Richard: NoVa bound

Note: This story was updated on 4:36 p.m. Monday.

The rumors appear to be true: Michel Richard, the city’s most celebrated chef, will shift his “home” base to the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner, where he will open a new, fine-dining restaurant in the former Maestro space. It’s not clear yet what the move could mean for Citronelle, Richard’s current home at the Latham Hotel and one of D.C.’s most-honored restaurants, and whether the chef would abandon the spot completely.

Michel Richard Restaurants mailed a packet of information to potential investors last week, seeking nearly $2 million to develop the 5,000-square-foot, 110-seat restaurant inside the Ritz. The celebrity chef, according to the document,  “plans to enter into a 10-year primary lease on or about April 30, 2009″ for the dining space made famous by chef Fabio Trabocchi, who left Maestro in September 2007. The restaurant has been dark since then.

“Citronelle is not closing…Michel’s offices are still there, his kitchen that he loves is still there, and business is going on as usual,” says Mel Davis, PR coordinator for Richard. “I have to reiterate, there are no plans to move or close Citronelle from the Latham hotel.”

Mark Sherwin, general manager for the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner, emphasized that no contract has been signed for the Maestro space. “We continue to talk to a number of high-profile chefs,” Sherwin said. The Ritz has narrowed the list down to three different groups, the GM added, but Sherwin wasn’t at liberty to name any of them.

Read More “Michel Richard Plans to Move His Home Base to Tysons Corner” »

The newspaper business is totally in the crapper, to use an old expression that’s not likely to jumpstart your appetite this morning.  Y&H just read this piece in Time magazine. Pretty depressing stuff for ink-stained wretches like us. So let’s get to the daily newspaper Food sections while they’re still around.

• Green Inc. reports that the wine industry has been laggingbehind beer and soda manufacturers in creating lighter bottles. Well, they better get wid it. Could prevent crimes such as this.

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Eater.com is reporting the B.R. Guest has closed Fiamma, the Soho Italian restaurant that earned its share of respect under the stewardship of former Maestro chef Fabio Trabocchi. Frank Bruni at the New York Times gave the restaurant three stars (though he later scolded Fiamma for jacking up its prices shortly after his review.) The Times‘ stamp, however, couldn’t save the drowning place in a sinking economy.

Eater posted B.R. Guest’s official response on the matter. You can read it after the jump. In the meantime, it’s time to kick start the Where in the World Will Fabio Trabocchi Land? game. Trabocchi was reportedly a partner in the Fiamma enterprise, so presumably B.R Guest president and founder Stephen Hanson bought out Trabocchi’s stake so he could start his events company in the old Fiamma space. So where does that leave Trabocchi? Will he remain in New York or will he return to D.C. as some have speculated? (Obviously, the speculation was based on a partnership with B.R. Guest, but he could still return, yes?)

Read More “Former Maestro Chef Trabocchi Out of Work as Fiamma Closes” »

Food & Wine recently published a short interview with former Maestro chef Fabio Trabocchi who talks about his dirt-poor upbringing in the remote Marche region of Italy. Despite having a wardrobe that consisted of “three shirts and three pairs of pants,” Trabocchi says his family “never stinted on Christmas.”

“A few days before Christmas, we would go from farm to farm to collect the ingredients we needed from family friends, who would set aside food for us—from the mushrooms and the eggs for the lasagna to the pork rib roast,” recalls Trabocchi (an F&W Best New Chef 2002). “I was always the first one to jump into the car to go shopping.”

Read More “Put a Little Fabio into Your Christmas Dinner” »