Movable Feasts
Interesting developments on the food front: Today's Times brings news that three of the city's top chefs are leaving their current posts to focus on other endeavors. Tom Colicchio, long the heart and soul of Gramercy Tavern, plans to focus on his ever-growing series of Craft restaurants. (The subtext here is that Frank Bruni's crappy review of Craftsteak cost one of New York's best restaurant's one of New York's best chefs. Nice going, Frank. Still, you've got to love a guy who tells you that he needs more focus in a call from a golf course.) Thor's Kurt Gutenbrunner departs from that LES funhouse to "concentrate on his restaurants that better reflect his Austrian roots." And Paul Liebrandt, who restrained his more baroque impulses as the chef at in the Palace Hotel, has nonetheless been canned, presumably for being too edgy.
Unfortunately, there's no confirmation of the rumor that Mario Batali is shuttering Otto "to spend more time nailing Melissa Auf der Maur."
