Two childhood friends grew up to become top chefs. Now, they’re opening a ‘punk French’ restaurant together in Manayunk

After nearly four decades of friendship and two careers that took them in different directions, chefs Arthur Cavaliere and Justin Bogle are working together.

The Roxborough natives and best friends since third grade, both 45, have signed a lease for the former Winnie’s Manayunk space on Main Street near Roxborough Avenue, where they plan to open a new restaurant in late fall. Though they are keeping most details, including the name, under wraps, they describe the project cryptically as a “punk French” restaurant inspired by the neighborhood that helped shaped them.

For both, the restaurant represents the fulfillment of a dream they have shared since they first started cooking together as teenagers.

“Artie and I have been best friends since grade school,” Bogle said. “We always had this vision, this pipe dream, that someday we would join forces and do something together.”

The two met at Shawmont Elementary in Roxborough and got their start in the late 1990s working for chef Derek Davis at his string of restaurants then on Main Street. Their careers soon diverged.

Cavaliere is a longtime consulting chef. Among the gems he created was the shatteringly crispy chicken at the former Bar Poulet at 20th and Walnut Streets. He came up through Philadelphia kitchens including El Vez and Parc, where he was executive chef, and headed to chef Michel Richard’s orbit in Washington, D.C., before opening In Riva, Black Squirrel Pub & Haunt, and Foghorn in East Falls. He left that partnership last year.

Bogle, who attended Walnut Hill College, cooked at Striped Bass and Alma de Cuba before heading to New York, where he became one of the youngest American chefs to lead a two-Michelin-starred restaurant at Gilt. In 2013, he returned to Philadelphia to open Avance — the successor to Le Bec-Fin — and after its 2014 closing joined Garces Group as corporate executive chef. He later returned to New York, where he spent years with Union Square Hospitality Group, most recently as executive chef of Manhatta.

Family drew him home after nearly two decades in New York.

“I knew I needed to give my kids a backyard,” Bogle said. “Raising three kids in a two-bedroom apartment wasn’t the goal for me.”

He left Manhatta last spring, relocated his family to the area last August, and immediately resumed planning with Cavaliere. They spent the past year evaluating Main Street locations before settling on the former Winnie’s, which closed last November.

“When the right space presented itself, it was a no-brainer,” Bogle said.

The partners are keeping quiet about the menu, name, and design while they refine the concept. Bogle will oversee the kitchen and said the long-term plan extends beyond a single restaurant. “We have goals and aspirations to do more than just this,” he said.

If construction and permitting stay on schedule, they hope to open in November. If delays push the project into December, they are likely to wait until after the new year.

Cavaliere said the concept is rooted in “friendship, memory, and the neighborhood that raised” them.

“Their decision to invest in Manayunk is another testament to the strength of the neighborhood and the continued momentum of its dining scene,” said Veronica Blum of MPN Realty, who brokered the lease with Alex Charen. “It’s especially rewarding to help bring operators of this caliber to a community that values independent concepts.”

For Bogle, returning to Main Street with the friend he has known since childhood carries a significance beyond opening another restaurant.

“For us to come back to where it all started, plant our roots there, and have some fun — it has been a goal for a long time,” he said. “We’re just really excited about the opportunity.”