Award-winning Restaurant Clio Adds A Sushi Bar

Chef Ken Oringer of Clio, winner of the 2001 James Beard award for Best Chef in the Northeast, will have his chance to combine his love of French cooking with his admiration for Asian flavors. Beginning in April of 2002, Clios bar will expand downstairs to include a contemporary sushi bar with a distinct improvisational edge.

According to Chef Oringer, the greatest strength of Japanese cuisine, as well as its greatest weakness, is the discipline and rigor embedded in the rules of traditional Japanese cooking. Recent trips to Asia as well as five years in the kitchen of Clio have brought a new perspective to Chef Oringers concept of Asian cuisine, leading him to insist that At Clios sushi bar, there will be no rules. Chef Oringer will improvise with specialty fish from remote places around the world-- fish which up to now are available only in the small bars surrounding Tokyos Tsukijis market.

The reason people love Nobu lies in Nobu Matsuhisas creativity in combining a variety of ingredients-chiles from Peru, raw fish, cilantro and Kadachi limes from Japan, just to name a few, says Chef Oringer. We will stretch the envelope even further with Clios new sushi bar using the freshest and most exotic fish available, from Rhode Island to Ecuador to the South China Sea. Experimental new flavors will be introduced such as hamachi and wasabi in caviar and live scallops shucked before the guest that are so fresh that the scallop buckles away from the salt as it is applied.

Peter Niemetz, of the Niemetz Design Firm in Boston, wanted the look of the intimate sushi bar to be a natural extension of the original restaurant. The bar will have a Parisian look influenced by distinctive Asian touches including oriental red silk sconces and shoji screens. The sushi bar will be the prominent feature of the room with a black granite bar top and a pristine glass sushi display. The soothing off-white palette of the wainscot paneling will be highlighted by dark wood tables and tobacco-colored mohair banquettes with leather throw pillows. The Chefs presentations will be enhanced by the distinctive handmade pottery made in Japan and by the specially constructed bamboo cups and carafes.

The design of the restaurant extension is a way to continue the evolution of Clio in food and sensibilities that will attract a wide clientele, states Peter Niemetz of the Niemetz Design Group. Every city needs an innovative approach to quality Asian flavors, and Kens bar will surely fit the bill.

This spring, Clios new sushi bar will offer guests an improvisational experience in food beyond the original Clio, but with the same unique focus of flavors for which the restaurant is known.