Kimpton Hotels Hires Big Name SF Chef as Culinary Director Nationwide

There have been a slow decline in the number of Kimpton restaurants in San Francisco — especially after the BDK shakeup out of the Kimpton group — and the only existing ones at the moment are Scala’s and Starlight Room. Those are about to undergo some ch-ch-changes, too, with the installment of a new director of culinary development for the entire Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants group. None other than San Francisco chef George Morrone (Fish & Farm) will be heading up that operation, which is a return to the group for the chef, who was executive chef at the now-close Fifth Floor from 1998 to 2000.

Morrone has big ambitions — namely, to get some James Beard awards, recruit top talent, and develop new concepts — and will be traveling three-quarters of the time to help out Kimpton’s more than 70 restaurants, bars, and lounges across the country. Beyond that, he’s extra-focused on Scala’s, which he told Inside Scoop "should shine," presumably meaning it doesn’t now. "I’m going to take it personally to try to put a stamp on it to make it be reckoned with here in San Francisco," he said. Watch out, everyone.