Ah, Laguna Beach. If there were a rallying point where the high-concept restaurants flock, it'd be here. There are at least three new restaurants slated for Laguna's coast this year, all of them fit for a town that seems to demand a new restaurant or bar every weekend.
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With plans to introduce Asian-influenced American food sometime in May at the Albertsons plaza, a restaurant named Starfish
is the closest to debuting. The eatery is headed by Nancy Wilhelm. If
the name sounds familiar, she's the woman behind Tabu Grill and
David Wilhelm's former wife.
the high-concept sushi bar by Katsuya Uechi and designer Phillipe
Starck that has cornered the market at four high-profile locations in
LA. One will take over the space vacated by
Hush this summer. Uechi and Starck work for SBE Group, which you might
recognize as the company that owns the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills and restaurants the Bazaar and XIV by Michael Mina. SBE is also, by
the way, planning Katsuya locations in Houston and Miami's South Beach.
Last but not least is Broadway by Amar Santana. The chef who formerly headed up Charlie Palmer's at
Bloomingdale, Santana and his eatery will take up the spot recently left open by the shuttered
Five Feet.
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.