Three Stars for Three Stars and Carbone

It was no holds barred for Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi when they were developing the concept for Carbone. As Italian Americans, they wanted their third restaurant to pay homage to their heritage and the food they grew up with. In an interview for Serious Eats, Torrisi and Carbone defined the concept to the website's founder Ed Levine thusly: "We [Torrisi, Carbone, and business partner Jeff Zalaznick] say updating Italian American fine dining. If you think about it, it's hard to find fine dining that's truly Italian American, you know? And it's perplexing that in this city of all cities, with such a huge Italian American influence, there's not one bastion of that cuisine."

The early word on Carbone was a mixed bag. Some diners loved the new dining experience while others filed complaints on the food and the price they paid for it. Now that the restaurant has been open for three months, Pete Wells has filed on the mid century-inspired, Italian-American bastion.

"Carbone has a technical prowess that can make you giddy;" Wells writes, "a lust for excess that can, at times, make you a little queasy; and an instinct for sheer entertainment that makes a lot of other restaurants seem like earnest, unimaginative drones." The critic notes the over-the-top, Hollywoodesque experience. He writes, "Like Tarantino’s love letters to pulpy exploitation films, Carbone affectionately picks up the clichés of its genre, twirls them, then hurls them at your head."

At Carbone, Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi have taken a classic cuisine and made it their own, an approach to cooking they used to wow the city at Torrisi on Mulberry Street. On Thompson Street, they've done it with dishes like country ham from Kentucky and spicy chili ribs that merely wave in the general direction of the Italian pantry.

There are classic dishes on the menu whose recipes were born out of the influx of Italian immigrants to the states. Of the shrimp scampi, Wells notes, "No shrimp scampi has been handled as gently or luxuriously as Carbone’s chorus line of langoustines." There's the "$50 veal parm" too. "Served with a fried shaft of bone," writes Wells, "it’s a shock-and-awe dish, and the most shocking thing about it is that there is no real revisionism here; it is a veal parm, the way you always hoped it would be." Wells praises the efforts of Carbone, Torrisi, and Zalaznick, and awards their hot new Italian-American lovechild three stars. [NYTimes]

Some Twists at Torrisi Coming December 1st

Torrisi has seen its share of changes in its two and a half year run. When it opened in 2010, you couldn't make a reservation, but you could eat there for $50. On December 1st, in the midst of opening two new projects, Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi are bringing more changes to Torrisi's menu.

What used to be a $50 prix-fixe is jumping from $65 to $75. The six-course tasting will offer a choice between two pastas and "additional courses priced as supplements," Flo Fab reports. The 20-course menu will remain $160 and 20 courses, but will look to the seasons for inspiration, opposed to the epic dinner being loosely based on the history of New York. "Many guests having the prix-fixe often ask if they can have a tasting or order other dishes." Torrisi told Diner's Journal. "With these changes we give guests the option to curate their own experience more and go bigger if they so choose.” [Diner's Journal]

A Taste of Tastes to Come

Summer is (unfortunately) over.  September will sometimes hang on to the warm weather and allude to an endless summer, but the cool breezes of late carry the rigorous truth.  It's time to get back to work.  The last quarter will be a busy one for restaurateurs, many of whom are approaching the remaining months of 2012 with a double-or-nothing attitude.  Michael White has The Butterfly and Ristorante Morini on the horizon, Andrew Carmellini will add The Library in the Public Theater and a yet-to-be-named French place to his resume, and the Torrisi guys will introduce The Lobster Club and Carbone to Thompson Street.  In addition to the double features, a slew of other restaurants are opening by the end of the year and we're excited.  Here's a look at a few storefronts with news about the restaurants moving into them.

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Two New Projects Coming this Fall from Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi

Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi have been kept busy at their neighboring restaurants on Mulberry Street. Torrisi and Parm are templates of Italian-American cuisine. Parm serves classics like chicken parm and baked ziti to those looking for a quick meal at a cheap price point. Dinner at Torrisi provides a look into the layers of talent that have made Carbone and Torrisi, and both of their restaurants, the successes they are. Aside from maintaining two of the most popular Italian restaurants in the city, the guys have also been busy readying to open two new projects on Thompson Street.

At the end of last year, the pair signed a lease in the old Rocco space at 181 Thompson Street. They've since revealed the name of the place and plan to open Carbone sometime in November. The restaurant will be a slightly upscale mid-century Italian-American restaurant where you can expect dishes like linguine with clams, octopus pizzaiola, and whole maraschino duck.

The Lobster Club, opening at 169 Thompson Street, is project number two; a sandwich shop whose menu draws inspiration from the triple-decker Saratoga Club at Parm. TLC is shooting to open before Carbone, possibly in October.

Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone Took Physics

The duo behind Torrisi and Parm fully understand how momentum works.  After two incredible successes in Manhattan's Little Italy, Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone are looking towards their 3rd lower Manhattan venture. 

Back in November, just around the time Parm was opening, they signed a lease for 181 Thompson Street that once housed the classic Italian fare under the moniker Rocco's Restaurant.  The team faces some negativity for taking over the space that had been Rocco's for 90 years, but like they said in an interview with The New York Observer, "This space was going to be available whether we took it or not."