Just a mere mile and change from the Delamar Southport and Artisan, founder Charles Mallory’s Greenwich Hospitality Group has opened a new luxury hotel with a restaurant, Dandelion, that’s been booked solid for weeks right out of the gate. “We took ownership of it 2-3 years ago,” says Delamar’s corporate director of restaurants, Hicham Amaaou. “I’ve been working with Frederic Keifer (Delamar’s corporate chef/partner) since Artisan Southport in 2012, then West Hartford, and we created La Plage together from scratch. But this is two separate entities and the food is very opposite.”
It may not be soup season at the moment, with summer temperatures soaring into the 90s, but this new New Haven Korean restaurant is ready for the winter with its comforting, savory soup specialties.
Owner Kenny Kim, who ran Ramen Kuro Shiro at 128 Crown Street, recently revamped the restaurant’s menu and concept to reflect his Korean heritage. In a July Instagram post introducing Mr. Cookbop, Kim and his team said they took time to “refresh, reflect and reimagine what we wanted to bring to the table.”
Kim said he’s been in the restaurant industry for more than a decade, with experience in his native Korea as well as in New York and Connecticut. “I saw a real opportunity in New Haven, with its vibrant food scene and diverse community,” he said in a statement. “(It) felt like the perfect place to introduce the Mr. Cookbop concept – something both comforting and culturally rich.”