Anzu, the hip Pacific Rim restaurant with hundreds of little origami birds hanging from its stark black ceiling by little strings, just snapped its tether. The spot at McKinney Avenue near Knox named after the Japanese word for "apricot" filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy February 10. The company was reportedly launched in 1992 by Phina Nakamoto, and court documents list Yasuko Nakamoto, Phina's father, as president of Anzu Corp. Yasuko Nakamoto operates Nakamoto Japanese restaurant in Plano. And the origami buzzards are already circling. A Weitzman Group "for lease" sign was plugged into the ground late last week, and sources say a number of operators with varied concepts are poised to commence carcass picking. These include an upscale taqueria and a tasting restaurant similar to the French Laundry in Napa, California.
Former Sipango Executive Chef Marc Haines is putting the brakes on the Web-based time-share personal-chef service Net*Chef he was launching with millionaire Darwin Deason of Affiliated Computer Systems (ACS). Net*Chef was billed as a gourmet hash-slinging service whereby professional Dallas chefs would prepare dinner and cater parties for some of Dallas' most wallet-fattened families under annual contract. "We want to do a little more market research on it," says Haines, who is currently immersed in his "cheesy" Amer-Ital restaurant in Frisco called Sopranos. Haines complains of a squeeze by potential clients who insisted he personally cook their meals. "Everybody wanted me," he grumbles. "They want you to jump when they snap."...Mother Pearls Seafood House and Oyster Bar wasn't the only property See-Worthy Restaurants (parent of RockFish Seafood Grills) shed early last month when it sold out to the Lemmon Avenue restaurant's managers. See-worthy also unloaded Halfshells Oyster Bar & Grill in Snider Plaza to former See-Worthy partner Bill Bayne...Lower Greenville yelper Avi Adelman calls it "the first shot by residents over the property owners' heads." Adelman, founder of the Web-based neighborhood activist pack the Barking Dogs of Lower Greenville, is circulating petitions to restrict up to 250 Lower Greenville-area street parking spaces to residents-only parking...And speaking of the contentious neighborhood, Bryan Chambers, onetime chef at the Green Room, the defunct Clive & Stuart's, and the Bistro on Lover's Lane, has just signed on as sous chef of the FireHouse on Lower Greenville.
— Mark Stuertz
E-mail Dish at [email protected].
