Pittsburgh: Sonoma Grille (October 2005)

Restaurateur Yves Carreau, owner and proprietor of the Big Y Group, hails from Lyon, France, where he attended and graduated from the highly acclaimed Thonon Les Bains Culinary Institute in 1978. Yves took his apprenticeship in the French West Indies, known for vibrant Caribbean cooking with a strong French influence. Ever the adventurer, Yves came to the United States and established himself in Los Angeles, where he worked at the famed “La Serre” restaurant in Studio City. In 1984, Yves moved to Pittsburgh and was hired to manage the kitchen at the Churchill Valley Country Club. A few years later, he opened his first solo venture, Asiago, a French and Italian restaurant, located in One Oxford Centre downtown. Today, Yves brings his diverse culinary palate and business savvy to the Pittsburgh and Baltimore restaurant scenes with all of his Big Y Group restaurants. Following the immense critical success of his flagship restaurant Sonoma (a west coast kitchen and wine bar) and its Penn Avenue sister Seviche, he took Seviche’s Nuevo Latino tapas concept east to debut Talara in Baltimore’s bustling inner harbor. Yves opened New Orleans jazz brasserie Nola On The Square in March 2011, and shortly punctuated his Market Square presence with the premiere of Pittsburgh’s sexiest new bar and champagne lounge, Perle, in the summer of 2012. After the evident success of Sonoma and Seviche, Yves was named 2007 Restaurateur of the Year by the Western Chapter of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association.