Chefs

Chefs to Watch 2016: James Rigato, Mabel Gray, Hazel Park, Michigan

Chandra Ram

We arrive at Mabel Gray at 3:59 p.m., which sounds like an odd time for dinner, but it was going to be a two-dinner night, and we weren’t even the first people there. By 4:17 p.m., the restaurant is about a third full, with a steady stream of people arriving at the narrow, funky-meets-midcentury modern space filled with kitschy glassware and mis-matched gold-rimmed plates. Bartenders dodge each other to access the large glass-door cooler...