Apr. 22--Cleveland chef Michael Symon -- the bald guy with the wild laugh who became the Food Network's newest "Iron Chef" last fall -- will bring his lusty culinary style to Detroit this fall when he opens the premier restaurant at the new Westin Book Cadillac.

He intends to make it one you won't forget.

Tentatively called Roast, it will feature "two huge rotisseries and two huge wood-burning grills" where chefs will roast whole suckling pigs, baby goats and spring lambs, and cook wood-fired steaks and other items.

"It should be really cool. ... Obviously steakhouses are popping up all over the country like crazy. We wanted to offer a little more," Symon said by telephone Monday afternoon from Lola, one of his two Cleveland restaurants.

He and his partners -- his wife, Liz Symon, and colleague Doug Petkovik -- are to be introduced in Detroit today by Cleveland-based developer John Ferchill, who is renovating the Book Cadillac.

Symon, 39, is Cleveland's most famous restaurateur and chef, widely credited with leading a restaurant renaissance in the city in the mid-'90s. After Lola, a small, offbeat restaurant with an eclectic menu, opened in 1997, he was named one of Food & Wine's Ten Best New Chefs in 1998. Since then he has opened a more casual restaurant called Lolita.

Symon, whose heritage is partly Greek, describes his food as Mediterranean-influenced with a Midwestern sense.

The Book Cadillac restaurant "is going to be very nice but it's not going to be a frou-frou place. It's going to be kind of like our restaurants here ... really good food in an atmosphere where people are comfortable, where you can come in a suit or jeans and T-shirt."

The eatery is being designed by his wife, who also designed Lola, he said. It will feature a 25-seat bar, followed by a large community table and the dining room.

The kitchen will be behind the dining room, so people who want to can see the rotisseries. "I don't think it will freak anyone out," he said.

The restaurant isn't the only new project Symon is taking on.

Coincidentally, the Food Network announced Monday that he will have his own TV show and will begin taping episodes this week.

He will host "Dinner: Impossible," replacing Robert Irvine, who left last month after revelations that his resume was exaggerated. In the show, the chef is challenged to prepare meals under difficult circumstances.

Symon says he plans to "bounce back and forth" between Cleveland and Detroit frequently, but he's hiring an executive chef for Roast and strongly hinted it will be a metro Detroiter.

He noted that he had two former metro Detroiters on his staff at Lola -- pastry chef Cory Barrett and executive chef Derrick Clayton, both of whom worked at the nationally known Tribute in Farmington Hills.

Symon's Cleveland restaurants are known for their charcuterie -- cured meats. "We'll be doing our own house-cured meats and sausages in Detroit. There will be fish on the menu, but this will be a meat house."

Symon added, "I don't think anyone likes meat as much as me. You're talking to a guy who has animals tattooed on his body." Among them are two flying hogs on his chest, with the words "Got Pork?"

Symon says the Midwest is a "meat-centric kind of place" and he's excited about his concept.

"The food will be really tasty, and I'm really stoked," he said.

The Associated Press contributed.

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