Tim Penn, the lauded executive chef of Brian Black's Il Solé, has exited the lofty Travis Walk restaurant. "It just wasn't working out," says Il Sole's PR rep Sally Francis, although she stresses the departure was amicable. Penn has been replaced by Jeffery Hobbs, onetime chef at Hotel St. Germain, Toscana, and Mediterraneo...On the heels of the sudden departures of his longtime partner Michael Cox and sister Alena Pyles, Stephan Pyles has severed his ties with Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, the firm that purchased his Star Canyon and AquaKnox restaurants in 1998. Pyles plans to "pursue other interests" which include books, TV, and perhaps other restaurant endeavors. Star Canyon Executive Chef Matthew Dunn has plugged into the Carlson corporate relay as Concept Chef of Star Canyon Restaurants, which means...well it's hard to know what concept chef means. But let's hope he gets a concept kitchen...Ex-Dallasite Daddy Jack Chaplin, founder of Daddy Jack's Wood Grills and lobster/chowder houses, says he's found his dream house in Lebanon, Conn., a place from where he scoots into Dallas once a month. "I am a full-blooded swamp Yankee and proud of it," says the native New Englander. He also says he's in the throes of opening a Daddy Jack's in Fort Worth's Sundance Square, which should open sometime in late December or early January. Chaplin is also working on a Daddy Jack's in Providence, Rhode Island, which, unlike his locations in parched stake-and-bake Dallas, will be right on the water in a marina in an old oyster processing plant.