Chef takes over Wilmington restaurant once run by former partner

The Brandywine restaurant in Wilmington is no longer the same place it was when it opened in November 2023.

The menu will offer new dishes, have a new look and possibly a new name.

There is also a new operator who will be a familiar face to many long-time guests in Delaware.

Robert Lhulier, a former partner and executive chef at the Snuff Mill Restaurant, Butchery and Wine Bar near Fairfax, now runs The Brandywine on the ground floor of the 2000 Pennsylvania Ave. apartment tower.

Since the beginning of July, he has been running the cozy, 150-square-meter restaurant, which is owned by the condo owners Tsionas Management. The Brandywine has 12 seats at the bar and 44 in the dining room.

“I’m changing the decor, the menu and the attitude. The name hasn’t been decided yet,” said Lhulier.

This is a surprising turn of events considering that The Brandywine was initially run by Lhulier’s former Snuff Mill partner Bill Irvin when it opened nine months ago.

Lhulier is a veteran chef in the Wilmington restaurant business. He owned a restaurant in Old New Castle and worked at the former Deep Blue, Domaine Hudson and Union City Grille restaurants. Lhulier said he had a small consulting role when Brandywine opened, but was never part of the day-to-day operations. He had no say in the menu, decor, name or direction of the business.

Brandywine originally had a menu featuring dishes like tableside-carved Beef Wellington that “reads like a greatest hits list of dishes your grandparents probably loved,” according to a description on the website.

Irvin told Delaware Online/The News Journal that he wanted the restaurant to be “a special place that takes you back to the classic elegance of the ’50s and ’60s.”

Irvin said he remembers his grandmother taking him to eat at “big department stores like Hutzler’s in Towson, Maryland, or Barneys in New York, which at lunch were full of glamorous people and the friendliest waiters who made you feel like it could be a second home.” He wanted The Brandywine to evoke that feeling.

About five months after Irvin opened The Brandywine, he parted ways with Lhulier at the Snuff Mill.

Lhulier, who worked at the restaurant in Independence Mall for three years, announced in April that he was no longer working with Irvin.

“I felt it was time to do something of my own with my own ideas, something that would express me more,” Lhulier told Delaware Online/The News Journal after his departure in April.

Lhulier said he was making final preparations earlier this summer for a new restaurant project at Avenue North, a mixed-use development by Delle Donne & Associates on the former AstraZeneca campus near Concord Pike, when Tsonias asked him to take over as manager of The Brandywine. It was an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“I asked Robert Lhulier to take over Bill Irvin’s business at the beginning of July. Unfortunately, we went different ways with Bill Irvin,” said Angela Tsonias.

“We are very excited about the change and look forward to the great things Robert Lhulier will bring to the Brandywine Restaurant.”

When asked if he had spoken to Irvin about taking over The Brandywine or if they still had a business relationship, Lhulier had little to say. “No,” he said during a recent interview at the Wilmington restaurant.

“Snuff Mill is 100% mine,” Irvin said in an email to Delaware Online/The News Journal on Tuesday. He did not respond to questions about his departure from The Brandywine.

Lhulier said he will move away from the Brandywine’s current Polo Club/West Palm Beach atmosphere. He will forego tablecloths and plates “to make it more homey.” The Brandywine is about 1 ⅟₂ times the size of the Snuff Mill, which seats 34.

“So many things have made it too precious. I’m going to get rid of the pretense,” Lhulier said of the renaming. He said he wanted the restaurant to be less formal and have “the feel of a brasserie.” He said there would no longer be “small animals” on the menu.

“I don’t want it to be too cute,” Lhulier said.

Much of the staff at Brandywine has stayed, Lhulier said, including J. Thomas Edgerton, the chef, and pastry chef Kaila Faye Brenchi.

The menu now features some of Lhulier’s signature characteristics, such as the use of seasonal produce like local tomatoes, corn and stone fruit, as well as fresh and bold flavors like seared Chesapeake soft-shell crab with chorizo vinaigrette and ricotta gnocchi with Sicilian eggplant, zucchini and squash.

He said the Beef Wellington will likely be gone. Brenchi’s dessert menu includes corn crème brûlée and peach cream cheesecake. The drinks menu includes four different espresso martinis.

Lhulier said he is working on better soundproofing for the small dining room, which gets loud when all the tables are occupied. He has temporarily suspended lunch service but will resume it Tuesday through Friday in the fall. He may also offer Sunday brunch and dinner on Mondays.

By mid-September, customers should see a new look and menu, Lhulier said.

In the meantime, he is working on the final plans for a new Mediterranean restaurant on Avenue North. Lhulier plans to call it Sardella Mediterranean Cantina, the Greek word for sardine. He is leasing a 3,000-square-foot building near the complex’s fountain, which will open soon.

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Sardella will have seating for 80 people inside and about 40 outside. Lhulier said he has known the owners of the complex, the Delle Donne family, for several years and has cooked for them on special occasions and holidays.

Lhulier said the new restaurant is expected to open in about a year.

Patricia Talorico writes about food and restaurants. You can find her on Instagram, X And on facebook.e-mail [email protected]. Sign up for them Delaware Eats newsletter.

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