Big Mamma Group picks Juno Beach for first U.S. restaurant

Big Mamma Group skipped Miami, New York and Los Angeles and chose Juno Beach for its first U.S. restaurant, planting one of Europe’s best-known Italian hospitality brands in a Palm Beach County town of 3,890 people. The Paris-born group said the new trattoria will open in late 2026, just steps from the waterfront, in a move that says as much about Florida’s dining market as it does about the brand’s ambitions.

The opening is being developed as a joint venture with Ballyhoo Hospitality and Palm Beach County operator Carmine Giardini, whose Carmine’s La Trattoria and Carmine’s Gourmet Market have long anchored Italian food in the area. Carmine’s Gourmet Market traces its roots to 1972, and the flagship market opened in 1988, giving the partnership a local base that stretches well beyond a single real estate deal. That history appears to have mattered for a company making its long-awaited U.S. debut in a small coastal town rather than a major gateway city.

Big Mamma described the project as a long-term development push aimed at creating landmark hospitality destinations across the U.S. market. The company also said the Juno Beach restaurant would be entirely unique to South Florida and inspired by Palm Beach County’s energy and lifestyle. For a group that already operates more than 35 locations across nine countries and serves roughly 15,000 customers a day, the choice signals confidence that the American market can support a more theatrical, destination-style Italian format outside the usual big-city corridors.

The group’s own site frames that format around ingredient-led cooking. Big Mamma said it worked with more than 170 exceptional Italian producers and imported artisan products directly from Italy without middlemen. Among the standout products it highlights are 24-month-aged Prosciutto di Parma DOP/AOC and mozzarella from Naples. It also says its restaurants serve fresh pasta and dishes that are 100 percent homemade, which makes the Juno Beach opening especially relevant for pasta fans watching how the brand translates its kitchen identity for first-time local diners.

Big Mamma’s current company profile says it had 2,200 people on the team in 2025, with 75% of restaurant management coming from internal promotion, and that it has been B Corp-certified since 2018. Founders Tigrane Seydoux and Victor Lugger built the brand in Paris on a mix of scale, sourcing and spectacle, and Juno Beach now becomes the test case for whether that formula can land in South Florida. The surprise is not just that Big Mamma is coming to America. It is that the company chose a small waterfront town to make its first statement.