Chefs

Is Rick Tramonto Planning Something in Chicago? Maybe Kinda Not Really Yet.

Crain’s has a piece in which Rick Tramonto, celebrated chef back in the day of Tru, currently a New Orleans restaurateur, but still tied to the area (his kids are in high school in Vernon Hills), talks about new ventures in Chicago. Or talks about the idea of the possibility of new ventures in Chicago. What would it be? It won’t be Cajun (“I would not do Creole or Cajun in Chicago”). It would be… less fancy than Tru (“Mr Tramonto… mentions Girl & the Goat and Nellcote as possible models for what he might try to accomplish here”). It might involve ex-wife and pastry chef extraordinaire Gale Gand and old Tru partner Rich Melman! Except that we read Melman as saying “not happening” in the nicest possible way (“I love Ricky. He and I have been close for a long time. Could we get back together again to run a restaurant? Stranger things have happened in this business”). So is there any there there just yet? We don’t think so, but… stranger things have happened in this business. [Crain’s]

Is Rick Tramonto Planning Something in Chicago? Maybe Kinda Not Really Yet.