Isa Shuts and Regroups After a Staff Shakeup Isa, the high-profile restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, opened last summer by Taavo Somer, closed on Monday after its chef, Ignacio Mattos; sous-chef, Jose Ramirez Ruiz; and pastry chef, Pam Yung, left the business. In a phone interview on Monday afternoon, Mr. Somer - the owner of the Manhattan restaurants Freemans and Peels - said the closing was temporary, brought on by disagreement over the restaurant's direction. "I always imagined Isa to be a casual, friendly, wood-fired place with Mediterranean cuisine that would be enjoyed by the neighborhood, families and friends, a few times a week," he said. We had ongoing discussions so we'd be on the same page as to my initial vision and what the food was to be. But what I had in mind was 180 degrees from what they were doing. They would not compromise. We did not share the same ambition. "It wasn't the casual Mediterranean food that I fell in love with at Il Buco," where Mr. Mattos worked previously, he added. Isa "was too demanding and did not connect with the neighborhood." He said Mr. Ramirez Ruiz left on Wednesday, and Mr. Mattos on Monday; the chefs could not be reached for comment. Mr. Somer said the restaurant, at 348 Wythe Avenue, would reopen on Thursday, with Preston and Ginger Madson, the chefs at Freemans and Peels, in the kitchen. "Expect to see things that take full advantage of the great grill and wood-fired oven we designed - grilled, charred, wood-roasted, smoked foods and kid-friendly items, too," he said. Isa was an informal, rough-hewn and quirky place, with a limited but inventive contemporary menu and a number of vegetable-centered dishes. Eric Asimov gave the restaurant one star in a November review in The New York Times, calling it "idiosyncratic in the best sense, of going its own way," but "occasionally strange for no apparent reason."