Mario Carbone is a hard man to pin down. The chef turned restaurant impresario is the swaggering, cigar-chomping, nattily dressed embodiment of his Major Food Group’s Rat Pack–Big Night aesthetic, a friend of the fashion, music, and Hollywood players who fill his dining rooms nightly. In early-April, he was in Dallas, launching his third restaurant in almost as many weeks—a new concept, Carbone Vino is a more accessible sibling to the flagship Carbone, which opened next door in late March. “It takes years to lead up to what seems like an overnight thing,” he says of the rapid expansion.
Later he would be modeling his debut collection as a clothing designer at a weekend pop-up for his men’s-leisurewear line, Our Lady of Rocco, a collaboration with La Ligne inspired by his upbringing in Queens in the 1980s. (No less than the late designer Virgil Abloh D.J.’ed at the launch party some months prior.) His velour tracksuits and satin bomber jackets had a limited run at the upscale Highland Park, Texas, shopping center, home to a new outpost of Sadelle’s, his hit brunch spot in New York. After Dallas, Carbone was in Miami for the city’s first-ever Formula 1 weekend, preparing Carbone Beach, a pop-up supper club where he served 200 guests ranging from David Beckham to Nas and Janes Corden at $3,200 a head.
