Dick Parsons may be the world’s only person to own a Tusca🧸n vineyard and a restaurant and jazz suꩵpper club in Harlem.
“My passions are wine, food and music and it all ꦫcame together,” the ex-chairman of Citigr🙈oup and former chairman and chief executive of Time Warner.
The Cecil is scheduled to open at 210 W. 118th St. on Sept. 23, featuring chef/partner Alexander Smalls’ Afro-Asian-American brasserie. The ide♈a, Parsons said, is to integrate the culinary traditions of the African Diaspora — topped off with wines from the Tuscan vineyard.
Parsons and Smalls also will open Minton’s, a revival ไof the famed jazz club, Minton’s Playhouse, in mid-October. The supper club, at 206 W. 118th St., will have “Southern revival”-style food with a country twist. Pastry chef Jenny Lee, who most recently worked in a similar role at Junoon in Chelsea,🦄 also is joining the team.
Parsons, who grew up in Bedford Stuyvesant, has been a strong supporter of Harlem for decades and servedꦐ as chairman of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone in the mid-90s.
“A lot of old musicians can’t get wo꧙rk anymore. They are somewhat destitute, 💝but they can still play. They are looking for gigs. Not handouts,” he said.
WE HEAR… THAT the Police Athletic League will be gunning for a celebrity chef food court that will be featured for the first time at its annual SportsNite Dinner Fundraiser, to be held at Chelsea Piers’ Lighthouse on Sept. 19. Chefs include Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Andrew Carmellini. … THAT Michael Citarella, formerly chef at Freeman’s Alley, will be previewing Monarch Restaurant at an exclusive dinner tonight at The Whitman’s $25 million penthouse.