Anthony Strong, the former executive chef for the Delfina Restaurant Group, was standing in front of his own, soon-to-open space at the corner of 19th and San Carlos on Friday morning when a FedEx delivery man dropped an envelope into his hands.
“My liquor license has arrived,” he said grinning.
“Shouldn’t it weigh a lot more?” he asked, surprised at the lightness of the envelope and recalling all the money and effort involved in getting the license transferred from Hog and Rocks, which served its last meal on April 14.
Strong said he had been looking for a space for more than a year and he was thrilled to find this location. While he loved his time with Delfina, he said, “I wanted to move out and have some fun.” Renovations are well underway and he should be ready to open sometime this summer.
The restaurant — it has been named, but he doesn’t yet want to disclose it — will skew Italian, but include other influences. Most of the food will be cooked over two open grills.
Traditional menus and service, he said, will be disrupted. What will this look like? Well, his favorite place in Naples has no formal menu. Diners in the small space — not even really a restaurant, he said — write orders on their paper tablecloths.
In terms of the menu, most of the items will be shared dishes.
More to come.
The story has been corrected. An earlier version reported that Strong would serve some food from Spain, but it is actually one of the open grills that comes from Spain and not the food. Our apologies.
