Starr, Olexy team up in Washington Sq.

Restaurateur Stephen Starr and Talula's Table owner Aimee Olexy say they will open a restaurant in his Washington Square space at 210 W. Washington Square.

Neither the name nor a firm concept has been determined. The opening is projected for the spring. Olexy and her then-husband, Bryan Sikora, worked for Starr before they burst onto the BYOB scene in 2001 with Django, which they sold in 2005. She was general manager of Pod and Blue Angel, and briefly was director of Starr restaurants. He was chef at Tangerine and Continental.

Since the couple's divorce, Olexy operates Talula's Table, a market in Kennett Square whose farmhouse table is booked a year in advance for dinners. Olexy says she will keep Talula's Table.

Olexy said she likes Washington Square's outside garden and the dining room's openness. The space has been lightly used in the three years since the namesake restaurant closed. It has hosted private events, including "pop-up" restaurants last summer with guest chefs. Olexy and staff set one up in late June and early July.

Two years in the making, the Main Line branch of White Dog Cafe (200 W. Lancaster Ave., Wayne, 610-225-3701) is less than a week old, serving lunch and dinner daily. The fare from chef Zach Grainda (who cooked at co-owner Marty Grims' Long Beach Island restaurant Daddy O's) hews to founder Judy Wicks' locavore/sustainable playbook. Dinner entrees range from $15 for a Cheddar burger to $44 for a 14-ounce rib eye. The handsome rooms - all boasting packs of dog pictures - range from Radnor Hunt to Pottery Barn. In one dining room, books are whimsically suspended from the ceiling.

After eight years, chef Jim Coleman has left Normandy Farm Hotel & Conference Center in Blue Bell, and its namesake Coleman restaurant, to become exec chef at World Cafe Live in University City and, by next spring, also in Wilmington. But Coleman without Coleman? Normandy Farm is making it over as the Farmer's Daughter. The new operation under chef Corey Fair, currently the property's food and beverage director, will emphasize local ingredients and will have a 2,100-square-foot bar with 90 seats. Though official opening is in February, it is operating during the transition.

Old City's Khyber (56 S. Second St.) has taken its old name, Khyber Pass Pub, as it reopens today after a sprucing-up. Chef Mark McKinney's Southern-influenced pub menu is abetted by a 20-tap beer system and many bottles.

Mark Coates, who several months ago closed Bebe's BBQ in the Italian Market, is now chef at Fergie's Pub (1214 Sansom St.), where he has set up a smoker.