New Pop-Up Restaurant Space, EAT, Is Ready To Open

Chef Nick Farina (of Verdad and Union Taco), is opening a new pop-up restaurant space at his old Union Taco location on Girard, called EAT.

EAT will showcase the work of four to six chefs every month. Each chef will prepare his or her own multi-course menu, which will be offered for $60 per person, including tax and gratuity. It’s basically a dedicated pop-up space, made for chefs who want to show off, test menus, work on new concepts or just have a good time.

Farina wants the restaurant to be a unique and fun dining experience to showcase up-and-coming chefs in the Delaware Valley area.

“A lot of it comes back from when I was a young chef and I had all of these ideas about stuff that I thought would be great,” Farina said. “I thought it’d be neat to give young and upcoming chefs the chance to show what they have to offer and for the kitchen to become a melting pot of ideas.”

Along with established chefs, Farina also wants to eventually rent out the space to individuals who want to show off their cooking skills for a group of friends or family, as well as host playful cooking competitions between both chefs and non-chefs. “It’s more of a project of passion for me. It’s not a business model,” Farina said.

The 25-seat restaurant will host its first pop-up this Thursday, March 5, featuring chef Steve Latona of Smoke Kitchen. Before owning Smoke Kitchen, Latona worked as sous chef and executive chefs around Philadelphia, at restaurants like the Happy Rooster and Striped Bass.

Latona’s four-course menu will be:

Pickles and Country Biscuits with Orange Wildflower Honey Butter

Brined and Seared Smoked Trout with brussels sprouts, bacon apples and a balsamic vinaigrette

Smoke Kitchen Chicken with preserved lemon garlic compote, arugula puree, roasted fingerling potatoes with schmaltz

Arborio Rice Pudding with brandied golden raisins

You can purchase tickets for this dinner here, but hurry, because only 24 tickets will be sold to each event. If you can’t make it to this one, check out EAT’s line-up for March:

• March 11: Trevor Ford, sous chef of Farina’s restaurant, Verdad
• March 12: Christina Martin, culinary instructor/pastry chef
• March 18: Noelle DeHarpporte, previously of Feastly in DC, and Greg Stein
• March 26: Vince Markol, another sous chef visiting from out of town

EAT Restaurant [Official]