All stories about "Drew Nieporent"
Visiting San Francisco over the weekend to help close Rubicon's doors for the last time, Drew Nieporent compares the dining scenes of San Francisco and New York, pretty much expounding how difficult economics can be in SF: ingredients are key, rent is much higher than in New York (doubled, even), there are half as many turns during service, wine markups don't work as well as they do here, and the number one difference according to the Myriad bossman: "people go to restaurants in San Francisco for the food, not the mood." [Between Meals via Eater SF]
Drew Nieporent is closing Rubicon, his one restaurant on the west coast: "Rubicon will close next Monday for an 'indefinite amount of time,'...because of some structural issues, the building is in need of a retrofit." [Eater SF]
All-Star Sighting: Nieporent Gets Close to the Action
Where was Drew Nieporent last night? First row, behind the screen at the All-Star Game. Not too shabby. Also, he has nothing to do with Bun. [EaterWire]
Nieporent Finally Acknowledges End of Montrachet, Admits He's Working with Liebrandt
Today ends the two-year-long charade of Drew Nieporent insisting that his first and greatest restaurant, Montrachet, didn't close in May of 2006. Via an official statement from his restaurant holding company, Myriad, he's also at long last finished with his lie of the last twelve months, that he and worldwide chef Paul Liebrandt had no plans to resurrect the Montrachet space at 239 West Broadway. Montrachet is, of course, closed for good. At 239 West Broadway a new restaurant named Corton will open 'at the end of Summer 2008' with, of course, Paul Liebrandt as partner and chef. All this confirmation goodness comes in today from official channels and includes—thanks for the bone, Drewski—first mention of the new name and opening date:
DREW NIEPORENT TO OPEN CORTON WITH CHEF PAUL LIEBRANDT >>From the GossipBox, a tip about Paul Liebrandt, the ex-Gilt chef (and blogger), whose anxiously awaited—and long delayed—project is set to go into the old Montrachet space: "I overheard him at Korin on Monday talking about how he needed to find a pastry chef and that the food at his new place is going to be 'just like Gilt's'. From a guy who has failed every restaurant he's ever worked in, it's a wonder he found investors!" [EaterWire; previously]
Restaurant mogul Drew Nieporent is pals with celeb/occasional restaurateur Francis Ford Coppola and let's just say their phone conversations are different from the rest of ours: "'Francis,' as Nieporent was calling him, was concerned at the time that he 'had to get out of Rubicon,' because of some potential conflict with his winery ... The good news was, 'Francis has somebody to take his place. George Lucas!' - none other than the director of Star Wars. Tremble says he heard Nieporent saying 'George Lucas? Have you checked him out? Does he have money?'" [SH via Eater SF]
EaterWire AM Edition: Michael Bao Huynh Gone at Bun, Mai House
Flickr/nycnosh
SOHO/TRIBECA—All at once, Michael Huynh is down to zero restaurants, having just exited both Bun and Mai House, where he had set up shop with Drew Nieporent. Gael Greene has more: "Michael Huynh is out at Bun—couldn’t get along with his partner, he says. Next move: A new noodle shop with new partners in Tribeca on Hudson Street, steps from Mai House where he walked out earlier, never saying he wouldn't be back. 'I'm just opening a little noodle shop for my wife,' he told owner Drew Nieporent, running off to dominate the kitchen at Bun, abandoning the savvy entrepreneur who helped him lift his cooking to new highs of sophistication...As for Bun, 'It's chaos now,' a fan reports." [Insatiable Critic]
Update: Or, perhaps, he's just on vacation.
The Year in Eater: Best Meals of 2007
To close out 2007, Eater once again invited many of our favorite food correspondents to join us in assessing the year's best eats, biggest surprises, and favorite neighborhoods for dining out. We'll begin celebrating the Year in Eater 2007 with a look at the Meals of the Year, Good and Bad.
A rare exterior shot of Momofuku Ssäm Bar, with collectors' edition Ssäm inset; circa August 2006.
Dave Chang, Man of the Year: 2 way tie - tasting menu at wd-50 - popcorn soup, french onion soup, eggs benedict, knot of foie, flat-iron steak, horchata, turbot & bbq lentils, - so tasty & A Voce - all the pastas, gamebird terrine, finished with a small scoop of josh grippa's sorbet.
Mimi Sheraton: La Grenouille..fabulous
Danyelle Freeman, NY Daily News Food Critic, aka The RG: Bad: Wakiya. Let's leave it at that…
Drew Nieporent, No Affiliation to Bun (via phone call): "Taillevent, no question. It was absolutely spectacular. The table top, bread, cheese, service. The roast pigeon!"
The Gotham Gal, Midtown Lunch, and many more are up next. >>Restaurant Liebrandt Will Replace Montrachet, Probably
The last known state of Montrachet, from the Kalina Archive.
Since Eater put a bounty on the location of Restaurant Liebrandt, the new restaurant that Paul Liebrandt has acknowledged is in the works, we've had a few folks come forward with bit and pieces of intel. The common theme of this material is, Restaurant Liebrandt is opening in early 2008 in the space formerly known as Montrachet. But let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
The Dish: Bun, Cantina, The Bourgeois Pig, The Australian, Korhogo, 18 Ave. B, Tarabia Restaurant, 105 Riv
[Bun by Femia, 09/30/2007]
1) Bun: Can't afford the upscale Vietnamese offerings at Drew Nieporent's Mai House? Stop by this tiny 45-seat Soho newcomer. Bun is run by Mai House chef Michael Bao Huynh and his wife Thao Nguyen (both formerly of Bao Noodles and Bao 111). The concept here is Vietnamese small plates, which includes dishes like poached egg with sea urchin and truffle and herb-poached black chicken with fennel, grapefruit, and ginseng broth. Yet another reason to drop in: Huynh and Nguyen are also serving four types of pho. They're hoping to open sometime within the next week. 143 Grand St at Lafayette St; (212) 431-7999 [NY Mag]
2) Cantina: Chef Jason Neroni, sadly best-known now for a kerfuffle that landed him in jail a few months back, is consulting at this East Village Cuban restaurant opening tomorrow night. The menu, per the press materials, features "pan-latin home cooking on small plates, complemented by a large variety of Latin beers and sodas" like the interesting-sounding lamb tongue sandwich with membrillo and almond butter. 29 Ave B between 2nd and 3rd Sts; (212) 228-0599 [TONY]
3) The Bourgeois Pig: East Village wine bar Bourgeois Pig has a new, larger location in which patrons can lounge on plush velvet chairs while sipping libations designed by mixologist Philip Ward of Death & Co. This will be the Pig's only location, as per RareDaily, we learn that the West Village outpost is being turned into a beer bar called, for some reason, 124 Rabbit Club. 111 E 7th St between First Ave and Ave A; (212) 475-2246 [RareDaily]
Midtown, Carroll Gardens, East Village and LES Dish, this way. >>WANTED: The Location of Restaurant Liebrandt ($500 Reward)
There is enough credible buzz in circulation to have us fairly convinced that Paul Liebrandt is opening his Restaurant Liebrandt this fall, perhaps quite soon. There was Thorn's sidebar-reveal, then a bit more from Mouthing Off. Plus, if one wades through copious amounts of Flash at PaulLiebrandt.com, one notes that the restaurant is announced on his site for "Fall 2007" (note screen cap). But -- and here's where this goes off the rails -- that's all we know. Liebrandt will not answer our emails or return our calls, and, much more surprising, he's been able to keep the location completely out of the press elsewhere. Frankly, it's driving us mildly insane.
EaterWire: Liebrandt Getting Awfully Chummy With Drew Nieporent & More!
It's the end of the day, and thus time for a dose of 'wire. Strap in, we've got a lot of ground to cover.
A reader who lives in the neighborhood sends this image of the fire-gutted Sunflower Diner on Third between 26th and 27th Streets.
TRIBECA—The rumor mill is once again churning about Paul Liebrandt's supposed takeover of Montrachet. Drew and Paul have been seen together in public several times of late, such as at Food & Wine's Best New Chefs private dinner party, and there's also word from the pavement of activity at 239 West Broadway, ie. Montrachet. Excerpted from an intrepid tipster's dispatch: "I live around the corner from Montrachet and something is happening. Plenty of people in and out of the space for the first time in months. Just guessing here,but planning for something might be underway." [EaterWire]
LOS ANGELES—The winner of this year's Pulitzer Prize for food journalism has been announced: the recipient is restaurant critic Jonathan Gold of LA Weekly. He's the first food writer to ever win a Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism. [Eater LA]
MIDTOWN WEST—Never have the words "midtown hotel restaurant" excited us as much as they have in conjunction with Johnny Utah's, a bar-restaurant rumored to be opening complete with a mechanical bull. A tipster writes, "Johnny Utah’s will be located in the Rockefeller Center Hotel, 25 West 51st. I believe it’s the old Club Quarters Hotel." Sure enough, there it is on the hotel's website. [EaterWire Inbox]
Ahead, a fire in Murray Hill, an opening in the West Village and the DOH strikes again. >>What of Montrachet?
[Kalina, 9/9/05.]
Montrachet, the critically acclaimed Tribeca French restaurant that has long been the elder statesman of the Myriad Restaurant Group's stable of venues, has been shuttered since late May for renovations, having endured a substantial chef shuffle in September of 2005. It's not closed, see, just temporarily locked up for tweaks, this according to Myriad Restaurant Group and Drew Neiporent, their fearless leader. He has assured us of as much on more than one occasion since Memorial Day '06. Summer renovations? Fine. Delays into September and October? Fine-ish. But now it's February '07 and the once-three-stared (most recently two-starred) Montrachet has been closed for 8 months and it's time to ask the hard question, will Montrachet ever open again?
EaterWire: Montrachet, Snack Dragon, Applewood
· Despite reports of an outright shuttering of the beloved Montrachet, word from Drew is that the restaurant is simply on vacation for the summer and will be back open, 21 years and counting, post Labor Day. [EaterWire]
· As Eater Bonus enthusiasts will have noted, The Villager reports that there may be a third round for the beloved East Village taco shack, Snack Dragon: "While it’s not 100 percent finalized, [owner] Jansen plans to move around the corner from where the Taco Shack originally stood, a space on E. Third St. between Avenue A and B by July 1. Not a shack, but an actual building, Jansen explains that the new spot will be more of “an in-post instead of an out-post.” She plans on having a “drive-thru” style window, where she’ll dish out tacos, as well as stools and a counter inside to eat on." [The Villager]
· "there is new chef de cuisine at Applewood.. Young guy, from upstate ...buying a lot of stuff from up there too.. " [EaterWire Inbox]
Gesualdi Out, Farnabe In at Montrachet
As we had hinted to in late August, Chris Gesualdi (Chris Gesualdi) is no longer in the kitchen at Montrachet. His replacement is Richard Farnabe (pictured), previously of Bruno Jamais, Mercer Kitchen, Lotus and Aigo fame. This is not the first time that Richard will wear a Myriad chef's jacket, having first done so at the Berkely Bar and Grill and even once, as a consultant, at Montrachet.
Farnabe -- a rather racy choice for one of NY's most consistent, classy, and critically star-studded kitchens -- has some controversy in his past. He did not leave Lotus under the best circumstances, having allegedly leaked Rabin and Co.'s private mailing list to his future boss Jamais. That being said, Farnabe's cuisine has always been well-received, so we don't expect Montrachet to take a hit, as long as Farnabe can fly under the Page Six radar.
As to the circumstances surrounding the exit of three-Times-stars recipient Gesualdi, and plans for menu changes at Montrachet, we are awaiting a call back from trading phone calls (we're it) with Drew.
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