After Just Months, George Sabatino Takes Over at Delco’s Rosemary

Philadelphia chef George Sabatino, who just replaced Elijah Milligan at Delco hot spot Rosemary in Ridley / Photograph by Cheryl Betances Photography

Philadelphia chef George Sabatino has worked in his share of Philadelphia restaurants, from Barbuzzo to Stateside to Fork to Monk’s. I could go on. But now he’s doing something he’d never done before: Cooking in the suburbs.

Sabatino, whom Philly Mag named Best Chef in the 2012 edition of Best of Philly, just landed at Rosemary. That’s the popular Delco restaurant that opened in Ridley in June. Sabatino replaces veteran Philadelphia chef and frequent TV Food Network face Elijah Milligan, who tells me that he has “a few things in the works,” including some unspecified Delco project.

The Rosemary chef job came Sabatino’s way because he’s known Rosemary owner Philip Breen, a Stephen Starr alum, for a while. Sabatino says Breen actually asked him about coming to Rosemary long before the restaurant opened. But Sabatino wasn’t quite ready to leave his position as one of two culinary directors for Val Safran and Marcie Turney’s restaurants.

And even when this latest opportunity came up at Rosemary, Sabatino wasn’t sure at first. “I don’t even think I had ever been to Delco,” says the 42-year-old Washington Square West resident. “And there was another problem, as I told Philip. I didn’t have a car. He said, ‘I think I can help you with that.'”

Sabatino says that coming to Rosemary is a real learning experience for him. That’s because while he’s worked in and opened his fair share of restaurants, this is the first time he’s taken an executive chef position without bringing some of his own people with him.

“I walked in and didn’t know a single person who worked here,” he explains. “And I don’t know the suburbs at all. So this is much, much different for me. I’m talking a crawl before I walk type of approach.”

Only a few weeks into the job, Sabatino says he hasn’t completely upturned the menu yet. He expects that diners will be seeing more drastic changes by April. Some completely new items he says he’s happy with include smaller plates, like a lump crab toast, made with housemade milk bread, fingerling potato chips, and trout roe, and a combination of pork belly and sweet potatoes with a chili glaze, cilantro, and roasted peanuts.

Rosemary will continue to do four housemade pastas, he promises. Two extruded, two handmade. The kitchen will still bake breads daily, including that milk bread for the crab toast. And he says that, while he realizes this is not just the suburbs but Delco and that “fancy shit might not work,” he still wants to “do interesting things, but with a bit of humility.” And yes, there will still be a burger on the menu.