A few weeks ago, news broke that Compose, the six-month-old cocktail bar and chefs counter in Tribeca, was losing its chef Nick Curtin. Finally, the restaurant has announced his replacement: Matthew Lightner, the highly acclaimed chef of Portland's Castagna. Compose will close at the end of the weekend and reopen in September with a few upgrades to the kitchen and also a brand new name.
Some critics loved Compose, others found its eccentricities baffling, so it will be interesting to see what stays and what goes. Perhaps they'll drop the tasting-menu policy for this new iteration, or tweak their "dialogue based cocktails." The addition of Lightner is promising — he's Portland's most famous forager, and was a semi-finalist for the James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef of the Year, 2011. He'll leave Castagna at the end of the month.
· Compose to Close [NYT]
· Matt Lightner Leaving Castagna, PDX for New York City [Eater PDX]
· All Coverage of Matthew Lightner [Eater PDX]
· All Coverage of Compose [~ENY~]
[Krieger]