Newton’s Table owner Dennis Friedman has scored Peter Smith—chef and co-owner of the shuttered PS 7’s—to serve as co-executive chef of the Bethesda restaurant, according to press materials sent out Wednesday.
Friedman’s fast-casual spinoff, Newton’s Noodles, celebrates its grand opening downtown at 1129 20th Street, Northwest, in late September. The Smith hire comes after a recent announcement that the upscale restaurant at 4917 Elm Street in Bethesda was planning to eighty-six its current lunch program, and will serve the Noodles menu from 11:30 to 2:30 on weekdays. Easy and inexpensive menu aside, Newton’s Table will still have table service at lunchtime.
Friedman and Smith will work together to create some new menu items for Newton’s Table, according to the release. The two men previously toiled together at Jeffrey Buben’s downtown restaurant Vidalia when the former was staging there and the latter was executive chef. The Noodles menu was inspired by a popular fuzu noodle dish in the Bethesda spot.
