Will Salisbury Departs Warehouse District's Wood Pizza Bistro & Taphouse

Will Salisbury, chef and Pizza Domenica alum, has left the well-received Warehouse District wood-fired pizza and beer hotspot Wood, which he helped open in January 2015.  In a statement, Salisbury addresses his departure:

I accomplished everything I set out to do at Wood, and my intention is to open a more refined and creative concept where I can freely express myself as a chef.

Salisbury hails from New England by way of New York, and tells Eater that he will be resurrecting his seafood and raw bar pop up Rah Bah and possibly partaking in more Dinner Lab events—he recently did two dinners with them already—while scouting locations for a potential new restaurant focusing on New England style seafood and Portugese cuisine. Salisbury will also be competing in Gambit's Emerging Chefs Challenge on Wednesday, July 8.

In March, critic Brett Anderson named the chef's Margherita Pizza one of his top ten eats of early 2015, calling it "convincing evidence that excellent pizza is becoming another thing New Orleanians can take for granted," and Salisbury's scallop appetizer was an enormous hit for the restaurant.

Sous chef Simeon Carpenter—a Boucherie and Commande'rs Palace alum—will be running the kitchen for the time being, though a new chef may be hired, a call to the restaurant verifies.