Restaurateur followed in dad's footsteps

John Morfogen was a well-known restaurateur in Queens and Long Island a few decades ago, serving up burgers at the landmark Hilltop Diner in Fresh Meadows and fancier fare at the Chelsea House in Nassau and Suffolk. He knew enough to insist his then-young son, Stratis Morfogen, start at the very bottom, peeling shrimp and cleaning bathrooms.

The son protested, he recalled earlier this week, but to no avail. Now Stratis says he has learned his father was right. "You've got to know the business to teach it to someone else," he said.

Stratis Morfogen, now 43, has learned the business. In December he opened his fifth year-round, high-end Chinese restaurant, Philippe by Philippe Chow, in Jericho. The first, in Manhattan, opened in 2005. There's one in Mexico City, another in Miami and another in Los Angeles. There's one in East Hampton open only during the summer.

Morfogen is a principal in the business with Philippe Chow, who was born outside Beijing and whose menu reflects the cooking of China's capital.

Now, Morfogen said, plans are being made for other Philippe by Philippe Chow restaurants, in Toronto, Las Vegas, Chicago and Dallas. There may even be "express" restaurants at airports and shopping malls. While Philippe by Philippe Chow has pricey dishes, it also offers inexpensive lunches. But it attracts boldfaced names in Manhattan and at some of its other locations, such as Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey and Paul McCartney.

Is this any time to think about opening more restaurants? Morfogen said business is up 15 percent to 20 percent this year.

His formula, he said, works. "The Chinese restaurants out here do a great job at what they do," Morfogen said. "But you don't get dressed up" to go to them. "This," he said, gesturing to his modern-decor eatery, "is a night out."