Chefs on the move
OK, back from 10 days on the Carolina Coast. If you find yourself in Charleston, check out 82 Queen Street. Great Low Country cuisine, including some wonderful shrimp and grits.
Back here, the big news is staff changes and new restaurants. Only a few months into its existence, Andy White has left Off The Vine, with the kitchen gossipmeisters saying that he’s bound for the Tap Room at the downtown Schlafly location. Andy’s previous kitchen, Balaban’s, is apparently near a takeover by Monarch, but long-time Monarch chef Brian Hale has departed for the Chase Park Plaza. And the buzz is that Gerard Craft is about to take over the old Melange location north of Balaban’s for a second restaurant, building on his success and fame at Niche.
Speaking of Melange, its former chef Chris Lee has opened the first of two restaurants that sit roughly back to back on West Pine (3919, just west of Vandeventer at the eastern edge of the Central West End) and Lindell. Cafe Ventana is a beignets, sandwiches and coffee place (plus hootch); the other restaurant, a fine dining place called Tables on Lindell, will be housed in the old Playboy Club.
As noted in the dead-tree today, downtown’s Simply Fondue is no more.
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Joe Bonwich has been the restaurant critic for the Post-Dispatch since 2002 and has covered the local food scene for various publications for more than 25 years. He does his best to maintain his anonymity so that he isn't recognized in restaurants (which is why his picture looks like it does). 
We need a Venn diagram for the local blogosphere today. There’s more on several of the reported news and rumors elsewhere, including Bill Burge’s rapid debunking of the Gerard Craft/Melange rumor at http://www.stlbites.com/2008/07/31/gerard-craft-and-the-melange-space/
Sauce — http://www.saucemagazine.com/scoop.php — adds to the Monarch story by noting that former King Louie’s ace (and offspring of the great retired P-D features writer John McGuire) Matt McGuire is now on the Monarch team as general manager, and Ian Froeb has additional details over at Gut Check — http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/gutcheck/
I’m pretty sure that I may be the first one to report that Cafe Ventana is actually open, though. (Its website still says August 21, but a phone call today confirmed that it’s open to the public now. )
Instant gratification, anyone?