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Chef's Table leaves South St. for new catering facility

The catering company is now in larger quarters in Grays Ferry.

Chef’s Table’s former home at 231 South St.
Chef’s Table’s former home at 231 South St.Read moreGOOGLE

Chef's Table, a presence on South Street for 34 years, has cleared out of its Abbotts Square home in favor of a new catering facility in Grays Ferry.

No hard feelings, said George Georgiou, who opened the business at 231 South St. with partner Ed Barranco in the mid-1980s. Back then, it was known as Chef's Market, an early player in the gourmet-grocery game — well ahead of the Whole Foodses of the world.

As business evolved and the company moved more solidly into off-premises catering, the market closed in February 2009 and the partners surrendered two-thirds of their space. Chef's Table maintained its street presence, but otherwise did not serve retail.

"South Street was really good to us," Georgiou said. "We thought it would be best to make an investment in a bigger facility."

Georgiou said Chef's Table now operates out of 18,600 square feet of space at 2900 Grays Ferry Ave., in a former postal distribution center just off the Schuylkill Expressway. It was a $1.5 million investment, he said.

Georgiou said the plan is to build the business until he and Barranco retire, enabling Georgiou's two sons to continue.