“Top Chef” alum Leah Cohen is coming to the Lower East Side. According to a liquor license application filed with Community Board 3, she and Rick Camac (of the Fatty Crab empire) plan to take over Italian restaurant Falai’s space at 68 Clinton.
As you may recall, Iacopo Falai shuttered his 8-year old restaurant, saying that Clinton Street was not as hospitable to fine dining as it might have been a few years ago.
Last year, Cohen told Zagat she planned to name her new spot “Pig and Khao. It’ll be a Southeast Asian spot. Cohen tested out the menu last year at LTO, the pop-up on East Broadway, after a stint in the kitchens of several restaurants in Asia.
Cohen and Camac are going for a beer and wine license only. It should be noted the restaurant will be located in an area in which the community board tries to limit new licenses. But since Falai had a license, the precedent is already set.
CB3’s liquor licensing panel meets Monday, April 16th, at 6:30 p.m., at the JASA/Green building, 200 East 5th Street.
I will take this “chef” a lot more seriously when she buttons her chefcoat, removes her jewelry, pulls back her hair and gets her hands in the food. It’s a tough business cookie.
It’s a posed glamour photo. Obviously she’s not working that way in the kitch.