IN Philadelphia, where the dining scene is a fraction of the size of New York's, Stephen Starr dominates. He has 12 restaurants there, soon to be 13. His pull is like that of the New York restaurateurs Danny Meyer, Drew Nieporent and Stephen Hanson combined. His openings are guaranteed to attract attention.
Stephen Starr, a Philadelphia restaurateur, and the chef Masaharu Morimoto at Morimoto.
But he will be the new guy in town on Tuesday, the scheduled opening of Morimoto, at 10th Avenue and 16th Street. Morimoto is a $10 million, 160-seat Japanese restaurant with Masaharu Morimoto, the Iron Chef, in charge of the kitchen. About two weeks later Mr. Starr expects to open Buddakan, a 260-seat Pan-Asian extravaganza, around the block on Ninth Avenue.
Filling 420 seats was not a problem when Mr. Starr was promoting rock concerts 20 years ago. But can he do that nightly, at two big, new restaurants in a restaurant-saturated city?
Every opening is agonizing, he said, "but these are the most agonizing of all because they're the most expensive and they're in New York."
And they are in an area where some marquee names have already staked claims: Mario Batali at Del Posto, Jean-Georges Vongerichten at Spice Market, Mr. Hanson at Vento and soon Tom Colicchio at Craftsteak. Mr. Starr is trying to set himself apart by appealing to the fashion world as much as to the food world, and he hopes to generate the kind of buzz here that he routinely receives at home in Philadelphia.
He had planned for the two Manhattan restaurants to open in time to be host to designers' parties for Fashion Week in September. But construction delays, including some unusual glitches, like dealing with a section of the High Line rail viaduct in the ceiling of Morimoto, pushed back the openings a full season.
A fashion presentation by Adam + Eve is scheduled for Feb. 6 at Buddakan. A Calvin Klein dinner will be held at Morimoto on Feb. 9.
The publicity firm Mr. Starr hired, Full Picture, specializes in fashion and celebrities. It helped Ian Schrager open hotels in New York and California but does very little restaurant promotion. It arranged for Mr. Morimoto to prepare the lunch for Debra Messing's birthday in August in Los Angeles that is featured in the February issue of In Style magazine.
On Monday night Gourmet magazine held its 65th anniversary party at Morimoto, which was barely completed in time. Ruth Reichl, the editor, said that when the opening of the new Le Cirque was delayed, she decided to have the party for 300 people at Morimoto because she has long loved the chef's food. Mr. Morimoto will be on "Today" on NBC next Monday.
Interest in Morimoto is guaranteed because Mr. Morimoto is a star of the "Iron Chef" television show. After he left Nobu, where he was the head sushi chef, he opened Morimoto in Philadelphia with Mr. Starr, who promised him a New York restaurant in the future. (The original Buddakan is also in Philadelphia.)
"Morimoto is an easy sell," Mr. Starr said. "He's the Iron Chef that people see on television every single day. The press comes to him."
Promotion has been at the center of Mr. Starr's life since college. After graduating from Temple University in 1977, Mr. Starr, 49, ran a comedy club, then tired of that; became a concert promoter, then tired of that; ran a night club, and then tired of that. Then he bought an empty diner.
"I thought I could create a little buzz," he said.
The diner became the Continental, a restaurant with a retro cocktail lounge feel, which he opened in 1995. It was the first in a portfolio of restaurants that will expand to include one in Atlantic City next. Bon Appétit magazine made him its restaurateur of the year for 2005.
"The restaurants gave me a lot of energy," he said, "and I kept at it."
That restless energy is always apparent.
Mr. Starr, a native of Philadelphia, commutes regularly from his hometown, although he has an apartment at 24th Street and Seventh Avenue and an office in the Chelsea Market building, where the two restaurants are situated. When he visited the restaurants with a reporter while they were under construction, he strode through them without taking off his coat. Solidly built and of medium height, Mr. Starr invariably dresses in black, no tie. He said little. Mark Andelbradt, the chef de cuisine at Morimoto in Philadelphia, who has transferred to New York, said Mr. Starr would listen to others' ideas, but if he was not interested he would close off the conversation.
Even in Philadelphia Mr. Starr's restaurants have often been boldly fashioned by major designers like David Rockwell, Philippe Starck and Karim Rashid.
