We told you yesterday that Rudy Mikula, among the best things about Victory’s mostly shrill dining experiences, has left Nove to graze the pastures of Consilient Restaurants. Now word comes that Kyle Kepner, the former III Forks cellar master and managerial weight behind Luqa downtown until just after it opened, has left his general manager post at Kenichi. This was the position he had hoped would lead to a bigger, badder future. Is this a Victory dining omen? Actually, no, so far as we can tell.
“I had a baby right before Kenichi was born … er, Kenichi was open, I had a baby right before that,” he says, tongue-twisting the birthing processes. “The restaurant hours were tough.” Now? Kepner is going to sell fine wines for Republic Beverage -- a.k.a. Republic National Distributing Company -- absorbing a healthy pay cut in the process. But he has great hours now. And he can wake up to hear the cries of hunger instead of the screams and giggles of the beautiful and their special cravings. And his new son won’t be a sushi-sake orphan. --Mark Stuettz
