thedrifter
06-03-09, 08:15 AM
Chef John Besh to open restaurant in expanded World War II Museum
When the folks at the National World II Museum solicited John Besh's help to create a restaurant in their expanded facility, the chef was intrigued for reasons that transcend his culinary and entrepreneurial ambitions.
"I was in the Marines, so it was a big honor," said the veteran of the first Gulf War. "I have so much respect for what that generation went through."
The 100-seat restaurant will be called American Sector. It will be located adjacent to the museum's new live performance venue, which also will feature a menu created by Besh's team.
The restaurant isn't slated to open until November, so the menu is still a work in progress. But Besh and Philip Lopez, who will be American Sector's chef de cuisine, already are honing ideas for a place conceived as "a casual bar and cafe that you don't find in that part of the Warehouse District."
This much is known: American Sector will be the least expensive of Besh's restaurants, which include Restaurant August and La Provence, among others. "I don't think it's a place for a one-pound, $16 burger," Besh said, referring to a menu item at Luke, his downtown brasserie. "I want this to be a place where grandparents and grandchildren can both eat, to bridge those generations."
The menu should include a long list of sandwiches "made out of artisan ingredients that we either procure here locally or that we do ourselves, briskets and pastrami and things like that."
Kids meals will come in 1940s-style lunch tins. The chef also has procured cans from the company that makes the same for Spam. They will be used to serve housemade pates.
"We're trying to find ways where we can be whimsical with homier dishes," Besh explained. "We want to make fun foods that aren't overly complicated."
Lopez has worked with both Michel Richard and Ferran Adria, two of the most revered and whimsical chefs in the business. Besh envisions those influences creeping into the American Sector's desserts: "He's been experimenting with our own take on Cracker Jack and our own version of the Moon Pie."
American Sector's opening will follow that of Domenica, Besh's Italian restaurant in the revamped Roosevelt Hotel. He expects Domenica to be open by mid-July.
Ellie
When the folks at the National World II Museum solicited John Besh's help to create a restaurant in their expanded facility, the chef was intrigued for reasons that transcend his culinary and entrepreneurial ambitions.
"I was in the Marines, so it was a big honor," said the veteran of the first Gulf War. "I have so much respect for what that generation went through."
The 100-seat restaurant will be called American Sector. It will be located adjacent to the museum's new live performance venue, which also will feature a menu created by Besh's team.
The restaurant isn't slated to open until November, so the menu is still a work in progress. But Besh and Philip Lopez, who will be American Sector's chef de cuisine, already are honing ideas for a place conceived as "a casual bar and cafe that you don't find in that part of the Warehouse District."
This much is known: American Sector will be the least expensive of Besh's restaurants, which include Restaurant August and La Provence, among others. "I don't think it's a place for a one-pound, $16 burger," Besh said, referring to a menu item at Luke, his downtown brasserie. "I want this to be a place where grandparents and grandchildren can both eat, to bridge those generations."
The menu should include a long list of sandwiches "made out of artisan ingredients that we either procure here locally or that we do ourselves, briskets and pastrami and things like that."
Kids meals will come in 1940s-style lunch tins. The chef also has procured cans from the company that makes the same for Spam. They will be used to serve housemade pates.
"We're trying to find ways where we can be whimsical with homier dishes," Besh explained. "We want to make fun foods that aren't overly complicated."
Lopez has worked with both Michel Richard and Ferran Adria, two of the most revered and whimsical chefs in the business. Besh envisions those influences creeping into the American Sector's desserts: "He's been experimenting with our own take on Cracker Jack and our own version of the Moon Pie."
American Sector's opening will follow that of Domenica, Besh's Italian restaurant in the revamped Roosevelt Hotel. He expects Domenica to be open by mid-July.
Ellie