Emilia will be chef Greg Vernick’s new restaurant, opening soon in Kensington

With two acclaimed restaurants and a high-end coffee bar in Center City, chef Greg Vernick wasn’t looking to expand two years ago when a close friend introduced him to developers working in the Fishtown-Kensington corridor.

They had a mixed-use building going up on Frankford Avenue, just north of the York Street roundabout. Vernick walked the neighborhood. “It reminded me of the East Village — a place you want to hang out at night, but also a real community,” he said. Still, Vernick was not entirely sold on the project until he and his wife, Julie, started spending more time nearby, dining at Fiore across the street and around the corner at Picnic and Zig Zag BBQ.

The developers — Henry Siebert, Ryan Kalili, and Michael Dinan, all Vernick regulars — were keen on having an Italian restaurant in the building, at 2406 Frankford Ave. Vernick’s thoughts naturally turned to Meredith Medoway, the longtime chef de cuisine at his Vernick Food & Drink on Walnut Street. “Her heart has always been in pasta and Italian food,” Vernick said. “She took our pasta program from really good to great. So I started thinking: This could be the right person.”

They’ve targeted “early 2026” for Emilia, a neighborhood trattoria featuring a seasonally flexible menu built around house-made pasta and live-fire cooking. (Vernick’s connection to the project has not previously been made public, and the restaurant’s name, recently set into tiles at the entrance, has been a subject of speculation on community Facebook groups.)

Canno Design’s Carey Jackson Yonce, who worked on Emilia with California-based designer Bob Bronstein, said they were going for “calmness, cleanliness, and contrast,” using contrasting materials, such as cinderblock on the bar’s front, spruce slats lining the ceiling, and oak panels on the walls. (During a visit last week, Vernick declined a request to photograph the space, as it was not completed.)

“I wanted it to feel like the kind of place where you walk in and exhale and relax,” Vernick said. “Industry-friendly, not precious. We want to hit two markets from day one: the neighborhood and the industry. If you get those right, everything else falls into place.”

There will be seating for about 60 in the dining room, with 20 additional seats in a lounge area and 10 at the bar. The bar and lounge are intended for walk-ins, while the main dining room will lean more heavily on reservations.

The 33-year-old Medoway — a Cherry Hill native like Vernick, who is 45 — studied political science at American University in Washington, D.C.

During one college summer, she worked at Hinge Café in Port Richmond and fell in love with cooking. She interned at Vernick Food & Drink, stayed on, worked every station, and moved to Hearthside in Collingswood for its 2017 opening. She spent three months cooking in Calabria, and flew back to the United States to work at Vernick Fish at its opening in 2019. She returned to Vernick Food & Drink in 2021.

At Emilia — a purely made-up name (Vernick said he was tired of putting his own name on restaurants) — Medoway will work on a 48-inch grill fueled by charcoal and oak. The menu is intentionally restrained: about six small plates, six pastas, and six large dishes, supplemented by nightly specials.

Medoway said the pasta dishes are rooted in personal experience rather than strict regional rules. One anchor will be tortellini in brodo, based on a handwritten family recipe she received while staying in Emilia-Romagna. Another is what they’re calling chicken ragù bianco — a white ragù made with hand-cut chicken and offal — inspired by a staff meal that they ate at the American Academy in Rome during a tour of Italy.

“It was the best pasta we had on that trip,” Vernick said. “Simple, balanced, and deeply satisfying.”

Elsewhere, the menu leans toward lighter preparations and Vernick’s bold style, with brothy sauces, acidity, and restrained use of fat rather than heavy butter-and-cheese finishes. Subtle char from the grill will appear throughout the menu, even in dishes that do not come directly off the fire. Proteins include rabbit prepared in cacciatore style with orange, rotating fish dishes, shellfish stew, and a nightly steak special.

Bread service will be complimentary: house-made focaccia, the imported Italian breadsticks known as grissini, and Mighty Bread’s sesame ciabatta. A separate bread course, the crunchy carta da musica, will be offered as a menu item.

“We want the neighborhood to feel like this is their place,” Medoway said. “You shouldn’t need a reservation just to come in for a drink and a snack.”

The wine list will focus exclusively on Italian bottles. The cocktail program is still being finalized but is expected to emphasize lighter, simpler drinks.

Emilia is expected to employ between 40 and 50 people. Vernick said opening a restaurant today requires tighter menus and less waste than a decade ago, but also greater attention to staff experience — from locker rooms to staff meals — as an essential part of operations.

“We’re building this deliberately,” Vernick said. “It’s taken time — but that’s the point.”