Monroe Duncan has got something new cookin'

NORFOLK

Monroe Duncan, one of the area's best-known chefs, has announced plans to open a restaurant in the city by year's end.

Located at 37th Street and Hampton Boulevard, Night of the Iguana will feature a menu studded with dishes from Duncan's culinary past, including the Nation's Room, Piranha and Suddenly Last Summer, the Ocean View eatery that Duncan opened in 1979 and is widely credited with changing the local restaurant scene.

"I'm plotting and scheming," Duncan, 71, said Monday, adding that the building, which previously housed the restaurant 37th and Zen, has been leased. "Everything is falling into place."

The restaurant will follow the theme of the Tennessee Williams play that is the restaurant's namesake. The planned décor - palm trees, movie posters, portraits of the play's film stars, Richard Burton and Ava Gardner - aims to evoke the mood, settings, heat and abandon of the storyline. The vibe, Duncan said, will be "fun and funky."

Duncan, most recently general manager at the Smithfield Inn, has been absent from the South Hampton Roads dining scene for more than a decade. After closing Suddenly Last Summer in 1984, Duncan opened a series of local restaurants: Monroe's Mocambo, Piranha - An Eating Frenzy, Monroe's - A Restaurant, and The Lazy Lobster. He managed or cooked at several others: the Chamberlin Hotel, Breezy Point Officers Club, Chappell's, the Blue Crab, Uncle Louie's and a stint as executive chef at the Smithfield Inn.

Duncan has dreamed of opening Night of the Iguana for years, and he came close to doing it on the Peninsula before returning to the Smithfield Inn in 2009 as general manager.

The Norfolk restaurant will seat about 60 with a private room for 20. It likely will open serving dinner only but expand to offer lunch and brunch, Duncan said.

"I want to get back into the kitchen," he said. "This will be my last hurrah."

Lorraine Eaton, (757) 446-2697, lorraine.eaton@pilotonline.com