Major Food Group is bringing its restaurant empire to South Florida, signing leases to open four new restaurants in Miami-Dade this year
Count some of New York City’s most beloved restaurants among the influx of new pandemic migrants to Miami.
Major Food Group is bringing its restaurant empire to South Florida, signing leases to open four new restaurants in Miami-Dade this year, starting with the Manhattan crowd pleaser Carbone as early as Jan. 15, one of its founders said.
The restaurant will open at the former South Beach location for Upland, the defunct outpost of another New York City original, situated near Prime 112 and Joe’s Stone Crab at 49 Collins Ave.
“The amount of people I know who are moving here is unbelievable,” Carbone co-founder and New York native Jeff Zalaznick said.
It will start, as their success in New York did, with Carbone.
Zalaznick teamed with chefs Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi to open a slate of New York-based restaurants — 25, in all — that became instant favorites. The idea behind each was simple: shift away from tasting menus to a selection of well-known dishes.
At Carbone, that means classic Italian-American “red sauce” dishes, where the kitchen takes special requests and portions are meant to be shared: a monster veal Parmesan, spicy rigatoni, a classic Cesar salad.
“Our goal is not to make you something you’ve never eaten before. It’s to make the best version of something you’ve had hundreds of times,” Zalaznick said.
The spirit of Carbone is the idea of a big meal and a big night out, often with prices to match. The restaurant aims to slot between a mom-and-pop restaurant and night club, Zalaznick said.
“If dinner’s not fun, why did you go out?” he said.
The owners will move quickly to make Miami’s long-list of restaurant losses their gain, according to a story from the Miami Herald.
By Carlos Frias and The Miami Herald Read the full story: www.nbcmiami.com
