Table Talk: 'Twelves Grill'? Owners count the whys
You've heard dozens of stories about the naming of restaurants. Take the one behind the quaint Twelves Grill & Cafe, which just opened in a former bank building west of Kennett Square (10 Exchange Place, West Grove, 610-869-4020).
You've heard dozens of stories about the naming of restaurants. Take the one behind the quaint
Twelves Grill & Cafe
, which just opened in a former bank building west of Kennett Square (10 Exchange Place, West Grove, 610-869-4020).
Owners Tim and Kristin Smith went out on their first date on Nov. 12. Tim's birthday is Jan. 12. Kristin's birthday is Feb. 12. They were married Nov. 12, 2004.
Tim Smith, an Art Institute of Philadelphia grad, was last chef/general manager at the Back Burner in Delaware after stints at the Farmhouse and Dilworthtown Inn. Kristin Smith, running the front of the house, is a vet of Buckley's Tavern, Chadds Ford Inn, and Simon Pearce.
It's a BYO, open for lunch and dinner Tuesdays through Saturdays, with a new-American menu featuring locally sourced and organic ingredients. There's also a coffee bar. A kid's menu, including ants on a log, is offered at lunch. Figure on $6 to $14 to for lunch entrees/sandwiches, and $17 (chicken) to $26 (lamb chops) for dinner entrees. Menu is at www.twelvesgrill.com.
A look at openings
The stock market is tanking and existing restaurants are feeling the pinch of higher prices and diminished customer counts. Yet the openings keep coming - for now, anyway. A peek at projects in the works for next year shows comparatively few big-budget operations.
Here are a few September-October openings:
Melograno should be open right about now in its new location at 2012 Sansom St.
Mix, the salad/brick-oven pizzeria/bar at the RiverWest condos (21st and Chestnut Streets, is due to open today.
H.I. Rib & Co., the casual American, is due to open in the former Lone Star at 505 W. Ridge Pike in Conshohocken on Monday.
El Fuego's second location, at 2104 Chestnut St., is up for Monday.
Lucky 13, a pub/hangout filling the spot that was Vincenzo's at 1820 S. 13th St., should be open within two weeks. Owner Clark Newman, a longtime barkeep, is working with chef Benjamin Johnson, last at the Plough & the Stars.
Joe's Peking Duck has a Sept. 28 date for 108 Chestnut St.
Izumi, the Japanese BYO at 1601 E. Passyunk Ave. from Lynn Rinaldi of the nearby Paradiso's, is looking at the last week of September.
Mémé, the rustic American from chef David Katz at 2201 Spruce St., is due Sept. 27-ish.
El Camino Real, the "Mexican border bar" from Owen Kamihira at 1040 N. Second St. in Northern Liberties, is hoping for late September, as are Earth Bread + Brewery, the brewpub at 7136 Germantown Ave., and Fiesta Acapulco, the Mexican seafood BYO from South Philly's La Lupe, at 1122 S. Ninth St.
Alison Barshak is playing the public opening of Alison two (424 S. Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington) very close to the apron. It's basically finished, but she's about to do friends-and-family meals so kinks can be worked out before the credit cards come out.
Three big-budget, big-ticket steak houses: Union Trust at 717-719 Chestnut St. (mid-October), Del Frisco's Double Eagle at 15th and Chestnut Streets (mid-November), and Stephen Starr's Butcher & Singer at 15th and Walnut Streets (third week in November).
Also worth noting is the restaurant ramp-up at Commerce Square, on Market Street between 20th and 21st Streets. Du Jour Market & Cafe, which just opened a spot in the Symphony House at Broad and Pine Streets, will take over the Saladworks space closer to Market Street by the end of the year. Du Jour's Marty Grims also will take the former Twenty21 space in one rear corner to turn it into a yet-to-be named Asian-inspired sit-downer designed by Jeffrey Beers International. Grims said that won't open till well into next year. Pagano's Market wants to open in mid-November in the other corner space that was Marathon Grill.
Briefly noted
Rittenhouse Square's
Caffe Casta Diva
(227 S. 20th St.) should be running again after a dramatic renovation that's updated the early-20th-century opera-house imagery and doubled the seating.
While the Four Seasons' Swann Lounge & Café is being renovated (completion projected for Sept. 26), lunch, dinner, cocktails and Sunday brunch will be served on the Swann Terrace (weather permitting) and in the lobby area. Afternoon tea will be served in the Fountain Restaurant.
The Mainland Inn in central Montgomery County has opened an outdoor terrace, which it hopes to keep open into November thanks to gas heaters.
Parc on Rittenhouse Square has opened for breakfast, 7:30 to 11 a.m. weekdays.