JOY & MADNESS

Marking the milestone of ten years for Carbone Hong Kong, Tatler caught up with noted chef and restaurateur Mario Carbone and Black Sheep Restaurants founder Syed Asim Hussain to reflect on growth, storytelling through food and a decade of masochistic pursuits

- Coco Marett

Ten years ago, the three of us—New York chef and restaurateur Mario Carbone, founder of Black Sheep Restaurants, which brought Carbone’s eponymous restaurant to Hong Kong, Syed Asim Hussain, and me—sat on one of the maroon banquettes in Carbone Hong Kong. Much of the restaurant was still a construction site, just weeks from its grand opening.

At the time, Carbone was a year into running his restaurant on Thompson Street in New York’s Greenwich Village; it has since become a celebrity hotspot and one of the hardest tables to book in Manhattan. Hussain, who had just four restaurants under his belt then, now operates more than 35 and is on the brink of taking the Black Sheep brand global.

Last November, we found ourselves in conversation again, in the same space—older and ever so slightly wiser, except this time, it was days away from Carbone Hong Kong’s tenth anniversary.

“Ten years is not nothing”, says Hussain, “especially in cities like Hong Kong and New York, cities obsessed with newness. So this is a legacy that I’m very proud of.”

In those ten years, Carbone Hong Kong has become what Hussain describes as a “phenomenon”, a place of unashamed opulence where Neanderthal-sized cuts of spectacular quality meat are served, Caesar salad is made tableside with warm garlic bread croutons, two types of anchovies and three kinds of cheese, and an animated staff break into song multiple times per night—so much so that if you visit enough, you too will know the lyrics to Tanti Auguri, the Italian version of Happy Birthday, by heart.