Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
17 Apr 2025
YERRR – the guys sat down with Mario Carbone to chop it up about the hustle behind building a restaurant empire. From old-school red sauce joints to celeb-packed hotspots, Mario breaks down the flavors, the business, and the pressure of keeping it all fresh. He talks about Michelin stars, wild celebrity dining stories, and why good hospitality is the real secret sauce. All that and more on this week’s episode of FLAGRANT. INDULGE. 00:00 Intro 00:37 Getting a reservation at Carbone? Greasing the right people 8:07 Quick Tip, Restaurants’ intel + Maitre Ds 13:18 Michelin Star Experiences 17:42 How much do waiters make at Carbone? 21:58 Politics in dining, Michelin Stars + Finding a good restaurant 26:25 The staff is banging each other 27:38 Can Michelin star be bought? Paying influencers 30:21 Sorry Justin Bieber! Scummiest PR move 33:01 Starting out + Power of the Review 41:51 Worst tipper? Tip 20% 46:31 Racial busboy harmony 48:51 Mexicans are the best 53:29 Sandwich Shop to Carbone + Getting a backer 1:00:34 Throwing a critic out + Respecting a negative review 1:04:51 Aiming for the old school + Torrisi’s super power 1:08:30 Relationships with celebs + Banned celebs 1:12:39 Rap mentioning Carbone 1:23:49 Rules to sending food back 1:24:46 Better Italian food in NYC than Italy 1:28:13 Getting people to leave + Not being kid friendly 1:32:22 Outside Dining, Maintaining Quality + Entrepreneurial 1:37:30 Too difficult to replicate, The Spicy Rig + Iconic dish 1:43:02 Biggest bomb + Secret menu 1:46:48 Pet peeves + Giant menus 1:54:21 Moving to Italy + New dining trends now 2:00:58 Pinnacle for a Chef + Rewarding talent 2:04:08 Best places in New York? 2:11:42 Judge an Italian restaurant? Underrated pork chops 2:14:44 Charging for Wine + Impressing a date 2:17:43 F1 Weekend in Miami 2:20:15 What’s next? + Performance + Obama protocol 2:25:24 Getting your flowers from the Older generation 2:27:18 Navigating Egos 2:30:14 Why is New York the greatest city in the world? 2:31:41 Next generation coming through + Tariffs impacting 2:34:44 Being proud of heritage + Assimilation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
What's up, guys? Today we are joined by one of the most famous chefs in history. His restaurants have been frequented by everyone from half-white rappers to half-white presidents. His spot, Carbone, is harder to get into than a menopausal mothership. Jeff, I don't blame you. you, okay? We all get excited when a brown box gets delivered.
Anyway, today he is going to tell us the number one trick to get into any restaurant in the world, why Michelin stars are nonsense, and how to bet on yourself and build a business even in a recession. Give it up for New York City's own Mario Carbone. I'm very excited for this. There's so many questions that I have to ask you. I want to learn about it all.
But first of all, I want to know how does someone get a reservation at Carbone?
Selma, are we asking for you?
No, I just want to know someone. I just want to know someone. Not even me. How does just a regular guy who doesn't have a podcast?
It's a democratic society. I mean, it's a policy that's just one month out. You're just going to lie to the people again?
A lot of people immediately at the beginning of the podcast. Imagine this.
Let's imagine. You have 200 seats to fill for a night to make your money. Yeah. You can't leave it to chance that these two people are going to come in, they're going to fill those seats, and they're going to spend good money tonight. Of course, we keep information on everybody, like who's coming in, who are our regulars, take care of those people, what's their spend, so that I know...
These 200 people tonight are coming in, not just a random set of people, because that's drastically going to change what we do tonight as a business. So it's almost never random? It's not never. When was the last time you had a walk-up? It happens, but at Carbone, it's rare because it's in such demand. So we do put out reservations. Generally, what we do is we put out the shoulders.
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