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Highly Anticipated Carbone Opens Tonight in the Dallas Design District

The New York-style red-sauce restaurant marks the second Dallas opening from Major Food Group

A plate of veal parmesan from Carbone Dallas.
Carbone is known for dishes like veal parmesan
Photo: Major Food Group

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.

Rich Torrisi, Jeff Zalaznick and Mario Carbone of Major Food Group
Rich Torrisi, Jeff Zalaznick and Mario Carbone of Major Food Group
Photo: Major Food Group

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.

Carbone’s famous spicy rigatoni in vodka sauce
Carbone’s spicy rigatoni in vodka sauce is hugely popular
Photo: Major Food Group

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.”

On a white tablecloth, assorted Italian dishes are placed with a focus on pasta and seafood.
An array of appetizers at Carbone
Major Food Group

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.

Desserts by Carbone, tuxedo by designer Zac Posen
Desserts by Carbone, tuxedo by designer Zac Posen
Photo: Major Food Group

Carbone is open Tuesday through Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. with reservations available on Resy.

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