Let’s be honest:  Moving into the former Brasserie space inside the Kilmer Building at 31 Lewis Street has got to be any restaurantaur’s wet dream.

It’s got history; it’s got class. It’s big and bold and you feel instantly more impressive just for having stood inside. In fact, the whole Kilmer building feels that way.  Frank Whitney, the building’s current owner, once treated me to a tour of all six stories, and I have to say that the only thing cooler than standing inside the restaurant is standing inside Dr. Sylvester Andral Kilmer’s former lab—ya know, he’s the guy that made gazillions of dollars off Kilmer’s Swamp Root Herbal Tonic before the federal government decided it was a good idea to actually put labels on stuff and explain whether or not it really does anything.

Well Kilmer had a nephew, Willis Sharpe Kilmer, who, as it turned out, was both a marketing whiz (he spun Kilmer’s Swamp Root into a household name) and obsessed with naming things after himself—only backwards.  He owned Remlik Hall, Remlik Post Office, Remlick Railway Car, and even Remlick Yacht—which was purchased by the US Navy for antisubmarine duty during World War 1.

It’s in that tradition that the owner’s of the new Kilmer-housed restaurant decided to name their eatery: “Remlik’s”. Ed Wesoloski—or “Whisky”, as you should call him… Actually, you have to call him Whisky; I showed up at the restaurant, asked for Ed, and nobody knew who I was talking about…  Anyway, Whisky and Kelly Holbert, two of the owners, were “geeking out” on Whisky’s front porch when they did a little research and discovered the yacht’s name.

They seem to have put that much thought into just about everything in the restaurant—and it’s a good thing:  Remlik’s historic space can be both a blessing and a curse—in that it seems to be unshakably linked to a somewhat undesirable “upscale” label.  Is Remlik’s a spot to kick back and have a beer on a Tuesday night, or the place to impress a dinner date before a Saturday night at the Forum Theater? The owners hope it can be both. And with a name like Whisky, you have to imagine there won’t be too much stuffy formality when he’s behind the bar. Plus, how stuffy can a restaurant that’s got a lunchtime take-out salad bar actually be?

So what’s changed about the restaurant’s look since its Brasserie days? Not a ton; I mean, why mess with wet-dream-quality decor? But there are a few distinct changes. Carpeting at the front host stand now creates a more smooth transition into the Kilmer Building’s lobby; hip, modern light fixtures tone down the “this building’s too good for your sorry ass” formality; black and white photography will adorn the walls (it was leaning up against the walls when I visited); and the bar… The bar’s is the big change—perhaps triple the size of the old one, a triangle with seating on two sides, it’s much more accessible for busy nights and big parties. And the giant windows behind the bar are uncovered, a welcome change that allows you a beautiful view of the trains as they pass by and the Ari Mesiel-owned Depot Street lofts across the way.

I’ve found that there’s a fun, chaotic energy that fills a restaurant just before it opens—I was at the River Bistro the night before it opened for Valentine’s Day and they were still laying carpet—a task I was told that listed till 4 AM. OK, maybe the chaos is just fun for me. But it’s definitely present tonight at Remlik’s as they prepare for a press-invited ribbon cutting tomorrow and a 400-person friends and family hors d’oeuvres night on Saturday. Although they seem pretty well ready to open, there are still the finishing touches; curtains were being carried in and hung as I sat down with a fairly well-exhausted Whisky for an interview in their underground bunker of an office beneath the restaurant…

First thing’s first; a lot of people already know what the room looked like under the name "Kilmer Brasserie." How are the aesthetics different now?

We tripled or better the size of the bar which is gonna be the focal point of the restaurant now.  Put a beautiful concrete top on it. We resurfaced all the existing structures.  We’re trying to make it a little more lounge-friendly than it was and make it a little more… I don’t know with a room that size you can say intimate, but the way it was before, it was a little cavernous. Now people will see each other and have an easier time talking.  And of course we added the salad bar.

How will the salad bar work at lunch?

One of three things; they can go and order a salad and take it over to a table. They can order a salad with their server from the table.  Or they can come and get it and we’ll put it in a nice eco-friendly container and they can pay by the pound and take it to go.  If they need to get in and out, they’ll be able to get in and out. There are people with real time constraints.

And the menu. If you have just a few words to sum it up, what would you say?

Classic American comfort food with a twist.

What’s the twist?

Chef Lutz. [Steven Lutz is his name—but they just call him “Chef”.] He comes from all over the country. So when I say classic American, there may be a south-western twist to things. There may be some north-western twist. There may be Southern things. And there may be some East Coast stuff.  American is from all over the country; it’s not just hot dogs and hamburgers.

Can you go into a little more detail?

Mondays we’ll do Meatless Monday. They’ll be vegetarian specials. And then we’re also doing Thanksgiving Thursdays with turkey, mashed potatos and stuffing. Saturday nights are going to be a very affordable surf and turf.  We’re also gonna have prime rib all the time; rotisserie chicken; pot pie; beef tips.

The historic building and grand room kind of scream "upscale". Is this a label you reject or embrace?

I suppose that when people walk in, they’re gonna THINK they’re not able to afford us; because the room is beautiful; the building is beautiful; I think we did stuff to make the venue even nicer than it is. But we’re trying as hard as we can not to be a “fine dining restaurant” and not having “fine dining prices”. We’re trying to make it so everyone feels that they get a value for what they spent and have enough variety on our menu that they can control what they wanna spend.  We wanna make it so that it’s not an “occasion restaurant”.

I know that you’d like to serve local food. Tell us about your efforts…

We have a couple that just bought a farm in Marathon that is eventually going to grow all our produce. We’re sourcing all of our beef locally.  And Chef went to the farmers market in Vestal and met with a lot of local farmers and we’re going to source a lot of our produce from that.

You’ve worked in restaurants and bars for years, of all types. What are you taking from all that experience and bringing to Remlik’s?

I think that I’m very good at making people feel comfortable and I want them to try different things. I’m comfortable sampling different wines or different beers or featuring a cocktail. I’ll make a small one and let them give it a shot.

Will you be working behind the bar?

Every night. That’s what I’m looking forward to! That’s why I’m a partner here; I love it and that’s why I think I’ve been successful through the years.

So who else owns the joint and what are their backgrounds?

Sylvia Vestey is from San Francisco and she has probably 15 years catering experience and party planning. Mike Tulsey has been in the business for 20 years; he owned 3 different places in North Carolina and he and I have worked together for the last 10 at Number 5 and Lampy’s. And Kelly Holbert has worked in the restaurant business for 4 or 5 years. After she finished college, she both taught at CFJ Elementary and worked at Lampy’s.

Putting aside the food and drink for a moment… any special events you already have in mind? Parties?

We certainly have 2 great rooms—one holds about 40 and the other holds about 60.  We’re happy to take rehearsal dinners; any kind of birthday parties. The rooms can be booked. We’re planning on hosting some wine dinners.

Anything else?

We’re on Open Table and will accept reservations online.

There’s something about being from New York City that makes you pretend you’re impressed by absolutely nothing.  It’s true; I imagine it comes from years of watching mid-western tourists gawk up at 10 story buildings as if they never realized the atmosphere could support life at that height.

And when you’re from a Jersey suburb just outside the city (like me), the “been there, done that, bought the t-shirt” attitude is magnified.  Because we’re all just trying to fit in with the uber-hip city folk.

But there’s something about Cirque du Soleil that crushes that instinct.  The old back-of-the-DVD-box cliché about “making you feel like a child again” actually applies: you get the sense that you’re seeing something truly fresh in which every moment is filled with the unexpected.  The amount of imagination and athleticism necessary to pull off a Cirque show boggles the mind:

These are people who take Olympic gymnasts, practice with them for weeks upon weeks, and then throw them off the show telling them that THEY’RE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE ACT.  The making of a Cirque show was documented in a 2003 reality series “Cirque du Soleil: Fire Within” which I was once forced to watch on a dreadful date that I’d prefer not to remember (only party because of the documentary).

Never seen a Cirque show?  It’s basically an artsy circus with live music.  All of the acts in the show are drawn together by a common theme (which nobody really understand but the artistic director) and the gymnasts involved do things with their bodies that surprise and delight the audience (but will probably cause them to spend thousands on physical therapists later in life).

Now HERE’S the confusing part.  The big touring arena version of Cirque: “Cirque du Soleil: Alegria”, played in Syracuse last week.  You can also check it out in State College (9/30), Rochester (9/23), or Philly (10/13) if you’re willing to make the road trip.  BUT there’s ANOTHER company doing Cirque-style shows in smaller theaters—and one of those tours will come to Binghamton on Feb 14th of next year: “Cirque Dreams: Illumination.”

So get it?  Big Cirque show was just in Syracuse.  Little Cirque show is coming to the Forum.  But they’re not connected.  Except in terms of style.

Now when Alegria came to Syracuse last week, the PR folks for the show gave me a ring and asked if I wanted to speak with artistic director Michael Smith.  I agreed, hoping and praying that he’d be really, really, really eccentric. He had a disappointingly firm grip on reality, but it was a fun interview nonetheless.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

PS, I STRONGLY recommend you check out the Broadway Theater League’s Cirque Dreams Illumination when it comes to Binghamton Feb 14th.  That and Avenue Q (Oct 18th) promise to be the most interesting shows of the season.

Honestly, talking to Mike Sherwood of the Nervous Breakdown Crew makes me feel like a bit of a loser.  I didn’t know Mike until last week, when I got an invitation on Facebook to something called “Battle in the Boonies”.  I was intrigued—intrigued and clueless.  Mike calls himself a “BBoy”.  Yeah, I had to Wikipedia that too.

“A B-boy or B-girl is a person devoted to hip hop culture, more specifically, bboying/breakdancing. The term originates with the first hip hop DJ, DJ Kool Herc, who, noticing the reaction of some dancers to his playing the part of the record with a drum break, named them beat-boys or B-boys.”

Thank God for Wikipedia.  “So, you’re a breakdancer?” was the gist of what I asked him over Instant Message after tracking him down a few days later.  Breakdancing, he responded, “is a term the media invented”.  God, I’m so lame.  Then, he patiently explained the difference between “B-Boying,” “Popping/Locking”, and hip hop—all three of which you’ll be able to see at the Battle.  I responded with a smiley emoticon, as if to say, “I totally understand what you’re talking about”.  Even though I didn’t.

Which is exactly why I’ll be checking out the Battle on April 3rd at… whatever venue they eventually settle on.  They’re still scoping out their options.

I wanted to know what the vibe would be like at the event.  “At a battle, it sounds just like the title: it’s a battle. People are there to win, it’s almost like a sport.  You train, you practice, you make a strategy to win; and at the battles you implement what you practiced. People come in very intense during the battle. But, after the battle they shake hands hug and hang out and talk. Once the jam ends, there’s a lot of hanging out, playing, and even more dancing then there was during the battle. People you have never met before will help you with moves you were having problems with. The culture in a whole is very friendly; there is an almost unspoken rule that violence is a no.”

He makes sure to tell me that families and newcomers are welcome.   Although, talking to Mike makes me wonder if, at 28 years old, I’m gonna feel like a senior at an event with his kinda energy.  (I’m out of breath after having just typed that last quote, BTW.)

But even cooler than the event itself is the way Mike and company are bridging the gap between Binghamton University and the Southern Tier.  The Battle began at BU; but they’re now looking for a more city-friendly home to open it up.

Mike stopped “toprocking”, “downrocking”, and “freezing” long enough to answer an e-mail interview… (Yeah, I had to Wikipedia all those words too; what’s it to ya?)

OK, first things first.  Before we talked over IM, I knew almost nothing about breaking.  So what’s the basic difference between the three types of competitions you’ve got going on: Hip-hop battles, Popping/Locking, and BBoy/BGirl Battles?
They are all related, but with their own differences. Like hip hop is considered a good exercise. It helps the dancers to improve flexibility, to develop body balance, and to coordinate the muscles. This dance allows the dancers to improve their own style and to remain in good body shape. It also leads the dancers to a state of spiritual wholeness. Popping/locking is a style based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer’s body, referred to as a pop or a hit. Bboying/bgirling is a style of dancing that grew up around hip hop music during it’s early stages stretching the human body to its limit.  They dance on their feet, hands, arms, head, everything, to the rhythm of the song, hitting major and minor beats.

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