CookNSolo Set to Open Jaffa Bar in Kensington … Tonight!

Inside Jaffa Bar / Photograph by Michael Persico

Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome back to the weekly Foobooz food news round-up. We’ve just got a few quick things to get to this week, including (but not limited to) an opening for Jaffa Bar, staffing changes at Rex and Wilder, some excellent Día de los Muertos events, an opening-day dumpling postponement, and a mead dinner at Little Walter’s. But let’s kick things off this week with this …

Jaffa Bar Is Opening Tonight

Yup, that’s right. CooknSolo announced a few months back that they were going to be opening a 120-seat oyster bar in an old firehouse this fall, and that’s exactly what they’ve done. They announced the opening on Instagram over the weekend, and come 5 p.m. tonight, they’ll officially be open to the public at 1625 North Howard Street in Kensington.

I told you everything I knew about the place back in mid-July:

“The set-up is a 5,000-square-foot 19th-century Revival-style brick firehouse (with a giant fire tower intact) planted right in that weird little triangle where Cecil B. Moore, Turner, and North Howard Streets all come together — just a block from Goldie and Kalaya, two from Suraya, and four from Laser Wolf (which I think now officially makes this micro-neighborhood a new hotspot for Philly’s food scene). What it will become is a two-story, 120-seat oyster bar inspired by (and named after) the Israeli port city famous for its oranges.”

And that’s what we’re still looking at for tonight. They’ve got the restaurant’s logo painted on the side of the aforementioned tower, and reservations are being taken as we speak — although they’re also welcoming walk-ins. The menu is full of oysters with passion fruit mignonette, mussels escabeche, scallops, and merguez sausage with harissa, and Yemenite-style monkfish. At the bar? Riffs on the ’80s mall classic: the Orange Julius. It looks like it’s gonna be a good time.

The Noble Goat Opens in Downingtown

Photograph courtesy of Noble Goat

It has been a long time since chef Bryan Sikora’s name graced the digital pages of Foobooz. But late last week, as I was scrolling through my inbox, I saw his name pop up in reference to a new restaurant opening in Downingtown, and I thought to myself, Holy shit, how long has it been since I saw THAT name in the news?

So I checked.

I went back through my archived mail, and other than a couple pop-ups a few years ago and a note from someone asking me Whatever happened to Bryan Sikora?, the last email I got about him was in 2014. And that was from Trey Popp (our critic at the time), telling me that he’d just been to a.kitchen for a revisit, and it was the best meal he’d had since the opening of Laurel a year earlier.

Ten years, basically. That’s how long Sikora has been gone from the local scene. Back in the day, he was one of the bright lights of the city’s booming food scene. He opened Django in 2001 with then-wife Aimee Olexy. Together, the two of them then opened Talula’s Table in Kennett Square, which, for a while, held the distinction of being one of the toughest reservations in the entire country (largely because there’s basically one big table with 12 seats, and it used to be solely booked out for single parties a year in advance).

But Sikora and Olexy divorced. Sikora moved on. He came back to Philly a few years later as exec chef at a.kitchen (where Trey found him one night), then basically lit Wilmington, Delaware, on fire with his wife, Andrea, opening three restaurants in succession: La Fia, Merchant Bar, and Crow Bar. In 2017, he came back to Kennett Square to open Hearth Kitchen, which is as close to the city as he’d come since bailing out of Talula’s Table.

But last Friday, Bryan and Andrea opened The Noble Goat at 200 River Station Boulevard in Downingtown — a contemporary European dining room with seating for 60, a globally-inspired menu, plus hearth-baked pizzas. We’re talking chicken liver parfait with brandy-soaked cherries, curried lamb empanadas, grilled shrimp rubbed with ras el hanout and served with toasted chickpeas dusted with cumin, a Wagyu cheeseburger, maitake mushroom confit with truffle-cured egg yolk, jars of pickled beets, fried chicken, ricotta gnocchi, short rib mole, and prosciutto-pear pizzas. So yeah, something for everyone. Literally.

Thing is, I’m kinda fascinated to see what Bryan and his crew do with this. It’s a big menu that, obviously, casts a wide net. The restaurant appears to be right in the middle of a new apartment complex just off Brandywine Avenue, so it kinda comes with its own half-captive audience. But he is a wickedly talented chef who has proven himself time and again in unusual situations. If this project were being done by someone with a less-lauded name, I might write it off as just another catch-all suburban operation designed to be as approachably inoffensive as possible to the maximum number of local customers until someone told me otherwise. But I’d be an idiot to ignore the kind of weight the Sikoras are bringing to the neighborhood.

Plus, I kinda feel like Downingtown is having a moment. Or trying to. After all, this is where chef Andrew Hufnagel made me fall in love with strip mall French food served next door to a drive-thru taco restaurant. I loved De La Terre, and that lived right around the corner from where the Noble Goat is now operating. (Right up until it closed a few weeks ago.)

Anyway, the Noble Goat is running as a BYOB temporarily (until they get their liquor license in order), but the kitchen is up and running and the bar is serving zero-proof cocktails if you forget to bring a bottle of the good stuff. I know I’ll be checking the place out soon. And I think you should probably give it a try, too.

Now what’s next?

Two Big Names, Two New Chefs

Photograph courtesy of Rex at the Royal

We’ve got two restaurants announcing some staffing changes at the top of the ticket this week.

First, Rex at the Royal has announced that chef Angie Brown (best known for her namesake restaurant in Mount Airy) is taking over as culinary director. Brown’s specialty is Southern coastal seafood and Creole cooking, so Rex (which is already a Southern restaurant) won’t be changing dramatically. But the addition of some Louisiana vibes to the board? No one’s gonna complain about that.

The menu will be hers starting October 30th, and she’ll be adding locally sourced seafood gumbo, fried chicken on the weekends with collard greens, potato salad and cornbread, sweet potato soufflé, jambalaya, and scallops over fried tomatoes (which I think I last saw on a menu at Galatoire’s in New Orleans), garnished with jicama, andouille, and red peppers. So call it Southern-inspired and Creole-inflected, I guess. In any case, it’ll be interesting to see how Brown shakes things up at Rex.

Burrata and figs with pecan crumble / Photograph courtesy of Wilder

Meanwhile, over at Wilder, husband-and-wife owners Brett Naylor and Nicole Barrick have named chef Ryan LaFrance as the new exec at their Rittenhouse restaurant. And this is interesting because LaFrance is coming to Wilder from Southwark and Ambra. And being in the kitchen at Ambra? That’s no small thing.

And if he can bring a little bit of that tasting menu magic to Rittenhouse, then this could be huge. He’s already rolling out new dishes, and his full menu should be in place by the end of the month, but I’m already looking at things like rigatoni cacciatore with escargot, roasted mushrooms, and local tomatoes; braised lamb shoulder with eggplant and raddichio caponata, pine nuts and olives; or his small plate of burrata and figs with pecan crumble, and thinking that I’ve gotta see what else he might have in store.

It’ll be a couple weeks yet before LaFrance has the menu just the way he wants it, but I’m not sure I want to wait. I mean, seriously? Just look at that burrata plate. And he’s got a pizza on the board right now that looks pretty good, too. So I guess we’ll just have to see what happens …

Anyway, whose got room for some leftovers?

The Leftovers

Taquiza de cabeza at Cantina la Martina / Photograph by PJ Agbay

You guys wanna eat a whole cow’s head?

Because you can. For $350 (and provided you pre-order before October 31st), Dionicio Jiménez and his crew at Cantina La Martina will prep an entire cow’s head for you and five friends for their Día de los Muertos party on November 2nd. The “taquiza de cabeza” comes with consommé, garnishes for tacos, rice and beans, grilled cactus salad, salsa, and handmade corn tortillas. And, of course, the entire cow’s head.

The regular menu is less pricey but just as interesting. They’ve got à la carte alligator barbacoa, snake chorizo nachos (also: regular nachos), eight kinds of tacos (including cabeza tacos if you don’t have three-and-a-half bills to throw down for the whole head), fried quesadillas with calf brains, and three kinds of tamales. The party starts at 1 p.m. and runs until 11 p.m. on Saturday, November 2nd. They’ve got activities planned all day long, plus guests are welcome to bring framed pictures of friends and family members that they’d like to be remembered to add to the restaurant’s ofrenda.

If you’re not pre-ordering a cow’s head, there’s no reservation required. Just show up, hang out, and celebrate with the community.

Speaking of Día de los Muertos, they’ll be celebrating all along 9th Street on November 2nd, from Federal Street to Christian Street, starting at 11 a.m. The event is to “honor and remember our dearly departed while showcasing the rich cultural tapestry of our Mexican community.” As such, there’ll be a community altar at 9th and Washington, family activities, food and drinks from local vendors, and live performances throughout the day. All the information you need can be found right here.

Last week, I told you about the scheduled grand opening of the new Sansom Street location of Brooklyn Dumpling Shop. It was supposed to happen this week, on October 24th. But here’s the thing: That’s no longer happening. Due to “unforeseen inspection delays,” the opening has now been postponed until Wednesday, November 6th. Adjust your dumpling consumption calendars accordingly.

Also, remember a few weeks back when I told you about Noelle Blizzard from New June Bakery, the online cake studio and private micro-bakery currently prepping to open its first storefront bakery at 2623 West Girard Avenue in Brewerytown this fall? Well, guess who just got a nice, big write-up in Food & Wine magazine?

I missed the piece when it first came out, but a couple weeks ago there was a nice profile of Blizzard, along with some really beautiful pictures of some of her cakes. That’s a pretty big deal for a bakery that doesn’t even technically have a location yet.

In what seems to be a nearly weekly occurrence now, there’s another hot chicken operation having a grand opening party this Friday. Nanu’s Hot Chicken will be opening its newest location at 6151 Ridge Avenue in Roxborough on October 5th, and they’re celebrating by giving away free chicken sandwiches to literally EVERYONE who shows up between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Five-hundred people? They can handle it. 600? 700? Nanu’s says they’re ready. And while this obviously has the potential for disaster written all over it, it should still be a sight to see. So if you happen to be in Roxborough on Friday and are willing to wait in line for some free chicken, check it out. I’ll be somewhere nowhere near Ridge Avenue, but you feel free to let me know how it goes.

Finally Little Walter’s is having their first collab dinner on Monday, November 4th. Chef Michael Brenfleck and his crew are teaming up with nanobrewery My Local Brew Works for an “Obiad z Miodem” dinner featuring hyper-seasonal Polish food paired with custom-fermented mead. It’s five courses with five custom-brewed meads, and the paired menu looks something like this:

Honestly, they had me at charcuterie and black cherry honey wine, but that sweet potato water ice with ginger snaps? That sounds like just my speed — and plenty weird enough to get me through the door.

A pair of tickets will run you $250, and there are two seatings available: one at 5:30 p.m. and another at 8 p.m. If you’re down, I would make your reservation now. Something tells me these things are going to sell out pretty quick.