Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood](https://www.seminolehardrockhollywood.com) is bringing an exclusive new dining concept to its South Florida flagship through a deepened partnership with Major Food Group, the hospitality company behind CARBONE, Torrisi, and ZZ's Club. The announcement, made August 5, signals the next formal deployment of a strategic alliance the two companies established in 2024 to develop signature dining across Hard Rock International's global portfolio of integrated resorts.
The forthcoming restaurant will occupy the space formerly held by Cipresso, the property's Italian dining outlet that served its final guests July 19 after a seven-year run. To bridge the gap, selected Cipresso signatures — including Nonna's Meatballs, Bolognese, and Bone-In Veal Chop Alla Parmigiana — have migrated to Abiaka Wood Fire Grill, which simultaneously expanded to seven-day operations. The concept's name, culinary direction, design renderings, and opening timeline are expected to be disclosed this fall.
Partnership Context
The 2024 alliance between Hard Rock International and Major Food Group was structured around curating distinctive dining experiences at integrated-resort properties — a format where food-and-beverage programming increasingly drives non-gaming revenue and differentiation. For casino-resort operators competing on hospitality rather than gaming exclusivity alone, marquee restaurant partnerships with nationally recognized hospitality brands have become a standard capital-allocation tool, often commanding significant fit-out investment and multi-year exclusivity arrangements.
Major Food Group, founded in 2011 by Mario Carbone, Jeff Zalaznick, and Rich Torrisi, now operates more than 50 restaurants, private clubs, bars, and hotels across 15 cities worldwide. The group's track record at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood already includes a December 2023 CARBONE residency staged at Cipresso — a limited-run event tied to the historic introduction of craps, roulette, and retail sports betting at Seminole Gaming properties across Florida.
Operator Rationale
Jim Allen, Chairman of Hard Rock International and CEO of Seminole Gaming, framed the new concept as a direct extension of the property's F&B investment thesis. "Bringing an exclusive MFG concept to our resort is an exciting next step in our partnership and reflects our continued investment in world-class dining and hospitality," Allen said. MFG Co-Founder Jeff Zalaznick described the project as an opportunity to build "something very special together — a restaurant that's exciting, extraordinary, and gives guests yet another reason to love Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood for many years to come."
For the resort's broader business model, the new outlet joins more than 20 existing food-and-beverage venues at the 87-acre Hollywood Seminole Reservation property, which underwent a $1.5 billion expansion in 2019. The resort operates 1,271 guestrooms across three towers and hosts approximately 120,000 square feet of meeting and convention space — a scale where F&B programming contributes meaningfully to both guest-night spend and group-business positioning. Integrating a high-profile independent restaurant brand into that mix follows the same playbook used by MGM Resorts, Wynn, and other major integrated-resort operators who have co-developed destination dining with celebrity-chef and hospitality-group partners to elevate non-gaming revenue per visitor.
For operators tracking luxury and upscale dining trends at resort properties, the Seminole Hard Rock–MFG model offers a template worth watching: replace a proprietary in-house concept with a curated external brand whose name and aesthetic travel independently, generating PR lift and potentially attracting non-gaming guests. The broader integrated-resort F&B strategy — where a single signature restaurant can anchor a property's culinary identity — continues to gain traction as casino operators compete for leisure and group travel spend beyond the gaming floor.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
