Susur Lee splits with his restaurant in Washington, D.C.

Susur Lee splits with his restaurant in Washington, D.C.

The bar at Zentan (Image: John Taylor)

Toronto celeb chef Susur Lee is parting with Zentan, his modern Asian restaurant in Washington, D.C.’s Donovan House hotel, only two-and-a-half years after it opened. Kimpton Hotels took over the property last year and decided to shift the restaurant’s focus from Lee’s signature fusion cuisine to sushi and yakitori (both sides emphasize the split is a “mutual agreement”). The move comes over a year after Lee closed Shang, his restaurant in the Thompson Hotel on New York’s Lower East Side (before it shut he complained New Yorkers were insufficiently adventurous diners). That leaves Lee, Bent and Singapore’s Chinois as the extent of his culinary empire.