Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Zalaznick: Only expand into cities with multiple restaurants generating $20M+ annually

Jeff Zalaznick · The Restaurant Genius Behind Carbone, ZZ’s, Torrisi & More | Jeff Zalaznick · Jul 19, 2026 · at 1:36:12

Major Food Group co-founder Jeff Zalaznick shares the operational heuristic he uses to evaluate incoming expansion opportunities in cities worldwide.

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“If you tell me, is this an interesting city to open a restaurant in? All I say is, you know, find me two or three restaurants doing twenty million dollars or more. And then it's an interesting city. There's not that many cities in the world that have restaurants doing 20 plus million dollars a year, fine dining restaurants.”

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