The chef and restaurateur, best known for the celebrity hotspot Carbone in Greenwich Village, on the routines that help him manage a growing hospitality empire

Mario Carbone and his partners have 25 restaurants around the country. MARK PETERSON/REDUX

Mario Carbone is famous for his spicy rigatoni vodka. But the chef has set his sights far beyond pasta. 

With 25 restaurants around the country, he and his partners Rich Torrisi and Jeff Zalaznick have established a hospitality empire that includes a luxury apartment building, Villa Miami; a private members’ club, ZZ’s, which charges a $20,000 application fee; and a consumer-goods brand, Carbone Fine Food, which launched in 2021 and introduced jars of his famous spicy vodka sauce earlier this year. Carbone, 43, said he hoped hotels were in the future.

The trio’s best-known business remains Carbone, the Greenwich Village celebrity hotspot where it’s nearly impossible for a mere mortal to snag a reservation. Carbone said that to have a leg up booking a table, you had to know one of the secret email addresses. 

“There are several that exist, and there’s basically a control room somewhere in the world run by one of our partners,” he said. “She’s been doing it for over a decade now, taking tens of thousands of reservations every single day.” Now there are several Carbone locations around the world, including in Miami, Dallas and Hong Kong.

Carbone was born and raised in Queens and now lives in New York and Miami with his girlfriend, the publicist Cait Bailey. Here, he discusses his love of cigars, why he thinks social media has hurt restaurant culture and the moment he felt he’d made it.

What time do you get up on Mondays, and what’s the first thing you do after waking up?

I get up at 5:30 a.m., and the first thing I do is let my dog Rocco out. I make myself a coffee and usually a small breakfast. By 7, I’m trying to get my morning exercise in—playing tennis, going for a run. I have a makeshift gym in my garage. 

How do you like your coffee and breakfast?

I drink pretty much exclusively iced coffee. I like it very strong, I usually do two shots of espresso and cold brew. My breakfast is usually a banana, a little bit of yogurt, egg whites and a wrap and avocado. Boring, healthy, just to get something in my stomach before I go. 

In the midst of a busy work life, do you find time to meditate or reflect?

I’m pretty peaceful by nature. If I don’t have quiet time to do my work and be in my thoughts, then I’m easily thrown off. 

What’s the most important thing for you to delegate to your assistant?

Travel is something I have no interest in dealing with on my own. I find it time-consuming and mind-numbing.

Is there anything you refuse to delegate?

That is a very long list. I’m manic about the smallest things that I could probably not do myself. My assistant is critical in my world, and she allows me the opportunity to touch all of these really small [details] that I believe if I was to give up, I would be doing whatever the project is a disservice. 

‘The amount of work I can get done with a singular good knife and a cutting board could probably replace an entire junk drawer of QVC-type items,’ Mario Carbone said. PHOTO: CARBONE FINE FOOD

Do you think people will ever get sick of Carbone’s spicy rigatoni vodka?

I hope not. I haven’t, and I’ve eaten it more than most. 

What do you cook for yourself at home?

Usually pretty simple stuff. Ten to 15 minutes max is my attention span during the week to cook for myself, a quick steak or a simple bowl of pasta. The only time of the week where I get even the slightest bit ambitious is probably on a Sunday, whether it’s just for me and my girlfriend or friends and family who are coming over. 

You designed the kitchens for the Villa, the luxury apartment building you’re opening in Miami. What’s your favorite thing in them?

We designed a small version of the pasta cookers, the tanks that I use in the restaurants, which are sunken wells of water. At any time, you can drop pasta in. You have all your burners free, and you have this very sleek countertop-height sunken tank for boiling water the way we do at the restaurants. 

When, in the 10 years since Carbone’s opening, did you feel like you’d made it? 

Maybe having President Obama for the first time. Even if we had lots of celebrities and big moments early on, I was able to really soak that one in. 

Are there any food trends you can’t stand? 

Certainly the food world has become very susceptible to cooking for social media. I do think it’s a wonderful thing that everyone now has the power to render a judgment or support their favorite location through their own channels. On the other side of that is when you get too distracted by it as an entrepreneur or chef and you start trying to make things for that Instagrammable moment. You’re generally going to fail, because your end goal is no longer to make the most delicious thing possible. 

What do you do to relax?

I am an avid cigar smoker. Usually I’m sharing it with someone, my father or a close friend. It gives you some time where you know you’re not going anywhere. 

Is there a kitchen product people spring for that you think is unnecessary or overrated?

There are too many kitchen gadgets in the world. When I’m cooking at someone else’s house, their drawers are ridiculous. The amount of work I can get done with a singular good knife and a cutting board could probably replace an entire junk drawer of QVC-type items people have purchased in their lives. 

What’s a piece of advice that’s guided you?

I remember my dad talking to me when I was younger and trying to find my path. His great fatherly advice was, “I don’t care what you choose to do with your life. I do care that whatever you choose to do, you pour yourself into it, you give a damn about it and you try to be the best at whatever it is