Kensington Quarters: It's a meat market in there
It's a bar/restaurant with a butcher counter and classroom built in. Stop in for a drink at the 15-seat soapstone-topped bar while ordering a roast from the butcher shop just a step away.
There's some serious artisan work happening on Frankford Avenue in Fishtown right now, what with the rum, breads and coffee at the new La Colombe Torrefaction flagship.
Head across the street, where restaurateur Michael Pasquarello and butcher Bryan Mayer are opening Kensington Quarters (1310 Frankford Ave., 267-314-5086).
It's a bar/restaurant with a butcher counter and classroom built in. Stop in for a drink at the 15-seat soapstone-topped bar while ordering a roast from the butcher shop just a step away.
Mayer, one of the godfathers of the new generation of butchers, ran the show at Fleisher's Grass-Fed & Organic Meats in upstate New York and Brooklyn. A chance meeting with Pasquarello - who with his wife, Jeniphur, owns Cafe Lift, Prohibition Taproom and Bufad, all in the Loft District - led him, his wife and daughter to Philadelphia. (His in-laws live in Bucks County, so he's not a total Ausländer.)
Chef Damon Menapace, an Alla Spina alum, has a walk-in cooler's full of inspiration, as well as other fresh products from local growers. He has wood-burning grills and a brick oven at his disposal.
The opening menu - available Wednesday, Oct. 29 - includes pork shoulder ($26), hake ($25), chicken roulade ($25) and smoked sausage ($24) as entrees. Small plates include beef heart, mussels, rare beef, maitake mushroom, pork and liver terrine, and lamb sausage, with ravioli, spelt and bacon, carrot and radish salad and lasagna as sides.
Kensington Quarters' 20-tap system has 12 beers and 8 wines. A bottle list of 20 to 25 selections, plus a reserve list of cellared wines and beers, will also be available. Cocktails will be made using non-GMO-based cordials and will range in price from $10 to $15.
They've cut into the old structure, punching skylights and working with most of the building's bones, including brick and vaulted ceilings. They stripped it down and added cedar beams and white subway tiling with black grout. The main dining area is in the back, on spalted wood tables. There's also a back patio.
In January, Mayer says he will launch a butchering classroom and private event space on the second floor, which has its own bar.
Kensington Quarters is open for dinner daily, while the butcher shop will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. and Sunday until 6 p.m.