It took awhile, but in Chef Scott Bieber Eli has finally met his match. First in the kitchen at Across the Street and now at Eli's Restaurant, no one has been as successful as Scott in transcribing Eli's vision of a market driven restaurant into reality. Easy as it is to talk about quality and freshness of ingredients, it's a rare chef who is willing to adjust his menu daily to reflect the excellence of the season.

Scott's culinary education began on his grandfathers farm in Kentucky. Theirs was a family that hunted game birds, cooked what they shot and canned what they grew. Scott learned to cook from his grandmother and mother and by the age of 14 was working in a local Chinese restaurant. After skill building years in restaurants around the state, Scott studied in London and Paris and returned to New York to work at Mortimer's. He joined our staff when Mortimer's closed in 1998.

He and Eli share a strong sense of what each ingredient should taste like and both love the challenge of bringing that essence to the table. For the dining room at Eli's Restaurant, Scott has expanded the seasonal menu from Across the Street. He has also added a bar menu of small, quick plates: oysters, wood oven pizzas and other savory tastes to enjoy in the more casual bar setting.