For the most part, celebrity chef Daniel Boulud’s business has been split in two: his highly successful portfolio of New York restaurants, and the handful of restaurants that bear his name in hotels in places like Las Vegas and Singapore.
But D.C. is different. DBGB, Boulud’s standalone restaurant opening Saturday in downtown’s tony CityCenterDC development, is the first time Boulud’s company, the Dinex Group, has done a project outside of New York with no hotel partnership. It’s not something the chef is taking lightly.
“This is fully and entirely managed by us and owned by us,” Boulud said as he sat in the restaurant’s dining room, still a work in progress in late August. “We’re always committed to what we do, but for this one we’ve committed… entirely with our own savings. It’s a big commitment.”
Dinex declined to provide a buildout cost for the CityCenterDC space, but a source familiar with the project said it topped $3 million.
A high-profile New York or celebrity chef coming to D.C. certainly isn’t unprecedented. In fact, Boulud waited much longer than some of his contemporaries to take his chance on D.C.
Click through the gallery at right to see more celebrity chefs in D.C. and how they’ve fared.
It hasn’t worked out for many of them. The list of chefs who have come and gone gets longer every year: Eric Ripert (Westend Bistro); Alaine Ducasse (Adour); Todd English, who has now opened and pulled out of two D.C. spots (Olives and MXDC); and, most recently, Jean-Georges Vongerichten (J&G Steakhouse).
Boulud hopes to be in a different category, he said.
“There are a lot of places where it’s not about who’s cooking as much as who is the marquee name,” Boulud said. “I think I belong more in the who is cooking category like many chefs in D.C., chefs who are working very hard for the craft, who respect this business and really respect their customers, the staff, and the community. I want to make sure I am in that category.”
That’s not to say the French-born chef with three Michelin stars hasn’t felt the sting of failure in his career. He has had to close four restaurants over the years: two in Vancouver, one in Beijing and one in the Wynn Las Vegas resort and casino.
The last one came after the Wynn canceled Boulud’s contract, a move the chef joked at the time was costing Steve Wynn more than the divorce the hotel magnate was going through.
“Sure, sometimes there was a project that should have never happened, because I should have concentrated on staying more local than international or what have you, but that’s OK,” Boulud said. “I think every project is an exciting thing to do.”
