More Blood on The Streets: Stephen Trojahn Out at Cosmos

$20 he ends up at Nick & Eddie's?

Dara,

The elephant in the room of course is not the chef, but the restaurant. I've been to Cosmos, La Belle Vie, Bank, Chambers, Porter/Frye exactly once each in the past 24 months. And they'll never again make my short list of "hey, let's go there tonight!" Three weeks ago, I went to downtown D'Amico, on a weeknight. There were a total of three fourtops there, at 8 pm. And a lonely looking solo dude drinking Sambucca at the bar. You're right; it's dying out there. I view this as a good and necessary thing.

We all have our reasons why a restaurant is our favorite.., the chef, the room, the ambience, the history...whatever. For most, though, it's the food and service. So why don't I go to these places more often? They aren't that interesting to me foodwise, and the service is often clumsy. Economically speaking, they are more out of place than a gold plated toilet in a bus station. Face it : these signature restaurants were largely vanity projects / ego trips that got way out of control. Especially given the market. Chicken salad..., chicken youknow. The Gilded age is powering down for a long time. Chefs will lose their jobs and move around. Waitstaff will be cut, and nightly receipts are tubing. Closures will increase, and there will be rending of garments and gnashing of teeth from the foodies and toad-eating sycophants like Zimmern. High concept places (ahem : the much hated by me Chambers Basement Pharmacoepea and Cafeteria), and name chefs that can't deliver the goods are going to be culled.

As I said, it's necessary. This will be an opportunity for the next generation of chefs, restaurants, and concepts to come up. You might be disillusioned that "good work... doesn't translate to...employment." It might help if you think of a restaurant like a play, or a movie. If people aren't leaving satisfied, or happy with the experience, not only are they not gonna come back, they'll tell people about it. That is why they fail.

Later,

Two additional comments :

1. My last sentence is to be read in Yoda's voice.
2. Vincent. Now there's a chef we don't want leaving town.

I understand this move from the short-term payroll standpoint, but if the Graves are truly expecting to open new hotels in the Greater NYC area (as they're telling everyone) then they are going to need a chef like Stephen on staff anyway. And Stephen had the type of well rounded experience and NYC contacts (luxury hotels & resorts, Manhattan's 21-club)that would be required for these types of projects.

There's a great article in the NYTimes today, titled "With Fewer Pots to Stir, Competition Rises Among Chefs", I'll try to link to it but I'm more or less always doing that wrong, so you might have to go to the Times and find it yourself:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/dining/18cooks.html?_r=1&8dpc

Basically, it says we are now emerging from a 'luxury restaurant boom' fueled by the same loose money that fueled the real estate market and that 'Michelin starred chefs' are not the draw they once were. Also that, nationally, restaurants have lost 100,000 employees lately, after a 7 year hiring boom.

That all seems about right to what we're seeing here. Quality may not matter in the face of calamity -- I'd say something here about people trading Vermeers for cabbage in famine-wracked post-war Europe, but I think I'll save that for next week.

Sigh.

I guess the evidence has mounted to the point that it's inarguable: There were too many fine dining chairs in this town. In order to have as many great restaurants as we had in 2004 we may need to add 100,000 in population. The future does look to be in smaller restaurants with good cost-containment (Heidi's).

That said, I was in D'Amico Cucina a couple weeks ago, and, while it was a Friday night, they were only a table or two away from being fully booked and the food was phenomenal. I have a full review in the issue that's now hitting the stands but it's certainly the best Italian restaurant in town, the $60 five-course meal I had seemed well, well worth it, and I predict that it will be one of the restaurants standing when this all ends, both because of excellent quality, both in terms of food and service, but also because I assume they're paying pre-real-estate-boom rent.

Oh, and that NYTimes article definitely leads me to think that the Graves' will have their pick of the city when they open. And now you'll have to excuse me, I'm off to get pizza.

"There were too many fine dining chairs in this town. In order to have as many great restaurants as we had in 2004 we may need to add 100,000 in population."

Agree to disagree I guess, Dara. The absolute number of people is less critical than the proportional amount of discretionary income. That number is heading much lower, and restaurants (esp. high cost places listed in my first post) are going to feel it first.

I was here in 2004, and while we had "fine dining chairs," I wouldn't go so far as to call most of them "great restaurants." A great restaurant, as you consistently write, is more than high priced food or a highly paid chef. It's about commitment, consistency and product. These places went belly-up for a reason : their business model stunk (*cough* Five *cough* Red), and their product/service levels were inconsistent or poor (same coughing). At the end of the night, if expenses > revenue, that's the end times. So many of these places were overpriced marquee places based on coolness factor and/or chef worship. They didn't focus on the basic patron experience of good service/food. And they arrogantly assumed the money train wouldn't stop. It's stopping now, and the tides going back out. We're just starting to see which restaurants have been swimming naked.

The restaurants that continue to do it well, remain attentive to their customers, and focus on their strengths will succeed. Those that totter around with behind the curtain 5th grade level drama are singing the songs of the doomed.

speaking of pizza : you know what, everybody gives it up for Punch, but how about a little love for Solo's pizza. Can I get a Big Tony and a Slice up in here?

Enough with the deification of Stephen Brown. Massively talented chef with absolutely zero ability to work with others. The idea of him managing a corporate gig for the long term is laughable given his employment history. Imagine if he weren't any good as a very creative chef...he seems to have trouble playing well with others, I guess.

Why has it become my job in life to defend Steven Brown?

There is absolutely no evidence in real life to your allegations, Burntside, I've talked to dozens of people who have worked with him and several past employers.

On top of which, what gives you the right to trash a fellow citizen repeatedly on the internet for no reason? Are you an ex girlfriend? Or just a self-important 22 year old drunk on the power of drawing conclusions based on what you've read on other message boards? Brown didn't sign up to be mayor, or senator, or any other paragon of virtue. He's a cook. A great cook. A great cook who got fired from a nice job. Is that someone so important that you need to spend your days attacking them? How small is your world?

Enough with you trolls who keep showing up here to anonymously bash chefs. Enough.

Thank you Dara. I agree 100% about Steven Brown. Enormous talent who has had some bad luck. And EPLLS, not to dog Vincent, I know him personally and think he is a great chef and person, but if losing Tim McKee, Steven Brown, Steven Trojahn, etc. doesn't matter to you, you truly don't understand dining. You sound like a tortured soul who can't get a good meal in town. Truly I feel for you. And Dara, I hope you got some Black Sheep pizza. That place is great!

In most of these instances, the salary of the chefs in question was looked upon by ownership as not just labor expense but marketing expense...something to help fuel the (more profitable) guestrooms side of the equation. It was assumed that part of the salary these guys made would help put butts in seats AND heads in beds But there just aren't enough butts and heads to go around these days.

Off the top of my head, it seems to me that as of Stephen Trojahn's leaving the Graves, we don't have a single prominent marketable local executive hotel chef left in the entire Twin Cities marketplace.