Business First
New York City group to develop Wyndham restaurant
by Toya Richards Hill
A New York City-based restaurant group that has actor Robert DeNiro among its restaurant investors has been hired to consult with the owners of the new hotel going in on West Main Street.
Myriad Restaurant Group is working with West Main Museum and Hotel LLC to develop and bring to fruition the restaurant slated for a 90-room hotel that is being developed in a historic property at 700 W. Main St. West Main Museum and Hotel LLC is led by husband and wife Laura Lee Brown and Steven Wilson.
"We started to work with them, I would say, early this year," said Michael Bonadies, a partner in Myriad Restaurant Group. The company has been retained to help develop "the food and beverage business, conceptualize and help design the restaurant and bar," he said.
Myriad also will help staff the restaurant and assist with its opening, Bonadies said. "Then the hotel management will at some point take over," he said.
The hotel will be managed by Dallas-based Wyndham International Inc., and the property is expected to be completed by fall 2005.
Casual, relaxed atmosphere planned
Among the restaurants Myriad owns are Tribeca Grill and Nobu in New York City and Rubicon in San Francisco, all three of which have DeNiro as an investor.
Bonadies said that although Myriad's restaurants "are all different," the Louisville restaurant perhaps will be most like Tribeca Grill because of its location in a historic building.
He said the restaurant will be located on one level and will front on West Main Street. Bonadies said the hallmark of the restaurant will be its casual, "accessible" atmosphere in light of the fact that "fine dining is really dying."
"It will not be a special-occasion restaurant," Bonadies said. "It's not going to be uptight or stuffy or formal."
"It will be a place that you can go more than once a week," he said. And, there will be "food for the adventurous and food for people that aren't adventurous."
Group's entry into mid-America
Wilson, of West Main Museum and Hotel LLC, said he is pleased to be working with Myriad Restaurant Group.
"They've not done (a restaurant) in mid-America, so we are thrilled to have them," he said. Myriad is "one of the best restaurant consulting firms in the country."
Wilson concurred with Bonadies regarding the style planned for the restaurant. "We're hoping to have great food but be a friendly restaurant."