For those of us that follow the food scene very closely, one of the first questions to be asked when you hear of a new spot planning to open or new ownership taking over is “Who is the chef?” For all of the talent already in place here in Savannah, it is many times refreshing to see new faces choosing to come to town to set up shop.
One of Savannah’s more popular locations downtown, Churchill’s, located on Bay Street is in the midst of a changing of the guard. What it will eventually become sounds promising indeed.
Churchill’s, voted Savannah’s most popular British pub and also the location for popular event venue 10 Downing, makes plans for new ownership. Restaurateurs, Gareth Tootell and Max Robbins, are currently acting as consultants for the Gastropub and will eventually take over ownership in July of 2020.
Gareth Tootell, from Manchester, England, graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a degree in Law. Tootell worked with New York’s Daniel Boulud at his world-renowned restaurant, Daniel. Tootell was later promoted to General Manager of Daniel Boulud’s two upper west side restaurants, first at Boulud Sud then at Bar Boulud.
Tootell moved to the west coast in 2016 and served as Sommelier for Thomas Keller’s Napa restaurant, The French Laundry and most recently served as the General Manager of The Broadmoor’s Forbes Five-Star restaurant.
Max Robbins a New Jersey native, graduated from at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. Robbins began his career at Le Bernardin, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Manhattan then accepted a chef position with Gabriel Kreuther, the chef at Modern, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Chef Thomas Keller then hired Robbins to work at Per Se restaurant in New York City and later The French Laundry in Napa, California both of which had three-Michelin-stars. Before moving to Savannah, Max was working as the Chef de Cuisine at The Penrose Room in Colorado Springs which is Colorado’s only Forbes Five Star, AAA Five Diamond restaurant.
Tootell and Robbins will be announcing their new menu, plans for the restaurant, and ideas for the venue spaces later this year
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