Gone, but so not forgotten. Skeptics warned against it, but erstwhile Astor chef Johnny Vinczencz actually succeeded in raising his profile by heading north to head De La Tierra at Sundy House in Delray Beach. So much so, in fact, that he's been tapped to cook his menu, including signature yak dishes, at the James Beard Foundation on June 4. He's just been featured in a New York Times article about chefs using yak meat. And he's set to open De La Tierra at Sundy House's sister resort in Taos, New Mexico, on July 1. Nonbelievers, don't even go there. And I mean that in every way that you can interpret it.
Chispa it is no more -- and according to chef-proprietor Douglas Rodriguez's publicists, it never really was. The result of a conflict with Robbin Haas's forthcoming Miami eatery, also called Chispa, the latest Rodriguez property to open in New York was almost immediately rechristened OLA (Of Latin America). Shades of YUCA (Young Urban Cuban Americans), anyone?
Rumors to end on: La Broche, closing. Harry's Bar of Venice, coming to South Beach. And the former Red Square/Bar None space, to be reinvented as Harrison's South of Fifth by a former GM of Tantra. And Cafeteria (ha!) is opening.... Which to count on? None, of course -- in Miami, restaurant gossip is written in wash-'n'-wear sand.