At the New $30,000-a-Year ZZ’s Club New York, Mario Carbone is Serving Risotto for the Very First Time

Chef Mario Carbone is unwilling to compromise on pre-cooked risotto. 

Steadfast in his belief that the dish should be made to order, the Queens-bred culinarian has never served the Italian rice staple on any of his menus, not once during his last 10 years at the helm of Major Food Group’s Carbone, his eponymous restaurant with co-founders Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick that became a culinary-cultural movement.

“It takes 40 minutes to make. There’s no way of speeding that up. The only way to do it would be to pre-cook it, and I am unwilling to serve that dish precooked,” he says.

In this era, however, time is a luxury that Carbone can afford. With the opening of MFG’s ZZ’s Club New York at Hudson Yards, a private membership club, people will pay a $20,000 initiation fee and $10,000 annually to access Lobster Risotto all’Arrabbiata at Carbone Privato, one of two restaurants inhabiting a multi-level space, designed by Ken Fulk.

“We have one person in the kitchen that makes it from scratch every time the order comes in,” Carbone says. “Something as simple as serving risotto for the first time is significant. It was very little in the grand scheme of things but for me, it’s really exciting.”

He describes the kitchen at the original Carbone restaurant on Bleecker and Thompson streets as a “fist fight in a phone booth” — it was just too small for the demanding dish — but at the palatial ZZ’s Club New York, which includes ZZ’s Japanese Restaurant, Carbone Privato, the Founders Room, Clam Bar and Leo’s lounge, anything goes.

“Doing a membership club affords the opportunity to stretch our legs a bit. It’s much more of an ecosystem than a traditional restaurant,” he says. “Given it has a multitude of things going on and different experiences, nooks and crannies; you’re building it with the intent that people will be coming in and out throughout the course of the day and using it in many different ways. It is a hospitality challenge, which is exactly what we were looking for — an opportunity to do things and use muscles that we haven’t yet.”

Solving such challenges is “addictive,” he says.

MFG struck gold redefining the red sauce vernacular in 2013 with their Greenwich Village insta-celebrity-hit restaurant. Both an evocative and transportive dining experience, Carbone has been immortalized in song and redefined the cuisine’s traditional favorites like Spicy Rigatoni, which is now considered the only spicy rigatoni. 

Since then, the MFG trio has opened 40 restaurants, bars and hotels under different brands (The Grill, Dirty French, Sadelle’s, Contessa, Torrisi and more) stretching from New York and Las Vegas to Paris and Hong Kong. In 2021, they debuted ZZ’s Club in Miami’s Design District.

While most private membership clubs revolve around social experiences, co-working, entrepreneurship, celebrity and networking, ZZ’s (which is Zalaznick’s nickname) is about the food and the drinks, one-upping what clubs provide their community in terms of culinary excellence and sophisticated celebration.

“The Achilles heel of the private club business is always the food. The place is cool but the food is only ok,”  Zalaznick says of another business challenge deftly accepted.

Arriving at ZZ’s Club, members and their guests are met by the guest relations team in the grand foyer, marked by Andy Warhol’s portrait of Jack Nicklaus. The crowd organically flows into ZZ’s Bar, an exotic tropical enclave that anchors ZZ’s Japanese restaurant. The scene is set with aquatic murals by Boyd Reath and accented by a canopy of glittering palm fronds chandeliers. There, everyone is eating sushi flown in daily from Tokyo and exotic Japanese beef, lobster dumplings, Wagyu sandos and trout roe toast. Carbone suggests finishing the meal with a Klondike-like Japanese ice cream sandwich.

Upstairs, there are a number of different adventures from which to choose. First, the Clam Bar, which Carbone describes as ZZ’s living room, with cocktails, crudo and raw-bar items. The centerpiece is a hand-painted bar conceived by Fulk with motifs that evoke The Duomo in Florence. 

“It’s the heartbeat of the club. It’s a gathering space, beautiful cocktails; we have a caviar service. I do little Italian fried snacks. We’re working on tableside tartare,” Carbone says. 

Across the stairway landing, devotees of the empire can revel in Carbone Privato. This is a place where experiments become realities — Spaghetti with Dungeness Crab; Tortellini en Brodo; Maraschino Quail; and, the risotto program.

“This is the newest version of Carbone, which is different from opening a new Carbone. Carbone is 10 years old now and we are keenly aware to not deviate from the dishes that people expect, whether they’re regulars or there’s someone that waited months to get in,” says Carbone, adding that MFG’s Carbon Privato, by contrast, “is a one-of-one Carbone experience, where everything, from the uniforms to the playlists to the menu have all been given an update. For those who are familiar with the brand, they’re going to find Easter eggs that are fun.”

Next door is the inner sanctum, the Founders’ Room, which is for exclusive use of ZZ’s founding members. They can order anything from any of the ZZ’s Club food-and-beverage menus — along with bespoke dining experiences orchestrated by a culinary concierge. Everything will be unique including the china and the uniforms. 

“Founding members can have just about any food fantasy that they could possibly conjure up within 48 hours,” he says. “It can be as simple as ordering something from one of the restaurants that we own — starting with sushi, ending with risotto, or if you want the duck at The Grill tonight. Beyond that, it gets into “can you reenact that meal?”

In the mood for great-grandma’s garlic chicken? They can do it. Want the same meal you had in Capri the night you got engaged? Coming right up. Everything is possible with a little notice.

Adjacent to the Founders Room is Leo’s — a leopard-print-swathed jewel box lounge with a DJ booth, named for Zalaznick’s nine-year old son. Leo wrote his name on a napkin and that became the logo.

Carbone has long prided himself on his playlists and has now turned over the reins to New York City DJ legend Stretch Armstrong. “He’s curating the music but he’s also going to kind of personally be overseeing Leo’s,” he says. “I think that it’s safe to say that on many nights, you’ll see him personally behind the turntable.”

As important as what happens on the plate, music, art and spirits establish the environment. Playing to these important roles, gallerist and and ZZ’s founding member Vito Schnabel curated the collection of art throughout; while ZZ’s wine collection encompasses 30,000 bottles and its whisky offerings number 5,000. Bartenders move throughout the space with custom martini carts pouring martinis served at less than 40-degrees Fahrenheit, made with custom blends of gin and vodka.

More nuanced challenges to relish — by a customer base so dialed in they gladly pay five-figures for the brand’s Easter eggs — are rare mushrooms, pristine spot prawns, foie gras and wild game.

“After a decade, people understand what they should expect from their night out. And I think we’ve done a good job on our end continuing to deliver these completed thoughts,” he says.

One move though, that has yet to be happen, is an L.A. expansion.

“I’d love to bring this club to Los Angeles. I would be a dream, and maybe someday it’ll become a reality,” Carbone says.