Michael Forbes Bar and Grille opens Brookside location tonight
Restaurateur Forbes Cross quietly opened his new Michael Forbes Bar and Grille in Brookside — in the old Sharp’s 63rd Street Grill location at 128 West 63rd Street — with a private fundraising party Monday night. The actual open-to-the-public debut is tonight, beginning at 5 p.m. Cross says he’ll start lunch service tomorrow and kick off daily breakfast service on Monday, February 13.
Cross had hired Ray “Pete” Peterman (the chef-owner of the former Sour Octopus and S.O. Redux restaurants) as the opening executive chef, but Peterman has had to take a sabbatical from the culinary business to oversee a pressing family matter. He’s also toying with the idea of opening another restaurant of his own later this year. The current executive chef in the Michael Forbes Grille kitchen is 25-year-old Matt Cross, Forbes Cross’ son, who served as sous chef under one of the best professional culinary veterans in the city: former Gilbert/Robinson chef Terry Barkley, currently the executive chef for the Well in Waldo.
Forbes Cross designed the new interior of the restaurant, featuring cool colors and pale stonework. Several familiar dishes from the original Michael Forbes Grill — it lasted from 1985 to 1999 — in Waldo are on the restaurant’s menu, including a whole fried catfish, deboned at the table. I didn’t recognize any former Sharp’s employees working in the dining room (although there are, reportedly, several hired by Cross). I did see one legendary waiter who has worked — for at least a hot minute — in almost every restaurant in the city. He’ll certainly add a touch of joie de vivre to the venue.
