So my legs are getting pretty tired these days from all the gleeful jumping up and down. Accolades for the recently reopened Lemaire restaurant at The Jefferson Hotel just keep rolling in, and one of the nice things about forging strong client partnerships is you can celebrate client victories as if they were your own. Because let’s face it – when your role is more strategic partner than simple vendor, your client’s victories ARE your victories, too.

 I’d have to shake the dust off some files to tell you how long ago the planning process began on the relaunch of Lemaire. We had the honor of helping put the public face on the restaurant. Even as the hotel was working with a team of consultants and architects on physical design, we were working on the visual identity and logo elements. While we were working on supporting materials, like the menus, fab Chef Bundy was secretly planning what would go ON the menus. While the new bar was going in and light fixtures were going up, we were working on print ad launch headlines and visuals.

 We’d been telling people “trust us, you’re gonna LOVE this place” for so long we started to wonder if they’d get tired of us. “No, seriously. Just wait and see!”

When the doors finally opened, we invited some familiar faces from Richmond’s social media Twitter scene to LeTweet, a chatty evening we cooked up featuring Lemaire’s “LeTweet” cocktail and a sampling of edibles.

And now that it’s open we can celebrate in public. Yeah. That short, well-rounded woman you saw “woohoo-ing” on the street when she read the RTD Dining Out Review? (http://bit.ly/QQd73). That was probably me. Or that guy in jeans grinning about Style’s waxings on an Enchanted Evening? (http://bit.ly/xQiHu). Probably one of us.

 So you can imagine how crazy ND&P’s offices are now that Lemaire’s been announced as one of Esquire magazine’s “Best New Restaurants of 2009.” (http://bit.ly/29WN5).

My legs are getting pretty tired, but I have to say I’m looking forward to whooping and hollering and jumping up and down quite a bit as Lemaire graciously takes its well-deserved place in the national culinary scene. Then I can rationalize eating as many Fried Green Tomatoes as I want to.

 (Tweeting? Hit me up @shaunamanda, or follow the restaurant @LemaireRichmond)

(Shaun Amanda Herrmann)