Restaurant,
wife Maria is Spanish.) There will be such dishes as Mallorcan-style Maine lobster; ahi tuna with sea urchin and pimenton; paella with charcoal-grilled red king prawns; and a Spanish tortilla of potato and caviar. The 11,500-squarefoot space extends over two floors, with a view-filled upstairs patio, plus two bars and a pair of open kitchens.
MAKE-OVERS IN LONDON
One of London’s most glamorous restaurants is about to gain a sibling. Bob Bob Cité, scheduled to open in the City of London financial district in January, is the first offshoot of Bob Bob Ricard, a favorite of celebrities and the fashion crowd. Every table is in a booth equipped with a call button to summon emergency supplies of champagne. The new executive chef is Eric Chavot, a quirky culinary genius.
Meanwhile, Duddell’s, a Hong Kong restaurant famed for its stylish ambience and modern interpretation of Cantonese cuisine, will open a London outpost in November. It will be housed in historic St. Thomas Church, at London Bridge, in a space that will feature year-round art exhibitions. Duddell’s holds two Michelin stars in Hong Kong, where it is a fashionable destination for dining.
Tom Kerridge, the only chef in the world to hold two Michelin stars for a pub, is coming to London, too. He’s known for his rustic cooking at the Hand & Flowers in Marlow, more than an hour west of the capital, and will now be serving a decidedly up-market crowd. His as-yet unnamed restaurant will open around the end of the year in the five-star Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel, in Knightsbridge.
NOMA RETURNS HOME
Copenhagen-based Noma, four times winner of the World’s Best Restaurant award, will soon have a new home. Chef Rene Redzepi has closed the original waterside warehouse location and will reopen in the nearby Christiania neighborhood in the coming months. The restaurant will be housed in an urban farm with a greenhouse on the roof. There’s no confirmed date for the opening.
GOING GRAINY IN MADRID
Mario Sandoval made his family restaurant Coque a destination in the village of Humanes outside Madrid. Now the vegetable-obsessed, two-star Michelin chef has found a space in the city, in a former club in the Chamberi district. The 60-seat Coque Madrid features two tasting menus with dishes from the country’s 17 regions. His signature suckling pig — with such garnishes as passion fruit, changing with the season — has stayed on the menu, but Sandoval is turning his attention to grain-based dishes in the new space. The original restaurant has become a cooking school.
AMERICA GOES TO HONG KONG
When PDT opens in the Landmark, Mandarin Oriental in November fans of the famed New York bar will find a lot that’s familiar: The entrance will be through a phone booth, and drinks will include the rum-and-marmaladebased Paddington and the Benton’s old fashioned. What will be different is an interior design by noted architect Nelson Chow and a serious food menu from Richard Ekkebus, chef of the Mandarin’s two-Michelin-starred Amber. There will still be PDT’s signature hot dogs, tater tots, and fries, “but now they’ll be custom made,” said PDT cofounder Jim Meehan. “The biggest difference is that in New York, we don’t have a chef; in Hong Kong, we very much do.”
As proof of the growing appeal of Mexican food around the world, Esdras Ochoa, who headed up LA’s acclaimed Salazar, has brought his al pastor tacos to 11 Westside. In a Kennedy Town space with a terrace, Ochoa is serving tableside guacamole, grilled corn with cheese and lime, and grilled snapper with freshly made tortillas. He’s teamed up with mixologist Daniel Eun (of LA’s Varnish) who is operating two bars in the space: one with lots of tequila cocktails and another, named the Wilshire, featuring expertly made classics.
SYDNEY MEETS SINGAPORE
Blackwattle will be the second restaurant from Clayton Wells, renowned chef of Sydney’s Automata. Set in a two-story house, Wells’s 50-seat restaurant will feature familiar Singaporean influences. Mud crab is served with pumpkin seeds, egg yolk jam, and white pepper broth; smoked duck will be accompanied by fermented pumpkin and pumpkin seed miso; and a dessert of buttermilk ice cream will have black sesame, kumquat, tangelo, and mandarin. Wells will offer a five-course tasting menu, as well as à la carte options. Upstairs, the bar area will serve cocktails and a small bar snacks menu.
MISH-MASH OF AUSSIE DELIGHTS.
A funky, three-story building that looks like an off-kilter stack of bowls is the setting for Matt Moran’s Barangaroo House. Designed by Sydney architects Collins and Turner, the eyecatching, greenery-filled space will highlight separate concepts on each floor, featuring top local produce to showcase Sydney’s food scene. Moran has enlisted Australia native and Noma alum Cory Campbell to head the kitchens for his ambitious project. The ground floor with feature a bar and casual menu; the second floor will contain a more ambitious dining room; and the rooftop lounge will feature expansive views of Darling Harbor. — Bloomberg