Five Diamond chef, Dave Racicot, confident he'll sparkle in new setting
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Dave Racicot pauses during clean-up of the Oakmont space that will become his new restaurant, Notion. -
Chef Dave Racicot, right, listens to Notion manager Jennifer Jin as they work their way through IKEA with designer Jen Bee. -
The facade of the former Boulevard Bistro in Oakmont is papered over while work proceeds inside November 4, 2010 on a new concept, Notion, being undertaken by chef David Racicot, who formerly led the kitchen at Nemacolin''s Lautrec. -
Jennifer Jin, the manager of David Racicot's new restaurant Notion, goes over the original floorplans Jen Bee. -
Chef David Racicot,reflected in the mirror, listens to designer Jen Bee, right, as they start off their tour of Ikea. -
Chef David Racicot, and Jennifer Jin, who is slated to manage the new Oakmont restaurant Notions, listen to designer Jen Bee's ideas about a workstation. -
Jennifer Jin, who is slated to manage the new Oakmont restaurant Notions for chef David Racicot, and designer Jen Bee think about tables as they tour the dining section of Ikea. -
Chef David Racicot, contemplates tables and chairs as he tours Ikea. -
David Racicot, left, and Jennifer Jin, who will manage Racicot's new restaurant in Oakmont, listen as Jen Bee, right, explains some ideas she thinks will work in the front of the restaurant.
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First in an occasional series on the birth of Notion
It's tough to pigeon-hole Dave Racicot, the self-taught chef who earned Nemacolin Woodlands Resort's Lautrec restaurant its coveted AAA Five Diamond rating in 2007, when he was but 29 years old.
He's extremely talented, of course. But also cocky. Outspoken. Kind of pig-headed. Almost too self-confident.
Oh, and sexy, too, what with that scruffy beard and network of tatts running up one arm and down the other.
Mostly, he's determined.
On Dec. 31, if everything stays on schedule, the doors will swing open at Notion, his new restaurant in what used to be Boulevard Bistro in Oakmont. It's the end result of a year-long journey fraught with angst, rejection, frustration and -- after he finally signed the papers on the Allegheny River Boulevard building two months ago -- buckets of sweat and elbow grease.
This past January, Mr. Racicot was let go from his job as Lautrec's chef du cuisine for what he calls, in a voice tinged with irritation, "creative differences." He tried hard to land another job that would keep his young family in the area, and to woo dollars, with business consultant Tom Dickson's help, out of would-be restaurateurs' pockets with fancy investor dinners. But nothing panned out.
He was baffled and humbled.
"My credentials are great, especially in this area, where there's a lot of people who understand good restaurants," Mr. Racicot said back in June over coffee at Bruegger's in Market Square. Then the idea for Notion was exactly that: a notion of what could be if he could just get his hands on some dough. He laughed. "But restaurants are a popularity contest, where some chefs can't cook. It's more about being well known."
Resigned to starting over somewhere else, the Indiana, Pa., native was seriously considering a job at Woodlands Inn in Charleston, S.C., when his cell phone rang in late September. It was his brother, Ryan, also a chef, telling him to check out an ad on craigslist:
Are you an executive chef ready to own your own business?
"Probably a bunch of BS," Mr. Racicot remembers thinking as he shot off an e-mail. Or not. The very next day he was face-to-face with seller Meg Burkardt, an attorney who's part-owner of the Oaks Theater next door to the restaurant space. And flash, boom, bam. The indecision and frustration marking the past eight months of his life was history.
When Ms. Burkardt opened Boulevard Bistro five years ago to give moviegoers a place to eat pre- or post-show, she never dreamed she'd be running it herself, and for so long; the plan always was to "pass it off."
First Published December 9, 2010 12:00 am
