Since 1978, Tihany Design has held the champion title for worldwide restaurant and hospitality design. The company namesake, architect, and restaurateur, Adam Tihany is the creative force behind Aureole New York and Las Vegas, La Fonda Del Sol, Daniel, Charlie Palmer at The Joule, Le Cirque, and Per Se among other fine-dining establishments. His design work in hotels includes One&Only Cape Town, Mandarin Oriental Geneva and Hong Kong's Mandarin Oriental Landmark. The top name in hospitality design shares a look inside his boutique agency and list of posh accomplishments.

Formerly executive chef at the decadent GILT restaurant, chef Christopher Lee recently re-opened Charlie Palmer's legendary at its new location in the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park (that's him in the photo above at right, Palmer smiling paternally at left). The Top Chef Masters competitor talks about manning the kitchen as executive chef at Aureole, his modest perspectives, and having a green thumb. Aureole will beoffering a 15% discount on all menus until the grand opening benefit gala for Citymeals-on-Wheels on September 15.

"This isn’t a facelift," Charlie Palmer tells me of his new Aureole. "I cut things off and start fresh. That's just the way I do things. I don't even go to class reunions." The chef and owner of the Upper East Side eatery is set to open a very different Aureole, expanding the dimensions to include a bar area, cozy dining room, large dining room, and a outdoor patio facing the Conde Nast building at its new home at One Bryant Park. Chef Christopher Lee of GILT maintains that the food will be progressive American, but the menu will essentially be completely different. Experimenting with seafood and staple comfort dishes, options will include small plates, plus lunch portions to appeal to different "economic backgrounds and lifestyles." Palmer promises, "The only way we've kept Aureole the same is we've decided to keep it comfortable."

As the economy recovers and money becomes available, places that were long ago shuttered or recently deceased prepare for rebirth. Restaurants lay around like old chairs and sofas covered with white sheets like in an old horror flick. The biggest prize in my eyes is Plumm, that ripe spot on 14th Street with a ton of tradition. Nell Campbell had her infamous joint Nell's there back in the day. It became famous for charging everybody -- and I mean everybody -- door admission. Cher refused, got turned away, and the little gimmick turned the place into a hit overnight. In later years, I would go and listen to jazz bands and eat good food before the mayhem of the dance halls. Noel Ashman took the joint over and called it NA. Some said it meant "Nell's Again," but most thought it was a tribute to his own dapper self. Noel eventually closed NA and transformed it into Plumm, with a gaggle of celebrity investors including Chris Noth, Damon Dash, Samantha Ronson, etc. Plumm proved to be a bitter fruit, never really catching on with a crowd that spent enough money to pay the rent.

C’mon! Big money! Big money!

1. Aureole (Strip: South) - Nothing says “winner” like a $500 bottle of wine before dinner. Nothing says big winner like ordering a $1,000 bottle of wine with the appetizer.
2. Fred Leighton (Bellagio) - Because an 8-carat diamond ring is vulgar, but a 16-carat emerald, diamond and platinum art deco bracelet is not.
3. Pinball Hall of Fame (Off-Strip East) - Go ahead, buy that Kiss pinball machine. You’re on your own getting it home, though.

Charlie Palmer, celeb chef extraordinaire, is about to move his Upper East Side flagship Aureole to fancy new digs on Bryant Park. Here's Charlie on being a Giuliani guy, trading blue collar for haute cuisine, and getting shaken down by shifty garbage men.

Point of Origin: I started cooking when I was in junior high school in upstate New York. I grew up in a little town called Smyrna, near Colgate University. I was a football player, I was a jock ... hunting and fishing, and stuff like that. ... I thought, “God, this cooking thing appeals to me a lot more than what my brothers were doing or what my dad was doing. Maybe this is something I could really get into.” That’s when I realized that I really loved doing this. From that point on it kind of took off. I went to Culinary Institute of America and then right to New York City, with the intention of working in New York for three years or so in 1979.

David Burke builds a foodie empire, parties in Vegas, drinks up a new name, and pours some out for Jerz.

Point of Origin: I was born in Brooklyn, and left there as a one year old, and went to the Jersey Shore. Although I trained at the Culinary Institute of America, I traveled to France where I spent several stages with notable chefs such as Pierre Troisgros, Georges Blanc, and Gaston Lenôtre, but eventually returned to the US as a sous chef for Waldy Malouf at La Cremaillere, and then worked for Charlie Palmer at River Café. Charlie hired me as [his] number two, which is how I got back to Brooklyn where I lived for ten years. Two years under Charlie, then five years as a chef.