However long you feel you’ve been waiting for Carbone London, it’s nothing compared with the wait endured by Major Food Group’s Jeff Zalaznick and Mario Carbone.
‘This is a dream come true for us,’ Zalaznick tells me when we meet inside Carbone London a month before opening. ‘London is where we’ve always wanted to bring Carbone.’
Carbone, if you’ve somehow missed it, is the smash-hit restaurant the trio of Zalaznick, Carbone and Rich Torrisi opened in New York in 2013. In the years since, it has become shorthand for Manhattan glamour: anyone who’s anyone has been, everyone else wants to go and its theatrical, high-energy approach to dining has been copied around the world. ‘Twelve years ago, we created Carbone,’ says Zalaznick. ‘Now everyone is doing something similar.’
London was the dream from the start – and on 17 September, Carbone finally arrived. The new outpost is housed in the grand former US Embassy, with “more is more” red wallpaper, wide aisles for tableside theatrics and a menu stacked with Carbone signatures – including the now-iconic spicy rigatoni vodka.
Who better, then, to tell us more than the men behind it? I sat down with Carbone and Zalaznick to hear what London can expect – and their take on the city’s dining scene.
Why did you want to bring Carbone to Mayfair?
Jeff Zalaznick: After we opened the first Carbone, Mario and I were very focused on bringing the second to London. We realised that Carbone could only exist in Mayfair, and so we had to be patient and wait for the right moment to arise. Twenty four restaurants later, we finally got the opportunity to bring Carbone to this incredible historic building, the American Embassy, with incredible partners.
Mario Carbone: It really couldn’t have been anywhere else. Mayfair is not that dissimilar from high fashion in a way that all the best restaurants are clustered together – it is a dining hub in London for sure.
What can you tell us about the menu?
MC: The core menu is unchanged. For all those who are anticipating the opening, they’re going to want the core menu, and we want to provide that. So, 90 per cent of the menu is unchanged, and there’s always 10 per cent that allows for a little bit of variance, whether it’s the ingredients or something seasonal.
How similar is Carbone London to Carbone New York?
MC: It’s exactly the same and totally different. It’s the spirit of Carbone. The designer is Ken Fulk, who built most Carbone restaurants with us. He knows the vibe that we’re looking for, and that we never want Carbone London to look identical. We want you to be able to see a picture and say, ‘That’s Carbone London.’ There are elements that don’t change, though, from the menus and the waiters’ uniforms to the playlist and our gallerist. If you are familiar with Carbone, you’ll walk in here and think it’s both new and definitely Carbone.
How would you sum up Carbone to someone who has, somehow, not eaten here before?
MC: The Carbone story is “fun fine dining” first and foremost: we want to make sure that you’re having a great time here. We’re not huge fans of stoic, library-like fine dining, but we want to eat the very best food in the world. The goal is to take New York Italian-American cuisine and make it Michelin-quality level. We want to make sure you have a good time, have a smile on your face, leave with a full belly and make a reservation to come back on the way home.
JZ: New York-style Italian food has proliferated the world to such a point that we always say we don’t want to serve you anything you’ve never had before. We want to serve you the best version. That’s what Carbone is about. It’s about having a great time. It’s about having the best version of dishes that you’ve seen before – and leaving having had an incredible night.
What are your go-to dishes on the menu?
JZ: It depends on the day. I’ve eaten the fettuccine with mushrooms more than probably anyone in the world. I always eat beef carpaccio, which is one of our signatures. I always eat caesar salad, which is one of our signatures. I think we have the best branzino in the world. We only create restaurants we want to eat at, only create dishes we want to eat, only create places we want to be in and only open in the cities we want to be in.
What do you think of London’s food scene?
JZ: London is definitely on the rise. It has historically had the best Indian food, incredible Chinese food; things that we can’t even get in New York. When we used to come here 10 years ago, there would be just three places we need to try, and now there are 20. The whole gastropub movement has taken off and is really shining – we went to The Devonshire last night, which is fabulous. And I think that people are now starting to pay [attention] to British cuisine as something exciting.
London aside, which other cities do you rate for the food?
JZ: The best food cities in the world are New York, San Sebastián and Tokyo.
MC: Every large city has something fantastic going on. So anytime you’re going anywhere new, there’s a list of places that you want to hit. I have a soft spot for Italy. But it’s tough to make an argument on Jeff’s top three.
Carbone London opens 17 September; 30 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, W1K
