Philadelphia: Leading Exporter of Restaurants

Village Whiskey rising next to La Colombe in Washington D.C. | Photo via Popville

Last week, the Washington Post published an article about the Philadelphia restaurateurs coming to Washington D.C. and wondered if the next export from Philadelphia might be the Liberty Bell itself. The Post chronicled the southerly march of Philadelphia’s culinary elites like Stephen Starr, Jose Garces, Todd Carmichael and Marc Vetri, as well as the fast casual concepts like Honeygrow and HipCityVeg. Six concepts originating in Philadelphia are on the drawing board for D.C. Those will join seven Philadelphia businesses that have already landed in the nation’s capital. And then there are the future hopes of the likes of Starr, who says he’s close to nailing down two more spots and Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby (Vedge, V Street) who are actively looking for a D.C. location.

Among the reasons Philadelphia restaurants are considering D.C., proximity, demographics and it isn’t New York, which is seen as a daunting place to open and operate.

Philadelphia restaurateurs are heading to New York as well.

That isn’t to say that Philadelphia restaurants aren’t heading up I-95 to New York. In our interactive chart of Philadelphia’s Culinary Exports we count six concepts on the drawing board and that’s not even counting Jose Garces’ just opened Amada NYC.

And then there’s La Colombe’s Los Angeles expansion push, plus Table 95’s (Pennsylvania 6, Public House) City Tap House in Boston.

Check out our interactive chart and see where Philadelphia’s culinary strengths are headed next.

Philadelphia’s Culinary Exports [Foobooz]