Celebrity chef Tyler Florence is merging his fabulous Northern California cuisine with the California wines he loves — by collaborating with Rob Mondavi, Napa Valley’s fourth-generation winemaker.
“I even designed the labels!” Florence gushed to Side Dish, as star-struck fans snapped his photo at House Beautiful’s fourth-annual Kitchen of the Year, designed by Florence and now on view at Rockefeller Center.
The affordable wines are a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Sauvignon Blanc that retail for $24 and $19. About 8,000 cases of each will be pro duced initially. (The Sauvignon Blanc just gota high rating from Wine Enthusiast.)
Florence is also producing a reserve series that retails at around $70 — and about $120 a bottle in restaurants: a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Pinot Noir and a Zinfandel.
“I’m now both humbled and invariably proud to call the Mondavi family my winemaking family,” Tyler writes in his upcoming cookbook, “Family Meals.”
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A new Web service is hoping to do with nightlife what Open Table did for restaurants.
“Nothing like this exists the way it does for travel and dining,” said Matt Bosso, a co-founder of Night Tables, set to launch Aug. 1.
With $100,000 in start-up funds, they’ve just completed a second round of fundraising in the mid-six figures, Bosso said.
The Web site has a two-pronged revenue-based scheme. People can use it to book reservations for tables and bottle service at clubs and lounges, and even to book special event parties — corporate, birthday, and bachelor/bachelorette bashes — without using a party planner. Entertainment-based activities, like “party” cruise boats, karaoke and hookah bars, will also be available to book online, and the Web site gets a percent of each reservation.
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WE HEAR . . . that Sant Chatwal of The Chatwal New York signed a license deal to be The Luxury Collection Hotels & Resorts’ first New York property . . . that PJ Clarke’s in Washington, DC, recently catered a vegetarian meal to the Dalai Lama at the St. Regis, where he was staying and that the midtown flagship restaurant — around since 1884 — is now using produce from an upstate farm it acquired.
