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On the surface, Rheon Café, with its marble counters and back garden, looks like a promising Soho lunch option, its menu crafted by consulting chef Hisanobu Osaka, formerly of Morimoto and the Japanese consulate in New Orleans. But the café also happens to be a savvy showpiece for its parent company, Rheon, a multinational Japanese corporation that manufactures high-tech and slightly sinister-sounding kitchen equipment like the Encrusting Machine, which the company’s Website calls “a robot with the delicate touch of a human palm,” used to make everything from chocolate-chip cookies to Scotch eggs. At the café, the kitchen dedicates itself to sandwiches like roast duck with cucumber and miso, or grilled portobello with tomato confit and chipotle sauce, all made on bread baked in-house—on prominently displayed Rheon equipment, naturally. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

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• Restaurant Openings: Rheon Café, Philoxenia, and Bar Blanc (12/10/07)