We heard about Rock Sugar opening in the Westfield Century City mall months ago; in fact, we even called parent company, Calabasas Hills-based The Cheesecake Factory, for comment, but they must be too busy opening Cheesecake Factories in malls across America to return our calls. But it's coming. It's really, really coming. Today a tipster sends word: "The city finally posted a public notice outside of Century City mall (posted on a tree outside of Houston’s) depicting a public hearing for a new restaurant (Rock Sugar) in the empty space facing Santa Monica Blvd. This should be interesting – it’s a huge space 7500 sq. ft!" Yes, dear reader, 'tis true. It's a huge space, but interesting? Depends on how you define it.
According to Nation's Restaurant News, Rock Sugar will be "an upscale-casual restaurant with a full bar," with slightly higher prices than Cheesecake Factory, and will feature Thai, East Indian, Malaysian, Vietamese, and Indonesian food. Howard Gordon, the company's senior vice president business development and marketing, told NRN that "Rock Sugar - a reference to a common ingredient in Southeast Asian cooking - is still under development, but that it will not include Japanese or Chinese dishes." Our sources tell us the restaurant takes over the New York Kosher Deli located on the Santa Monica Boulevard side, near Gulfstream. Cheescake Factory-quality pan-Asian food sounds a little P.F. Changy, no? Gordon says, "We're not going to be in competition with P.F. Chang's." Rock Sugar is slated to open before the end of the year. UPDATE: It's open! Eater goes Inside.
· Eater Inside: RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen [~ELA~]
· Cheesecake readies new Asian concept, Rock Sugar [NRN]
