Hot-To-Trotter: Chicago Chef Bustles With New Projects

New seafood restaurant to open in Time Warner Center next spring.

Nick Fauchald
Posted: June 4, 2004

It's difficult enough to run one of America's preeminent kitchens, especially when you maintain the fastidious control that chef Charlie Trotter exercises over his namesake restaurant in Chicago, a Wine Spectator Grand Award winner. Add a laundry list of new projects to the mix -- a new restaurant in the recently opened Time Warner Center in Manhattan, another at a luxury resort in Mexico, a new season of a cooking show, two new cookbooks, three new signature products -- and it's a wonder the assiduous chef ever sleeps.

Much speculation has surrounded Trotter's yet-to-be-named restaurant in the Time Warner Center, where renowned chefs such as Thomas Keller and Masa Takayama have opened dining spots. While much of Trotter's project is still under veil, with a March 2005 opening expected, Trotter gave Wine Spectator his most detailed preview to date.

The space will be designed by architect Michael Graves, known for his whimsical-yet-sophisticated aesthetic. Several top designers had been in the running, Trotter said, but "we felt there was a great chemistry with Michael." Plans call for the restaurant to be separated into three distinct areas: a main dining room, a bar/lounge and a raw seafood/oyster bar.

What excites Trotter most about his first Manhattan restaurant is the wine list. He enlisted one of America's top sommeliers -- Larry Stone, who worked with Trotter in Chicago before moving to Rubicon, another Grand Award winner, in San Francisco -- to organize the list. "The wine list is going to be absolutely sick," Trotter said, gushing. "I'm willing to say it'll be more of a wine destination than a restaurant. It'll be a very serious wine program, with a major half-bottle collection. We'll also have some really old bottles, stuff that nobody else has."

The kitchen will focus on seafood, and the cuisine will be more brasserielike than Trotter's many-course degustation menus at his Chicago flagship. "It's going to be more à la carte than Trotter's, the kind of place people can go two or three days a week," he said. The restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner, seven days a week. Trotter predicts an average check will be $35 per person at lunch and $80 per person at dinner (tip, tax and beverage not included).

Earlier this spring, Trotter opened another signature restaurant, "C," at the new One & Only Palmilla Resort in Los Cabos, Mexico, one of seven One & Only luxury resorts.

The menu at C also follows the à la carte format, with globally influenced dishes such as Thai barbecue braised short ribs with roasted garlic-potato puree and roasted squab with honey-ancho chile glaze, fennel seeds and butternut squash risotto. Diners can request a multicourse tasting menu, both in the main dining room or one of several private dining areas, which include two glass-enclosed wine rooms, a cellar dining room and an invitation-only chef's kitchen table. Adam Tihany, who is renowned for his restaurant interiors, designed C, and Guillermo Tellez, a longtime Trotter employee and a native of Mexico, is in charge of the kitchen.

The wine list has the breadth and depth typical of Trotter's ventures, and includes several offerings from Mexico, mostly from the wine regions of Valle de Santo Tomas and the Valle de Guadalupe. "You can always get the great wines and ingredients, but we're trying to represent where we are by also promoting the local producers and winemakers," Trotter said.

Trotter said although he's been offered similar partnerships in the past, none have been appealing enough to earn his endorsement, until he was approached by One & Only hotelier Sol Kerzner. "I've been approached by hundreds of people with projects for me," he said. "Everyone talks a big game, but it's all about junk, about leveraging my reputation and making money. Sol backs up his ideas with real quality."

Trotter's television series, The Kitchen Sessions With Charlie Trotter is currently in its third season on public television, after a three-year hiatus. Each episode centers on a theme or ingredient and how it inspires the chef to create a menu that can be prepared at home. "This season we're focusing more on philosophy, on the big picture ideas," Trotter said.

Trotter is releasing a new book -- Workin' More Kitchen Sessions With Charlie Trotter (Ten Speed Press, $40) -- this month to accompany the series, and later this summer will release a 10th anniversary compendium of his Charlie Trotter's restaurant cookbook series. And he will add three new sauces to his line of gourmet products, available through Trotter's Web site, www.charlietrotters.com.

In an era when many celebrity chefs are racking up lucrative endorsement deals and numerous restaurants bearing their names, Trotter says he has been trying not to spread himself too thin.

"I've had Trotter's for 17 years now, and I'm still there almost every day," Trotter said. "I don't have 17 restaurants, like some of my colleagues. I can't farm myself out like that. I have to stay pretty grounded and focus on the main thing: my restaurant in Chicago."

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