You may have heard by now that Anaheim Duck's Teemu Selänne, the NHL's oldest player and Coto de Caza resident, was working on opening a steakhouse in Laguna Beach.
When we featured him on our People Issue back in March, the restaurant was supposed to be called Teemu's Tavern Grill and had an April opening date at the old French 75 space across from the Surf N Sand Resort.
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This Friday, the restaurant finally opens, even as its name has changed to Selanne Steak Tavern. This will be the fifth restaurant Selänne has owned and operated. He reportedly had four restaurants in his native Finland that were later sold to a chain.
For this one, he's hired Joshua Severson, who previously worked with Tom Cohlicchio at his Craft Steak in Las Vegas, to be his Executive Chef. Heather Fisher of Bagatelle L.A. will be his pastry chef.
The restaurant has been in soft-opening mode for at least a week now, but it's safe to assume Selanne will be there this weekend while you eat his steaks.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.