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COPYRIGHT 2005 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com
Byline: Ben Whitford And Nicki Gostin (With Tara Weingarten in Los Angeles)
Los Angeles is a city awash in buzz. but even the glitterati need to eat. And among the foodies, for whom where you get the next meal had better be as exciting as the next big-screen hit, the chatter's about a restaurant that won't open for five months. Del Latte is currently little more than a shell on Melrose Avenue, but by April its owners will have spent $10 million to turn it into a lavish setting for rustic Italian meals. Overseeing it all is a rotund 45-year-old man with his trademark chef's jacket over shorts, sporting a long red ponytail and orange clogs: Mario Batali. A fixture on TV and in bookstores, Batali is already renowned in Manhattan, where he has seven restaurants and a wine shop. But Del Latte--along with a pair of eateries he'll open later next year in Las Vegas's Venetian casino complex--will be his first foray outside New York. His boosters say it's about time. Mario's "on the precipice of being a big name nationally," says L.A. restaurateur Nancy Silverton, his partner in Del Latte. And, of course, it doesn't hurt that he has his biggest Manhattan place opening next...
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