celebrity restaurant

Eva Longoria's Beso Restaurant Files For Bankruptcy

Filed under: Dining

In 2009 Eva Longoria and celebrity chef Todd English took their Beso restaurant concept to Las Vegas. Now a little over a year after the opening of the restaurant in the Crystals complex in CityCenter, Beso LLC has filed Chapter 11. The Wall Street Journal reports that Longoria owns around a third of a stake in the corporation which operates both the Beso Restaurant and Eve nightclub in the MGM Resorts entertainment and retail complex.

The first Beso (which means "kiss" in Spanish) opened in Hollywood in 2008. Both restaurants feature Tex-Mex items such as Eva's tortilla soup, her avocado guacamole and chili rubbed skirt steak. The Chapter 11 petition, filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Las Vegas, list assets of $2.5 million and $5.7 million in debts. According to the WSJ article, Longoria herself is owed nearly $1.1 million on an unsecured loan and an additional $375,000 for legal fees she paid on the company's behalf. The Las Vegas Sun says that the restaurant projects ongoing losses of $76,000 per month and owes $1.8 million to landlord Crystals at CityCenter. There is also ongoing litigation involving contractors the construction of the club as well as former partners.

Both Beso Hollywood and Beso Las Vegas remain open. In a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press Longoria said that she would plan to Las Vegas and take charge of the future of the restaurant and looks forward to "a more proactive, hands-on approach" with her Las Vegas businesses.

Gallery: Celebrity Restaurants

Tags: celebrity restaurant, celebrity restaurants, celebrity restaurateur, eva longoria, Eva Longoria Parker, todd english

Francis Ford Coppola Opens New Restaurant

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Director Francis Ford Coppola is a man who loves his food and wine and he'll be combining both at Rustic, a new restaurant inside the Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Geyserville, California. The full title of the restaurant is Rustic Francis' Favorites which gives a clue to the fact that the menu is geared toward the tastes of the great man himself. The restaurant will serve Italian favorites including Neapolitan style pizzas as well as meat cooked on an Argentine-style parilla and a Brazilian-style Tomasi rotisserie. Seasonal produce will be sourced from the on-site vegetable and herb garden. Eater SF recently had a photo tour of the total facility which includes two tasting rooms, a cocktail bar, retail area and plenty of movie memorabilia including as Don Corleone's desk from The Godfather.

Inside Scoop chatted with Coppola about his new creation and the vision behind it. He wanted to put the focus on rustic country cuisine serving hearty fare using fresh ingredients. Starting this fall the restaurant will have 'a tavola' service on Sundays. Instead of order ing from a menu, guests will be served a variety of dishes that the chef prepares and sends out, a nod to old-fashioned family Sunday suppers.

Tags: celebrity restaurant, celebrity restaurants, celebrity restaurateur, francis ford coppola, geyserville, winery

Sammy Hagar's Airport Beach Bar

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Celebrity Shopping

Rocker Sammy Hagar may have missed out on the lucrative Van Halen concert tour but let's not feel too bad for old Sammy, he just clinched a new restaurant deal. While other celebs such as Ashton Kutcher and Jamie Kennedy who are part of the Dolce restaurant group or Danny DeVito who recently opened an Italian restaurant in South Beach have gone upscale, Sammy's restaurant will be located in the Kahului Airport in Maui.

Sammy's Beach Bar & Grill will serve American fare with an island twist in a beach-themed restaurant that will include signed memorabilia from Hagar's own personal collection. There will also be a full bar serving fresh fruit cocktails (and presumably plenty of his tequila). Here's a good reason to check out Sammy's Beach Bar when it opens in 2008, 100% of Sammy Hagar's profits from the restaurant chain will be donated to local Hawaii charities via the Red Rocker Foundation, an organization Hagar and his wife Kari are establishing to help support children's organizations.

Source

Tags: celebrity restaurant, maui, restaurant, sammy hagar, SammyHagar