Five Sixty at Dallas’ Reunion Tower in full-on Wolfgang-Puck promo blitzkrieg

by Teresa Gubbins

The Pope of Reunion Tower is in Dallas this week: Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck arrived on Monday to oversee the week-long opening of Five Sixty, the new restaurant in Reunion Tower.

Activities included a Monday night meet-and-greet, two parties (one with a guest list of 3,800 mucky-mucks), and a freebie media lunch on Tuesday that drew a slew of writers (as noted on Eats).

It's not as if Five Sixty hasn't already accumulated a large portfolio of mentions: 10+ at Eats, 15+ on SideDish, 10 at PegNews, just to name three. Their PR firm has cleverly disseminated tidbits of information with feeding-tube regularity at a time when media is moving online and has an unquenchable thirst for fodder. It has nothing to do with the fact that Dallas can at times seem like it's full of rubes who are spellbound at the sight of a celebrity.

Tuesday's lunch was a sit-down meal whose seating plan reflected the same careful chessboard design you'd find at a society wedding reception. Business writers such as Cheryl Hall, Karen Robinson-Jacobs, and DBJ's Katherine Cromer Brock were seated with execs from Hunt-Woodbine Realty Corp., who own Reunion Tower; stylie gals such as D Magazine correspondent Stacey Yervasi sat with Five Sixty interior designer Jennifer Johanson.

If there were an "A" table (and there was), it would be the one with DMN Food Editor Cathy Barber, DMN dining writer Kim Harwell, and Culinary Concierge publisher Catherine Collins, seated with Puck's inner circle: partner Tom Kaplan, wife Gelila Assefa, and national publicist Stephanie Davis -- who, like Puck himself, was still recovering from the Grammys on Sunday night, where Puck catered the official Grammy celebration at the L.A. Convention Center, serving Shanghai lobster and red velvet cupcakes to a crowd of 6,000.

At Five Sixty, the meal was understated (see photo gallery), with dumplings, striped bass, lamb chops, banana pie, hors d'ouevres, and sushi prepared by the restaurant's young staff, whom Puck credited, including executive chef Sara Johannes, sushi chef Hiroyuki Fujino, sommelier D'Lynn Proctor, and reservations manager Julie Buckner Lane, the latter two having come from the recently-closed Wine'tastic.

Wearing a Spago chef jacket soiled convincingly with spatters of food, Puck eventually took an empty seat at my "B" table where he shared a bottle of Austrian wine* (ha-ha, A table), a couple of anecdotes (Dean Fearing showed up on Monday to celebrate his birthday), and tips on how to cook eggplant.

After the meal, Puck spoke, repeating a message he'd voiced earlier about commitment to the local community, before prodding each member of the staff to speak. It turned out to be a rather affecting session, from the waiter who was urged to deliver his piece in Spanish to the best of all, stoic sushi chef Fujino, who simply said, "I'll get fresh fish."

*Nigl Gruner Veltliner, says Julie B