Restaurant shakeups
Management changes at Union Trust and Rouge.
Four months ago, Matt Levin was named executive chef at Rouge on Rittenhouse Square, a move that sent eyebrows north as he was at the time developing his own restaurant, Adsum. He and owner Rob Wasserman installed Trevor Budny as chef de cuisine.
Well, Adsum is going great guns in Queen Village and now ...
The other shoe has to drop.
Levin is stepping out of the exec chef's role, and Budny is leaving.
Effective Oct. 1, Rouge's new chef will be Michael Yeamans, now wrapping up a five-year turn at Devil's Alley a few blocks away. It's a homecoming for Yeamans, who was chef at Rouge but left in 2005 during its dark days surrounding the trials and tribulations of founder Neil Stein.
Also in restaurant shakeup world: Ed Doherty, who developed Union Trust at 717 Chestnut St., has stepped out of a day-to-day role but retains an ownership stake. As he described it to me, he's saving the company a salary while he consults. There's no word on how this affects the more casual project that the company is planning at the former Roy's at 15th and Sansom Streets.