Chef (And Bartender) Shuffles: Stipo, Glass And Leonti

That’s Vince on the right, standing next to Sara Justice, who still has her job at the Franklin.

You know what they say in the newspaper biz–three makes a trend. And with the news we reported on yesterday of pastry chef Monica Glass coming back to Philly (to work for Kevin Sbraga) after two years in Boston, we now have two more moves to report on: one up and one…sideways kinda?

Move number two comes with the announcement that Adam Leonti, Marc Vetri’s man on the ground at Vetri for the past several years, is moving on. I’m calling this one the up move because according to the Insider, it looks like Leonti is going to be opening his own joint in Brooklyn–and even though it’s in Brooklyn, we can be happy for him because he’s striking out on his own after years of working inside the Vetri family.

Move number three? That’s the weird one. Vincent Stipo, recent barman at a.bar, longtime man behind the long oak at Vernick, is now working for MSC Retail.

No, for real. I just got the glossy announcement from MSC saying that he’d been brought aboard as a “Hospitality Guru” at their Philadelphia headquarters. The release then went on to say a bunch of things about “leveraging deep industry connections” and “strategic expansions” at which point my eyes glassed over and I passed out for a few minutes.

But when I woke up, Stipo still had that job so there you go. I’m sure he’s very happy. Being a bartender, at least he’s already accustomed to wearing a tie.