“We wanted to make somewhere we dreamed of eating at” Mario Carbone and Jeff Zalaznick on bringing NYC cult Italian restaurant Carbone to Mayfair

The team have been training Carbone London’s captains for weeks already, so they’ll be ready to hit the ground running when the restaurant opens in September. As we chat, there’s a rather intense-sounding team briefing happening in the main dining room, while staff put finishing touches to the interiors, designed by Ken Fulk. “Ken understands the story that we want to tell,” Zalaznick says. “He understands the city that we’re going to, and he understands the language of Carbone and how to create and change that in a way that makes sense.” In Mayfair, that means a high-end, glossy finish and meticulous attention to detail that creates the feeling that this is the room you want to be in, the reservation you want to nab.

Staff are affectionately known as Captains

NICO SCHINCO

One of the restaurant’s sweet finales

NICO SCHINCO

“There’s always been social currency to restaurants,” Zalaznick says. “Since the dawn of eating out. Eventually, that might play into a song lyric. Getting into the popular place, getting the right table.”

He’s referencing Carbone’s name-drop on Drake’s Do Not Disturb, where he raps “Last table left in Carbone, callin’ plays on a rotary phone. I take a glass of Dom’ignon to go with me home.”

“90 per cent of the menu is identical to the original Carbone,” says Carbone

NICO SCHINCO

With Drake on the mind, I ask if it will be as difficult to get a reservation at Carbone London as in New York?

“I sure hope so,” Carbone laughs.

Carbone NYC has long been adored by the city’s glitterati and A-listers

NICO SCHINCO

Recreating the success of an iconic restaurant in a different country, with different clientele, isn’t easy. I wonder out loud how much Carbone London is a carbon copy of its American big brother. “90 per cent of the menu is identical to the original Carbone,” Carbone tells me. “That’s what people expect. Whether you’ve been to the restaurant or studied it on social media, you know what the dishes are. And then there’s 10 per cent that, whenever we’re going to a new market, we change. We see what the spectacular products are and go from there.” In London, they tell me, that might mean British scallops in a new appetiser with pork lard and candied orange. There will be more, but the team are keeping some things close to their chest. As I get ready to head out, past the still ongoing team briefing, I ask the duo which headline they’d most like to read about Carbone London in a few weeks.

Carbone laughs. “It’s finally fucking open!”