Sunday, November 2, 2008

Starr Shines Bright

Will Stephen Starr be bringing one of his hugely successful restaurant brands to the Cherry Hill Mall?
We don't know.
We can't say for sure.
But one of the restaurants now being constructed at the Mall certainly appears to be (at least from the outside) a Starr brand.
In any event, we do know that Starr has opened his newest eatery Butcher and Singer at 1500 Walnut St. on the site of the former Striped Bass.
We attended the huge gala opening of Butcher and Singer last week and found ourselves in the midst of a crowd of luminaries including Starr himself. We also spotted Mayor Michael Nutter, CBS 3 Meteorlogist Doug Kammerer and his lovely wife, Holly; Food Channel Host Marc Summers; Dechert worldwide PR maven Mark Tarasiewicz; Philly Super Lawyer Scott Sigman; Big Time Special Events Exec Nicole Cashman, City Paper's Mary Patel, Philadelphia Tribune's Bobbi Booker and many others.
At the event (which featured plenty of Adult Beverages) we enjoyed steak tartare; fresh, icy, jumbo shrimp; lobster salad; sauteed mushrooms; homemade carrot cake, pecan pie and chocolate mousse.
We also chatted with B & S Maitre d Raj (transplanted from The Palm by way of Barclay Prime). Raj is one of the city's finest hosts and he is a great asset at this new eatery.
And we met Executive Chef Shane Cash who came to B & S from legendary Shelly's Steak House in Manhattan. Cash has lots of great ideas for Buthcher and Singer whose historic location dates back to the early 1900's when it was the site of the National bank before becoming the Butcher and Singer stock brokerage house. Now, the dramatic space features 28-foot ceilings, seductive leather Hollywood booths, bold draperies and two magnificent chandeliers rescued from the original Fontainbleau Hotel in Miami.
This spectacular new steak and chop house is inspired by clubs such as 21 Club in New York, the brown derby in Los Angeles and Philadelphia's Frankie Bradley's

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