David Myers (Sona and Boule Patisserie) scrapped plans to open a Japanese small plates restaurant at 8479 Melrose Ave. (L.A.), instead taking a crack at modern brasserie dining with the launch of Comme Ça this summer. • Gonpachi opens this month at 134 N. La Cienega Blvd. (Beverly Hills), serving Japanese-style steak, handmade soba, pristine sushi, and sumi yaki (traditional charcoal grilled meats and vegetables). Exec chef Yukio Sakai is formerly of Beverly Hills' defunct tofu palace Umenohana. • Eric Greenspan, an alum of Patina and Meson G, has taken the entrepreneurial plunge with the launch of Foundry (7463 Melrose Ave. in L.A.), for upscale American comfort food. • Chef/owner Bret Thompson, formerly of the reconfigured Patina Group, channels his inner child at his hip ice cream parlor Milk, which opened in February at 7290 Beverly Blvd. (L.A.). Along with sandwiches, salads, and classic breakfast grub, Milk fixates on ice cream treats such as sundaes, shakes, floats, and sandwiches. Pastry chef Richard Yoshimura is also a Patina Group vet. • The Huntley Hotel (Santa Monica) originally toyed with turning its rooftop space, former site of Toppers, into Sea, with Rodelio Aglibot, but shifted gears and opened in February as The Penthouse with a global menu by Michael Reidt, an émigré from Sevilla in Santa Barbara.
Citing unreasonable rent hikes, Star Restaurant Group (SRG) shuttered Red Sage in December. Dan Mesches, president and CEO of SRG, has placed as many Red Sage employees as possible at the company's other venues. Red Sage exec chef Eddie Marine is now at Indigo Landing as exec sous chef working under Bryan Moscatello, and assorted sous chefs, managers, and staffers have landed at Zola and Spy City Cafe. Also in the works are two new concepts for the company, so stay tuned. • Back from two years exploring Brazil and Europe, Herbert Kreschbaumer (previously owner of Bistro Bernoise) bought the struggling Le Pigalle at 1527 17th St. and retooled it as the intimate Jack's Restaurant & Bar in January with a moderately priced menu peppered with dishes inspired by his travels. His wife, Thelma Kerschbaumer is handling the front of the house. • D'Acqua opened in December in the Penn Quarter (801 Pennsylvania Ave. N. W.) with a seafood-driven Italian menu. Co-owners Francesco Ricchi (also owner of Bethesda's Cesco) and Enzo Febbraro (formerly of Filomena Ristorante) are sharing kitchen duties. • Mio, with a product-driven American menu, opens at 1110 Vermont Ave. N.W. this month. Owners are Manuel Iguina (recently an Oyamel manager), Domingo Rodriguez (a banker and restaurant industry newbie), and exec chef JohnPaul Damato (ex-Jaleo chef).
Paul Russell morphed his Asian-themed Restaurant Oolong into Portland's Restaurant and Bar, a Continental steakhouse with a bistro feel, in January. Exec chef Joseph L. Boudreau decamped from MIMS Brasserie. • In December John Hughes, chef/owner of Windows on the Water (Kennebunk), cut the red ribbon on White Porch Bistrot, appropriately situated on Window's scenic enclosed porch and serving casual pubfare.
Last August when Guenter Seeger announced he was closing his eponymous eatery and the city rallied—as did new investors—he committed to stay put. But in December Seeger's closed for real. "I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do. I'm taking a little break, but I doubt I'll stay in Atlanta," Seeger notes of his future plans. "I've been here for over 20 years, and I want to take my brand someplace else." Tom Catherall, chef/owner of Here to Serve Restaurants (Prime, Noche, and Goldfish, among others), turned the Seeger's space into an affordable fine dining concept, Posh, in January. Unable to resist the lure of the space's top-notch kitchen, Catherall is back at the stoves full time as exec chef. This summer he'll open the Italianate Lola. — Citing surrounding construction and parking problems, MidCity Cuisine closed in December. Managing principal Sean Boyd and partners are hoping to find a new home for the popular restaurant.
Windy City native Ryan Poli left Butter in January to open his own yet-to-be-named restaurant in Scottsdale, AZ. Meanwhile, back at Butter, sous chef Lee Wolen climbed to the top of the kitchen ladder. New to the restaurant is gm Kristin Aleshire, a seasoned manager for Really Nice Restaurants, which owns Butter. • Narra (in Evanston's Hotel Orrington), where Jacky Pluton was concept chef, served its last designer steak in December. The hotel will open a new restaurant later this spring and at press time was courting several different A-list chefs and restaurateurs to run the show. • The Dining Room at The Ritz-Carlton Chicago (A Four Seasons Hotel) was reinvented in January as banquet space. While the hotel isn't introducing another upscale fine dining venue, exec chef Mark Payne has dressed up The Café menu. • Le Lan replaced chef de cuisine Andy Motto with Bill Kim, formerly chef de cuisine at Charlie Trotter's. Korean born Kim integrates flavors from his homeland into the new menu and has enlisted his mom to consult and tutor the staff in the art of dumpling-making.
Five Restaurant & Street Lounge, on life support since canning opening chef Stewart Woodman last fall, finally bit the dust in January. Another upscale casualty is Restaurant Levain, which served its last meal New Year's Eve. Owner Harvey McLain plans to reopen the space as a neighborhood bistro. Chef Steven Brown is exploring his options. And to add insult to injury, after a nearly 10 year run, chef/co-owner Doug Flicker shuttered Auriga in January. • Graves 601 Hotel recruited Stephen Trojahn, who made his name at NYC's 21 and recently was exec chef at Daufuskie Island Resort (Hilton Head, SC), to helm its signature restaurant Cosmos. Another new face at Graves is pastry chef Khanh Tran, who worked at Auriga and Levain. Trojahn also serves as corp exec chef for the hotel's parent company, Minneapolis-based Graves Hotels Resorts, which is duplicating the concept starting with Graves Hotel Chicago (summer '09).
Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts tapped two industry titans, Joachim Splichal (L.A.'s Patina Group) and Nick Valenti (NYC's Restaurant Associates), to produce a 175 seat Patina on the Center's redesigned plaza. Look for a fall 2009 opening. "To some extent it will be a spin-off of L.A.'s Patina, with the same exciting wine and innovative cheese and tea programs, but the menu will be totally new because of the different market," notes Splichal. "It's an iconic location, and the restaurant will be cutting-edge in both design and menu." NYC–based Diller Scofidio & Renfro is creating a glass-enclosed space, taking full advantage of views of the famous reflecting pool plaza. This will be Splichal's NYC debut as well as the first Patina outside of L.A. and the first venture of the newly formed bicoastal Patina Restaurant Group, the consolidated successor company to Restaurant Associates restaurant division and Patina Group. "We are a boutique collection of restaurants and premium foodservice operations with over 50 venues coast to coast," explains Valenti, CEO of the new company. (The B&I sector of the company still exists as Restaurant Associates.) • Beckoning the wine-curious is Varietal (138 W. 25th St.), which opened in December replete with a 75 wines-by-the-glass list, flights, tasting notepads, and an innovative wine-friendly menu by Ed Witt, who cooked recently at Il Buco. Pastry chef is Jordan Kahn, whose Per Se (NYC) and Alinea (Chicago) pedigree is reflected in such provocative desserts as celery root abstract with fenugreek toffee. Owner/ sommelier Greggory J. Hockenberry returns to the industry after a stint as an estate planner. • In January Wayne Nish and Joseph Scalice recast their tony March as the dressed-downed Nish, serving an à la carte fusion menu sans tablecloths. March's chef, Harold Moore, is no longer in the kitchen. • After less than a year, Michael Psilakis and Donatella Arpaia shuttered the wildly popular Dona in January because the building that housed it was sold. At press time they were looking for a new space. Also in January Psilakis closed Onera, brought Arpaia on board as partner, and reopened as Kefi ("high spirits" in Greek) with an affordable rustic menu and matching interior. And this month they opened Anthos, serving upscaled Greek, at 36 W. 52nd St. • Is the city in the throes of a newfangled burger joint glut? Joining the likes of BLT Burger and Danny Meyer's seasonal Shake Shack are two notable Manhattan newcomers: BRGR (287 Seventh Ave.), the creation of Chris Russell (an owner of Moomba and Sage), and Stand (265 W. 12th St.), owned by Jonathan Morr (also an owner of noodle haven Republic), both opened in December. In Brooklyn, Minnow and Bar Minnow were reborn (under new ownership) in December as Brooklyn Burger Bar. Finally, with two Manhattan venues, New York Burger Co. plans to franchise, beginning with locations that radiate out from the metropolitan area. • In December Sumile added sushi to its menu, created by Toshio Oguma (who has worked in Tokyo and NYC), and changed its name to Sumile Sushi. Evan Rich, late of Jovia, joins chef/owner Josh DeChellis at the stoves. • In February Steven Crane cloned his Greenwich Village mainstay Pó in Brooklyn at 276 Smith St. Jonathan Casteel, the gm at the original, is partner at the Brooklyn venture. Chef Lee McGrath serves the same menu at both places. Sasha Muniak, owner of Gusto Ristorante e Bar Americano, opened Centro Vinoteca (74 Seventh Ave.), a bi-level Italian restaurant, in February. Chef Anne Burrell is best known as Mario Batali's spiky-haired sous chef on Iron Chef. • Having successfully moved Tocqueville around the corner last year, owners Marco Moreira and Jo-Ann Makovitsky turned its former home into a Japanese-inspired restaurant, 15 East. Moreira is chef, and Jewel Bako alum Masato Shimizu presides over the sushi bar. • Ken Aretsky bought out his partners at Patroon and is now sole owner. Andrew Kleiman, the new gm, boasts a stellar lineup of NYC front-of-the-house experience and Bill Peet, who clocked 12 years at Lutéce, recently took over kitchen duties from Craig Atwood. • The new exec chef at Le Cirque is Christophe Bellanca, who decamps from the recently closed L'Orangerie (L.A.). Bellanca's predecessor, Pierre Schaedelin continues to work for Sirio Maccioni and at press time was in the Dominican Republic exploring business possibilities. • Daniel Levy makes the leap from chef de cuisine to exec chef at Aix Brasserie so that chef Didier Virot and his partner, Philip Kirsh, can focus on their latest venture, FR.OG, to open this month. • Sascha, which lost namesake chef Sascha Lyon last fall, closed in December. • Steven Hanson pulled the plug on Barça 18 in January.
