Kitchen trends

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 7, 1987 by Ken Frydman

KITCHEN TRENDS

Traditionally behind-the-scenes operators, chefs move to the front of the house

Unlike the traditional kitchen in the back of the house, most open display kitchens are built for cosmetic and esthetic reasons rather than practical necessity.

But Cafe Society's open kitchen is a functional exception to that rule.

The new 350-seat, 15,000-square-foot northern and southern Italian restaurant prepares all its hot pasta, chicken, fish, vegetable, and meat dishes in the ovens or on the 36-burner stove inside the theatrically styled kitchen.

"Our kitchen was designed to function efficiently--not just look good,' says co-owner Shelly Abramowitz, former co-owner of competing Canastel's, a trendy northern Italian restaurant nearby.

"The food is served quicker, fresher, and hotter from an open kitchen stove or oven to the counter and then to the table than it would be from a back-of-the-house kitchen,' Abramowitz adds.

Cafe Society's theatrical chefs work their free-floating island stove like a stage.

Swordfish is broiled, calamari is fried in virgin olive oil, chicken breasts are sauteed with garlic and white wine, and fresh pasta is mixed with mushrooms, peas, prosciutto, and a light cream tomato sauce. The blended aroma spirals toward the overhead hoods and wafts throughout the restaurant.

The black-and-white-tiled open kitchen is the fulcrum of an "expeditious food show,' according to Abramowitz.

After stopping at the open kitchen to pick up hot appetizers and entrees, the service staff follows a curved wood and marble antipasto and dessert display bar to a coffee station and 35-foot-long liquor-and-wine service bar. Within a 10-yard-long winding path is everything from soup to nuts.

Waiters have been wearing out that path since Cafe Society opened in late July.

The split-level restaurant, which cost $25 a square foot--or $3.5 million--to build from scratch, has been averaging $125,000 a week in gross sales volume, $7,000 in cappuccino and espresso alone, Abramowitz notes.

He projects that by the fall food costs will run at 26.5 percent of sales and gross volume will hit $175,000 per week and hold there. At that rate the restaurant would net a 30-percent profit margin on gross sales of $8 million to $10 million in its first full year, he estimated.

Of the $3.5 million in start-up costs, $200,000 went to create the restaurant's functional focal point: the 1,200-square-foot open kitchen manned by 22-year-old executive chef Claudio Gottardo and his 10-man crew.

To keep the area free of excessive traffic, Abramowitz and his partner, Arnie Fleischman, added 4,000 square feet of prep and storage space in the back.

Cafe Society's warehouse-sized space has been attracting many parties of six, eight, or more. In fact, the restaurant features 14 tables for 10. The setting is enhanced by a $30,000 revolving wood and glass door, floor-to-ceiling glass columns, and a 21-foot-high etched glass mirror. Additional design elements are a 14-foot-tall potted palm, wainscoting, neon lighting, crystal fixtures, a 7-foot-by-30-foot-long Art Deco wall mural, a wraparound second-floor mezzanine, and a hi-tech sound system.

To handle the demand of 150 lunch covers five days a week and 375 dinners seven nights a week, the kitchen often prepares "family-style' orders--12-inch plates and big bowls filled with large portions intended to be shared.

"Tables of eight or 10 want to split orders of fried zucchini, calimari, or pasta,' Abramowitz says. "That way people don't have to wait for their food after having drinks, and we can expedite preparation and service.'

Expeditious preparation and service are not enough to satisfy Cafe Society's expectant customers, many of whom work in the glamorous fields of advertising, modeling, music, film, theater, television, publishing, photography, public relations, and law.

The kitchen, therefore, is the "show business center' of Cafe Society's entertainment scene, Abramowitz says. Canastel's and Positano, another upscale Italian restaurant in the neighborhood, are in the "same game,' he added.

"Our chefs know they're being watched while they cook, so they've got to play to the crowd and perform a little,' Abramowitz says. "Like the open kitchen and food displays, it's all part of merchandising cuisine.'

Photo: Cafe Society chef dishes out plates . . .

Photo: . . . as a cook handles a hot dish . . .

Photo: . . . while crewmember boils pasta.

Photo: Right: The cooking crew at Cafe Society prepares hot appetizers and entrees in the Italian restaurant's open kitchen--on the 36-burner stove and in the ovens.

Photo: Below: Cafe Society cook struggles with a hot pan.

Photo: Left: Display counter shows array of Cafe Society entrees.

Photo: Middle left: The 36-burner stove in Cafe Society kitchen.

Photo: Bottom left: Kitchen worker handles kettle of pasta.

Photo: Below: Executive chef Claudio Gottardo, right, and assistant saute vegetables for dinner.