It’s not Bolo, says Bobby Flay.

The new restaurant is Gato for a orange cat that crossed his path.

          Bobby Flay says he’s calling it Gato – for the orange-furred cat that crossed his path when he saw the new restaurant space at 324 Lafayette Street for the first time. The soaring chamber north of Houston is not far from Miracle Grill where restaurateur Jerome Kretchmer discovered him and hired him to cook at Mesa Grill.

          The new outlet is not precisely Bolo 2, after the Spanish restaurant the Food Network star and Lawrence Kretchmer owned in the Flatiron from 1993 to 2008 when they moved out to make way for a residential building. Bolo was exclusively Spanish, sort of, brilliantly elevated by the chef's imagination. The new 147 seat spot in what was once a center for the homeless and the needy will have a menu that is Mediterranean as well as Spanish. Architect David Rockwell and team are working with its cast iron columns and 22 foot ceilings.  They hope to open early in 2014.

          The Flay-Kretchmer team own Mesa Grill on lower Fifth, Bar American in midtown and clones of several places out-of-town. 

          Remember when Bobby’s hair was orange too?

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