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Bentham's Riverfront Restaurant at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel will be converted to a new concept restaurant called The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck.

(Amway Hotel Corp | Concept Design)

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Amway Hotel Corporation has scored a new concept restaurant from celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, which executives say will be the first of its kind in the United States when it opens next year.

The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck will replace Bentham’s Riverfront Restaurant on the ground floor of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel next fall, said George Aquino, vice president and managing director of the Amway Hotel Collection.

Wolfgang Puck, at his restaurant, Spago, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The new upscale casual restaurant will be only the second example of the celebrity chef’s new concept, said Aquino. The other is being built in Dubai.

A Wolfgang Puck's Express will also replace the Cornucopia deli-style eatery currently on the Pearl Street side of ground floor as part of the hotel's plan to re-emphasize the riverfront at its signature property.

When finished, a dual-level riverfront terrace with seating for about 40 guests will replace the hotel’s riverside revolving door entrance, which has changed little from its original look since the hotel tower opened in 1982.

The riverside remodel will include a new staircase inside the current Bentham’s space to connect an existing banquet room — which is being converted into a wine cellar and private dining area — with the main floor.

A bar will also be added to the Bentham’s space. All told, the new Wolfgang Puck’s is expected to seat about 230 diners inside and out.

Bentham's will close around late February. The new eateries are scheduled to open in the fall of 2015.

“Our purpose is really to re-activate that part of the hotel,” said Aquino. “The river is so critical to the success of Grand Rapids. We want to have a strong presence there.”

The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck’s menu will be “very approachable,” said Aquino, who described it as similar in price to six.one.six at the Amway-owned JW Marriott, or Essence Restaurant Group’s Bistro Bella Vita next to the Van Andel Arena.

“It really embraces seasonality and regional cuisine and tries to utilize local farms,” he said. “For lack of a better term, it’s a Wolfgang Puck ‘farm-to-table’ concept that’s still offering some of the signature items that have made him famous.”

When open, the new concept will join more than a dozen styles of restaurants bearing the Austrian-born chef and restaurateur’s name.

Aquino said Puck’s people visited Grand Rapids this month after Amway approached his company this year about getting some sort of Wolfgang Puck restaurant into the Bentham’s space. After an initial visit in September, Puck’s team returned this month to visit restaurants downtown and along Cherry Street SE.

“Once they saw what was happening in Grand Rapids, they definitely felt it was a good fit,” he said. “They saw the caliber of restaurants that we compete with. It also helps to have 682 rooms attached to that building.”

Many of those rooms just got an upgrade. The 29-story hotel tower is in the final stages of a $14 million makeover designed to update the tower side rooms with a contemporary feel that will set the high-rise portion apart from the traditional setting found in the original Pantlind side of the downtown hotel.

This part of the Grand River walkway next to the Amway hotel will look much different next year after Bentham's Riverfront Restaurant is converted into The Kitchen by Wolfgang Puck.

Downstairs, the restaurant project will maximize views of the river ahead of city-scale plans to rebuild the river rapids where the Grand flows through downtown.

Aquino described having a Wolfgang Puck restaurant as a coup for the city, similar to the hotel company's landing of a Ruth's Chris Steak House franchise in 2011.

“That’s the purpose of bringing some of these nicer franchises to the area,” he said. “Now, people can identify us with other successful cities that offer a wealth of options for food.”

“The hotel’s philosophy is what’s good for downtown is good for us,” he said. “It’s a nice feather in the cap to have in downtown Grand Rapids."

Editor's note: George Aquino is a freelance restaurant reviewer for MLive Grand Rapids Press.

Garret Ellison covers business, government, environment and breaking news for MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. Email him at gellison@mlive.com or follow on Twitter & Instagram