What was it like working with Philippe Starck or did he do his thing independently from you?
We spent a lot of good time together. He gives great advice and also listens. He makes you a part of the process. Most restaurateurs want to open fairly quietly but The Bazaar opened with a lot of fanfare. We opened very quietly. We opened over two and a half weeks before the party. So I achieved what I wanted. We had three very good weeks of training taking a very small number of reservations. This is very serious to me. I have many family depending on me to deliver a good product. I was doing 50 to 100 people a day. This Saturday we did close to 300. People are certainly excited about it. I don’t remember so much buzz about a restaurant since, well, I don’t remember when. Excitement is always good. I want to control the hype. When there’s hype it’s more difficult to meet expectations. I am trying to be very humble. I only feed what I like to eat; what I am serving is what I like to eat. One of most important things was having my wife in Saturday night, looking at me with a beautiful
