You can read this and more tomorrow in Jennifer Chandler’s column, but here’s a little more on the Ciao Bella saga. Seems that Pei Wei is moving into another location in the Sanderlin center and only one restaurant is allowed in the strip center. But since it’s not there yet and construction hasn’t started, Ciao Bella owners are trying to work out a deal to stay on a bit longer. I’ve heard a few rumors on possible new locations, but I can’t share anything until I get confirmation–now it’s nothing more than gossip. The good news is that it seems like they’re really serious about opening elsewhere.
Also, possibly Wednesday night but officially by Thursday night, Tuscany opens in the former La Tourelle location. Northern Italian food nightly, plus Sunday brunch. Looking forward to trying this one…
And Marena’s has closed.
Restaurant business
Responses to “A few early bits”
August 8th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Thanks for the update on Ciao Bella and the other restaurant news. This is what I expect from the CA - current local information. That is why I was so surprised to see the reprint of the Mark Bittman story on 101 foods as that lead article in today’s food section.
I read that article in the July 18th issue of the New York Times. Not only has it been weeks since it was printed, but since the article got 400 comments on the nytimes.com site, Mark has already written an update - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/dining/08mini.html.
Since the original article was popular I could see printing a reference to it or a summary of it in the CA food section to bring it to the attention of people who may not have seen it. But having the lead article in the CA Food Section be a three-week old reprint of an article from a widely-read national newspaper is not what I expect to see. I thought the food section was going to focus more on local stories or if not local, at least unique stores that we haven’t already read elsewhere.
Your recent ice cream article was exactly the sort of interesting, fun article with real local flavor that seemed perfect for the CA. I was really surprised to see that after that you would go back to just running wire stories.
August 8th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
I’m glad you liked the ice cream story–I had fun writing it, too.
I was on vacation last week and wasn’t here to handle it when the story that was assigned fell through–that sometimes happens and sometimes the only answer is to go to the wire. This was a good article, people love easy meal stories, and since most of our readers don’t read the New York Times, this was new to them. Back to local next week!
August 8th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Oh man, sorry to hear about Marena’s closing. That place has been near and dear to my heart for years.
August 9th, 2007 at 9:41 am
Speaking of local - Today’s entry in the Serious Eats blog is all about Ed Levine’s trip to Memphis to eat fried chicken. The Best Fried Chicken in the World Might Be Gus’s - http://www.seriouseats.com/required_eating/2007/08/the-best-fried-chicken-might-b.html
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