Another changing element the Kimmel hopes will redress its often moribund atmosphere: Wolfgang Puck.
The celebrated Austrian-born chef, restaurateur, caterer, and businessman will bring his imprimatur to the Kimmel, joining catering operations - an important piece of the Kimmel's revenue-generating plan - as well as opening a new restaurant.
The previous Kimmel restaurant Cadence, on the second tier of the building, closed in June. Puck's new restaurant will take over the Spruce Street-side space currently occupied by the gift shop. It is expected to open a year from now, in fall 2011, but catering functions will begin this fall in the former Cadence space, and some Puck cuisine will be available at the plaza cafe.
Puck's presence comes in the form of an existing partnership with Restaurant Associates, the Kimmel's current food-service vendor, like the one they have at the Newseum in Washington. Restaurant Associates will continue its relationship with the Kimmel and as a tenant in its basement kitchen.
Both the new video cube (which is a 71/2-by-71/2-by- 71/2-foot, three-dimensional realization of the festival's logo) and the opening of a ground-floor restaurant are philosophically consistent with the Kimmel's drive to enliven its public spaces. Various architects and urban planners, as well as a 2008 public charrette run by PennPraxis, a Penn-related nonprofit planning authority, have cited the Kimmel's lack of vibrancy, particularly when no performances are taking place.
"The outside of the building must let the public see, hear and feel what is happening inside the building," one of the PennPraxis proposals concluded. "The outside, now seen as foreboding, dull and confusing, should broadcast a sense of excitement and activity onto the street."
