05/13/2008
NEW ORLEANS (May 13, 2008) - Café Adelaide & the Swizzle Stick Bar, a member of the Commander's Palace Family of Restaurants, is pleased to appoint Chris Lusk as executive chef.
Chris Lusk most recently served as executive chef at Vin Bistro in Austin, Texas. Prior to Vin Bistro, Chris served as a sous chef at Mario Batali's Otto Enoteca in New York City, Commander's Palace in New Orleans, La. and Star Canyon in Dallas, Texas.
Danny Trace, Café Adelaide's executive chef for nearly three years, has been appointed executive chef of the group's newest restaurant, Commander's Palace & the On The Rocks Bar at HarborWalk Village in Destin, Flor., opening July 2008.
"We have the great good fortune of going back to the well," says managing partner Ti Adelaide Martin, in reference to Chris's prior experience with the restaurant group. "Chris was a key part of our team in the first half of this decade and his talent was apparent from the first day. He has something we call 'intellectual curiosity.' It's an endless interest in learning - particularly about food. This is combined with one of the most exceptional palates I have ever encountered. He's a heck of a smart guy with some serious taste buds."
Along with intellectual curiosity, Chris also brings an interest in sharing the "foodie" experience with patrons at Café Adelaide. "I want people to eat the way we eat," explains Chris, "to order more dishes and share - take a bite and pass it to the left." This desire inspired Chris to tinker with the format of Café Adelaide's menu. It has been reorganized into Little Tastes, Taste and Share, Soups and Salads and Entrée sections. Chris created an instant classic for the Little Tastes section with his Tea Smoked Duck "BLT" (Luzianne tea smoked duck bacon, fried green tomatoes, and baby arugula with Evangeline goat cheese aioli). His Spinach & Absinthe dip for the Taste and Share section has also been well received (by the Brennans and Café Adelaide customers alike).
Danny Trace was the first to suggest Chris Lusk to be his replacement. Danny and Chris are good friends with similar food philosophies and a shared love of the outdoors (Ti and Lally speculate it was the deep sea fishing that tipped the scales for Danny to make the move to Destin).
Danny Trace, born and raised in New Orleans, has been an integral part of the Commander's Palace Family of Restaurants for over ten years. After losing his home to Hurricane Katrina, Danny's performance day in and day out has never missed a beat, eventually earning him the job as executive chef of Café Adelaide in November 2005. "This was Danny's opportunity to take or to leave and believe me, he had a hard time deciding to leave Café Adelaide and his hometown of New Orleans," says Ti.
Chef Trace has been consistently noted for his innovative renditions of traditional Creole cuisine. Noting that harmonious balance between old and new in Chef Trace's contemporary Creole menu, New Orleans food critic Tom Fitzmorris beamed in his May 2006 re-review, "I can't name many chefs who are doing a better job of that balancing act right now" and called Chef Trace "one of the great ones of the coming decade." Chef Trace has been featured in a number of local and national media outlets, including serving as co-host of "Off the Menu" on the Turner South Network, as well as appearing in The Wall Street Journal, Imbibe, Nation's Restaurant News and more.
"Danny Trace is the complete package," says Lally Brennan, managing partner. "He is the chef you dream of - he cares about every dish, day in and day out and he's so much fun to work with."
"He has magic in his hands," chimes in matriarch Ella Brennan. "And I don't use that phrase lightly. We have seen and expect more great things."
About Café Adelaide & the Swizzle Stick Bar:
Café Adelaide and the Swizzle Stick Bar (300 Poydras St.), established in February 2004, is the most recent restaurant opened by New Orleans' Brennan family, which also owns Commander's Palace New Orleans, Brennan's of Houston and Commander's Palace in Destin, Flor. (opening July 2008). In the playful, creative spirit of the Brennan's beloved Aunt Adelaide - who embraced the joie de vivre and the spirit of the 1950s and 1960s cocktail culture - everything about Café Adelaide & the Swizzle Stick Bar is centered around her charming pursuit of the good life from high-falutin' to low-down…with great New Orleans food.
Café Adelaide offers breakfast seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m.; lunch Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; and dinner Monday through Saturday from 6 p.m. to
9:30 p.m. The Swizzle Stick Bar is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day and offers a special bar menu. For more information, please call (504) 595-3305 or visit www.cafeadelaide.com. The restaurant accepts all major credit cards, and valet parking is always on the house.
About Commander's Palace and the On The Rocks Bar at HarborWalk Village
Commander's Palace Destin, opening in HarborWalk Village in Destin, Flor., will serve Commander's Palace signature Haute Creole cuisine with influences of southern and Floribbean cooking (Creole food draws as much influence from the Caribbean as it does from France, Spain and Africa), led by Executive Chef Danny Trace. The restaurant is schedule to open in July 2008.
Commander's Palace New Orleans has amassed numerous awards, among them the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Outstanding Restaurant Award, Lifetime Service Award and Who's Who of Food and Beverage Award; appointment to the Culinary Institute of America Hall of Fame; appointment to the Nation's Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame; the Restaurants & Institutions Magazine Lifetime Ivy Award; the Nicholls University Lifetime Achievement Award; and many others, including awards from GQ; Food & Wine; Wine Spectator; Southern Living and Gourmet magazines.
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