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Early look at Fabrika, a ‘modern cabaret’ coming to Fishtown with food from Kanella’s Konstantinos Pitsillides

The vast space, ringed by a balcony on the mezzanine, will feature a dining room dominated by a stage and chandeliers that will rise and fall to floor level.

Fabrika in Fishtown under construction. The stage at center will rise and descend. Balconies ring the dining room.
Fabrika in Fishtown under construction. The stage at center will rise and descend. Balconies ring the dining room.Read moreMICHAEL KLEIN / Staff

A former ice cream equipment factory in Fishtown will be the home of what a group of entrepreneurs is calling a swank modern-day cabaret with variety-show entertainment — jugglers, singers, contortionists, what have you — accompanying food and drinks.

Fabrika, in the works for more than a year, is coming together at 1108 Frankford Ave., next to Barcade and up the street from the Fillmore. It is penciled in for a December opening, and a chef already is on board: Konstantinos Pitsillides, the Cypriot-born owner of Kanella Grill at 10th and Spruce Streets.

Pitsillides plans a mezze-style Mediterranean menu that will be rooted in the Levant. The flavors also hark to the native cuisines of Fabrika’s owners, Ylia Dzieri, Lasha Kikvidze, Alex Gritsyuk, and Boris Khanataev, in the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Azerbaijan. Gritsyuk owns Golden Gates restaurant in Northeast Philadelphia.

It’s a vast space, ringed by a balcony on the mezzanine. The entryway, which will feature dramatic, fish-theme metal sculptures and a grand piano, will lead into a dining room dominated by a stage and chandeliers that will rise and fall to floor level, depending on need.

The venue features two floors, three bars, and a VIP viewing area on the mezzanine. There will be private and semiprivate dining and viewing areas.

Fabrika will be open Tuesdays through Sundays for walk-in and reserved dinner and variety-show style entertainment, and available for private events for over 550 people. Parking will be available at a lot next door.