PDT Guru Jim Meehan’s New Project Pays Tribute to BaltimoreNow here’s an example of what a small world the New York restaurant scene is: Monday night we’re at Taste of New York, chatting it up with Jim Meehan, the cocktail guru at PDT and brother to our comrade in gluttony, Times $25 and Under critic Peter Meehan. Tuesday, we run a post on Maite Montenegro, the new maître’ d’ at Daniel. (Stay with us here.) Then last night we run into Maite Montenegro’s husband, cooking consultant Kevin Patricio, and he tells us that he’s planning a restaurant with Jim Meehan! Quite the daisy chain there. Anyhow, Meehan confirms it: He and Patricio are trying to find investors for Pony Trading Co., a restaurant and lounge with an odd dual mission.
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Daniel Hires Its First Female Maître D’The position of chef remains overwhelmingly male, a fact we wrote about recently in the magazine, but maître d’, the functional boss of the dining room, has been if anything even more so. That’s why the promotion of Maite Montenegro to head maître’ d’ at Daniel this week is so notable. The maître d’ is the ultimate restaurant authority figure, the person that knows how to treat everybody and whom everybody trusts and looks to for guidance.