Long Time Gone

Nine years is an eon or two in kitchen dog years. "About three or four chef eternities," clarifies Green Room chef Marc Cassel. Or as of this writing, former Green Room chef. After nine years steering the Green Room "feed me, wine me" stove, Cassel has packed his Deep Ellum blades and whips for Hotel ZaZa and its concomitant restaurant and bar of legendary swelter, Dragonfly. Cassel signed on as executive chef of the hotel. Not only that, he is bringing his Green Room sous chef/fiancee Suzan Fries with him where they'll both be taking some loose cues from consulting chef Stephan Pyles. "It'll be Green Room, Uptown," Cassel says. "I'll be doing my same kind of food I've been doing...for the last nine or 10 years." To putty up the hole left by Cassel's departure, White Meyers, vice president of food and beverage for the Entertainment Collaborative, Green Room's parent, has installed Colleen O'Hare. O'Hare, who once had a year-long run at the Green Room, has been working with Sharon Hage at York Street for the past couple of years. And where there's talk of chef eternities, Watson-Crick buzzwords are not far behind. "I want her to have her own food," Meyers says. "If you think in terms of what the DNA of the Green Room is, it's a place...for people to express themselves and their individuality. I would expect that from her."

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If it weren't a card game, it might have been a Dr. Seuss book: Go Fish. Now it's an Addison restaurant, one that former Fish chef Chris Svalesen has been wading in since his restaurant Thirty Six Degrees went subzero. Svalesen has composed the introductory menu for this new upscale casual seafood room, says Go Fish operator Bradley Bandfield. Bandfield, once a manager at Fish and an investor in Thirty Six Degrees, says Go Fish will open in mid-April with Kenny Mills, formerly of Capital Grille, in the kitchen. Bandfield says Go Fish is backed by investor Mike Hoque of American Limos and Transportation...Meanwhile Monica Greene has begun gutting the space next door to prep for an Addison edition of Monica's Aca y Alla. This comes on the heels of Greene's revamped upscale Mexico City restaurant Ciudad in Uptown, which shrunk to make room for the more modest Cantina La Loma in the restaurant's frontal lobe containing the bar. She calls the La Loma food "Mex-Tex" cuisine, or Mexican food with Texas flavors, which could mean anything from smoldered brisket guisado to Dr Pepper ceviche. Could be a political move. Greene is in the throes of a city council race. "We have a chance to win this," she insists.