Luke Palladino to cook in Wash West
The chef, who runs Specchio and Ombra at the Borgata in Atlantic City, plans a restaurant/wine bar in the space that last housed Les Bons Temps.
Chef Luke Palladino, who oversees Specchio and Ombra plus the casual Risi Bisi at the Borgata in Atlantic City, is leasing the space that last housed Les Bons Temps at 114 S. 12th St. for an Italian wine bar/restaurant. (This morning, Foobooz.com posted what it described as a rumor that the place was "sold" to an unnamed Borgata chef and that it would reopen as an Italian restaurant.)
Palladino's cuisine will be regional Italian based on his travels; the restaurant's name is still under wraps.
Palladino's partner is Philly-born Eddie Bianchini, former owner of Hotel Les Muscadins in Mougins, France, and the Lenox Room in New York.
They're aiming to open in two months.
Les Bons Temps, in the glorious, twin-balconied space that has housed TPDS, Odeon and Bistro Bix, opened last year in a partnership between chef John Mims and investor Howard Taylor, who also had Carmine's in Bryn Mawr. Taylor and Mims parted company last summer. In January, after Mims opened Mims Food + Drink in Wayne, Taylor won an injunction to force Mims out of his new restaurant. Mims now owns Daddy Mims and Johnny's New Orleans Pizza Kitchen in Phoenixville.