Executive Chef Rick Adams Leaves The Exchange Pub + Kitchen

Exchange Pub + Kitchen executive chef Rick Adams left the New Albany gastropub on Aug. 12.

Adams, who joined the Exchange Pub in April 2013, did not respond to a request for comment.

"It was time to part ways," Exchange Pub owner Ian Hall said. He characterized Adams' departure as "somewhat of a mutual parting of ways."

Rob Temple, the Pub Exchange's sous chef who worked with Hall at Proof in 2009 to 2010, will be leading the kitchen in the interim. "Rob knows exactly what the plans are and the direction that we're going. He has every capability to be an exec, whether it's in my kitchen or whether it's in anybody else's," Hall said.

"Whether I'm interviewing for a sous or an exec, I have two positions right now. And I've got one person in place. I'm not sure what direction it's going to blend into, but we're not going to skip a beat in the kitchen. We're set up for success right now. And Rick has a lot to do with that."

Previously Adams was the chef at L&N Wine Bar & Bistro and worked in the kitchen at Captain's Quarters.

Hall said

He [Adams] was a great fit for what I was looking for, and he definitely elevated us to the next level. We wouldn't be where we are today without him. The problem was, kind of what I felt like, the business was outpacing what we were doing in the kitchen, in terms of responsibilities. There's a lot that comes along with being the chef in the kitchen there. It's a 135-seat restaurant that does 400 covers on a Friday and Saturday evening. It's getting away from cooking as much maybe as we were before and it becomes more of the detail-oriented side of the business, where maybe development and training and ordering inventory and those types of systems become a much larger responsibility in a little bit bigger setting. Unfortunately I just felt like those weren't being met to the standards that I was expecting and it was time to make a change. Rick had lost a little bit of passion. That was one of the things I liked about him most, his drive and his desire.

"Some things happened along the way," Hall said. "We weren't able to get on the same page. And then it kind of came to a point where he made a decision to kind of put it out there that he didn't think thing were working out. Then he went back and kind of rescinded on that. And, at that point, my mind had already been made up."

"It was a tough decision to make, probably one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make regarding business" Hall said. "But I have 30 other employees I have to think about."

Hall said Temple had a large influence on the Exchange Pub's current summer menu. The fall one should be released in mid-September.

The Exchange Pub also plans on launching a new private dining space and website.

[Disclosure: Eater Louisville intern Casey Park works at The Exchange Pub + Kitchen.]

·Chef Rick Adams joins New Albany Exchange pub + kitchen. [The Potable Curmudgeon]
·Review: New Albany Exchange Pub & Kitchen [Louisville Courier-Journal]

[Photo: Courtesy The Exchange Pub + Kitchen]