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Table Talk | BYO Javier joins growing restaurant group

Robert Sanabria is a man on the move. The Bolivian-born restaurateur - who founded the popular Word of Mouth in Collingswood - last week opened Javier, a high-style Continental BYO, at 208 Kings Highway East in Haddonfield (856-428-4220).

Waiter George Fox prepares for the opening of Javier in Haddonfield, the latest eatery from Robert Sanabria.
Waiter George Fox prepares for the opening of Javier in Haddonfield, the latest eatery from Robert Sanabria.Read moreAKIRA SUWA / Inquirer Staff Photographer

Robert Sanabria is a man on the move. The Bolivian-born restaurateur - who founded the popular Word of Mouth in Collingswood - last week opened

Javier

, a high-style Continental BYO, at 208 Kings Highway East in Haddonfield (856-428-4220).

Sanabria also is developing a second Word of Mouth on Broadway in Pitman, which he hopes to open in late January. He said he's also planning a third, in Moorestown. (Salabria and his wife, Elizabeth, made their mark at Food for Thought in Marlton, which they created in the mid-1990s and later sold.)

At Javier, chef Kenneth Merk said that he and partner Scott Allen are doing "flavors people understand." Merk, a South Jerseyan who trained in Italy and south Florida, described one dish as a Yukon gold potato-wrapped tuna ($30), presented vertically on spinach and roasted tomatoes. Desserts are made in-house.

Entrees on the dinner menu range from $20 to $30, while lunches are $8 to $22; it's open Tuesdays through Sundays.

What's coming

Wednesday is the expected first night of

Bindi

, the Indian BYO at 105 S. 13th St. owned by Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran of Lolita.

Dec. 15 marks the projected opening of the long-delayed

Swallow

at 1030 N. American St. in the Liberties Walk development in Northern Liberties. The Euro BYO bistro with bold decor is a husband-and-wife project of the much-traveled Jason and Cindy Caminos, most recently in D.C. The name - arguably the silliest attempt at double-entendre since the Smoked Joint - refers to a bird.

Alison Barshak of

Alison at Blue Bell

is building a second, so-far-unnamed restaurant, at the site of the long-closed Marita's Cantina at 424 S. Bethlehem Pike in Fort Washington. Concept: What she does now (new American), but "we'll be able to stretch more," she says. The new place will have a bar, wine lockers, private dining and 100 seats, which means walk-ins will be easier to accommodate than at Alison at Blue Bell. And credit cards will be accepted. Barshak is blogging the progress of the new restaurant at

» READ MORE: http://alisonatbluebell.wordpress.com

, much as The Inquirer is chronicling the construction of the Society Hill restaurant Zahav (

» READ MORE: http://go.philly.com/zahav

).

Inflation

The tab for the Center City District's Restaurant Week, formerly $30, will be $35 a head for the winter edition, Jan. 27 to Feb. 1. This deal still can be a bargain, as the gross price of a three- or four-course meal at many of the participating restaurants tops $35. (Remember that beverages, tax and tip are extra.) The CCD has posted the list at

» READ MORE: www.centercityphila.org/restaurantweek

.