Restaurant News wrote that Major Food Group had opened three venues in Dallas, TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry, within a month: a 7,000-square-foot Sadelle’s in Highland Park Village in mid-March, a 4,800-square-foot Carbone in the Design District on March 31, and next to it, on April 7, the 3,700-square-foot Carbone Vino, designed by Ken Fulk; it wrote that the Dallas Carbone was the brand’s fifth location, following openings in Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Miami, and gave the company more than a dozen concepts and over 30 restaurants, bars, private clubs and hotels worldwide.⁠[26]

He said: “Right now, we’re focused on Sadelle’s, Carbone and Carbone Vino, but I have no doubt there will be more to come.” Of the difference between the two restaurants he said: “Carbone is so iconic that we can’t change anything there”; “Vino feels like Carbone, but it also lets us play with new dishes like pizza and have a huge wine program.”⁠[26]

On May 12, 2022, Robb Report wrote that Major Food Group planned to open a members-only ZZ’s Club at 35 Hudson Yards in New York City: three floors and nearly 25,000 square feet with its own entrance on 11th Avenue, designed by Ken Fulk and containing the world’s first private Carbone, open at first by invitation only and due to open later that year; pricing was still to be determined, the magazine expected it to exceed that of other prominent members-only clubs, and he said: “We’re definitely going to charge accordingly.” He said it would be “New York’s greatest private club,” that its Carbone would be “the most elegant and refined version of Carbone that we’ve done to date,” and that working at Hudson Yards with its developer, Stephen RossStephen RossStephen Ross, whose full name is Stephen Michael Ross, is an American real estate developer and investor, the founder of Related Companies, chairman and CEO of Related Ross, and owner of the Miami Dolphins. His work spans affordable housing, large urban mixed-use developments and sports entertainment. He co-founded RSE Ventures and has supported university education and sustainable-city research.Open the full entry, was a major reason the company signed the deal; the article identifies Stephen Ross as being of Related Companies and as owner of the Miami DolphinsMiami DolphinsThe Miami Dolphins are an NFL professional American football team in the AFC East. Awarded an AFL franchise in 1965, they began play in 1966 and now use Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Under Don Shula, they won Super Bowls VII and VIII, including a 17–0 regular season and postseason in 1972. Stephen M. Ross owns the team, and Jeff Hafley is head coach.Open the full entry.⁠[30]

The same article writes that during Formula 1 Miami week the company ran Carbone Beach, a four-night pop-up, charging $3,000 per person for seats; he said: “Carbone Beach added a whole new dimension to our business.” Of the club’s location he said: “I think Hudson Yards, that location, is really going to hit as New York moves into its next chapter.”⁠[30]

On May 15, 2022, Commercial Observer ranked him 100th on its Power 100 list for that year, giving his title as managing partner at Major Food Group. It wrote that in April 2022 he was in South Beach celebrating the opening of the new edition of Dirty French, which was the 17th restaurant he had opened in 16 months, a run that began with Carbone Miami Beach, and of which he said, “No one has done that”; of the restaurant itself he said: “We thought we built a bistro but we really built a great steakhouse.” Hospitality Design wrote on May 5, 2022, that Dirty French Steakhouse opened on Brickell Avenue in Miami and was designed by Ken Fulk; The Real Deal in 2026 likewise places it in Brickell. Commercial Observer wrote that in that period the company also opened its first coffee shop, inside Sadelle’s, formed a partnership with the Israeli chef of HaSalon and built a private supper club for Miami’s first Formula 1 Grand Prix; that the company is a partner in the makeover of the Boca Raton Resort & Club and helms four of the resort’s 12 restaurants; and that Torrisi was set to reopen in Lower Manhattan in the fall of 2022. The Real Deal describes the resort as Michael DellMichael DellMichael Dell is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Dell Technologies. Starting from a direct-sales personal computer business, he led the company’s take-private, its acquisition of EMC, and its return to the public market, and with his wife Susan Dell co-founded a foundation that funds education, health, and children’s investment accounts.Open the full entry’s.⁠[32][33][34][1]

On June 1, 2022, Carbone’s Fine Food and Wine, a restaurant on Oak Lawn Avenue in Dallas owned by Julian Barsotti and opened in April 2012, filed a 34-page lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas against the new restaurant Carbone, owned by Major Food Group, which had made its debut in the Dallas Design District about two months earlier, alleging that its trademark had been infringed and that the similar name confused customers. People Newspapers writes that the suit came about six months after Carbone’s sent a cease-and-desist letter, to which, the lawsuit alleges, Major Food Group did not respond; Major Food Group had filed a federal trademark application for “Carbone Restaurant” on January 27, 2012, registered on September 24, 2013, and a second application, for “Carbone,” in August 2020, not yet registered at that time. The Dallas Morning News writes that Julian Barsotti had not trademarked the name and said he had not thought he needed to, because under the Texas Business and Commerce Code common-law ownership arises naturally in Texas when a business name is used in commerce; the lawyers for Carbone’s were also likely to seek a temporary restraining order that week. The executives of Major Food Group did not respond to requests for comment.⁠[35][36]

People Newspapers wrote on November 23, 2022, that the legal fight was over and referred to a settlement between the parties; The Dallas Morning News writes that the two parties settled in November 2022 and that neither would discuss the specifics of the deal. Matthew Yarbrough, the lawyer who had represented Julian Barsotti, said that Julian Barsotti planned to close his restaurant temporarily the following January for renovation and reopen it under a new name, and that the other side would be happy to help with the next iteration. People Newspapers carries Jeff Zalaznick’s comment on the settlement as published by The Dallas Morning News: “It was an unfortunate situation that I think ended in a good friendship.” The Dallas Morning News wrote in April 2023 that the lawsuit ended in a settlement under which Julian Barsotti agreed to close Carbone’s and rebrand, and that the restaurant reopened in mid-April 2023 as Barsotti’s Fine Food and Liqueurs.⁠[37][38][39]

On October 17, 2022, Robb Report wrote that founding memberships of ZZ’s Club New York went on sale that week by invitation only and that the club was due to open in the winter; the company did not disclose prices, and sources gave the magazine a figure of $50,000 for a founding membership, with later members to be recommended by founding members. The company also planned to issue an NFT for the tenth anniversary of Carbone in 2023; he said it had been in development for almost a year and would be both a piece of digital art and a token carrying practical access to the company’s offerings. He said: “Lots of private clubs are opening in New York, but what really sets us apart is food and beverage.”⁠[11]

The same article writes that Carbone and ZZ’s Clam Bar in New York lost their Michelin stars that month. He later said in The Real Deal’s interview that it was not a big deal, that the company never cooks for stars and never displayed the star, and that losing it had “zero effect” on the business.⁠[11][1]

The article also writes that the openings of that week were Contessa, a two-story, 10,000-square-foot Northern Italian restaurant in the Miami Design District, and Japanese Bocce Club at the Boca Raton resort, which already had The Flamingo Grill, Principessa Ristorante and a Sadelle’s; that a Sadelle’s in the Miami Design District was expected to open early the following year; that the new Torrisi was slated to open in New York City’s Nolita neighborhood in November; that a Carbone in Doha was opening in time for the FIFA World CupFIFA World CupThe FIFA World Cup is FIFA’s men’s national-team football tournament, held every four years.Open the full entry Qatar in November; and that the company was also opening a Carbone in Riyadh, which already had a Sadelle’s.⁠[11]

Resy wrote in November 2022 that Torrisi Bar & Restaurant opened that week in the Puck Building on Mulberry Street, less than a block and within 400 feet of the original site; Major Food Group’s website dates the launch to 2023 and states that Pete Wells, critic of The New York Times, gave it three stars.⁠[13][2]

Commercial Observer wrote on February 18, 2024, that Major Food Group closed out 2023 with the opening of ZZ’s Club in Manhattan; that the company also opened Chateau ZZ’s in Miami’s Brickell district, its first Mexican restaurant, in the Petit Douy, a landmarked building put up as a private residence in the 1930s; and that ZZ’s Club in the Miami Design District had doubled in size and added a Japanese sports bar for members. Of Chateau ZZ’s he said: “We wanted great Mexican food in Miami so we felt like we had to do that ourselves.” Haute Living, on February 1, 2024, called ZZ’s Club New York newly opened, gave its address as 37 Hudson Yards and described three levels, with the 75-seat Carbone Privato on the third; the address in Robb Report’s article of 2022 is 35 Hudson Yards.⁠[40][12][30]

The article writes that the company’s first branded residential project is Villa Miami, a 55-story condominium in Miami’s Edgewater district on which it partnered with David Martin’s Terra and One Thousand Group, with plans for a two-story Italian restaurant, a private club, a helipad, a marina and a floating pool in the bay, and with all food programmed by Major Food Group. He said that Mario Carbone personally designed all the kitchens, that the company would curate residents’ pantries and cook in their homes, and that if he were buying a home he would buy one there. He said: “I’ve created exactly what I would want.”⁠[40]

The article also writes that after an intense selection process the officials of the City of Miami Beach awarded the site of the Nikki Beach day club, in the South of Fifth neighborhood, to Major Food Group in partnership with Boucher Brothers, to take effect once the current owners’ lease expires.⁠[40]

BloombergBloomberg L.P.Bloomberg L.P. is a global financial technology, data and media company founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981. It began by providing terminal services that deliver data, analytics and news to financial professionals, and launched Bloomberg News in 1990. Michael Bloomberg has pledged the vast majority of the company’s profits to his philanthropic organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies.Open the full entry wrote in 2024 that Major Food Group had formed a partnership with Altamarea Group, owner of Marea, an Italian restaurant opened in 2009 on Central Park South in New York, under which Marea joins Major Food Group’s portfolio and is to be expanded around the world; he said the deal took effect in early January. The deal covers only Marea and not Altamarea Group’s Ai Fiori or Morini; Ahmass Fakahany, founder and chief executive of Altamarea Group, received an undisclosed payment and keeps an ownership stake.⁠[41]

He said that neither Marea’s menu nor its design would change and called the partnership the start of the company’s next chapter: “We are going into the business of acquiring incredible historic brands”; he added that more such signings would follow. Commercial Observer wrote in February 2024 that Major Food Group had recently acquired Marea, an Italian seafood restaurant brand, and quoted him as saying that the company would go on creating new concepts while also looking for brands to bring into the group.⁠[41][40]

The Real Deal published its interview with him on November 4, 2024; it was conducted over Zoom, and he was then 41. The magazine notes that the audio cut out briefly because he was working out. The magazine wrote that the three partners of Major Food Group had 24 concepts in about a dozen cities, from Dallas to Doha, and had expanded to Riyadh, Paris and Toronto, among other places; the company was to take over the site of the Nikki Beach Club in South Beach, with a planned renovation of $26 million that includes a Sadelle’s, a pool, a wellness center and a spa.⁠[1]

Asked how the company had expanded so quickly and who its backers were, he said that different investors back different parts of the business and different projects and that he could not discuss them publicly. Of what drives the expansion he borrowed a New York saying, that anyone who stops moving can be hit by a bus; the company takes its restaurant brands to more places while moving into residences, hotels, members’ clubs and events.⁠[1]

Of South Florida he said that the company had not considered closing any of its venues there: Carbone Vino was about to open in Coconut Grove, Villa Miami was under construction in Edgewater and the project on the Nikki Beach site was about two years away. He said the company was involved in every single thing in the Villa Miami building, from food and beverage, amenities, design and branding to the bathroom sinks and the kitchens, and that it had chosen the designer Vicky Charles; the company was in talks about other residential projects but could confirm none of them.⁠[1]

Asked how he chooses partners and locations, he said that it first has to feel right: life is too short to work with people one does not like, so he looks at who is on the other side, who the landlord is and whom he will be dealing with for many years; he also values great locations and places with history. Of The New York Times’s review of Carbone restaurants around the country he said it was an honor that the newspaper traveled the country to compare them; he also said that the company treats its 57th restaurant the same as its first.⁠[1]

The Caterer wrote on October 16, 2025, that Carbone’s London restaurant had opened the month before, in the same building as The Chancery Rosewood hotel, and that Major Food Group had been named culinary partner of Cambridge House, Auberge Collection’s London hotel, where it is to open a restaurant, Major’s Grill, when the Piccadilly hotel launches in 2026. Auberge was appointed by the Reuben brothers to manage the hotel. He said that serving as the new culinary stewards of this storied London address was “a privilege and dream come true.” The article writes that the company has grown to over 50 restaurants, bars and private clubs and that the hotel itself is due to open in spring 2026.⁠[42]

Retail & Leisure International wrote on October 10, 2025, that Carbone had opened in Dubai at Atlantis The Royal, taking its first reservations on a Monday night, and that this was Carbone’s tenth location worldwide; it attributes the opening to a partnership with Major Food Group and the design to Ken Fulk in partnership with Bishop Design.⁠[43]

Restaurant Business writes that on a Friday Major Food Group sued Carbone Restaurant Group, a company incorporated in UtahUtahUtah is a U.S. state bordered by Idaho to the north, Wyoming to the northeast, Colorado to the east, Arizona to the south and Nevada to the west, with its capital at Salt Lake City. It was admitted to the Union on January 4, 1896, as the 45th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 3,271,616 residents.Open the full entry in 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York; a company of the same name appears to operate and franchise the pizza brand Fast Fired by Carbone in Canada. The complaint alleges trademark violations and false advertising, saying that the defendant’s Instagram advertisements presented it as the restaurant group behind Carbone, Sadelle’s and ZZ’s, said its restaurants would be located in WalmartWalmartWalmart is an American retailer founded by Sam Walton in 1962, with businesses spanning physical retail, membership warehouse clubs, e-commerce and related services. Its businesses include Walmart and Sam’s Club, and it has expanded into other markets through international investments; its shares trade on Nasdaq under the ticker WMT.Open the full entry stores across the United States, solicited what was presented as a pre-IPO investment and caused actual confusion and deception; Major Food Group seeks damages in an amount yet to be determined and says it is “highly likely investors have already been duped.” The defendant did not immediately respond to the publication’s requests for a response. The article writes that Major Food Group operates Carbone in New York and eight other cities, has other brands including Carbone Vino, Carbone Riviera, Parm, Contessa, Principessa, Torrisi, Sadelle’s, The Grill and ZZ’s Members Club, and also operates hotels and luxury residences.⁠[14]

Law360’s case page lists the matter as Major Intellectual LLC et al v. Carbone Restaurant Group, Inc. et al, No. 1:26-cv-00191, a trademark case in the Southern District of New York before Judge Loretta A. Preska, and carries the date January 9, 2026, in its header; a Law360 news item of the same date listed on the page states that the owners of Carbone filed a trademark infringement suit in New York federal court on Friday.⁠[44]

On February 18, 2026, Carbone Fine Food announced the appointment of Jeff Stoeckel as president, to lead the brand in partnership with its chief executive, Eric Skae. The release states that the brand, which is inspired by the Carbone restaurant and brings restaurant-quality Italian staples to home kitchens, was born out of Major Food Group, founded by Mario Carbone, Rich Torrisi and him, whose portfolio includes more than 50 concepts, among them restaurants, private clubs, hotels and luxury residences.⁠[15]

On July 19, 2026, David SenraDavid SenraDavid Senra is the founder and host of the Founders podcast, on which he reads biographies of entrepreneurs to discuss starting and running businesses and making personal decisions. He began producing the show in 2016, partnered with Colossus in 2022, and in 2025 launched David Senra, a long-form interview show under his own name.Open the full entry published on his YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel a long conversation with him titled “The Restaurant Genius Behind Carbone, ZZ’s, Torrisi & More | Jeff Zalaznick”; it was recorded in the pool room of the Seagram Building. David Senra opened by saying that he had started 77 restaurants and bars, of which 76 were still operating and profitable, and he answered: “Yes.”⁠[4]

Of the history of the space he said that the Four Seasons restaurant was built in 1959 to designs by Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson and was the most luxurious restaurant of its day; he said it was the first American fine-dining restaurant to write its menu in English instead of French and the first to build its cooking on seasonal ingredients, that the “power lunch” was born in its Grill room, and that the table a guest was given there was a mark of status that the newspapers wrote about. He said that Joe Baum, who created the restaurant, was the best restaurateur of his time, someone he has always looked up to and whose process the company has always studied. Nation’s Restaurant News wrote in 2016 that the restaurant was opened by Restaurant Associates in 1959, was the brainchild of Joe Baum and was arguably the city’s first American restaurant, and that its first menus had a fair amount of French.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][3][25]

The first half of the conversation covers, in order, the history and restoration of the Four Seasons restaurant, how he won the space, the company’s method of putting food first, telling a complete story and being fun, and the importance of returning customers, the rise of social media and food culture, and his path into the business from childhood through JPMorgan, the Mandarin Oriental and two websites.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

The second half covers, in order, how he found chefs to be his partners, the idea of Carbone and its sign, the present make-up of the company, hotels and members’ clubs, how he judges whether a city is worth entering, the move to Miami and the opening of Carbone Miami, and the plan for a beach club in Miami Beach.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

He said that among the restaurateurs of his generation he and his two partners belong to the last group that entered the business purely out of passion: when he started it was not a glamorous trade and people asked why anyone would go into a business in which nine out of ten fail; food television, then websites and blogs, then the spread of content on social platforms turned restaurants into a form of cultural currency alongside theater, dance and sports. He said that to this day he has no Instagram account and does not know what goes on there, but he welcomes the change because it has produced customers who know more and are more willing to spend on food and drink.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

Of the company’s present state he said that Major Food Group is on its way to becoming a fully vertically integrated hospitality company: it began with luxury restaurants and has added members’ clubs, branded residential towers and hotels, with the aim of looking after a guest from waking in the morning until going to bed at night. He said that the Miami residential tower, Villa, is a luxury condominium building of about 80 units and was then close to completion. He also said that the company had existed for 15 years.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

He said that the company has applied the Carbone brand to packaged food: Carbone tomato sauce is sold in thousands of retail outlets across the United States at less than $10 a jar and has become a very large business, growing faster than expected and standing at the top of the premium sauce category; he said the sauce and the restaurants do not contradict each other, since both aim to make the best version of something people already know.⁠[4][4][4][4]

Of members’ clubs he said that the company opened ZZ’s in Miami first and then a much larger one at the entrance to Hudson Yards in New York, with two restaurants and three bars. He said that membership benefits both the business and the customer: annual and monthly dues renew automatically, adding subscription revenue to a restaurant business that otherwise has almost no visibility on each day’s trade, and a club can ask members directly about their preferences and serve them more precisely. He said such clubs had long flourished in London, where, however, the food in them was not good, and that the company’s clubs differ by putting food and drink first: the New York club contains a private Carbone where 30 to 40 percent of the dishes are served nowhere else, and a member who calls 48 hours ahead can have the team of chefs prepare a feast on any theme. He said that ZZ’s in Miami is his de facto office.⁠[4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4][4]

He said that the company sets itself no target for the number of openings in a year and instead sorts through a large flow of incoming proposals, most of them from developers building new districts, neighborhoods or stadiums around the world. He said that in recent years the company has opened seven or eight restaurants in Miami and has about 12 restaurants and a members’ club in South Florida in all; its next large project is to take over a three-acre beachfront parcel in Miami Beach and build a European-style beach club with restaurants, private rooms, a spa, pools and a Sadelle’s serving breakfast.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

The Real Deal wrote on September 2, 2026, that Major Food Group’s Dirty French Steakhouse in Brickell had closed that spring after a few years; the company’s other venues in the Miami area were Carbone, Carbone Vino and Sadelle’s in Coconut Grove, ZZ’s Club and Contessa in the Design District and Chateau ZZ’s in Brickell. The article writes that the company also has an event space in Miami Beach; that in 2022 it signed a 10,000-square-foot lease for Carbone Vino at Mayfair in the Grove, in Coconut Grove, at a fixed rent of more than $100 per square foot plus a revenue-sharing agreement, by the account of Timo Kipp, the property’s owner; and that GQ put the company’s annual revenue at more than $500 million.⁠[34]

The same article writes that an application before the Miami Beach Planning Board, set for its meeting of October 6, proposed replacing the former Mr. Chow space in the Waldorf Astoria Miami Beach hotel with a steakhouse; the application says that the name of the restaurant and of its group is “soon to be revealed” and states only that the steakhouse currently has a single location, on Park Avenue in New York City. The Real Deal judged that the signs pointed to Major Food Group, which runs The Grill in the Seagram Building on Park Avenue. The article’s headline calls the hotel Reuben Brothers’, and the caption of one of its images names him, Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi together with David ReubenDavid ReubenDavid Reuben is a British businessman born in Bombay who built metals-trading, property and investment businesses with his brother Simon Reuben. Their philanthropy supports education and healthcare through the Reuben Foundation.Open the full entry and Simon ReubenSimon ReubenSimon Reuben is a British businessman born in Bombay who built metals-trading, property and investment businesses with his brother David Reuben. Their philanthropy supports education and healthcare through the Reuben Foundation.Open the full entry of Reuben Brothers.⁠[34]

As of November 2026, the homepage of Major Food Group’s website states that the company was founded by him, Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi and today exceeds forty restaurants, private clubs, bars and hotels, naming Carbone, The Grill, Torrisi, ZZ’s Club, The Newbury Hotel and Villa Miami; the site’s page “The Story” describes him as a restaurateur and entrepreneur and gives the company over 30 restaurants.⁠[45][2]

The brands and venues listed on the website are Carbone, Contessa, the Crown Club at Barclays Center, Dirty French, Dirty French Steakhouse, The Flamingo Grill, HaSalon Miami, Japanese Bocce Club, Parm, Principessa, Sadelle’s, The Grill, The Lobster Club, The Pool, Torrisi, Vino, ZZ’s Clam Bar, ZZ’s Club and The Newbury Boston.⁠[2]

His wife is named Ali, and the couple have three children: Poppy Zalaznick, Leo Zalaznick and Zoey Zalaznick. The Real Deal wrote in 2024 that he lives in Miami Beach; the biography on Major Food Group’s website states that he lives in Miami with his wife and three children.⁠[1][2]

The Real Deal’s interview states that his parents are avid readers and that a literary prize is named after them; he said that his parents are indeed avid readers but that he is not, and that since he can barely get through his text and WhatsApp messages he does not read books.⁠[1]

Of his grandfather Paul Milstein he said that he was a major inspiration: he admired the way his grandfather worked and built, his style and ingenuity, his willingness to think big and try new things in a slow-changing field, his attention to quality and his zest for life, as well as his understanding of personal relationships; he said he firmly believes in strong personal relationships with the people one does business with. Commercial Observer writes that he called his grandfather a great leader and a real estate man and said he hoped to honor his legacy.⁠[1][3]

In the same interview he said that as a parent he is a lot of fun and that becoming a father taught him that he was not the most important person in the world; asked for his biggest success he named his family, and for his biggest failure, not spending enough time with them; the one lesson he hopes his children learn from him is: “Always be nice to people.”⁠[1]

He said that he eats most of his meals in his own restaurants and tries new places when he goes out; he said that he goes to Miami Slice a lot, had recently tried a new sushi restaurant in the Little River area and was glad that Sunny’s Steakhouse had reopened. Asked how he handles criticism, he said that he handles it very well; asked for the best and the worst advice he had received, he said he would have to think about it, and when the interviewer later offered to return to the question he declined.⁠[1]

The biography published by Cornell University’s hotel school and Major Food Group’s website both state that he has been named to the 30 Under 30 lists of Zagat and Forbes and to Crain’s 40 Under 40, was named a Rising Star Restaurateur by Star Chefs, and has served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Cornell Hotel School.⁠[7][2]

Commercial Observer included him, with Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi, in its Power South Florida list published in February 2024.⁠[40]

The biography published by Cornell University’s hotel school states that he and his two partners have a charity partnership with the Robin Hood Foundation; the biography on Major Food Group’s website likewise mentions his part in the company’s work with the Robin Hood Foundation.⁠[7][2]

Measure a restaurant only by whether customers return: he said that everyone comes once to try a new place and that coming once is easy, so what has to be watched and measured is whether the customer comes back (video at 24:20).⁠[4]

Food comes first, followed closely by a complete story and by fun: he said that a restaurant has to tell a complete story or it does not work, and that right behind that it has to be fun (video at 22:40).⁠[4]

Passion has to be joined to study and work: he said that by the numbers restaurants are the hardest business to enter, but that someone who loves it, studies it and does the necessary work has a chance of succeeding (video at 28:49).⁠[4]

Look for partners with the same ambitions instead of hiring: he said he was not going to hire a chef but to look for people who shared his ambitions and could make the most incredible food (video at 58:23).⁠[4]

Build only places you want to go to yourself: he said the company’s process is not difficult, since it builds places its founders want to go to and does not build what they would not want to visit (video at 1:20:14).⁠[4]

Make a much better version of something people already like: he said that everything has been done in one way or another and that the better question is whether it has been done the right way, so there is always something people already like that can be made much better (video at 1:25:16).⁠[4]

To judge whether a city is worth entering, look first for restaurants already doing large volumes there: he said that if two or three restaurants doing $20 million or more can be found, the city is interesting (video at 1:35:44).⁠[4]

Prefer premises that already have the bones: he said the best case is to find a place whose bones are already there, because people often get stuck by investing so much in the build-out that they can never catch up (video at 1:44:10).⁠[4]

Major Food Group: Official website: https://www.majorfood.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[45]

JPMorgan Chase & Co.: Official website: https://www.jpmorganchase.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[46]

Mandarin Oriental, New York: Official website: https://www.mandarinoriental.com/en/new-york/manhattan (opens in a new window).⁠[47]