Never count him out - Mark Militello, an original South Florida chef who first came to notice with Mark's Place in Miami, is back at a hotel - The Atlantic on Ft. Lauderdale beach - to revamp and rework restaurant Trina's menus.
"It will be totally chef-driven," he said. "I'm redesigning every menu - it's a huge undertaking, more involved since it's a hotel."
The Trina name will change - though Militello says he "can't decide"
what to call it. Trina was originally under the direction of Don
PIntabona, chef at the Tribeca Grill and now Dani in Manhattan. It was
a critical success for its first few years, but Pintabona left and so
did the accolades.
He expects to have his menus in place, for
breakfast, lunch and dinner, by the end of July. "We're weeks out -
there's three weeks between interviews, drug tests and all the
administration stuff for hiring staff," he said.
Familiar and new menu items
He
hinted that the menus will have vestiges of all his other menus - from
his three namesake restaurants, Mark's on Las Olas, Mark's at the Park
in Boca Raton and Mark's CityPlace in West Palm Beach.
"I'm excited about it, but it's a lot of work," he said.
Dean
Max, a neighboring chef (3030 Ocean in the Marriott on the beach) said
he's glad to see Militello coming aboard. "It will be nice to see
someone showing it (Trina) some love. It's needing it."
The restaurant needs little in the way of design, Militello said - only a few tweaks here and there. "It's a beautiful space."
He hopes to have the menus and new staff in place at the end of July.
Trina
601 N. Fort Lauderdale Beach Blvd., Fort Lauderdale,
954-567-8070
trinarestaurant.com
