While the downtown dining scene has fattened up like a holiday goose, one spot we've heard little about is Tatou on Third and Boylston Street, slated to open this Friday night. The 30,000-square-foot space was once home to Prince's Glam Slam, then Club SOHO, then the Los Angeles Entertainment Center. The new Tatou has ties to the former Tatou Supper Club in NYC (stripped of its NY Times two stars in 1991) and Beverly Hills: Mark Fleischman, who also owned Studio 54 in the 80's, the former Tatous, and The Century Club until just recently, is a partner in this re-emergence. We weren't in LA in the 90's, so the storied past of hot spot Tatou eludes us, but remember Billy Idol OD'ing around '93? Yeah, that was at Tatou in Beverly Hills.
According to the Los Angeles Downtown News, the space "pays homage to the old Coconaut Grove," even using a lavish $70,000 in fabric draped throughout the multi-level, mutli-dance floor space. Michael Wray, the tattooed winner of "Hell's Kitchen: Season 1," is the executive chef. We caught up with Wray many months ago, when he was about to have a baby with his wife Lola and still dreaming of opening his own "performance-art restaurant" downtown. (For those who followed "Hell's Kitchen," he never did work with Gordon Ramsay in England, nor did he get his own restaurant, as promised by the show's teasers.) Before "HK," he worked at White Lotus. Expect a Cal-Asian-Latin menu, with a little Wokcano influence thrown in. Yes, it sounds all very over-the-top, but come on—why stop at $70,000 in fabric? Check it out for yourself on New Year's Even when the restaurant hosts a special grand opening fete.
· Downtown Gets a Tatou [LA Downtown News]
· The Kitchen is Open [LA Downtown News]
