The Drama Behind Stephen Starr’s New Restaurant

STARR DENIES he bankrolled Talula’s Garden with four bells clanging in his ears. “It’s nice to win the World Series, but I don’t seek that,” he says. “If I get a four-bell review, great. But that’s not why I made the investment. I’m investing in Aimee. Her vision for the project is so awesome. None of my other restaurants are anything like this.”

Though he’s a notorious micromanager, Starr insists Olexy has complete autonomy. And by the look of things, she does. Instead of seeming like a set airlifted from A Clockwork Orange (à la Starr’s Pod) or Pulp Fiction (Starr’s El Rey), the mise-en-scène is simple and restrained.

Starr calls the $350,000 he spent on the renovation “ant shit” compared to the $14 million he sank into his Buddakan outpost in Manhattan. It paid for Olexy to be frugal: Her profit percentage doesn’t kick in until Starr recoups his $1 million start-up costs. The ceiling’s redwood planks were salvaged from barrels at the Vlasic Pickle Plant in Millsboro, Delaware. The white-pine tables were fashioned out of floor joists from Wilmington’s historic Queen Theater. Olexy rescued the granite used to top the cheese counter from an abandoned waterworks site by the Brandywine River.

Much of the carpentry was performed by at-risk youth in a construction training program. “I convinced Stephen to use the services of these talented ‘offenders,’” Olexy says. The flower boxes fastened to the “green wall” they erected brim with herbs and edible flowers. “I need diners to see things growing,” she says. “I want Talula’s Garden to rustle with life.”

Though Starr had cost concerns, she’s going green by emphasizing eco-minded spirits and wines. “The focus of the menu is soulfulness and regional purveyors who use sustainable farming methods,” she says. “So much restaurant food is manicured, oversalted, overworked. I like clean flavors.”

A quote from Alice Waters, patron saint of the Slow Food movement, is painted on a dining-room wall: “A garden brings beauty and life to the table.” A Waters acolyte, Olexy thinks cuisine should mirror our life and beliefs, and that the future of agriculture, the environment and family traditions depends on the choices we make about what we eat. But do diners really care?

Olexy’s point is that she does, and when she sets the table, so to speak, others may care, too. As host of Talula’s Garden, she’s responsible for the mood, the character, the vibe. But how much of Olexy’s sense of herself can she retain? Her new professional marriage to Starr is fraught with potential pitfalls. If Talula’s Garden stumbles out of the gate, will he crack the whip? And if it pulls up lame … “The only thing at stake is my reputation,” Olexy allows. “It is ambitious, I guess, and exhilarating and not entirely in my control, for a change. Yet I haven’t questioned the project for a second. I’m neither nervous nor tired. I’m ready, and I can’t wait. Life and love are precious, and generally those things are on display in a dining room. I’m at ease in that setting.”

Some epicures wonder if she’ll have the time to attend to both Talula’s Garden and Talula’s Table, and fear the intensely personal experience that is Talula’s Table will suffer. The indefatigable Olexy insists she’s up for the challenge. She also expects great things from Mike Santoro, the young chef she recruited from the Blue Duck Tavern in Washington, D.C. His résumé includes stops at the Mugaritz in Spain, the Fat Duck in England, and Boqueria in New York City. Someday Santoro hopes to dine at the other Talula’s. “I hear it’s hard to get in,” he says. “But maybe Aimee will make an exception.”