In a holiday redemption story worthy of the Hallmark Channel, Christophe Hille ― who left A16 in 2006 to seek farm-to-table fortune in New York, most recently at Northern Spy Food Co., which he co-owns with Nathan Foot ― was slated to start a two-night reunion this evening. Advance PR said he'd be manning A16's pizza oven, and collaborating with current chef Liza Shaw on a greatest-hits retrospective. But while Hille might have been looking forward to being back in the welcoming arms of the Bay Area (the Village Voice's Robert Sietsema found the food at Northern Spy to suffer from "a certain blandness" reminiscent of Berkeley's Chez Panisse), he'll have to wait. The blizzards that have crippled airports in the East ended up eighty-sixing Hille's flight. He's rescheduled for Jan. 17-18.
