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Access Atlanta > Blog > Archives > 2007 > November > 05
Monday, November 5, 2007
Blais ends ‘culinary sabbatical’ — now what?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Molecular gastro guru Richard Blais is pretty tight-lipped about where he’s been for the past five weeks; let’s just say the chef isn’t talking while the flavor lasts.
Meanwhile, Element, the Midtown restaurant where he was executive chef, closed Oct. 4. But as we all speculate as to his whereabouts (“Top Chef?” “Iron Chef?” The official term he’s using for his absence is “culinary sabbatical”) he’s speculating as to where to get his next paycheck.
“I just got back into town late last week to find out that the restaurant had closed,” the chef told us by phone. Blais and his bad-boy take on molecular gastronomy took over the failed restaurant’s kitchen last spring, immediately developing a small but passionate group of followers.
Emmy for East Lake ‘Miracle’?
East Lake’s enviable transformation from a crack den shooting gallery to an expanding revitalized neighborhood that’s become a national model for urban redevelopment now has another distinction — it’s up for an Emmy. Last week, “Miracle at East Lake,” a TV magazine piece produced by Candler Park resident David Lewis for CNBC’s “Business Nation,” was nominated for a Business and Financial Reporting Emmy Award.
“I normally do stories about terrorism in Beirut, so this was a nice change and an opportunity to work eight minutes from home,” Lewis told Buzz on Monday. “My family was very happy.” Lewis said that the story of East Lake’s two unlikely allies, community-minded veteran Atlanta developer Tom Cousins and long-time community activist Eva Davis provided “two incredibly strong central characters” for the piece. The story is nominated in the Emmy category of “Outstanding Interpretation or Analysis of a Business News Story: News Magazines and Long Form.” Lewis expects to be in the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Plaza in New York next month when the Business Emmys are announced.
Julia wants to stay home and garden
As Julia Roberts begins the media rounds for her new film, “Charlie Wilson’s War” coming to theaters Christmas Day, the former Smyrna resident indicates that she may be considering a career change.
“My dream is to be a highly fulfilled and productive stay-at-home mom and wife,” the Oscar-winning actress tells Vanity Fair magazine in its upcoming December issue. “The highest high would be growing our food that I then make, and then composting and growing more — that kind of circle.”
Roberts, 40, says that life would involve having “my own creative outlet, even if it’s silly needlework and stuff like that.”
She and her husband, cinematographer Danny Moder, have 2-year-old twins, Hazel and Phinnaeus, and a son, Henry, born in June.
When asked whether she wants more children, Robert says: “No, I don’t think so, because at this point I’m having so much fun with them. You only have so much energy and you want to put so much energy into each child. … And they’re a really good trio, these three.”
Robert says marrying Moder in 2002 was the right thing to do.
“It’s the most correct decision I’ve ever made in my life — not that it was even a decision, because it just overtakes you. My whole body knew: ‘Yes.’ He’s just my favorite guy,” Roberts says in the mag due out Nov. 13.
Buzz is now attempting to visualize Roberts composting and needlepointing.
Nope, not happening.
Seinfeld: ‘Is this still CNN?’
Larry King fascinates us. Not only does the guy practice journalism about as well as we calculate algebraic fractions, but CNN pays him a gazillion dollars to be globally inept nightly, all while he enjoys a succession of increasingly younger, blonder wives who allow him to sire children with them. Leave it to comic and “Bee Movie” brainchild Jerry Seinfeld to finally tell the talk show that the emperor has no suspenders. During an interview last week, King actually quizzed Seinfeld on whether his ultra-successful NBC sitcom had been canceled or if he opted to end it. “You’re not aware of this!?” a slack-jawed Seinfeld asked.
“Are you under the impression that I got canceled, Larry? Seventy-five million viewers watched the last episode. I was the No. 1 show on television, Larry. Is this still CNN? There’s a big difference between being canceled and being No. 1.”
As King — clad in a “Bee Movie” necktie (journalistic objectivity, anyone?) —stammered and tried to get to a commercial break, Seinfeld continued, saying “Can we get a résume in here for me that Larry can go over?”
What’s even more curious, CNN.com has posted the video online so viewers can watch one of their highest paid employees crash and burn over and over and over. We’re almost certain that Larry would be livid — if he knew the Internet existed.
Overscene
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and NFL legend Roger Staubach dining on filets and potatoes with a friend at Morton’s The Steakhouse downtown. Some fans recognized the ball player and sidled up to the table to ask for autographs, and Staubach “graciously complied,” we’re told.
Celebrity birthdays
Director Mike Nichols is 76. Actress Sally Field is 61. Singer Glenn Frey is 59. Actor Ethan Hawke is 37. Actress Thandie Newton is 35. Model-actress Rebecca Romijn is 35.
Contributing: Meridith Ford and news services
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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Nancy Grace has twins
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“CNN Headline News” talk show maven Nancy Grace had twins Sunday named Lucy Elizabeth and John David, CNN reported this morning.
John David was born first at 1:55 p.m. and weighed 5 pounds. Lucy Elizabeth came next and weighed 2 pounds 15 ounces. Her husband is David Linch, an Atlanta investment banker. She secretly married him last spring.
Grace, 48, who was due in January, had recently developed a pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs), and her physician determined it would be best for Nancy, and for the twins, to deliver them Sunday, CNN said.
Janine Iamunno, CNN spokeswoman, said Grace is doing fine and will get back on air as soon as she can. For now, a rotating trio of hosts will substitute on her show including Mike Brooks, Jane Velez-Mitchell and Pat Lalama
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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The party ain’t over in Buckhead
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
These three places spread a lot of jam, y’all.
And we’re not talking Smucker’s, either. With this whole theory that Buckhead is sobering up — going through some sort of nightclub cleansing — we decided to check out the scene. The verdict?
The party continues. “There’s this perception Buckhead is closing down. That’s not the case,” says Brent Burbett, general manager of Hole in the Wall on Peachtree Road. “We’ve been here 12 years and have a lease for another eight. This is a landmark at this point.”
Inside, DJ Mike Hendrix rolls from Eddie Grant’s “Electric Avenue” to Britney Spears’ “Gimme More” to Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” to Notorious B.I.G.’s “Hypnotize” in a cosmic medley of rock, pop, old-school and hip-hop. Absolutely wonderful.
Partyers ate it up.
Next door at Moon Dogs, it was much of the same. A packed house drinking, shooting pool, throwing darts and puffing cigarettes till that icky haze irritates the eyeballs. When we first arrived, Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” was the anthem as drunken souls grooved on the dance floor and in the aisles. Totally festive and fun. Peachtree Tavern is the area’s rock mecca. The ’80s cover band Velcro Pygmies had the wildly energetic head-bangers screaming along to the likes of Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” and REO Speedwagon’s “Take It on the Run.” It took us back to the cool days of “Casey Kasem’s American Top 40” video countdown.
Doing a little Buckhead club hopping reveals two things. One: There’s an Atlanta spark that will darken if feel-good, let-loose jam spots like these go away. Two: Black people aren’t the only ones who can do the “Cupid Shuffle” with deft precision.
Happy-hour mixer will nosh no more
Buzz ventured out to Joe’s Crab Shack on Cobb Parkway in Smyrna Friday for Shawn Joyner’s final monthly happy-hour mixer. We knew we’d be hitting the Buckhead party scene hard Saturday, so we just chilled away from the jet-setting hustle and bustle for the night.
Guests noshed on hors d’oeuvres of crab dip, chicken fingers, burgers and other goodies. They also sipped exotic drinks from the Buttery Twist and Royal Flush to the Pomegranate martini and, our favorite, Titanic Tea.
“I enjoy seeing people have a good time,” says Joyner, who’s been holding the event to get people together outside the club setting since January. “Sometimes it’s not about dancing. It’s about unwinding and having a good time.”
We must say, the highlight had to be chatting it up with our sports-loving buddy Mary Jones and watching all-too-happy-to-help Ed Bradley and Brantley Bruton work their magic behind the bar.
Hate this worthwhile event is gone. But the saving grace is Rodolfo Price is kicking off his own monthly mixer Nov. 18 from 6 to midnight at Utopia Lounge in downtown Atlanta for those who wish to mingle outside the club scene.
Hmmm … wonder if the lounge features the Titanic Tea.
Stats has sports bar, lounge vibes Stats, located near Philips Arena and the Georgia Dome, by its very name sounds like a sports bar and restaurant and in some ways, it is. The 15,000-square-foot space is partly financed by sports station 790/The Zone, boasts 70 flat-screen TVs and features personal beer taps that charge by the ounce. It even has a ground-floor radio studio with a two-way glass window overlooking Marietta Street that the Zone will use several times a week.
But parts of Stats exude a Midtown nightclub/lounge feel with mood lighting, leather seats, private VIP rooms, wood floors galore and a rooftop bar area with a retractable roof. Plus, Bob Amick’s Concentrics Restaurant Group (which also includes Trois, One Midtown Kitchen and Two Urban Licks) is involved.
Among the notables who popped by the opening party after the Hawks victory opener Friday: chef Kevin Rathbun, CEO of the Atlanta Spirit Bernie Mullen, Hawks NBA Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins and several current Hawks players including Solomon Jones and Tyrone Lue.
UNCOUPLING Carlos and Deborah Santana Deborah Santana filed for divorce Oct. 19 in California, citing irreconcilable difference, according The Associated Press. The couple has been married 34 years.
CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS Singer-songwriter Ike Turner is 76. Singer Art Garfunkel is 66. Actor Nestor Serrano (“24”) is 52. Singer Bryan Adams is 48. Actress-singer Andrea McArdle is 44. Actress Tatum O’Neal is 44. Country singers Jennifer and Heather Kinley of the Kinleys are 37.
If you have a tip, call 404-526-2749. Or fax 404-526-5509. Or e-mail: buzz@ajc.com.
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