Tom Tom Croak

Tom Tom Noodle House recently debuted a low-carb menu whereby "every rice plate can be made low-carb by leaving out the rice," kind of like low-carbing a baked potato by 86ing the spud. But rice-less rice plates weren't enough to save the Preston Center location, which opened roughly a year ago. "It just never really took off," says Russell Hayward, president of Triple R Group, Tom Tom's parent. "Better to cut your losses from where you are." So Hayward is going to focus on the recently expanded West Village Tom Tom, bringing in an Australian consultant to steer the menu away from the New York noodle house fare to what he calls "Sydney-Asian" with sushi. Hayward is also working on launching a Tom Tom in Miami and is scouting locations in Austin. Will there be another Tom Tom in Dallas-Fort Worth? "I can't come up with anything that makes sense here," he laments. "So there might not be another Dallas location."

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Just before relocating Sambuca Jazz Café from Deep Ellum to the former Salve! spot on McKinney Avenue, owners Kim and Holly Forsythe dumped Milk Bar on Lower Greenville. But it was quickly picked up by operator Erol Staraveci of the Alfredo's Pizza & Pasta family. He's transforming Milk Bar into Sky Bar, a Mediterranean tapas lounge with a "Dallas meets South Beach" motif dolled with palm trees, yellow stucco and a trilevel patio. Staraveci hopes his visual cues will inspire his neighbors to beautify their spots. "It's going to help the Lower Greenville area out a little bit," he says. "Maybe the city can put a little more into landscaping and street help." Staraveci might be onto something: filling potholes with palm trees... Alexander Kybett, the longtime Dallas chef who evacuated to Arizona after leaving his chef post at Urban Tapas in the Village at Colleyville, says he's landed a position at a wine bar and private dining room there called The Cave. He also says Urban Tapas has gone dark. We can't confirm this. Urban's phone beeps perpetually busy, though an SBC operator insists there's no conversation on the line...After taking over the former Riviera space, caterer George Brown, one of Food & Wine magazine's Top 10 Best New Chefs in 1997, says only minor renovations are needed to open George Restaurant by August. The menu will be modern global. "Basically this just means we can go wherever we want," he says. "The closest I can think of is maybe like a Baby Routh." George Catering reins will be slipped to chef Juan Carlos Garrido. George Restaurant general manager will be Jeff Bogart. Brown is looking for sous chefs, so howitzer him with résumés.