AFTER several failed attempts to open his own place, former Lespinasse chef Gray Kunz has begun hiring a staff for his new restaurant.
Sources say Denis Costaz, a French native who was most recently the director of Brasserie 8 1/2, will serve as the four-star chef’s general manager.
Kunz left Lespinasse in 1997 and began a well-publicized, frustrating search for a new place to hang his chef’s toque.
He struck his first deal to take over a large space in the Lever House – the landmark office building on Park Avenue and 53rd Street – but the building’s owner found Kunz’s plans prohibitively expensive.
His next try was the Meatpacking District, where the landlord died suddenly, just days before he was to sign a lease.
He also partnered with the beleaguered Chatwal family to open a place in one of their hotel projects, but that, too, proved fruitless.
Fearing another jinx, Kunz has decided not to tell even his closest friends where his new eatery is located.
The general vicinity will be somewhere in Midtown.
Costaz, who has worked at Le Grenouille and Restaurant Associates, was traveling in Europe and unable to comment. He is set to begin work with Kunz in October, sources said.
Chef Kunz did not return phone calls.