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September 2003
| LONDON
Pétrus has moved to
the Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge. The restaurant's
new setting provides the perfect stage for Marcus
Wareing's theatrical cuisine. Rich with vivid
colours, the interior is ther work of designer
David Collins who takes full advantage of the
claret textures associated with Pétrus.
Stunning French blinds have a bold circle motif
that is echoed as a detail throughout the restaurant.
The dramatic decor is more than matched by the
menu. |
Ex-Ivy owners Jeremy King and Chris Corbin have
taken over China House and plan to relaunch it
as a European cafe |
Visiting the new Museum in Docklands and feeling
peckish? Searcy’s caterers have opened 1802
in an old tea-sorting house. The food is modern
British |
Mint Leaf is a new Indian restaurant near Trafalgar
Square with chef KK Anand (ex-Cinnamon Club).
The decor is very Hakkassan-ish, dark and sexy
| Meanwhile,
Cinnamon Club has taken over the Maxim’s
site in New York City with plans to open a clone
in 2004 |
Well-known St. John restaurant has a sibling,
St. John Bread & Wine, in Shoreditch. It offers
traditional British food all day with wonderful
and unusual breads |
Terence Conran has opened another restaurant in
a historic 16th-century building. Royal Exchange
Grand Café & Bar is an exquisite space
that resembles a Viennese coffeehouse. The all-day
modern European menu, including breakfast, offers
only cold food, as there are no ovens |
Anton Edelmann is leaving the Savoy River Room
after 21 years. He will be replaced by Georg Fuchs
| Geoffrey
Moore and Jamie Barber, co-owners of Hush, have
taken over the site formerly occupied by Che and
plan to launch an as-yet unnamed restaurant next
month |
Villandry has added a small charcuterie and cheese
bar offering food and drinks through the day |
Cedar Lounge has opened in the former Zaika Bazaar
space in Chelsea. The owners are Lebanese, the
menu is Italian, and the wines are mostly French
| Recent
closures include Chinon, The Chiswick, Deumela,
Ibla, Parade, Purple Sage, Sabbia, Teatro, and
Tuscan Steak.
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| LOS
ANGELES
Seasoned veterans Rodolfo Costella
(Ca’ Del Sole) and Franco Simplicio (Allegria
Café-Restaurant in Malibu) have joined forces
to open Frascati Ristorante & Bar in Redondo Beach.
Expect a few Venetian touches on the extensive menu
from Soerke Peters, who revamped the menu at Ca’del
Sole two years ago to great acclaim. Peters will also
continue as executive chef at Ca’ Del Sole in
North Hollywood | Pioneering Southern California fine-dining
restaurateur Piero Selvaggio has moved Stephan Samson,
his executive chef at Posto, into the top spot at Valentino,
Selvaggio’s flagship restaurant in Santa Monica.
Samson just returned from an intensive six-month cooking
odyssey in southern Italy. Meanwhile, Angelo Auriana,
chef at Valentino for 16 years, has relocated to Sacramento
to open his own establishment | McCormick & Schmick’s
Seafood Restaurant in Beverly Hills is now McCormick
& Schmick’s Pacific Seafood Grill with new
chef David Iino (ex-Café Del Rey, Napa Valley
Grille) on the line. Try his pancetta-wrapped scallops
with warm potato and leek salad | Ann Gentry has opened
Real Food Daily in Beverly Hills, her third branch of
the organic vegetarian restaurant. Gentry and executive
chef David Anderson (ex-Inn of The Seventh Ray) collaborate
on all the recipes | Now that Claude Beltran has signed
on as chef, Restaurant Halie has a new lease on life.
Beltran had been chef/owner of the now defunct Cayo
in the Pasadena Playhouse complex. At Halie, in the
historic Cheesewright Building in Pasadena, he is cooking
New American cuisine | Chateau Marmont Hotel in West
Hollywood has a fresh look and a new chef in Mohammad
Islam (ex-Mercer Kitchen, NYC). Islam serves international
comfort food. The hotel’s secluded courtyard garden
is one of LA’s undiscovered dining gems | Liza
and Tim Goodell (Aubergine, Red Pearl Kitchen, Whist
at the Viceroy Hotel) have installed David Man (ex-St.
Regis Monarch Beach Resort) as chef de cuisine at Troquet
in South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa | We’re sorry
to report that talented opening toque Jean-Pierre Giron
has quietly exited Brasserie des Artistes in Beverly
Hills. Proprietor George Etesse has not yet announced
a replacement | Among the ten people who died when an
elderly man lost control of his car at the Santa Monica
Farmers’ Market this past July was Gloria Gonzalez,
a valued pantry cook at El Cholo, Santa Monica since
its opening in 1997. Gonzalez, who was just 32, is survived
by her husband, Gil Martinez, also a cook, her ten-year-old
son, and three-year-old daughter. El Cholo, Santa Monica,
has set up a memorial fund to benefit the family. To
contribute, send a check to Gloria Gonzalez Fund, c/o
El Cholo, Santa Monica, 1025 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica,
CA 90401.
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| MIAMI
Scott Fredel (ex-Rumi) has opened
Pilar in Aventura, inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s
famous fishing boat. Florida seafood is on the menu,
such as sautéed yellowtail snapper with potato-leek
croquette and warm tomato vinaigrette.
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| NEW
ORLEANS
Vive la France! From our perspective,
looks like the French are back in favor: La Nouvelle
is opening on Magazine Street and another branch of
La Boulangerie is opening downtown | Lucy’s Retired
Surfers Bar and Restaurant now has an outpost uptown
for casual California and Louisiana cuisine. Larkin
Selman is chef | Keegan Gerhard is the new pastry chef
of The Grill Room. A native of Mississippi, Gerhard
was most recently at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago
| Jason Doyle (The Wine Loft) is betting on the late-night
crowd with Huey’s 24-7, an all-night diner in
the former Metro Bistro site downtown | By day, Arvinder
Vikhu is manager of the swanky Pickwick Club. By night,
the New Delhi native runs Saffron Caterers.
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| NEW
YORK
Harvest
in the Square, presented by the Union Square
Local Development Corporation, showcases the best
tasting restaurants in the Union Square neighborhood
on Thursday, September 18, 2003. For the eighth
year in a row, Harvest in the Square will erect
a tent in Union Square Park, at the corner of
17th Street and Union Square West on the North
Plaza, where chefs from more than 45 top-rated
restaurants will provide “tastes”
of their signature dishes |
Restaurant closeout! Last month we reported Patricia
Yeo had left AZ and Pazo. This month’s news
is that Pazo has closed. AZ continues under chef
Pino Maffeo |
Butterfield 81 has also closed. The Upper East
Side restaurant that showcased the cooking of
Tom Valenti and later Patricia Williams is to
become a barbecue joint this fall. Owner Ken Artesky
(Patroon) is teaming up with Robert Pearson, of
Pearson’s Texas Barbecue in Queens |
Mamma mia, it has been a tough summer for
the Italians! Castellano, in its heyday the Midtown
Italian celebrity magnet; Ernie’s, the Upper
West Side see-and-be-seen restaurant for twentysomethings;
Two Two Two, another Italian restaurant on the
Upper West Side; and Mark Strausman’s countrified
Italian Campagna in the Flatiron District have
all closed |
Lundy’s fish house in Midtown Manhattan
has closed up shop, too. You can still trek to
the original Lundy’s in Sheepshead Bay,
Brooklyn |
Chicama in the ABC Carpet & Home store has
served its last ceviche. Douglas Rodriguez created
the vivid Latino spot, but he hasn’t been
associated with it since he left to open OLA.
Phil Suarez, who owns nearby Patria, will take
over the space with Patria’s chef, Andrew
DiCataldo, overseeing a Mexican menu. A fall opening
is predicted |
In other Mexican food news, Sue Torres, who earned
her reputation for complex, skillful cooking at
Rocking Horse Café in Chelsea and later
at Hell’s Kitchen, has taken over Alley’s
End, back in her old neighborhood, where she has
opened Sueños |
Which direction now? Neil Annis has departed Upper
West Side’s Compass Restaurant to pursue
other projects. His replacement is Mark Andelbradt,
who was chef de cuisine at Tru in Chicago |
Another notable departure is Alex Lee, who was
Daniel Boulud’s right-hand chef at Daniel
for more than a decade. Lee is trading in the
rigors of a four-star kitchen for greener pastures...the
exclusive Glen Oaks Country Club in Old Westbury,
Long Island |
Django has a new chef and slightly modified decor.
Cedric Tovar, who had a brief stay at Theo in
Soho, and before that was chef de cuisine at Geoffrey
Zakarian’s Town, is putting a Mediterranean
spin on the gypsy-spirited Midtown eatery |
The cameras may have gone home, but Nicolina DiSpirito
(Rocco DiSpirito’s mamma) continues
to make her signature meatballs at Rocco’s
on 22nd Street. Rocco’s stars in the new
reality show, The Restaurant, which was
airing Sunday nights on NBC this summer |
Speaking of Italian chef exposure, John Villa
(who appeared in his birthday suit in Playgirl
earlier this year) has transformed his elegant
but sleepy Portuguese-influenced Pico into Dominic
Restaurant/Social Club, with a moderately priced
Italian/American menu |
Sweet Village. Jack and Grace Lamb, who own the
exquisite Jewel Bako in the East Village, have
opened the pastry cafe Blue Goose in the same
neighborhood. If hoity-toity plated desserts are
your thing, head straight to Chikalicious, also
in the East Village. It’s a dessert bar
modeled after a sushi counter, with three-course
dessert menus, such as apricot cobbler with vanilla
sorbet, and chocolate tart with bayleaf sauce
and blackberry sorbet |
A shore bet. Eric Terrow, owner of the seafoodery
Fresh in TriBeCa have recently opened the casual
Shore nearby |
Not to be confused with Shore, Shore House has
opened in Stamford, Connecticut, replacing the
Beacon outpost. The team behind Windows on the
World, Noche, and Beacon, David Emil and partners,
and consulting chef Michael Lomonaco, are overseeing
the operation. The chef in charge is Tim Armstrong,
formerly of Blue Fin in Times Square |
Brooklyn bound. A second Paradou has opened in
Park Slope. Like its Meatpacking District sister,
it features a garden, French bistro food, and
a full line of Provençal chocolatier Joel
Durand’s truffles |
In a pickle. Pickles, Olives, etc. is a new sliver
of a storefront on the Upper East Side featuring
20 kinds of pickled cucumbers and vegetables,
two dozen varieties of olives, and a few Turkish
delights like stuffed grape leaves |
Roll up your sleeves and dig into the tasty American
victuals at Chick-Inn in the West Village. The
space used to be home to Anglers & Writers.
Temptations include Black Angus sliders, Milwaukee
Kosher hot dogs, and Amish farm roasted chicken,
all washed down with Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap.
Soda fountain treats come from the owner’s
Bespeckled Trout candy shop next door |
Hamptons’ hotspots. Notable newcomers to
the Hamptons’ dining scene this past summer.
Oasis, a hip waterfront restaurant with a beach-club
atmosphere, opened in Sag Harbor on the site of
the former Inn at Mill Creek. Chef John Donnelly’s
modern American menu emphasizes seafood. In Southampton,
Belles East is the upscale offshoot of Belles
Café at the Gabreski Airport in Westhampton
Beach. While Belles Café is a casual pit
stop for Caribbean snacks, its big sister focuses
on Cajun cooking, thanks to consulting chef Tom
Rutyna. Jean-Luc, the owner of the Upper West
Side bistro Jean-Luc, opened the splashier Jean-Luc
East in East Hampton. The decor is decidedly St.
Tropez. The food is bistro fare with an Asian
twist.
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| SAN DIEGO
Easy come, easy go. Lots of changes
in The Gaslamp district. William Sussman has opened
Kalahari Cafe, where he is serving southern African
food. Tango Mango Latin Grill, which features Argentine
steaks, has opened on 4th Avenue in the space that used
to be Rubio’s. And after 13 years, the fine-dining
Fio’s has succumbed to a new, younger crowd on
a beer budget. Local restaurateurs David and Leslie
Cohn have taken over the property and promise only that
it will not be Italian | Jeff Burt, formerly of Prego
and Scalini, has landed as executive chef at La Jolla’s
Sante | Aquarella Mexican Grille in the Aventine in
La Jolla is closing after only six months. The restaurant
will reopen as Sofia’s Italian Table | Riko Bartolome
has left the executive chef position at downtown’s
W Hotel to consult. No replacement has been named.
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| SAN FRANCISCO
Polynesian reprise. Trader Vic’s,
which occupied the current Le Colonial space for decades
before closing in 1994, may be coming to the former
Stars location on Golden Gate Avenue. Hans Richter,
president of Trader Vic’s, says the company is
looking to open again in San Francisco. The restaurant
has many other locations around the world | Come early
next year, Charles Phan will open his white-tablecloth
Slanted Door in the northeast corner of the San Francisco
Ferry Building. At the south corner of the building,
Joe Mastrelli, whose family has owned Molinari Delicatessen
since 1962, will open a deli in a small space. The original
Slanted Door on Valencia Street is undergoing a million-dollar
remodeling and will reopen next summer | Il Fornaio
founder Larry Mindel has snagged chef Chris Fernandez
for his new restaurant, Poggio, in the hillside Casa
Madrona Hotel in Sausalito. To prepare for Poggio, which
means “promontory” in Italian, Mindel sent
Fernandez to cook at Da Delfina in Artimino, Italy |
Charming Michael Judge is now running the restaurant
at Auberge du Soleil in Rutherford in the Napa Valley.
Judge was formerly the general manager at Roxanne’s
in Larkspur and, before that, major domo at Masa’s
in San Francisco | Forget about Anthony Bourdain’s
Kitchen Confidential. Jeremiah Tower’s California
Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary
Revolution (Free Press) will have tongues wagging from
Monterey to Manhattan. In this frankly written tell-all,
Tower attempts to write the history of California cuisine
from a perspective at odds with much of what has appeared
in the food press. To say he settles a few old scores
with people like Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters and
ex-Stars partner Doyle Moon would be an understatement.
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| TOKYO
The National Science Museum in
Ueno Park has a new cafeteria, Musee Basara Ueno, affiliated
with the traditional Japanese restaurant Aoyagi. The
food, such as sea bream with roasted young vegetables,
is decidedly un-cafeteria-like | Tokyo Park Hyatt in
Shinjuku, site of our first Friends of James Beard Benefit
in Japan coming up this November, has unveiled a new
first-floor deli and shop. Among other items, it carries
Tom Colicchio’s Craft fruit jam and what may be
the only bowl of baba ghanoush in Tokyo.
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| TORONTO
The Nose has left Yonge Street.
Restaurateur Gio Rana removed the giant schnozz that
hung over the doorway of his Gio’s restaurant
when he sold the restaurant this summer. The new owner
is longtime cook Piera Draga, an utterly irresistible
Sicilian who renamed the space Zia Piera (“zia”
means “aunt” in Italian). The nose now hangs
in the entrance of Gio Rana’s Really, Really Nice
Restaurant in Leslieville | The latest addition to the
College Strip is Bruyea Brothers, where chef Aldo Lanzillotta
(ex-Teatro) does a menu featuring curried lobster tart,
sugarcane beef, and Duck Two Ways | In the Hope Springs
Eternal category: There’s a new restaurant in
the high-turnover Rosedale space that most recently
housed Tabla. Brian Vallipuram of the now-closed Axcess
is cooking at 1055 (the restaurant’s Yonge Street
address). “I like a challenge,” Vallipuram
says. “I’ll take it one customer at a time”
| Accolade in the Crowne Plaza Hotel downtown is gone,
along with executive chef David Chrystian. The fine-dining
room—where Michael Potters once served only tasting
menus—is being demolished to create meeting rooms.
Chrystian once made upscale poutine (a French Canadian
French-fry specialty made with gravy and cheese curds)
in the Canadian bistro Patriot in the Colonnade. Patriot
went bankrupt in June | Also suffering from Toronto’s
sluggish economy is Sean Traynor, let go as executive
chef of Hemispheres in the Metropolitan Hotel. Meanwhile,
the newest branch of the SoHo Metropolitan hotel has
opened near SkyDome after numerous delays. That means
a welcome return for showcase restaurant Senses under
chef Claudio Aprile.
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| OTHER
OUTPOSTS
Aventura, FL
Scott Fredel (Rumi in South Beach) has ventured out
on his own to open Pilar, named for Ernest Hemingway’s
fishing boat. Fredel, a licensed fishing captain, will
feature local Florida seafood on the contemporary American
menu.
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Denver
Richard Sandoval (Tamayo, Maya in NYC) will open Zengo,
a Latin-Asian fusion restaurant, later this year | Campagna
Cucina Toscana has closed in Telluride.
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Monterey, CA
Josh Thomsen is executive sous-chef for The Lodge at
Pebble Beach. Most recently, he was chef de cuisine
at Simon Kitchen and Bar at the Hard Rock Hotel and
Casino in Las Vegas.
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