I was sitting in a coffee house yesterday and overheard a young guy tell the barista, "Make it a double, I got laid off today." Then I remembered that I had gotten a phone call last week from chef Linda Duerr of J.J.'s Restaurant on the West Plaza telling me that she had been laid off.
I wasn't completely surprised by the news. Last October, I wrote about J.J.'s Restaurant suffering financial hardship because of the construction snarls created by the slow-moving and controversial West
JJ's Restaurant on the west edge of the Plaza (910 West 48th Street) hosts a wine dinner tonight with Adam Sbragia, whose family owns vineyards all over California. His family's wine is called appropriately Sbragia Family Vineyards. The dinner will take place in JJ's Saber Room starting at 7 p.m.The five-course menu is heavy on game and seafood. The first course is grilled scallops with salsa martini served with a sauvignon blanc, and the second course is lobster panna cotta with a chardonnay. S
The last time I spoke with talented chef Linda Duerr, she had just been laid off from J.J.'s Restaurant on the Country Club Plaza (yes, the beloved bistro across the street from the unfinished and seemingly doomed Moshe Safdie building called The West Edge). Duerr, who moved to Kansas City to head the kitchen at Lidia's, had been the executive chef at Frondizi's, the other Jimmy Frantze restaurant, before Frantze closed it down and moved Duerr over to J.J.'s. Ironically, Cafe Trio will soon
