01-31-2006, 04:07 PM
|
 |
Cheesesteak GURU! Wiz with
|
|
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: QV
Posts: 1,688
|
|
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by emmitotter
What is opening up there? I have seen chairs and a nice new place inside--anybody have any insider info?
|
I can't remember the name of the place, I think it starts with an A, but in the Inquirer a week or two ago, Craig LaBan was asked about food trends for 2006 and cited the new place as one of the ones to watch. I think it was for the new "small plates" trend. I've heard somewhere else that, like Gayle, it's going to be run by someone who was a chef at a top restaurant in the city who is now branching out on his own.
Wow, how much non-information did I just provide??
Edited: I did some digging. David Ansill of Pif will take over the current location. I think it will be called Ansill.
From City Paper, Nov. 10-16:
Quote:
"Judy's -- South Street, period -- always held a place in my heart," said David Ansill, owner and chef of Bella Vista's four-and-a-half-year old Pif. "It was the most fun restaurant."
Ansill knows. The 47-year-old Elkins Park native used to stuff Judy's meat loaf.
Now, Ansill owns the glass-blocked boîte that Plato kept going solo until this spring, when she unloaded her heralded corner spot. (Plato could not be reached for this story.) Scheduled to open in early to mid-December, Ansill restaurant will have a whiff of Pif but be extended in its culinary boundaries. "It's my style without the French focus. I want to bring the food I loved in my travels to bear -- Portugal, North Africa, Sweden -- things that made me love cooking in the first place."
Loathe to discuss the menu, Ansill will drop hints -- langoustine with truffle vinaigrette, charcuterie faves, baked egg with foie gras and truffles (he'd like a whole section of egg dishes; duck and fish, but not chicken), sea urchin with a squeeze of lemon on toast, bottarga (dried cured tuna roe), sweetbreads, rabbit, venison.
Ansill is not without someSouth Street cred. He dishwashed at Grendel's Lair in 1978, bartended at Copa and Ripley's -- the latter being one of several Stephen Starr gigs, including The Continental. "I ran screaming from Steve," says Ansill, holding back a laugh. Ansill did better cooking for Serrano's Rich Machlin and Jude Erwin and Lucy's Hat Shop's Avram Hornik, with whom he's had a lasting friendship. Ansill did better still when he moved to Miami in the '90s. Not only did he align himself with that region's French cooking trend, he found himself a business and life partner in pastry chef Catherine Gilbert.
<snip>
Named in tribute to his father, Leonard, a Florida retiree (at Pif, there's a table with a plaque that reads "Reserved for Leonard Ansill"), Ansill will be a "European snack 'n' wine bar for food-conscious adults."
Maybe that tag ain't catchy. But if he says "tapas," people will only think Spanish cuisine. And Ansill hopes to provide a variety of interesting foods that audiences rarely taste at nice prices; smaller portions with one garnish; the same menu offered day 'n' night throughout his 78-seat (as opposed to Pif's 38) location.
There is nothing left of Judy's save for the bones. No glass block. The pink neon "Judy's" sign, its name and menu have gone to bartender Chris Rago. In its stead: a long mahogany bar and sculpted lamps, an open kitchen and a color scheme rich in soft-toned chocolate and mustard. "I think Eileen liked selling this not only to a guy who'd worked here previously, but who'd continue the idea of good quality food and a love of the neighborhood," says Ansill.
"I want an adult bar with good food where there isn't a DJ at 10 p.m. I want a civilized drink in a civilized place. I'm getting old, I'm sorry to say. I blame the DJs."
|
Last edited by It'sJessMe : 01-31-2006 at 04:21 PM.
|
New restaurant where Judy's cafe used to be?
