The partners, all native New Yorkers, will soon have more restaurants here than they do in Manhattan. And that’s to say nothing of the Carbones that need tending in Dallas and Hong Kong, and the Sadelle’s in Paris and Las Vegas, all opened in the last decade. At press time, the global count was 42 restaurants — a portfolio rivaling those of star chefs like Alain Ducasse and Jean-Georges Vongerichten that took 40 years to build.
New York, the partners have always said, is “in the DNA” of the brand — not only in its food, but in its combination of irreverence and elegance, past and present, wit and edge. But most of the group’s recent moves appear to be in the direction of a lifestyle brand for the world’s 1 percent: members-only clubs with cigar bars; $500 tracksuits from Mr. Carbone’s fashion line, Our Lady of Rocco; shrimp scampi priced at $35 per shrimp at Carbone Miami; and a branch of Sadelle’s, its homage to Jewish American food, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
At the same time, the group is about to take a big swing at regaining its culinary prestige and New York focus with a long-planned sequel to Torrisi Italian Specialties, the restaurant that put Mr. Torrisi and Mr. Carbone on the map, pre-Zalaznick. The question now is: Can Major Food Group succeed at both?
“We’re moving into a grown-up phase,” Mr. Zalaznick said.
The Major Food partners say their company has evolved around their own passions and areas of expertise. Mr. Carbone, 42, is the overall creative director and designer; Mr. Zalaznick, 39, runs the business side; and Mr. Torrisi, 43, is in charge of culinary matters. They collaborate on new culinary projects: Contessa, for example, swerves from Carbone’s supper-club swagger (veal Parmesan and Caesar salad) into their version of “Northern Italian” luxury (veal Milanese and kale salad).
The through line, Mr. Carbone said, is the kind of abundance that he learned at his Sicilian grandparents’ table. “We are about saying yes, about fun, about a hospitality of plenty,” he said.
