When one door closes, another one opens, right? Only if you’re proactive like Riccardo Ullio, whose Spanish restaurant Cuerno closed earlier this year. The sexy Italian restaurateur is opening Lupe, a Mexican taqueria, later this month in the same space (next to his still-thriving Brazilian hot spot, Beleza). Named after the Virgin of Guadalupe, an iconic symbol of Mexico, Lupe will serve the bold and customary tastes, ingredients and dishes of Mexico. Helming the kitchen is Darvelio Palma, the former chef de cuisine at Sotto Sotto, who’s a native of Acapulco, a large city on the Pacific coast of Mexico with a rich culture and deep Spanish Colonial history. Lupe is located in Midtown at 905 Juniper St. The taqueria will serve dinner and cocktails Tuesday through Thursday from 6:30 p.m. to midnight and Friday and Saturday from 6:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Valet parking is available at the front door.
It came as a shock to many, including some employees, when Dominic Minniti, general manager for Disney Regional Entertainment, posted a notice on Oct. 1 on the front door of ESPN Zone that it was closed for business. The Buckhead restaurant opened almost 10 years ago. Management blamed the economy for the closing. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that the 140 employees of ESPN Zone received a 60-day administrative leave package.
The current economic environment also proved to be too much for Elisa Gambino, proprietor of Via Elisa, a beloved pasta shop in West Midtown. Gambino sent out a note to her customers last week alerting them that she’s discontinuing her store’s namesake brand of handmade pasta and will close her store on Oct. 17. However, she will continue selling her line of jarred pasta sauces, Passionately Perfect Tomato, Diavoletta and Sofia’s Sicilian Caper, through Whole Foods Markets and other outlets.
A staple for upscale men’s reading, Esquire magazine has produced its annual list of 20 Best New Restaurants for its November issue. Among the recipients to receive this honor are two of Atlanta’s fine dining establishments: Paces 88, an American bistro situated in the luxe St. Regis Atlanta, and Pacci, an upscale Italian restaurant in the newly minted Hotel Palomar. The last Atlanta restaurants to achieve this honor were Trois (now closed) and Shaun’s, both in 2007.
Last week, publishing giant Condé Nast shuttered Gourmet magazine, a 68-year-old publication focused on “good living.” Despite its literary approach to palate-pleasing food, advertisers perhaps took a better liking to the company’s other, more modern food title, Bon Appetit. We subscribe to both at my home and love both for different reasons. We’re definitely sad about Gourmet’s departure.
WaterHaven hosts the Atlanta Community Food Bank’s next Supper Club dining event on Tuesday, Oct. 13. Created in the late ’90s, Supper Club is a socially conscious way to dine out at Atlanta’s hottest restaurants while supporting hunger relief. Each month a different restaurant serves as host, and 20 percent of the evening’s proceeds benefits Atlanta’s Table, the prepared food rescue project of the Food Bank, which provides approximately 40,000 pounds of prepared food for Atlanta’s hungry each month. WaterHaven Restaurant is located in Midtown’s Technology Square at 75 5th St. NW. For more information, or to make reservations for the WaterHaven Supper Club, call 404-214-6740 or visit www.waterhavenatl.com. Visit www.acfb.org to learn more about the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
Kirsten Palladino is the Life & Food Editor at The Sunday Paper. Talk to her on Twitter @ATLsocialbyte.
