July 19, 2007
Celebrity Owned Restaurants: Recipe for Disaster?
We're just going to get this out of the way: Justin Timberlake is bringing deep-fried pickle-sicles back. The modern day song and dance man has gone and opened his very own restaurant called Southern Hospitality (at 1460 2nd Ave and 76th St). It opened last night to a crowd of A-listers people you may have heard of, hankering for some barbecue. Amongst the items offered are deviled eggs, pulled pork, mac-n-cheese, fried catfish, and yes...the aforementioned pickle treat (we hope JT took his indigestion pills last night).
One of the first reports from the frontline of the opening is scathing and comes from NYMag. Apparently there was no southern hospitality in air last night, as their reporter tells of an epically poorly run opening. JT himself was reportedly too cool to talk much to the press (we're sure in a few weeks when he has seats to fill he'll have a change of heart). However, co-owner and JT's bff assures The Post that: “We’re not trying to be trendy."
With the opening JT joins the rank of celebs who have owned eateries, the question is: will his succeed? His ex Britney Spears’ southern-flared NYLA didn't do so well, neither did the Baldwin brothers Alaia (shocking). On the other hand Valerie Simpson and Nick Ashford's Sugar Bar on West 72nd has been around for 11 years. Jay-Z's 40/40 sports bar and restaurant is a success so far (despite getting bad press from time to time), and Sean Combs' Justin in the Flatiron District is still going strong, too. Outside of the music world, Timothy Hutton's PJ Clarke's has decent fare that's kept its doors open, the Jimmy Fallon-backed Mo Pitkins is thriving after opening two years ago in the East Village, and Robert De Niro's Tribeca Grill has been around for 20 years.
Check out some pictures of Southern Hospitality here, and, one from the opening of a blurry Timberlake.
Photo from the opening via The Life Files' Flickr.
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Give me Dinosaur any day over this place.
Thank God Justin Timberlake has delivered a way for me to overpay for mediocre barbecue, because previously there was just no way to do that in this city ...
Timberlake is already part owner of Destino on 1st Avenue. Opened early 2006 I think.
15 months.
Ha - funny #2.
Everybody should go to Justin Timberlake's restaurant!
(So that the restaurants I want to go to are less crowded.)
There are too many restaurants in New York or too few talented chefs. Every retard with a spatula thinks he can run a restaurant and 20 and 30 somethings with too much money keep feeding them just enough cash to make everyone give it a shot. Most of the new trendy spots my friends drag me to end up sucking and costing way too much for what you get.
Sharpton's working the fork, better then the motor mouth but that is true of everybody. Shuddup and start smackin' gusto baby! http://www.bossip.com/3325/al-sharpton-and-jay-z-receive-southern-hospitality/
jimmy fallon's mo pitkins? what kind of crack are you smoking? He doesn't fucking own that place. jesus.
i'm surprised that the gothamist, as a long SXSW supporter, does not have more enthusiasm for fried pickles. anyone who has ever been to the alamo draft house should know that deep fried koshers dunked in ranch makes life a little more worth living...I hope JT's chef can deliver.
I popped over to that flickr account and it looks like most of that user's pictures are lifted from paparazzi sites, so I'd guess this one might be too. Does it matter if gothamist uses it, if it's in his stream? I know flickr gets tetchy about that.
NY Mag's scathing review of what, JT's punctuality? The article doesn't even talk about the restaurant or food itself.
What's really lame is the reporter pulling out the sexism card when the only thing that disqualified her from doing her job was not carrying her press credentials.
"...But when we walked up, he stopped us. Where is your I.D., young lady? In our bag, way over there. We were standing in the press area, we pointed out, and we had our recorder in hand, which we showed him. He gave us a slow, leering, full-body ogle and made up his mind. “Honey, I don’t think so. Step back.” Seconds later, JT was gone. And we were left walking off our anger in Central Park, wondering how having breasts had disqualified us from doing our job. —Jada Yuan"