Petit Soleil The Restaurant News

...the second location...

The VixseBoxse Art gallery on Cedar Road in the Heights Center Building (Cedar-Fairmount neighborhood) will close it's doors this fall. (Edit 7/11/08: please note the business is not closing! Vixseboxse will remain an active business.) I've toured the space twice and met with the managing partner/owner to discuss the possibility of installing Petit Soleil in this delightful location. He supplied for me a letter of intent which outlined in very straightforward terms what looks and feels like a wonderful opportunity. Just yesterday I visited the space with my architect/project coordinator, Joe Hanna. Joe's a terrific guy who, I believe, has a very good sense of my vision for Petit Soleil...not to mention his knowledge and experience doing restaurants (I think it's this month he sees four of his restaurant projects opening their doors!). Having seen some rudimentary architectural drawings of the space, Joe had expressed concerns of square footage and seating capacity. These were alleviated during the walk-through. He seemed very optimistic about the possibilities for the space and it's size. This was, of course, music to my ears. He will be working on drawings, a proposal for the build out, to submit to the owners for their review. I hope to present them with this and more when I return for Europe. June will be a busy month, if this stays on track and the owners interest remains constant. I should be able to sign the LOI and start work on lease negotiations in June. Also, I've made some new, very promising bank contacts that should help me wrap up the financing. They've already made some good suggestions that I plan to adopt.

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And with that, my friends, I must say a bientot. We leave on Sunday and there is still much to do. The excitement builds as hours fall by. Prague! How cool is that? I can't wait!

Take a Step Back

Alright, now we're going to play everybody's favorite, fun game, Move Back. Now, when I tell you to take a step back, everybody take a step back, alright? Right. Ok, take a step back. And take another step back. And take yet another step back. And another; take a step back... Everybody feel better? What do you mean, "No" ?

(Bob Weir, Barton Hall, May 5th, 1977)

Today, I backed out of the Larchmere deal. There were several, mixed small and large factors that, combined, led me to revise my intentions. So...this sets me back at least one year. Big ouch. Still, with as much personal emotional and financial investment as such a venture takes, one should own and exercise one hundred percent commitment and conviction.

In related news, there is another property that I saw not long ago, which is an equally good, if not better, location. Of course, as things unfold and new opportunities present themselves, I will update here.

My trip to Europe begins in less than two weeks. We have only to reserve a car for traveling around Tuscany. Oh, and we found such a cool looking spot between Firenze and Sienna. Check it out: http://www.ponzano.wide.it/ It will be our base for explorations when we give up the cities for the country.

Europe Travel Plans

...Europe, but not France...

No, not France, alas. Instead we fly to Prague for week... Prague, one of the cities where no allied bombs fell, an old city still in tact. D will be in a conference part of the time, leaving me to wander the city and surrounding area. We'll then go by train to Vienna, a city we fell in love with in 2005.

The traveler in Vienna.

We'll have just a day there, but it will be nice to walk the ringstrasse around the old city again. Then it's a night train to Venice. YEAH! Italy! A day or so there then it's off to Florence. We'll have a bit more than a week to explore Tuscany. I am very excited about this. Many people to whom I tell my love for France tell me that Italy is better. I will be venturing with extreme bias, but I know it's going to be simply wonderful. We'll be gone for half of the month of May. I'll be sure to post some food pictures when I get back.

Recent Press

...it's always a pleasant surprise to...

...get some press you didn't know was coming. After I got back from Baltimore, my friend Doug Katz called to confirm my shift for his Easter Sunday brunch. As an aside he mentioned reading about me again in one of the local weeklies. I'm always the last to know (because I don't pay proper attention). I quickly figured out where he saw the press and who wrote it. Elaine Cicora, food writer for Cleveland Scene Magazine, called me last week on other pretenses. She's planning a review of my former restaurant, Sans Souci, and it's current chef, the fabulous Anna Kim, who used to be my sous chef. Anna is awesome. Her promotion to my old job couldn't have been more appropriate. Check out her bio at the Sans Souci web page. Did I mention that Anna is awesome? Anway, Elaine and I chatted a while, catching up, mostly me talking about my plans and recent developments. Little did I know she would make a side bar of our conversation. I really should know better! Click here to read what Elaine wrote.

Just for fun, here's a pic of Chef Kim and Chef Fambrough at the 2006 Fab Food Show at the IX Center

Catering in Baltimore

... a Spring Dinner...

I made another trip to Baltimore to do three dinners for my dad. I kept the menu simple for this trip: hors d'oeuvres and four courses. We started with mushroom toasts, mussels with mango salsa and smoked salmon-american sturgeon caviar canapes paired with Monmousseau Brut Etoile, a sparkling wine from France. Courses one and two (listed below) were paired with Joel Gott 2007 Sauvignon Blanc; courses three and four with Costentino 2005 Sangiovese il Chiaretto.

Course One

Potato-Cauliflower Soup with Chive Oil, Fried Shiitake Mushrooms,

Nori Ribbons and Salmon Roe

Course Two

Baby Mixed Greens with Citrus-Raspberry Vinaigrette, Cypress Grove

Purple Haze Goat Cheese and Curried Bread Sticks

(I used a blend of baby lettuces for The Chef's Garden)

Course Three

Peppered Strip Loin with Baby Bok Choy, Rice Noodles and Black Bean Jus

(I used grains of paradise, black pepper, kosher salt and togarashi on the steaks;

sorry,no photo of the plated course; the beef is strip loin)

Course Four

Chocolate Souffle Cakes Vanilla Ice Cream and Candied Cara Cara Navel Oranges

(the mint is chocolate mint from The Chef's Garden)

yummy chocolate (this is 62% semi sweet, I often use 70%)

Northern Ohio Live article

in print

Ivan J. Sheehan, Associate Editor/Food and Drink for Northern Ohio Live, wrote a short piece on me in their February '08 issue. Here's what he wrote:

Home Haute Cuisine

We've all dreamed of having a five-star dinner party in the comfort of our own home--blithely working the room with engrossing witticisms, free to be the life of the party as a chef sweats it out in the kitchen. Fortunately, one veteran chef was dreaming of the same thing: making your gourmand party dreams com true in your kitchen.

During his fourth trip to france [I probably misinformed Ivan on this point, it was my fifth, but who's counting!?], and his first stay in Provence, Ben Fambrough, the chef who helped make Sans Souci in the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel an award-wining restaurant, had an epiphany of sorts. "I blame this trip--in part-- for my recent life change," says Fambrough. "I returned to Cleveland and worked with my head somewhere far across the Atlantic. I could still see the color, and sense the heat, smells and tastes. The realities of day-to-day work diminished in importance to me. I sensed something greater for myself."

Embracing his emotions, Fambrough left his post as executive chef of Sans Souci and created Petit Soleil, a catering operation that allows him to work directly with clients to create specialized dinners and events, a venture in which he can pour all his "culinary passion, life experience and joy," he says. The chef's culinary inspiration comes from comes from places like Fance and San Fransisco, and culinary icons Daniel Boulud and Jacques Pepin. He finds seasonal illumination in the spring, citing ramps, morels and peas; summer produce, namely tomatoes, corn and chanterelles; and fall, incorporating cepes [boletes], apples, hard squashes and warm spices into his dishes. "Also, I really enjoy Indian food and using some Indian spice sensibilities," he says. "They are underutilized, and--while I have often derided fusion cuisine--I do plan to use some of these elements in my food." He is also excited to incorporate traditionally savory items in dessert preparations. "In France, I ate a chocolate and red bell pepper mousse duet that really pushed the palate," he says. "Of course, now familiar examples can be found in the variety of chocolate truffles: chili, cayenne, curry."

While his head may be in another country, Fambrough's heart is in Ohio. He has been a longtime friend of the The Chef's Garden in Huron, and the Culinary Vegetable Institute in Milan, Ohio, often using their produce and participating in many of their fund-raising events and other events. "I am an admirer of their mission, their simultaneously innovative and ancient approach to farming," he says. "They are not afraid to harness technology, and they apply it in sustainable ways without manipulating the earth and what it will yield...what they do goes well beyond the current notion and legal definition of 'organic'."

It is Fambrough's flair for the exotic, grounded in local, personal and approachable foundation, that deftly guides his creations, and what he hopes to deliver with Petit Soleil, and later with a contemporary French and Mediterranean restaurant of the same name that he plans to open. "I am a one-man show that values the close chef-guest relationship." For more information, visit his blog at [you're already there!]

--Ivan J. Sheehan

Petit Soleil, The Restaurant News

...the next moves...

January saw a few nudges forward. February should bring more. I met with the owners again, and the artichect again. For the first time since conversations started, I will be sent a bill for his time and minimal work so far. However, now begins the "real" work for me, negotiating the responsibilities for the demo and renovations, working on the build out, securing the financing, and negotiating the lease terms. So far all the numbers look in line. Aside from "soft costs" (legal and artichect fees, etc.) We are looking at a total project cost in the neighborhood of 300,000 dollars. That's from demo to build-out to plates, tables and chairs. I am asking the owners for a responsibility and contribution for much of the demo and renovation work, covering a bit more than a third of the projects costs. Funds from my backers will cover more nearly half of the total project costs. The remainder for opening and operating will come from loans (if I can get one, or a line of credit, or both--these are tough times as we all know). The steps in a project like this one are not linear and the numbers my architect/project coordinator gives will be fluid by necessity, although bound by a budget. It is, altogether, very exciting. The immediate next steps are the critical ones: securing the financing and laying out the project costs in detail.

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You know, I have been so slack with updates, I'm not sure what I've written about the place. I think I've got a photo or two of the place to dig up. Let's see what I can find....

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The front corner (pans for a patio beside the building)

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The interior (view from kitchen towards street entrance)

There is a lower level with private dining room, office and prep kitchen.