Major Food Group’s Defining Restaurant Torrisi Reopens for $25K Private Charity Dinners

The tiny space of Major Food Group’s famed Torrisi Italian Specialties is now back in business as Major Good — a pop-up solely for $25,000 private dinners where all the money goes to nonprofit Robin Hood.

The space seats 12 people, according to a press release, and at least for now, people buying out the space can have personal consultations with either Mario Carbone or Rich Torrisi for a custom menu. Depending on availability, Carbone or Torrisi will also make the meal. The company is calling it a “bespoke, private dining concept.”

Already, wealthy and fashionable folk — who are presumably the intended audience for these meals — have anointed the new pop-up. According to Page Six, the first dinner was co-hosted by Italian fashion magnate Gildo Zegna and iHeartMedia’s president John Sykes. Diners included Jon Bon Jovi and former MTV CEO Tom Freston.

It’s the latest collaboration with Robin Hood, a poverty-fighting organization that MFG partnered with in 2015. Since then, the company’s popular restaurants — like the Grill, Carbone, and Santina — have been charging reservation cancellations fees that all go toward the nonprofit.

At Major Good, MFG pays for the costs of supplies and services, and all $25,000 of the custom private dinner goes toward Robin Hood’s food programs, which support soup kitchens and food pantries in NYC. The meal is tax deductible minus $150 a head, “the value of goods and services received.” Reservations are available by emailing majorgood@robinhood.org or calling 212-844-3567, and they’re taking them between October 29 and December 15th.

Eater has reached out to see how long the pop-up will continue.

For five years, the 250 Mulberry St. space housed Torrisi Italian Specialties — the red sauce restaurant that shot Carbone and Torrisi into NYC dining fame. When it closed in 2015, Jeff Zalaznick, Carbone, and Torrisi announced that it would be a 15-seat fine dining restaurant helmed by Torrisi, but the space has remained closed to the public.

And since then, MFG has gained tons of popularity with the rich and famous. Earlier this year, Carbone cooked at Gwyneth Paltrow’s wedding, and short-lived couple Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson had an “iconic” makeout session at the chef’s fancy red-sauce joint. The restaurant has also been memorialized in a Drake song.