Carmel tastemaker Rich Pepe’s projects suddenly exploding with young PeachTown potential.

Rich Pepe has two landmark Carmel restaurants in Little Napoli and Vesuvio. Nearby he’s got booming Carmel Bakery and Vino Napoli wine bar. He has a partnership in Spanish Bay restaurant Peppoli in Pebble Beach. He has his own line of wines and a series of sauces with New Jersey childhood pal Joey Pantoliano of Sopranos fame. He has a primary voice in local leadership, having made regular appearances at City Council meetings and a run at mayor.

But now he has something he hasn’t had before. And that something not only has very real potential to change Carmel food, it has the rest of the tiny city and its outsized amount of restaurants on notice.

“I’ve got a Super Bowl team,” he says.

Tobias Peach and William Townsend, despite being just 37 and 36 (respectively), come with prodigious backgrounds, most recently with Coastal Luxury Management of Pebble Beach Food & Wine. Peach was restaurant director, with flourishes including the tableside absinthe cart at 1833 and the fine-tuning of CLM’s 2014 new restaurants Rose.Rabbit.Lie (in Las Vegas’ Cosmopolitan Hotel) and Faith & Flower (in downtown Los Angeles). When Townsend wasn’t helping Peach rev up those restaurants – “use us like bullets,” Townsend liked to tell CLM’s DavidBernahl, “point us at the problem and shoot” – he was reinvigorating Cannery Row Brewing Company as GM.

Before CLM they opened no fewer than six James Beard Best New Restaurant nominees like Danube in NYC; Craftsteak for Tom Colicchio in Vegas; Sage at Aria, also in Vegas; and Spago for Wolfgang Puck in Palo Alto. Last month, partly inspired by the tragic loss of Peach’s newborn daughter Scarlett, the best friends launched PeachTown Hospitality Group to do everything they’ve become so well-seasoned with: debuting venues, directing hires, developing menus, training and retraining, opening and finding managers to take it from there. (Get more on the Food Blog, www.mcweekly.com/edible.)

“They bring a level of professionalism and experience I’ve been looking for to take my restaurants to the next level and into the next generation,” Pepe says. “And to bring a younger crowd. They come with that promise.”

PeachTown’s principals didn’t think their local consulting firm would take this singular a managing partnership, this soon, but that was also part of its open-book approach. “Let’s see where it takes us,” Peach told me in August. Now so much synergy is crackling with Pepe that they’re talking future restaurant partnerships-by-the-sea. But the immediate possibilities are mouthwatering enough for now: PeachTown has its eyes and efforts trained on tightening service and upping special event promos at Vesuvio and Little Napoli, which will generate buzz and better refocus affection for the cocktails – and food, which is often excellent, and always underrated. Splice in the same DNA that made 1833 and CRBC vital nightlife spots – with a dose of locals daytime action on the Vesuvio roof lounge – and the Monterey party tribe will climb over Carmel Hill.

With Doc Pepe Lab’s new bottled, barrel-aged craft cocktails, there are more possibilities. Blends like their own Negroni, Manhattan and Old-Fashioned are created and aged in 20 or so containers in the namesake “lab” above Carmel Bakery. Peach and Townsend can plan some fun with those spirits at parties on site and off – they’re already pouring at the Carmel restaurants – and stir in their own recipes. Meanwhile, Pepe already has secured a 4,000-square-foot facility on Garden Road in Monterey to open up the wholesale production side.

They can also lend their PBFW/Los Angeles Food & Wine event chops to next week’s Carmel by the Glass ($45 in advance, $65 VIP, Saturday, Sept. 13, 402-PEPE). A dozen restaurants like laBalena cucina toscana, Flaherty’s Seafood Grill, Christopher’s Restaurant, Cantinetta Luca, Cypress Inn and Vesuvio do bites. More than a dozen wineries with Carmel tasting rooms – including Manzoni, Figge and De Tierra and event co-creators Galante – swirl in. Super-connected Stefani Chaney of Scheid curates and brings her fave wines too.

The tasting format isn’t anything City Hall shaking, but the simple adjustments (a move from Thursday night to Saturday afternoon) and simpler logic (outdoor tastings in the park are possible!) give it an honest shot at being Carmel’s liveliest event in all of 2014.

Most importantly, though, combine PeachTown-Pepe with 1) Last week’s arrival of young entreprenuer-driven Affina (915-4756) and its social wine bar, Kimball piano and fresh James Andersonfare (hit the blog for more) and 2) Mundaka sibling and neighbor Barmel’s now nightly entertainment – including Tijuana Tuesdays and live bands driving Forget-About-It-and-Dance Fridays – and Carmel has its most promising youth movement since Clint was a kid, or at least since Dametra and Mundaka came around five years ago.

Peach, who lived in Carmel for a few years, agrees: “There’s something bigger than Pepe and PeachTown at work here. It’s about a movement in Carmel.”

Back when Pepe was running against Burnett for mayor, he told the Weekly “down deep, in Carmel, it’s tough to change a light bulb.” Now he’s rewiring the city’s electricity.

QUICKBITES

• Mundos 3 is coming to Webster Street by the Monterey Post Office, joining number one in North Monterey (656-9244) and Mundos Two in Marina (324-4173).

• Not a lot of good news for the ocean and its inhabitants these days. But three pieces of positivity are up on the blog, including a win against seafood fraud.

• Longtime local star chef Jeff Rogers has left the Monterey Bay Aquarium to travel and research culinary-sustainability endeavors. Insiders tell me he plans to return afterward to deploy his own.

• Café Lumiere (920-2451) just opened their menu with hot brunch specials now offered daily, including a California-style Eggs Benedict, and new made-to-order salads and sandwiches like the Bixby BLAT on house-made ciabatta bread.

• Exec Chef John Cox of Sierra Mar at Post Ranch Inn just dropped a new five-course lunch tasting ($95, wine pairings available). Think “smoked venison tartare with juniper berry and pickled yucca blossom,” red abalone with black rice, sea vegetables and miso.” “It offers guests the opportunity to try some of our more creative ingredients and techniques even if they are only in Big Sur for the afternoon or stopping in on their way down the coast,” Cox says. Peek a video of his uncanny craftsmanship via the foodie newsletter (www.mcweekly.com/subscribe).

• Kula Ranch Island Steakhouse (883-9479) celebrates Monday Night Football with $3 draft beers, $5 margaritas and more specials every Monday 3:30pm until the game ends. Games are broadcast on HD TVs and a projection screen.

• It’s grape harvest season – and California Wine Month – and Johnny DeVivio’s undercover Porter’s in the Forest (622-8240) does a four-course Winemaker’s Dinner with Richard Oh Sept. 12 – duck prosciutto, pate, cracklings and fig is just a hint of what’s ahead. $65, RSVP required.

• Oh the power of a potato. Starting 6pm Sept. 5, create the perfect baked potato stuffed with all the fixings for $8 (add salad for $2) at the YMCA Monterey’s (373-4167) Baked Potato Bar to benefit Alateens.

• ”Don’t cry because it’s over,” Dr. Seuss said. “Smile because it happened.”