Restaurants Come and Restaurants Go

Hello there! If you are new here, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.

Sometimes its a carousel around here, the way we gain restaurants and then lose them. In this case, we have lost, as of yesterday, Mike & Jimmy’s Chophouse in Crestview Hills.

We are gaining John Phillip’s in the same location.

I never actually had more than bourbon and appetizers at Mike & Jimmy’s. There’s a reason for that. I have friends who were not very thrilled with the place, had poor to amazingly poor service, and so forth. So despite being just around the corner from us, we never got around to eating there.

As usual in situations like this, we’re not given an explanation for the closing. But I’m pretty excited about what is going into the location and plans on opening as soon as April.

The new restaurant is co-owned by locals John Whalen and Phillip Liles. Whalen has worked in the local restaurant business for years and Liles is a long-time Newport police captain. Whalen intends on being on-site and hands-on in the new restaurant. He’s worked at both The Conservatory and The Waterfront. But the items on his resume that intrigue me are his recent stint as the GM for the Vineyard Restaurant and Wine Bar in Hyde Park and that he opened The Syndicate in Newport back in 1995 and ran it for 10 years. (I loved that place.)

With his presence actually in the restaurant and his history with some great locations, I have high hopes for John Phillip’s. I can’t wait to find out more about the head chef and what they plan on doing with their wine list. (John Phillip’s should probably look into joining GC Independents.)

Also: I noticed as I was driving past the other day that there is a big Dewey’s Pizza sign on the former Nothing But Noodles in Crestview Hills. That makes me quite happy!