Two of my favorite people in the whole world, Camille Becerra and Lelaine Lau, have been doing this pop-up restaurant thing called the Cookery. The next incarnation is on Wednesday, August 17, at a super-secret, hush-hush space. You have to buy in at their website, and when the time comes they tell you where to find the good food.

On those cop TV shows, sometimes someone close to a cop is whacked, which means that the cop can't get involved with the case because he or she is too "close." Of course, the cop who is relieved of duty or assigned to a desk job just can’t stay away, instead spending the next 48 minutes tracking the bad guys and bringing them to justice or to a quick and violent end. I sort of feel that way today. The restaurant that I built around chef Camille Becerra, APL, is parting ways with her before it even opens. As construction was completed over the last couple of months, it became clear that the owners and Camille weren’t getting along. It was like cowboys and Indians, and although at times it seemed like it was going to work out, well, it didn’t.

My firm, Lewis and Dizon, is now deep into design meetings for places that you've never heard of, but will surely be on your lips in the not-so-distant future. Different projects are in different stages, but they all start with a plan. Some are ground-up construction—that’s building something where nothing was before—while others are conversions of old joints that either failed or needed a facelift. Some places were something else, like a bank or garage, but now need to be made into something like a lounge, a club, or a restaurant. It all starts with laying out the place and creating what people used to call a blueprint. I used to do this by hand. I went through pencils like Lindsay Lohan goes through excuses. Nowadays, like everything else, it's all done digital on large-screen monitors. This makes it a great deal easier to design in places far away. These renderings are far more accurate, and allow 3D imaging, which helps clients understand more clearly just what the hell we have planned for them. Technical files are whisked through the internet to operators in far-off desert resorts or to their vacation villas overseas.

At today's PR and design meeting at the 146 Orchard Street restaurant space, the chef Camille Becerra informed me that she will not be reopening her Greenpoint hotspot Paloma. The place was burned out in a fire, and Camille has been patiently awaiting her insurance loot to come in so that she could once again serve her enthusiastic following. Now that crowd will have to wait some more or visit the joint that Marc Dizon and I are designing for her on the Lower East Side. With the insurance money in hand, Camille was confident that another Paloma is in the near future. I asked her if she would reopen in Brooklyn, and after an initial "hell yeah," she started to think that maybe Manhattan would be better. The decision was also made not to call the Orchard Street space Paloma Orchard or anything else like that. A name search that embraces the farm-fresh quality of the food is ongoing. After the jump is Camille's blow-by-blow of the events leading up to the thwarting of the re-opening -- and no, "thwarting" is not being considered for a name.

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I'll be celebrating the one year anniversary of Good Night Mr. Lewis tonight at Greenhouse. Taking a friend's advice, I have gone vegan for three whole days, and if I get through today, I will have reached my all-time personal best. The reason is energy. I am assured that without all the bad things in the food I've been eating, I will find new levels of power. Since I've been DJing three days a week, writing this daily blog, and designing up a storm without more than four hours of sleep for awhile now, I think that's what a real healthy raw diet will allow me to do. Shoot, I may even run for office -- or maybe just start running.

Well, they finally are allowing me to tell you about the new restaurant that my partner Marc Dizon and I are designing at 146 Orchard Street. As I hinted at before, Top Chef alumni Camille Becerra is going to be the top chef there. After an unfortunate fire that started in the apartment above her Greenpoint restaurant Paloma, Camille has been negotiating and defining her role at this new spot. A name hasn't been decided on yet, but there is talk of calling it Paloma Orchard Street, since her involvement is increasing and all collaborating parties are happy with each other.

The blogs were agog over the loss off Brooklyn restaurant Paloma due to a fire which broke out in the ceiling of the upstairs office. Chef Camille Becerra had her first 15 minutes of fame on Top Chef a couple years ago. One of the rags got her up to a half hour of fame when they voted her New York’s sexiest chef. I gave her another minute and a half with my Good Night Mr. Lewis interview of her and Top Chef Nikki Cascone of 24 Prince, and then came the fire. I caught up with Camille and got her side of the burn out.