Redcrest Kitchen morphs into a ‘simple neighborhood joint’ for Queen Village

Things have not been easy for Adam Volk and partners at Redcrest Kitchen in Queen Village.

Three weeks after they signed the lease at Sixth and Bainbridge Streets in July 2021, a city water main outside ruptured, sending torrents of water through the neighborhood and into the restaurant’s basement. The restaurant, with a stylish decor, finally opened in October 2022, offering upscale, destination dining with a creative menu that never caught on.

Now, eight months in, Redcrest Kitchen has become what Volk calls “a simple neighborhood joint.”

Redcrest’s new menu, starting this week, has lower prices and more sandwiches and bar snacks. Redcrest’s signature fried chicken, a holdover from Volk’s former chicken shop on East Passyunk Avenue, is front and center.

The decision has led to the departure of chef Evan Snyder, who said the breakup was on good terms. “It’s business,” Snyder said. “I understand what they had to do.”

Volk said he was counting on a bump in business from a favorable review by The Inquirer’s Craig LaBan, “but I think the timing was poor. It came out the week before Memorial Day” — traditionally the start of the summer season when some neighborhood restaurants’ business ebbs as locals leave on vacation.

“We’ve just been so quiet,” he said.

Volk, taking over as chef, concedes that the previous approach — with sophisticated dishes such as Wagyu tartare with dill aioli, horseradish, crispy potatoes, mustard, and milk bread — was part of “an unsustainable business model for this neighborhood.”

The new menu includes mainly snacks and small plates, sandwiches, and salads, but only three larger plates: half-fried chicken, roasted salmon, and house-made ricotta cavatelli. The new drink menu includes five signature cocktails and three draft cocktails.

New hours are 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.