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In
just five years, Starr has become the "It" guy of the city's food scene,
wowing customers, critics and celebrities with his five ultracool, eye-popping
restaurants, where image is everything. "These are places you want to
take people to," says Craig LaBan, Philadelphia Inquirer restaurant
critic.
Each Starr restaurant has its own dazzling vibe and theme, a word that
makes the restaurateur cringe because, he says, it sounds "too Planet
Hollywood." (He prefers the word "concept".
Stephen Starr productions range from a romantic, fin de si�cle Parisian
bistro to a candlelit Tangiers dream to as Space Agey situation as imagined
by, say, Austin Powers. All are about the right lighting, the right
pulsating music, the right decor, the right location, and finally, yes,
the right cuisine.
Starr's latest and most ambitious project is Pod, a funky, $3.2 million,
out-of-this-world Asian-fusion dining experience on the University of
Pennsylvania's campus. This mod interprestatio of the future, created
by architectural designer David Rockwell, is Woody Allen's Sleeper meets
Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, says Starr; who often seasons
his speech with pop-culture allusions.
At Pod, which opened Tuesday, diners can flick on nine different colored
lights in pod-style booths, nestle in a 50-seat Martian red foam sculpture,
eye vintage Speed Racer cartoons and snatch sushi from a conveyer belt.
As with Starr's other restaurants, few doubt he'll draw a crowd.
Indeed, Starry-eyed diners, both the beautiful, Prada-clad
crowd and expense-account guys in golf shirts, scramble for tables,
often waiting six weeks for a Saturday-night opening.
Starr says his niche is creating clubbish, sexy settings while "still
appealing to the masses".
But John Mariani, Esquire magazine's food critic, cautions that the
shelf life of theatrical and theme restaurants is four to five years
at best. "Themes and gimmicks are very, very tricky things. They fall
our of favor."
Kevin Meeker, owner of three Philadelphia restaurants, agrees that Starr's
big battle now may be with himself. "I think Stephan is trying to outdo
Stephan. You can't open a restaurant that is less than the one you opened
before."
Starr concurs, using a rock 'n' roll analogy: "You're only as good as
your latest hit."
Excerpt from the article by Patricia Talorico in USA Today, Friday,
October 6, 2000
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