Archived Article By Tom Fitzmorris Originally published July 15, 2009 John Besh's Italian Restaurant To Open In The Reborn Roosevelt Domenica Is Delayed Until September The opening of Domenica, the country-style Italian restaurant planned to be part of the array of eateries in the newly-reopened Roosevelt Hotel, has been delayed until later in the summer. I'm just guessing, but this sounds like September to me. My reading between the lines in the press release tells me that it's about construction delays. However, there can't be a strong inclination to open during the worst month of what has been a very slow summer for the restaurant business. John Besh, whose group will be managing the restaurant, has experience with bad timing of openings. His flagship, Restaurant August, opened right after 9/11. The spin they're putting on this is that it has given them even more time to make salumi--the Italian cured and smoked meats. Besh is going to the same farms he's using to supply the raw materials for his other restaurants to get pork for turning into prosciutto, cappicola, soppressata, and all the rest of the meats they plan to serve in profusion at Domenica. The restaurant will be on the Baronne Street side of the Roosevelt's lobby, roughly where the old Bailey's restaurant used to be. It will add a different menu to that of the hotel's Sazerac restaurant, which is already open. Domenica's chef is Alon Shaya, who is also a partner in the business. "Domenica" is the Italian word for Sunday, a day when many New Orleanians would visit the grand old hotel. The Roosevelt opened in June after being closed since Hurricane Katrina. © 2009 Tom Fitzmorris. All rights reserved. news@nomenu.com