Nothing about this place appeals to me. Absolutely nothing. But I’ve never been an ‘adabei’ thirsty for being part of the “VIP” crowd.
I enjoyed the song references in her review.
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Having never heard of this place, I got interested and read this article yesterday. I have to agree that nothing about it appeals to me. I asked my sister if she had been to the Las Vegas branch (which has the best reviews in the article) and she said a friend had taken her to dinner there. She said the food was good, but not worth what they charge and if she were to take me to an Italian restaurant, there were other places she’d recommend over Carbone.
It’s just an overhyped playground for people with too much money 
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Exactly!
The interesting thing is that this “empire” started with a small, mostly take-out place on Mulberry Street in Little Italy that served eggplant parm, meatball sandwiches, and like that. It was very good, and it got very popular (it was pretty cheap). I could not have predicted the path Major Food Group took from there.
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That unfortunately tends to happen when owners/managers get greedy and feel the need to expand their brand.
Kalaya in Philly is a great example. It was great before it joined a restaurant group.
But as with many of these types of places, there’s enough suckers with money to throw at mediocre food to keep it going. Win/win for the group
And the OG place (not the one on Mulberry) sounded shticky from the get-go, at least to me.
Yep.
I’ve been to Carmine’s on the UWS maybe 30 years ago. I’d rather have gone to the late, lamented Mama Leone’s (which was probably closed by then). The only thing I remember about Carmines is that my Caesar salad was unexpectedly good and that they should have served the food in troughs. Cue the Coneheads: consume mass quantities!!
Carbone leaves me totally not curious.
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I generally don’t care for red sawce Eyetalian, although my PIC insists we’ll have to try at least one old-skool establishment while in Phila. I’ve gotten a few good recs, so spag & meat-a-ballz-a are happening at some point. Maybe even veal or eggplant parm 
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The less said about Mama Leone’s, the better. In the plus column, you got free bread and an entire ball of mozzarella. In the minus column, pretty much everything else. I love red sauce Italian, and I’m sure there are some good dishes at Carbone - I’m just not willing to pay for them or drive myself crazy trying to get a reservation.
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is THAT what happened to Kalaya 
never was attracted to Carbone - so Im glad I dodged a bullet with that one
They’re part of the same group as Suraya, Beddia, and a few others. I was also not super-duper impressed with Beddia, TBH 
I enjoyed my meal at Carbone in Vegas a few years ago:
Looking at the current menu the prices for the mains are a bit eye popping but it is on the Vegas strip where everything is expensive. Prices for the pastas and the antipasti have gone up as well but they are not too outrageous. I liked it for what it is - fancy well executed red sauce Italian American.
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The Carbone pasta sauces cost around the same as Rao’s. I like their marinara better than Rao’s.
I haven’t been to any Carbone restaurants yet.
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When there was just the original one, it was fun and good. Expensive but no more so than lots of other Italian places. Very enjoyable but haven’t been back in a long time. The New York Times is losing its connection with the city. I didn’t find the story all that interesting or compelling. If the writer of this story becomes the next restaurant reviewer for the Times, I will have little reason to read the reviews. The past several have been great writers. This one, not so much.
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I pay a subscription for the NYT - I’m not sure I’m happy for my subscription to pay for the food critic to jet around trying essentially the same luxe brand in different cities. I know it’s not my money per se that’s being wasted on this sort of journalism, but still.
I wonder what sort of hold PK has on her bosses. If I pitched this sort of idea to my boss, I’d be told where I could go instead pretty sharpish. Carbone doesn’t seem representative of a zeitgeist of any sort, unless it’s the one of people with too much money who want to feel important?
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Dunno, to me that seems to be very much the zeitgeist.
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Fair enough. America is like a different planet!
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Boy, is it ever.
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