In September 2020, he went to see the vacant space that had once been Stephen Starrs Upland in South Beach. These guys never built a restaurant from scratch. He knew the food, and he loved the food, but he was there to make money.. Its the ensemble of details that they cared about, and made sure that they did their way, consistent with whatever theme theyre going for, Stern said. Are you facing new challenges? He got stuck inside a chefs coat, Carbone said. And they were hot.. It was another meeting of the minds., Zalaznick had grown up on the Upper East Side, graduated from Dalton and Cornell, and was well connected. Early Origins of the Zeleznik family. He met Carbone at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. Even though the Carbone-Torrisi team can boast of considerable success and experience, the arrival of such newcomers may come across as a jarring shift in tone for power-lunch regulars, many of them in their 70s or 80s, who have grown accustomed to nibbling on salmon in the Grill Room. It is zoned for high density mixed-use development. We are going to make this artists estate worth a lot more. . Zalaznick said he simply wrote in an email to Sean MacPherson, who owns the Ludlow Hotel, that the restaurant they wanted to open in his lobby would be a place to serve octopus tunisienne, as Zalaznick recalled. It was a beef tenderloin with truffle sauce, basically, Torrisi said. No reservations. With these two new restaurants you have now moved uptown and taken over and restored the famous Four Seasons Restaurant. The restaurant business is a high risk business, theres no one that can tell you otherwise, but we try to mitigate that by creating concepts that we believe in that we think can sustain the test of time. Only one item on the menu is a direct recipe that Sadelle herself made, and thats the coleslaw. Zalaznick began searching for second-generation restaurant space, so that Major Food Group could move quickly. Carbone and Torrisi respect Zalaznicks palate, but they also like to teasingly remind him that, fundamentally, hes of a different breed the George Martin to their John, Paul, George, and Ringo. The restaurant opened its doors to the public that week, in late January 2021, just as the first winter wave of COVID-19 was reaching its peak. 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. To be able to dine and eat incredible food in a truly historic environment is a very special thing. The drift from hospitality to real estate is a natural one for Major Food Group, whose other name brands include Parm, ZZs Clam Bar and Dirty French. 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. Badass, Charlie said. This is the beginning of what Im calling a midtown dining renaissance. The New York Times probably put it best: "It is a fancy red-sauce joint as directed by Quentin Tarantino, bringing back the punch-in-the-guts thrills of a genre that everybody else sees as uncultured and a little embarrassing, while exposing the . Crains New York Business is the trusted voice of the New York business communityconnecting businesses across the five boroughs by providing analysis and opinion on how to navigate New Yorks complex business and political landscape. That was right about the time that Zalaznick graduated from Cornell, and started his short-lived stint in finance. Since its opening, ZZ's Clam Bar has received three stars from GQ Magazine and Bloomberg. Theres a trolley with prime rib. The guys behind Carbone want to turn the place that invented the power lunch into an actual food destination. The company has more than 30 restaurants, hotels and clubs in the U.S. and abroad. Prior to becoming a restaurateur, Jeff worked as an investment banker for J.P. Morgan and then a manager at the Mandarin Oriental. Henry Kissinger told me I was making a mistake. By clicking Accept All, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. The art of integrating food and business has given them trendsetting restaurants, from the meatpacking district's Santina, where painted plates and chickpea pancakes evoke the Mediterranean, to Sadelle's in SoHo, where smoked salmon mingles with crystal vases. Developers have rushed to launch new projects in recent months. We always wanted to be more than great chefs, Torrisi said. Property records show the Piazzas paid $10 million for the Tuscan-style home in 2008. And all three brought total dedication to the craft. The only thing we took was the plaque on the building, on 52nd Street. But today, he wore a blue Tom Ford suit. We had very long discussions with Aby, and at the end of the day a lot of our vision for the space and our dream was similar to what Aby wanted. I went to the Bowery to buy blue tiles that afternoon.. Neither of the chefs hails from a fancy background. His name was Josh Halegua and he had a restaurant space nearby that Zalaznick might be interested inin fact they could go over to see it immediately. In 1920 there was 1 Zalaznick family living in Massachusetts. It started awkward and we got it to okay., It was a tasty seven, Zalaznick said. It only could be built in the late 1950s when it was built, because at that time the expense was possible. 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. Those men the chefs Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi and their business partner, Jeff Zalaznick, all in their 30s say they have signed a contract with Aby J. Rosen, who owns the Seagram. I think its much better to call it the Bouillabaisse Salad, Sheraton said. 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. What kind of food do you serve at Carbone? The Zalaznick family name was found in the USA in 1920. He was winded and his cheeks flushed beneath his beard. To have this kind of scale and this kind of air and this kind of space now is unheard of. Upon opening, Carbone received a dazzling five out of five stars from Time Out New York, four and a half stars from Bloomberg three stars from The New York Times, and has received one Michelin star every year since 2014. They and Mr. Zalaznick, 31, have been unapologetic about their appetite for expansion, and like Mr. Rosen, they do not shy away from ruffling feathers. Major Food Group has 21 restaurants in New York, Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Tel Aviv, according to the company's website. People have a lot of fun atCarboneand if you mix all these things up, its why people come back again and again. And its true Major Food Group creates an environment that evokes the familiar elements you know and love, while devising an updated concept that feels local and inspired. Carbone is Italian-American fine dining. Santina, which is mostly Marios invention, is modern coastal Italian. Dirty French, which was my idea, is the only one that requires more than a sentence to understand. While the places theme came to include a lot of stuff Vietnamese, North African, and Creole influences, and a good deal of pink neon in the dining room the three men sold it with less than a sentence. Rich and Mario would have been successful on their own. Carbone has opened in Hong Kong and Las Vegas, and Zalaznick projects revenue of $105 million for 2016. Sticker shock: Ranking South Floridas priciest residential rentals, Here are Chicago's top 10 construction permits issued in May. The restaurateurs have another new place in the works, a version of ZZs Clam Bar, the tiny spot in Greenwich Village, which is to open in Miamis Design District. Finding creativity by looking back.. No idea what came next. You know, the fear of change thats what makes people so nervous, Mr. Rosen said. Thats where this comes from, not from a lifelong dream of going into real estate. We started talking about our dreams and what type of restaurant we wanted to create in the future. As for Chefs Club, Stephane De Baets, an owner, said he had to close because of the pandemic, notably because the company was foreign-owned and did not qualify for government support. Martha Stewart, too. The name kind of gives it away, Carbone said. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Bar Mario is a month old. Zalaznick declined to provide further details about the locations. Major Food Group's Jeff Zalaznick, Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone Seth Browarnik "Being in a private club, we're able to spread our wings and really unleash the full battery of culinary tricks. 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. The managing partner of restaurant group Major Food Group . He has formative memories of being blown away by the seafood sausage at Chanterelle and saying, What is this? he says. Parisians flocked to the store at brunch hour, keen for a taste of bagels served on an Instagrammable three-tier tower. I was spending so much time with restaurateurs, around restaurants, inside of restaurants, writing about restaurants, talking about restaurants, he said. The food was incredible. There is no online registration for the intro class Terms of usage & Conditions Out came some pictures of artworks he owns. The Pool will be modern seafood. Very important. The idea of raising the renovation money from investors was so we can have a similar effect so that there are patrons who feel an attachment. He has 98 investor-patrons so far. jeff zalaznick parents. The Pool Room at the Four Seasons restaurant. Run by Julian Niccolini and Alex Von Bidder, the Four Seasons was a bastion of power in New York, where the whos who of media, finance and politics mingled, and regular guests could count on being courted. I didnt really like him; he didnt like me, Torrisi said. "My partners see every single deal just like I do. | Designed by Mor. To this end, Torrisi has gone through more than 50 classic potato preparations to come up with the only potato side dish he plans to serve at the Pool. Jeff Zalaznick is a restaurateur and entrepreneur. And in the morning, you get a stomachache., Rosen, at least, says he doesnt expect much competition from it. Torrisi found a mentor in Bouluds executive chef at the time, Andrew Carmellini, who recalls Torrisi as the most competitive person, always coming in and asking to work on specials king crab, rare-mushroom dishes, very chef-y things. Carbone found the stint less transformative and too French, so he decamped for Wylie Dufresnes wd~50 (the now-closed Lower East Side stronghold of molecular gastronomy) and, later, Mario Batalis Del Posto. We tried a hundred iterations, eating two a day. Jeff has served as the Cornell Hotel School's Entrepreneur-in-Residence and has been listed in 30 Under 30 by Zagat and Forbes. In April, Jeff Zalaznick was in South Beach to celebrate the opening of the new edition of his firm's naughty French steakhouse, Dirty French.