|
|
|
AKA Rittenhouse Square restaurant aiming for spring
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
AKA Rittenhouse Square restaurant aiming for spring
 |
| stayaka.com |
We recently took in a walkthrough of the still-raw space on the ground floor of the AKA Rittenhouse Square extended-stay hotel just off 18th and Walnut in Rittenhouse — it's being converted into a multi-functional, slated-for-May restaurant (no official name yet) by AKA owner Larry Korman and David Fields, who owned Salt and has been working as a consultant for the AKA chain for about four years. The busy Fields, who's also putting together dining/drinking concepts for the AKAs in New York and D.C. in lockstep with this project in his hometown, has very specific notions of what he wants at this primo address, which will hold court on a dining strip that'll include The Franklin, The Dandelion, Tria and the in-the-works Serafina.
The space itself — it's a combination of what was Le Bus and what was Ben & Jerry's, if you can picture that — will have a smooth, straightforward design aesthetic, with touches like white oak and slab marble adorning surfaces. "Not theme-y," says Fields. "Simple materials. Not tuned up, not fancy." The seating scheme includes an eight-seat bar, 10-seat open kitchen counter, plus round tables and a central banquette. Floor-to-ceiling windows, plus outdoor seating, will beckon in passersby off 18th. Then there's the food and drink — Fields has a major chef get in Bryan Sikora, formerly of Django and Talula's Table, who's working on menus from morning to night (the restaurant will serve from 7 a.m. to midnight daily). Though he did tease a few items from a sample menu to us, Fields is currently discussing the menu in strictly general terms. "I don't like to pander," he says. "I just like to do stuff that's really good. ... I don't want fussy cooking." Reasonably priced wines by the glass and bottle and a taut cocktail list will complement Sikora's cooking.
[...] AKA Rittenhouse Square restaurant aiming for spring :: Meal Ticket :: Food Blog :: Philadelphia City... "It has shown me that everything is illuminated in the light of the past" Jonathan Safran Foer Reply With Quote + Reply to Thread « Previous Thread | Next Thread » [...]
- barstool scientist
- Booze
- Brew Revue
- Chef Salad
- Closings
- Coffee
- Contests
- Dealage
- Dirty Dishes
- Don't Front
- Eat This Immediately
- Field Trip
- Food and Art
- Food and Holidays
- Food and Movies
- Food and Music
- Food and Politics
- Food and Sports
- Food and Web
- Food Blogs
- Food Books
- Food Events
- Food News
- Food TV
- Gifted
- Happy Hour Hopper
- How-To
- In Print
- Interview
- Meal Ticket
- Menu Time
- Not So Quickfire
- Notes from the Weekend
- On Wheels
- Openings
- Patio Drinking
- Philly Beer Week 2010
- Photos
- Private Chef POV
- Product Placement
- Recipes
- Snack Time
- Stiff Drank
- SUPPER
- Tea
- Testing
- Ticket Stubs
- Top Chef
- Vegan
- Vegetarian
- Video
- Weekly Candy
- Weird Regional Foods
- We're Here to Help
- Where'd We Eat?
- Drew Lazor's Ill-Advised Rant Factory
- Pregame
- Ill-Advised Ranting
- The Week Without Meat
- Philly Beer Week 2009
- Real Big
- Where'd I Eat Last Night?
- Top Chef Masters
- The Good Word
- Next Iron Chef
- Arterial Terrorism
- Food and Radio
