Former Primebar chef Max Mackissock makes his move...to the Squeaky Bean

Yesterday, I told you all about Max Mackissock's sooner-than-expected departure from Primebar, the restaurant at 1515 Arapahoe Street that opens to the public on Friday night. What I didn't tell you is this: Come May 28, Mackissock will be the new exec chef at The Squeaky Bean, which opens Monday...

By Lori Midson

May 20, 2009

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Yesterday, I told you all about Max Mackissock's sooner-than-expected departure from Primebar, the restaurant at 1515 Arapahoe Street that opens to the public on Friday night. What I didn't tell you is this: Come May 28, Mackissock will be the new exec chef at The Squeaky Bean, which opens Monday at 3301 Tejon Street.

Here's how it all went down: Mackissock had hooked up with Johnny Ballen, Squeaky Bean's owner, months ago to help him design a menu and get the joint opened. One problem: The opening was taking Ballen much longer than anticipated, and Mackissock wanted to get back into the kitchen sooner rather than later. And soon, the bigwigs at Primebar came calling, ultimately offering Mackissock the exec chef gig, which he accepted.

And then Mackissock decided he wasn't real happy with the way the Primebar menu was playing out -- that it was a significant departure from what he originally thought it would be. So he reached out to Ballen. "When Max got in touch with me, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven," says Ballen.

When I spoke to Mackissock yesterday, he sounded equally pleased. "It's gonna be so cool," he told me. "I love the neighborhood, I love what Johnny wants to do with the place and I'm really excited about the menus I'm doing," one of which will be a farmers' market dinner menu. "It might be nightly, or it might be weekly, but I'll be at the farmers' market as often as I can buying stuff for the menus," promised Mackissock.

We'll be waiting.

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