After selling his Bistro K (soon to open as New York Bagel Café), the antsy Avner Samuel has landed at Lombardi Mare as executive chef. According to Samuel's spokesman (ya gotta get one sooner or later) Bill Armstrong, Samuel may radically alter the Lombardi Mare menu to reflect his style. He may also open a new restaurant soon. Then again, he may not...Oceanaire, a shrimp of a seafood restaurant chain out of Minneapolis, plans to open an extension in the Galleria the first of October, says Oceanaire President Terry Ryan. "Think of us as a power steak house with a seafood center," Ryan says. And while this may sound like a weird sort of meatloaf piñata, Ryan just means Oceanaire is dark and clubby and arms diners with bibs and crab crackers instead of sharp knives. At least I think that's what he means. Like a lot of restaurant companies striving to hold down costs and bolster management commitment, Oceanaire incorporates local partners to fill slots such as chef and general manager. The chef slot in Dallas will be filled by Brian Dietz, former executive chef at Newport's Seafood who has had stints at The Mansion on Turtle Creek, Café Pacific and Nicholini's Seafood Grill. With restaurants in Seattle, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., the Galleria installation will bring Oceanaire's holdings to four...Billed as Dallas' first paninoteca or Italian sandwich bar, Urbano Paninoteca, the offspring of former Sfuzzi (and Lombardi Mare) manager Mitch Kauffman, has opened off McKinney Avenue. The menu, created with input from former Sfuzzi chef Javier Perez, features an array of sandwiches, salads and breakfast items. Dinner will be offered in the coming weeks after Kauffman secures an Urbano liquor license, which should help wash down all that mortadella and sun-dried tomato pesto.
