Mario Carbone
speaker
319 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2025
last heard Apr 2025
Mario Carbone’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
I wound up getting a job at one of the other restaurants and I worked there for- Which one? Cafe Bouloud. Bouloud. So it was, at that time it was, I was like 22. Me, David Chang owns Momofuku. That's what I was about to say. This is a really, and then also Teresa, right? My partner, Rich.
With Rich as well? No, just me and him. But Rich was my roommate. so we would like after work, we would, we would, we would spend like before, like before we'd crash, we'd spend time like talking about ideas, talking about like how we were going to get, how we were going to get started, what his place was going to be like, what my place was going to be like.
And then, um, in 2008, there was a financial crisis and like all money dries up, all investors dry up, everyone's done. And, but we were ready. It was like, this is our time. So instead of trying these separate ideas, um, And individually, we were like, the only way, if we want to be our own boss, like next year, the only way we're going to do this is if we do it together. Wow.
And we pooled our resources, our money, and we took a space a couple hundred feet away that was like 450 square foot jean shop. And it was on Mulberry and Prince, but we just, we thought that that was it. We thought that was the energy, that was the spot, that's where we needed to be. And that was...
Teresi Italian Specialties.
It's unbelievable. Foosball, two out of three.
At first... At first it was... We opened it as a sandwich shop. That did well. But our goal was to open it at night and do kind of a serious dinner. It was one set menu on a chalkboard. And when we started opening at night, no one really came. And if they did come, they were like, oh, I heard you sell sandwiches. And we're like, yeah, but in the daytime.
And they're like, yeah, but there's nobody here making a sandwich. We're like, no, that's not the thing. That's not what we're doing. We're doing this menu thing. That took a while.
You want the money or not? I see what you're saying, but I'm going to die on my morals here. It took a while for people to figure out what was going on there. And what do you think it was? Eventually, we got a great review from New York Magazine, and that started a bit of a line outside, people waiting for reservations, the shit that we had never seen before, almost overnight.
You don't. And at first, when they came the first time, they were alone in the dining room. We knew them. And so we cooked for them. We talked to them. We were friendly. They left. They came back next week. And I was like, Rich, man, they must really like it. They're here again. And he's like, yeah, cool, you know, whatever. Third time they come and I'm like, oh. They make it short.
Oh, they're writing a review on this train shot. So do you spice it up on that last one? I mean, we gave it all we had. I mean, we threw everything we had at it, but it wasn't much at the time. We only had this one little menu. Yeah, no sandwiches. We had no sandwiches, just enough money to kind of make a chalkboard. Were you both in the kitchen at that time?
it's only five employees total you know there's like me him a dishwasher one one waitress i mean that's everybody right so we're open we're open six days a week on the seventh day we were closed we would do a prep and he and i would go in lock the door we'd go in we'd crank we'd crank the radio and we would prep all day just to get ready so we're working seven days um but we were the only employees but we were living the dream there's a uh
Are you sweating the reviews when the special comes out?
I mean, I used to hear that back in the 70s and 80s, if you got a great New York Times review, that the owners would literally tear it out of the newspaper, walk into the bank, and get a loan. Wow. Be like, here. Wow. That's all you need. The old New York Times critics used to tell me that. Wow. Yeah. So were they drunk off that power? I mean, that was the top.
I mean, there was no Michelin in America back then.
Like a little dirty martini. Ooh, wait a minute.
see and i overcompensate i over tip because of the because that's a great scene in my blue heaven yeah with steve martin goes over over tipping fantastic movie but wait a minute yeah is there a version where over tipping makes you look a little funny
Simply taking care of the staff. I actually think that's true. Yeah, I might have been.
Wait, 20% is generous? 15% I can't do? Were you unhappy with your service?
I mean, yes.
Showing 81–100 of 319 · page 5 of 16
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