Shanna Kamin
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larry forgione
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Warren
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Jeremy
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jenn
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Jeremy
Welcome to CuisineNet Live. Our guest tonight will be Larry Forgione, chef/owner of An American Place, The Beekman 1776 Tavern, and the soon-to-open Grill Room (both in New York). He is also the author of the An American Place cookbook. We will be giving away three signed copies of this cookbook at the end of the chat. All chat participants who have entered their email addresses before entering the chat are eligible to win. We will be announcing the winners at the end of the chat, and we will also be notifying the winners with email messages.

Jeremy
Larry will be speaking with us on the phone tonight, so we will be reading your questions to him and then submitting his responses under the alias, surprisingly enough, "larry forgione" -- this is a chat, so feel free to ask away about food, restaurants, being a chef, or whatever comes to mind. Just to be clear, the submit your message button is the top most red button next to this screen.

Shanna Kamin
Hello, Mr. Forgione! I'm something of fan!

Jeremy
Welcome to the chat Larry. How long did it take you from planning until now to put together The Grill Room?

larry forgione
Hello! The concept behind the Grill Room is one I've wanted to do for a long time -- an old fashioned chop house which is a modern steak house melded with an oyster bar. We're focusing on modern American cooking in that we're simplifying ingredients and reintroducing classics like real ranch dressing and real green goddess dressing. We spent about a year negotiating the downtown space, and it's been under construction for about a year. The opening will be in mid-May.

Joe@CuisineNet
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Shanna Kamin
Where will the new restaurant be located. I live in Battery Park City, and An American Place takes a while to get to by the subway!

larry forgione
The Grill Room, which, Shanna, will be near you on Wall Street (2 World Financial Center),

jenn
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Jeremy
What can we expect as far as decor in The Grill Room?

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Shanna Kamin
You mentioned an oyster bar. How many different varieties of oysters will you have?

larry forgione
We'll have 20 varieties over the course of a season.

Jeremy
Will the oysters be local? Do you only use local ingredients?

larry forgione
The oysters will come from all over. Whenever things are in season, we use local ingredients as much as we can....But we have people all over the country -- we have a fish guy in Maine, various ingredients are flown in from California, and we sometimes get oysters from the Pacific Northwest. We use FedEx to deliver stuff from all over the country. Our real focus is on the freshness of ingredients that come from their native region -- and seasonality is important as well, so we serve produce in season from great producers or farmers.

Shanna Kamin
I think you'll see me there...often!

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Widmerpool
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Warren
Larry, your said the grill room will serve chops. What kind of meat will you serve. Pork, lamb or other?

larry forgione
Our selection of meats will cover just about everything -- three different cuts of dry aged meat, cowboy 22 oz. ribeye on the bone, and New York sirloin. We'll also have veal, lamb, pork, venison (when it's in season), and buffalo --

Shanna Kamin
Mr. Forgione, your space in 2 WFC (across the street from me!): is it where Le Pactole used to be?

larry forgione
Yes Shanna, that's the space, the old La Pactole.

Jeremy
Have you ever thought of taking the wonders of fresh American cuisine abroad? In the form of a restaurant, I mean...

larry forgione
As for opening a restaurant abroad, I've thought of it, but I've never made a decision to actually do it. I'll be a guest chef at the Connaught Hotel in London, and we'll bring American food there. I've also done An American Place menus in Hong Kong and Japan, but I'm not sure of the logisitics of opening a restaurant abroad. I prefer to do something locally as opposed to spending half a day in an airplane.

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