Old family ties have brought Ed Brown back to Restaurant Associates after the crushing loss of his first solo flight at EightyOne, an ambitious $3.5 million effort near Central Park West that arrived as the economy went into freefall.  Given the years spent fantasizing a place of his own and a year-and-a half in the planning, he just couldn’t go pop overnight and various marketing efforts weren’t enough to fill the house.

        Brown had already joined forces with Jeffrey Chodorow as a partner at Ed’s Chowder House in the Empire Hotel before EightyOne swooned and died. After the demise, Brown moved EightyOne’s chef de cuisine and dining room crew into Ed’s and launched Ed’s BackRoom Tuesdays,where he cooked himself.  He remains in his role at Chowder House (an advertiser on this web-site).

        Although RA split, with its president Nick Valenti and Joachim Splichel forming The Patina Group, and Compass taking the name, Brown will be working with many friends in the former management team from his years at Sea Grill.

        His mission is to explore and develop new concepts and reinvigorate old ones in New York, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Boston and Atlanta. So first, some fact finding flights.

        He still needs to sell the lease at EightyOne.  “Two or three great deals fell through – bold faced names, you know, for one reason or another,” he said.  “We have a new prospect talking right now.”

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