Kitchen Dish
WELCOME FABIO
Fiamma (206 Spring St. at Sullivan Street, 212-653-0100) reopened for previews on Monday— meaning a 20% discount until next Monday — with chef Fabio Trabocchi heading the kitchen, replacing Michael White.
Mr. Trabocchi won high praise as chef de cuisine of Maestro at the Ritz-Carlton at Tysons Corner in McLean, Va., and received the James Beard Foundation Award in 2006 for best chef in the mid-Atlantic. He is originally from the Italian region of Le Marche.
BOOKISH EATER
Madison & Vine (299 Madison Ave. at 41st Street, 212-867-5535), which opened for dinner in the Library Hotel a few nights ago, opens for lunch today. It is the first restaurant of cocktail lounge impresario Mark Grossich, who owns the World Bar at the Trump World Tower, the Carnegie Club in CitySpire Centre, the Campbell Apartment in Grand Central Terminal, and Bookmarks, also located in the Library Hotel.
Chef Carmelo Cruz is dishing up burgers, chicken paillard, hanger steak, cobb salad, and the like. Anthony Roberts, recently the assistant beverage director of Gilt, is the sommelier, pouring 20 wines by glass.
JIMMY'S NEW ADDITION
Phillip Kirschen-Clark is the new executive chef of Jimmy's No. 43. (43 E. 7th St., between Second and Third avenues, 212-982-3006). Most recently working on the fish line at WD-50, Mr. Kirschen-Clark studied cooking at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and at the Thai Cookery School in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He also has apprenticed in Italy.
His menu items for the fall include seared scallops with corn and zucchini over mesclun greens, skirt steak with grilled vegetables and fingerling potatoes, and shepherd's pie.
COCKTAIL COMEBACK
What was once Mbar is scheduled to re-emerge as Randolph at Broome (354 Broome St., between Elizabeth Street and the Bowery, 212-274-0667) tomorrow. Mike Cannady is in charge of the music, which will be a mix of new wave, 1980s, independent, and electronic. Beers are $5–$7. Wine is $7–$9 a glass. Cocktails start at $10.
A TASTE FOR GELATO
Yoláto, the chain of yogurt gelato shops, is scheduled to open several more locations this week — three in Manhattan, and one at the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus, N.J.
The New York locations are at the Empire State Building, at 125 Park Ave. at 41st Street, and at 180 Lafayette St., between Grand and Broome streets.
The Lafayette Street store will be the company's new corporate office and will have a kitchen for training franchisees.
Mr. Thorn is food editor of Nation's Restaurant News. He maintains nrnfoodwriter.blogspot.com.
