Chef Nick Elmi leaves Royal Boucherie to focus on his other restaurants

Chef Nick Elmi, who helped create Royal Boucherie in Old City four years ago, has resigned to devote more time to his South Philadelphia restaurants, Laurel and In the Valley, as well as his two forthcoming restaurants opening this spring in Bala Cynwyd, The Landing Kitchen and Lark.

Royal Boucherie’s new chef is the well-seasoned Matt Buehler, who spent nearly five years in Marc Vetri’s orbit, who was executive chef of the flagship Vetri Cucina before he left in April 2020 after helping Vetri to open Fiorella. Jacob Rozenberg, who was sous chef, was promoted at Vetri.

Elmi’s departure from the still-shuttered Royal Boucherie was driven by the economics of the pandemic and also by his need to focus on his other restaurants, he said.

Royal Boucherie at 52 S. Second St., owned by Stephen Simons and David Frank, is closed until at least April 1. The partners want to wait until Philadelphia restaurants may use 50% of their indoor seating, said Suzanne O’Brien, the operations manager who also oversees such Simons and Frank-owned restaurants as Khyber Pass Pub, Royal Tavern, Cantina Los Caballitos, and Triangle Tavern. Many restaurateurs have maintained that the 25% limit is not sustainable in the long term for survival.

Buehler, 44, will start Feb. 8 with menu development. Having grown up in a circa-1790s house in Fort Washington and graduated from the French Culinary Institute in New York, Buehler said he appreciated Royal Boucherie’s time-worn aesthetic and rustic culinary approach. During the restoration of Royal Boucherie’s building, O’Brien discovered flooring from 1810 and chose to restore it.

» READ MORE: More new restaurants are coming to the Philadelphia area

Buehler said he wants to build on Elmi’s use of charcuterie. Vetri Cucina’s cooking, while Italian, is similarly straightforward, Buehler said. “All of Europe has this — Spain, France, Italy. There’s kind of a bleed between them.”

Before Vetri, Buehler worked at Pumpkin and then was “a job a year” guy. He will bring over sous chef Louis Manza from Vetri, and previously Daniel and Blue Hill at Stone Barns.

Elmi, 40, a Massachusetts native and Culinary Institute of America grad, hit Philadelphia in 2001 to work for Georges Perrier at Brasserie Perrier. After leaving for a spell in New York, he returned to Perrier’s fold, first at Mia in Atlantic City and then as executive chef at Le Bec-Fin.

When Perrier bowed out of Le Bec-Fin, Elmi opened Rittenhouse Tavern, previously at the Art Alliance off Rittenhouse Square, and won Season 11 of Bravo’s Top Chef. He opened Laurel in 2013 and its cocktail bar ITV next door three years later. He also appeared extensively in King Georges, the 2015 documentary about Perrier’s struggles with the changes in the restaurant scene.

Elmi and Fia Berisha, formerly of Elements, Aether, and Mistral, are opening two restaurants at 619 Righters Ferry Rd. in Bala Cynwyd, as part of a redevelopment of the old Pencoyd Iron Works. The Landing Kitchen, penciled for March, will be an all-day cafe serving what they describe as “light, bright, and nourishing” breakfast and lunch options alongside fresh bread and pastries, baked in house.

A month later, they’re expecting to open Lark on the building’s seventh floor. Its seasonal menu will be influenced by the flavors of both the Mediterranean and Mid-Atlantic, with an emphasis on sustainably sourced seafood, heritage meats, and local vegetables.