March 31, 2022 By Rachel Pinn Dallas Eater
Hot on the heels of their Dallas restaurant Sadelle’s, the acclaimed NYC hospitality group Major Food Group’s officially opens the doors tonight to its new Dallas Carbone outpost in the Design District.
This is the fifth location for Carbone, which originally began a decade ago in Greenwich Village as a hotspot for impeccable red-sauce Italian dishes and grew to include outposts all over the world. Dallas joins cities like Hong Kong, Las Vegas, and Miami Beach in having its own Carbone, located at 1617 Hi Line Drive. (Not to be confused with Julian Barsotti’s neighborhood Italian restaurant and store Carbone’s in Dallas).
In his Eater Dallas interview alongside co-founders Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick, readers might recall Mario Carbone musing that Carbone’s opening would follow Sadelle’s, followed by Carbone Vino (a wine shop) right next door. So right on schedule, today makes two weeks plus one day since Sadelle’s opened up in Highland Park Village.
Some of Carbone’s signature dishes include a famous spicy rigatoni in vodka sauce, a showy tableside Caesar salad “alla ZZ,” and veal chop parmesan, served alongside its bone for extra wow factor. Ranging from a $25 plate of angel hair pasta to nearly $100 for a whole branzino, dishes at Carbone are big and bold and designed to be shared. Other options include octopus pizzaiolo, linguine vongole, and a porterhouse steak for two grilled over charcoal.
“The goal and the idea of this restaurant from the beginning was to make the best version of the classics, and to do that, you have to buy the best possible products,” chef Mario Carbone told Eater NY in 2014.
Classic cocktails like daiquiris, Gibsons and Manhattans highlight the restaurant’s menu of libations, as does a wine list boldly touted in a press release as “the most impressive selection of Italian wines in the entire city.”
Like at the Dallas location of Sadelle’s, designer Ken Fulk collaborated on the restaurant’s New-York-confidence-meets-Venetian-opulence interior. A unique component of the design of the restaurant in Dallas is a “private grotto,” aka a very luxe lounge that is accessed through the dining room.
Carbone adds yet another dose of style points with custom-designed burgundy tuxedos by Zac Posen, to be worn by the service captains.
Carbone is open Tuesday through Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with reservations available on Resy.