A peek inside Tweed, opening June 10

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A peek inside Tweed, opening June 10

POSTED: Tuesday, May 25, 2010, 4:48 PM

Filed Under: Openings | Photos

"Oh, the place with the staircase!" You'll inevitably receive some variation of that response when broaching the topic of the restaurant space at 114 S. 12th Street, which was most recently Les Bons Temps but has been Liles on 12th, Bistro Bix, London and several other concepts over the years. No matter the owner, no matter the chef, no matter the concept, the wide-as-a-whale's-tail Rhett-and-Scarlett fixture (and its accompanying antebellum surroundings) has always seemed to siphon away all the attention. That's precisely why Edward Bianchini has gutted the place.

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Tweed, which we first wrote april in late April, is something new for both this address and this neighborhood. Bianchini, born and raised in Philly, ran a Michelin-starred hotel/restaurant in the south of France from 1986 to 2004; he also opened the Lenox Room on the Upper East Side with Charlie Palmer and Tony Fortuna. That's where he first met Tweed's chef, the well-traveled David Cunningham, who's done time with Eric Ripert and Gray Kunz in NYC and cooked locally at spots like the Yardley Inn and Bookbinder's. The restaurant's interior is wholly unrecognizable and that is a compliment. URBANSPACEDEVELOPMENT, the firm that's done APO, Capogiro, Sampan, et cetera, has modernized the hell out of the space. They started by scrapping that infamous staircase and replacing it with a slicker, narrower Version 2.0 leading up to a white-linen mezzanine dining room — it's not so dissimilar from the beautiful set of stairs at Noble, which USD also conceived. (Here's a "before" shot.) A nifty wood-and-glass rotunda separates the street and the ground-floor bar and dining area, which'll be decked out with zinc surface work. Of course, they're also incorporating the namesake fabric into various interior touches. Cunningham's Contemporary American menu will be seasonal an d fiercely local in its sourcing — the chef, who lives in Bucks County, is extremely conscious of how far his purveyors are situated geographically from Philly and has built up relationships with dozens of farmers and purveyors throughout the region. The mild-mannered Cunningham, however, doesn't want to come off as preachy about local, organic and sustainable precepts, preferring to let his food handle the lip service. Prices will be reasonable ("The days of highway robbery are over," says Bianchini), and they'll offer both bar and dinner menus, plus a option they're calling "tiers of tastes" that'll allow guests to order up a trio of starters at a trimmed price. Tweed will open to the public June 10. The place is to serve lunch and dinner Tuesday to Friday, brunch and dinner Saturday and brunch only Sunday. A couple teases off Cunningham's menu, including what's pictured above:

Cheesesteak fritters with onion/tomato marmalade
Lollipop chicken wings tossed in spicy vinegar chili sauce, served with celery ribbons and a blue cheese and port wine sauce
SautÃ©ed magret "Americanized" with spring ramps and cornmeal pancakes paired with a sweet/sour gastrique and a shot of espresso
Beef, lamb and duck burgers (the latter will be done with ground duck legs seasoned with orange and Gran Mariener)
Salami spread: traditional, honey and cheddar
Smoked salmon deviled eggs with salmon roe and diced green apple
Selection of local raw milk cheeses
Carrot cake roulade with carrot anglaise and candied pecans
"Flight of Floats": birch beer with lavender honey, root beer with ROOT gelato, cream soda with cookies and cream ice cream

poncho

Posted 2010-05-25 12:44:23

I cannot wait to try, I love the name!!

rory

Posted 2010-05-25 13:18:57

fwiw, tiers of taste is a standard offer @ the yardley inn. I wonder if they'll use the same plates too.

Hopefully cunningham's one of the chefs my girlfriend liked @ yardley and not one of the ones who ridiculously oversalted everything.

Drew Lazor

Posted 2010-05-25 13:22:39

Rory, thanks for pointing that out, I wasn't aware of that. Strikes me as a solid deal.

adam

Posted 2010-05-25 13:39:44

FLIGHT OF FLOATS!!!

adam

Posted 2010-05-25 15:12:38

Tiers of Taste, though he doesn't call them that, are a big Michael Mina thing, too. I can dig it.

rory

Posted 2010-05-25 16:45:38

yeah, it was a cool idea. and they had cool/weird tiered plates.

The most important thing is that this be one of the good ex-yardley inn chefs, and not one of the bad ones. That place has gone through fifty-bazillion chefs, many of whom were fantastic. many were not.

Ralph

Posted 2010-05-25 19:47:19

I frequented the Yardley Inn a lot and let me just say that this doesn't look like any of their bad chefs. Just check out that food!

Giuliana Bianchini

Posted 2010-05-27 03:42:09

I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS ! :) YUMMM

Locavore odds and ends: Memorial Day weekend edition | South Jersey Locavore

Posted 2010-05-28 12:43:07

[...] Meal Ticket has a peak at Tweed in Philadelphia that will be opening on June 10. The menu will be “seasonal and fiercely local in its sourcing.” Did you hear that? Fiercely local. [...]

Dicky

Posted 2010-05-30 12:09:54

Best of luck Eddie !!! Looks like another winner.

Tweed in pictures :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City Paper

Posted 2010-06-09 15:50:30

[...] night. Meal Ticket stopped by earlier today to grab a few photos of the space — we shared a few peeks at the food in late May, but now the restaurant is fully realized, with a glinting, zinc-heavy feel on the ground level and [...]

Georg-Henri

Posted 2010-06-10 14:42:28

What a lovely contemporary glass staircase in what should have been a historically designated interior.  Did they sell the historic details for a shopping mall in Texas?  That kind of interior renovation could happen in a jazillion vacant Center City storefronts. The former Battles Flower Shop was one of those special Philly gems, what a loss!

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