Will ‘Jaffa’ be a new Mike Solomonov and Steve Cook restaurant in Philadelphia?
A liquor license posted on a long-ago firehouse seems connected to the restaurateurs, whose holdings include Zahav, Laser Wolf, and Federal Donuts.
Mike Solomonov and Steve Cook, among Philadelphia’s most prolific restaurateurs, appear to be planning another Kensington restaurant.
A liquor-license application in the name of Jaffa was filed May 10 for a century-old former firehouse at the triangular intersection of Cecil B. Moore Avenue, Howard Street, and Turner Street — a block from their restaurant Goldie and event facility, Lilah. The site is several blocks north of Laser Wolf, amid Fishtown and Kensington’s sizzling dining scene.
Such a liquor application might not pique interest, especially since the restaurateurs’ names or their corporate name, CookNSolo, do not appear on the paperwork, but Jaffa is the name of a bar-restaurant that the pair opened last month in Brooklyn with partners.
The Jaffa license application bears the name of a limited-liability company whose Center City address is used by Pearl Properties, one of CookNSolo’s primary landlords.
City records show that the building, at 1625-27 N. Howard St., was bought in March by a holding company with the same 19th Street address. Reed Slogoff, a principal of Pearl, signed the deed. Slogoff did not return a message seeking comment, and CookNSolo’s rep did not respond to requests for comment on the apparent link.
The James Beard Award-winning Solomonov and Cook have been on the move lately.
Jaffa — an indoor-outdoor restaurant whose name is inspired by the Israeli port city — opened May 18 on a second-floor terrace at the Hoxton hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in a partnership with the Chicago-based Boca Restaurant Group.
Jaffa joins CookNSolo’s Laser Wolf on the hotel’s roof and K’Far on the ground floor. The menu includes raw and cooked seafood options such as yellowtail pastrami with grilled cucumber; octopus shakshuka with charred tomato sauce; and brisket kebab-stuffed squid with harissa tehina.
Cook and Solomonov, whose Federal Donuts chain is undergoing a dramatic expansion, also recently announced the expansions of their Dizengoff and Goldie restaurants, as well as the impending closings of Merkaz and Abe Fisher.
The Fishtown-Kensington neighborhood, already home to such destinations as Suraya, Kalaya, Cheu Fishtown, Wm Mulherin’s Sons, has a number of other forthcoming restaurants.
Essen Bakery has a second location on the books for late summer, as does Dim Sum House by Jane G’s.