Last month Peter Hoffman and Susan Rosenfeld, who persisted in dancing the local seasonal trot at Savoy long before it was trendy, added Back Forty (190 Ave. B), serving American classics in a tavern setting, to their repertoire. Back Forty is a Midwestern agricultural term for the less accessible and less developed land, usually 40 acres, on a farm. Partner is longtime Savoy manager Jerry Winter. Chef de cuisine Shanna Pacifico is back from European travels after stints cooking at both Savoy and Town. • The indefatigable Stephen Hanson and his B.R. Guest Restaurants opened Primehouse New York (381 Park Ave. South) in September. All beef is dry-aged on-site in a Himalayan rock salt sheathed aging room. Exec chef is David Burke disciple Jason Miller, and it shows in playful dishes like Kobe beef tootsie rolls and tri-color beet and goat cheese maki rolls. • And early next year Hanson will install his David Rockwell–designed Wildwood Barbecue in the former home of Barça 18 (225 Park Ave. South). • Kerry Heffernan, formerly exec chef of Eleven Madison Park and Hudson Yards Catering, will command the stoves of 154 South Gate, opening this month in the Jumeirah Essex House (still known to Manhattanites as "The Essex House"). The space, formerly home to Café Botanica, got an A-lister sprucing-up at the hands of Tony Chi. • High-end Lebanese fare in a sexy setting is on the agenda at ilili, which opened last month at 236 Fifth Ave. Chef/owner is Philippe Massoud, who recently did menu development for Neyla (Washington, D.C.). • Shortly after owner Rakesh Aggarwal closed Dévi in August, co-chefs Suvir Saran and Hemant Muthur bought it and reopened last month. • In December Hervé Rousseau will unveil a Continental sibling of his NYC luxe bubbly lounge Flûte in Paris at 19 Rue de L'Étoile. • This month François Payard clones Payard Pâtisserie & Bistro, his NYC pastry and chocolate temple, in Las Vegas at Caesars Palace. Overseeing daily operation is co-exec chef Gregory Gourreau, recently of Mix. • Marco Canora and Paul Grieco, who together own Hearth and Insieme, nabbed the storefront space down the street (413 E. 12th St.) for an Italianate nibble and sip venture, Terroir, opening this month. • Along similar lines, the chef/owner of Peasant, Frank DeCarlo, opened a Venetian cicchetti bar, Bacaro, last month at 136 Division St. • Josh Eden, who earned his pedigreed kitchen chops from 12 years cooking at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's restaurants, opened the diminutive 32 seat Shorty's.32 (199 Prince St.) in September. • This month Chika and Don Tillman, who own the ever packed dessert restaurant ChikaLicious, opened ChikaLicious Puddin' across the street (204 E. 10th St.), where they peddle brioche bread, steamed apples, and adult chocolate puddings on a take-out basis only. They also plan on doing "restaurant dessert support," one-stop dessert shopping for restaurants without the resources to maintain a full-tilt pastry department and oven-to-table desserts for special events. • The latest pastry chef to open his own place is Jehangir Mehta (an alum of Aix and Jean Georges), who unveiled Graffiti (224 E. 10th St.) in September. • Mark Grossich, cocktail lounge impresario and owner of The Campbell Apartment, among others, opened his first restaurant, Madison & Vine, last month in The Library Hotel. • Down the pike: The Spotted Pig team is opening the fish themed John Dory (85 10th Ave.). Exec chef/partner April Bloomfield will be joined in the kitchen by chef de cuisine Sara Ochs, who has a way with fish from her years at Esca. • Patricia Yeo is no longer exec chef/partner at Sapa and is devoting her full attention to Monkey Bar. Sapa chef de cuisine Gavin Portsmouth was promoted to top toque. • With the departure of chef de cuisine Craig Hopson, Terrance Brennan has restructured the kitchen at Picholine. Hopson, who moved to One If by Land, Two If by Sea to take over from Gary Volkov, is replaced by Scott Quis, who hails from the kitchens of Café Boulud. Also new is exec sous chef Jason Hua, who clocked four years at Jean Georges and replaces Blake Joyal. • The Second Avenue Deli finally has a new home, albeit not on Second Ave., and reopens this month at 162 E. 33rd St.
Never one to rest on his laurels, Philly-based Stephen Starr continues to expand and rework his impressive portfolio. In Atlantic City, he's developing two concepts: Teplitzky's, a coffee bar by day, cocktail bar by night, designed for young hipsters; and Chelsea Prime, a steakhouse. Both go into The Chelsea, the boutiquey redo of a defunct Holiday Inn and Howard Johnson currently underway. And on the home front, in addition to morphing the former Blue Angel/Angelina space into a yet-to-be-determined venue, keep your eyes peeled for the Francophilic Parc Bistro, coming to the Parc Rittenhouse condos next spring. We also hear that Starr is respinning the menu at Tangerine in the direction of Mediterranean small plates. Finally, Starr confirmed rumors that he's laying groundwork for a Mexican place on the University of Pennsylvania campus, right near Chilango, the culinary homage to Mexico City being opened next spring by his former employee Jose Garces. A little friendly competition is good for business, right?
In September, Amy Tornquist, owner of the Durham-based Sage & Swift Gourmet Catering Company and original chef at the Nasher Museum Café, launched her first solo restaurant, Watts Grocery (1116 Board St.). When she isn't busy making locally spun dishes like pickled eggs, buttermilk fried chicken, and homemade pimento cheese, Tornquist is scoping out a location for Blue Bird, a Southern bake shop to open in 2008. • Giorgios Bakatsais and his Durham-based Giorgios Hospitality Group have taken over at The Nasher and redubbed it Giorgios at The Nasher Museum Café. Chef de cuisine is Michael Schmitt, recently a self-described "line dog" at the lauded Four Square Restaurant (Durham). • Dale Ray, who worked as exec chef at Noble's Restaurant (Charlotte) earlier in his career and more recently at Bin 54 (Chapel Hill), has returned to the Jim Noble Restaurants fold as exec chef/partner at Noble's Grille (Winston-Salem). Ray replaces Eric Kirkeeng.
Chef Frank Bonanno and wife Jacqueline Bonanno, who together own Denver's Mizuna and Luca D'Italia, opened Osteria Marco last month at 1453 Larimer St. (Denver). Beefing up the menu of house-made cheeses and house-cured meats are rotisseried meats and thin-crust pizzas. • Exec chef/partner Sean Huggard and owner/restaurateur Steve Whited, dual owners of Denver's Black Pearl, opened Encore this month in the redeveloped historic Lowenstein Theater. • Bruce David, who spent the last 10 years cooking in the Caribbean, brings his tropical sensibilities to Arvada (just outside Denver); he'll open an at-press-time-still-unnamed waterfront place on Hidden Lake this month. • Last month, Kurt Boucher, former exec chef at The Pine Creek Cookhouse (Aspen), opened his own restaurant, The Butcher's Table (122 N. F St., Salida), serving "high alpine cuisine" derived from locally sourced ingredients.
The rebound from Katrina continues. Dominique Macquet, chef/partner at Dominique's At The Maison Dupuy Hotel, brings his style of French Quarter fine dining to nearby Metairie with the launch of Bistro 38 by Dominique in the New Orleans Marriott Metairie at Lakeway. The property, formerly a Doubletree Hotel devastated by Katrina, reopened last summer after a massive renovation. Overseeing the kitchen is Adrian Cordes, exec chef for the entire property. Sous chef Liam Doran, who hails from New Orleans' Windsor Court Hotel, executes Macquet's menu on a nightly basis. • John Besh snagged the venerable René Bajeaux, whose René Bistrot in NOLA never fully reopened after Katrina, as exec chef/partner at La Provence (Lacombe). Steven McHugh, who was helming the La Provence kitchen, is now corporate chef for Besh Restaurant Group and responsible for all off-site catering and banquet events associated with August, Lüke, La Provence, and Besh Steak. • Table 1, one of the first new restaurants to open in NOLA post-Katrina, closed in September, but at press time we heard that the owners were transforming the space into a casual, wallet-friendly spot to open this month. • NOLA-based Emeril Lagasse expanded his holdings with the launch of Emeril's Gulf Coast Fish House in the Island View Casino Resort (Gulfport, MS). Chef de cuisine Steve D'Angelo worked for Lagasse both before and after opening his Bay City Grill (Bay St. Louis), which he was forced to shutter due to hurricane damage.
Naomi Pomeroy (formerly Naomi Hebberoy) of the fallen Ripe empire made her triumphant return to the stoves with the September launch of Beast (5425 N.E. 30th St.) Owner is Micah Camden, also chef/owner of the neighboring Yakuza. Pomeroy and sous chef Mika Paredes, who comes from clarklewis, are serving a six course, $45 prix-fixe menu of rusticated French-inspired fare at two long communal tables seating a mere 26. Is Pomeroy excited to leave ownership, the Holy Grail for most chefs, behind? "Can I just say 'Hell, yeah!'" she declares. "At our height, between Ripe, Gotham Bldg. Tavern, and clarklewis, we had 95 employees (and I was only 30!)." • Meanwhile, clarklewis, the last surviving Ripe enterprise, is now owned by veteran restaurateur Bruce Carey, owner of 23Hoyt, Saucebox, and Bluehour, who recruited two rising stars from the L.A. dining scene to lead the kitchen, chef Daniel Mattern and pastry chef Roxana Jullipat, whose combined résumés include stints at Campanile, Lucques, and A.O.C. • The new pastry diva at Paley's Place is Lauren Fortgang (formerly Lauren Dawson), who decamped from NYC, where she baked at Craft and Hearth. She replaced Wednesday Wild-Wilson (yes, that's right, Wednesday Wild-Wilson) who's taking time off to have a baby. • The new exec chef at Olea restaurant is Aaron Barnett, late of Desert Sage Restaurant (La Quinta, CA), who takes over from Daniel Mondok.
In September San Francisco's Fifth Floor, which has been chefless since Melissa Perello's departure, lassoed Laurent Manrique, corp exec chef of Aqua Development Corp., as consulting chef. Manrique and his culinary team will roll out a new menu in early 2008. As for Perello, she's keeping her cards close to her vest. "I don't have my plans quite firmed up as of yet, but I'm definitely enjoying the time off!" she reports. • Locavores and others who fret over the carbon footprint of bananas will flock to Fish & Farm, which opened last month at 345 Taylor St. adjacent to the Mark Twain Hotel. Most of the food on the menu comes from within a 100 mile radius of the restaurant. Exec chef Michael Morrison, via Ame, is doing classic dishes with a rustic bent. Owners are siblings John and Elena Duggan, third generation owners of Original Joe's. • Prana, serving Pan-Asian fare in an East-West setting, opened in September at 540 Howard St. Chef James Jardine comes from locally based Joie de Vivre Hospitality. Owner is industry newcomer Paul Hemming. • Sens Restaurant, serving sustainable Mediterranean fare with special feelings for North Africa, Turkey, and Greece, opened last month at 4 Embarcadero Center. Exec chef is Michael Dotson (who worked at Evvia Estiatorio in Palo Alto); pastry chef is Shuna Lydon (formerly of Citizen Cake and Yountville's The French Laundry). • Next month the locally based Lark Creek Restaurant Group will spawn a fourth outpost of its New England–style seafood house, Yankee Pier, in nearby Lafayette (3593 Mount Diablo Blvd.). Michael Dunn, chef from the Santana Row Yankee Pier, will take the helm at Lafayette. Erica Holland Toll, recently of Americano, is now chef at The Lark Creek Inn (Larkspur), replacing Jonathan Wright.
