Former Madison Street exec chef Rob Michels lands at Japoix

Rob Michels

Former Madison Street chef Rob Michels lands at Japoix.

When former TAG team (and married couple) Troy Guard and Leigh Sullivan added Madison Street to their restaurant empire, they tapped a member of the TAG kitchen, Rob Michels, to serve as executive chef, where he worked alongside Troy to revamp the menu.

Three months later, after the Guard and Sullivan split, Michels has bowed out of his role to become the head chef and an operating partner at Japoix.

There, he joins Lawrence Yee, who opened the place with chef Jay Spickelmier, who has since exited.

"There hasn't been an executive chef at Japoix for the past couple of months," Michels says of his transition. "Lawrence was running the entire operation. He was ready to have somebody in."

The pair met during the TAG exodus, in which several employees abruptly quit, and Yee jumped at the chance to bring Michels on board. The chef started his new position on Monday, and he's getting his feet wet in the logistics of the kitchen while looking at the dishes on the menu that are working well. Once he has a feel for that, though, he'll be making some major changes.

"We want to introduce some more regional Asian cuisine that's not necessarily just Japanese," he explains. And while he won't yet specify exactly what that means, he adds, "We have great expectations. We're very optimistic as to where the restaurant is going."