Food
By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Fans of celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson have been speculating for a while that man who cooked for President Barack Obama’s first White House state dinner would be opening a restaurant in his adopted neighborhood of Harlem.
Now, it appears that it’s actually happening.
Earlier this month, Samuelsson was listed as a contestant in the new season of Top Chef Masters with his affiliation as “The Red Rooster, New York, NY.” That got the rumor mill churning, and a day later, he answered with a post on his Twitter account that said, “Yes, opening Red Rooster in Harlem later this year.”
This week, Samuelsson told the New York Times that the restaurant would be called Red Rooster Harlem and that it would be opening in the fall near 125th Street.
The Samuelsson parlor game has since turned to where exactly the restaurant will be located. Locals are scoping out sites that seem to fit the description.
Samuelsson, 38, was born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, and has lived in Harlem for about five years. He first got famous as the executive chef at Acquavit in Midtown East.
He is now the quintessential celebrity chef. In addition to running two restaurants, one in Chicago and another in Sweden, he has written several books and makes frequent television appearances. He’s also served as a guest chef for President Obama.
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I’m glad he did some homework. The Red Rooster was a popular bar/rest/jazzclub located on 138th St. & 7th Ave., and was frenquented by locals and many celebrities such as James Baldwin, Many famous jazz musicians, Doctor & Lawyers from Strivers Row, and where Willie Mays met his first wife Margarita. It was also the place where the local politicians along with Adam C. Powell Jr. hanged out. Adam as we used to call him, incidently visited several of the many clubs then located on 7th Ave. Maybe thats why they changed the name to his. The old Red Rooster location was recently available, but too small for Marcus’ restaurant. He have been spotted several times at the Lenox Lounge scouting, I guess his operations maybe simular to theirs. Again on 3/25/2010, he along with team was there to see the Paul Mooney show. My educated guess however, the new Red Rooster location will be the old Flash Inn on Adam C. Powell Jr. Blvd. & 155th St.
Excellent!
Is the resturant open where is it located
Flossie,
Look at the side bar links of our site under restaurant and you’ll see our link to his spot.
HW
I attended the red rooster on fri. 3/18/11 and must admit that the service was not great and the menu is not much of a selection I will not get into the prices
Ouch!