Big news on the Jeremy Fox front as the question of what the free agent chef will do next is finally answered: Fox has signed on with Tyler Florence as creative director of the Tyler Florence Group, and will be assisting in writing menus for Wayfare Tavern as well as Florence’s two upcoming projects opening in the next few months, Rotisserie & Wine in Napa and El Paseo in Mill Valley. As the Scoop scoops, Fox will not only be helping Florence with the new fall menu at Wayfare, debuting this week, but he’ll also be running Rotisserie & Wine when it opens next month, the last of the major players to fill out the Napa Riverfront complex, following Fish Story and Morimoto Napa.
What’s the notoriously vegetable-minded Fox doing at the helm of a rotisserie-driven restaurant, you ask? Not unlike the earlier announced and aborted teaming of Fox with Daniel Patterson, the move comes as a surprise, especially given what an iconoclast Fox has already become in his own right. But Fox is no stranger to meat, earlier promised that his next move would be unexpected, and is nothing if not a team player. It seems inevitable that he’ll open his own restaurant one day, but the creative control and financial backing he’ll be given at the upcoming El Paseo (opening by December?) may be just the jumping off point he needs. As for the previously announced “California steakhouse” concept at El Paseo, look for that to potentially morph — or at least get a lot more interesting — as Fox comes on board.
As for Florence, the buzz and critical acclaim that follows Fox around these days can do nothing but help his restaurants in winning over the foodie/foochebag faithful.
More on the pair’s plans as soon as we can get them on the phone.
Tyler Florence and Jeremy Fox join forces [Scoop]
Earlier: The Grub Street S.F. Fall Restaurant Preview [Grub Street]
Breaking: Jeremy Fox Quits Plum Project, Opening His Own Place Instead [Grub Street]
