New Restaurants Keep it in the Family

Acclaimed chef Michael Psilakis told the New York Times yesterday that he and restaurateur Donatella Arpaia will soon convert the original Kefi into a “comfort food” spot called Gus & Gabriel’s. The restaurant’s name derives from Psilakis’ late father Gus and his three-year-old son Gabriel. Psilakis also told Josh Ozersky that “the logo will be that of an adult and a child; obviously that’s my father, Gus, and my son, Gabriel, but it also a symbolic representation of the individual inner child and their appetite for the reassuring and familiar tastes, especially in hard times.” If one also counts the logo for chef Emma Hearst’s 2-month-old restaurant Sorella (translation: sisters)—which depicts two wine-quaffing, sleepy-eyed ladies, then we have a recession special, mini-trendlet on our hands: restaurants named after family members, with logos depicting family. Too bad the just-opened Grandaisy Tribeca uses its regular, floral emblem instead of a stern-looking senior holding a rolling pin.