Fitz on 4th, a plant-based restaurant, to fill the Fitz & Starts space in Queen Village

When chef-turned-health-care executive Alison Fitzpatrick adapted a plant-based diet for health reasons in 2018, she started eating salads and buying processed meatless ingredients while she learned to cook vegan for herself.

As her health and her cooking improved, she got her four children involved, hosting Sunday dinners at her home at the Jersey Shore. She said she started to talk about opening a restaurant for the next chapter in her life. Such a move would put her back in a commercial kitchen, a line of work that she had given up two decades before in exchange for daytime hours.

Finally, the kids told her, “‘Mom! Stop with the dreaming,’” she said. “Just do it if you’re going to do it.”

This spring, Fitzpatrick, now 55, and her oldest son, Alex Soto, plan to open Fitz on 4th, a bar-restaurant with a plant-based menu, at Fourth and Fitzwater Streets in Queen Village. Her surname fit the space. It previously was Fitz & Starts, which closed March 20 after a year and a half.

But there’s irony in the transition to Fitz on 4th.

Fitz & Starts was preceded by Hungry Pigeon, which closed in 2020 after an outcry over a former partner’s use of racist language on social media following the George Floyd protests.

During her previous career, Fitzpatrick was a senior executive with Care One, a network of nursing and assisted-living facilities in North Jersey. In 2019, a jury found that Fitzpatrick, who is white, had fired Rebecca McCarthy, a Black executive in 2016 because of her race after using what court papers described as racist comments.

The jury awarded McCarthy, a former vice president, about $6 million in punitive and compensatory damages. The judgment is the subject of ongoing litigation, according to court records.

“I am sickened by the fact this has ever happened,” Fitzpatrick wrote in a statement when asked about the case. “I am not a racist and anyone who truly knows me would attest to that. As a mother of three biracial children, this has all been unbelievable. Unfortunately, the plaintiff and her attorneys were able to convince a jury otherwise. My life’s work has been to focus on using food for health and I look forward to bringing healthy options, perfectly prepared to Philadelphia.”

Soto, 30, who was a corporate recruiter living in Philadelphia, made a career change of his own. When his mother decided on Philadelphia as the site of her business last year, he took a bartending job at Continental Midtown in Center City to gain skills while he searched for the location and did the legwork. His mother said his industry ties have helped immeasurably in terms of finding local partners and vendors.

Philadelphia’s “local vibe is stronger than in any other city I’ve been in,” said Fitzpatrick, who was born in Massachusetts and grew up in Colorado. “That’s how you survive, having your local partners boost you up.”

Fitzpatrick said they would remove the streetery and sub Fitz & Start’s floral outdoor wall mural in favor of one sporting images of their two dogs. As they redecorate the dining room, the espresso machine on the bar will be removed to allow more bar seating. The farmhouse table in the rear will come out, replaced with banquette seating. Televisions will be added at the bar to allow neighbors to gather to watch games — “but we are not going to be a sports bar,” she said.

When Fitzpatrick was coming up as a chef, “back then, the mind-set was you have to make it taste good. It really didn’t matter if you’re using butter or cream or a whole bunch of meat,” she said. “It just has to taste good so people come back so you can earn more money.

Her a-ha moment was in 2018, when she said she started working with a dietitian because she was frustrated and taking nine medications. “She said, ‘You could just stop eating meat and eat plants,’” Fitzpatrick said. “She said it just like that.” Within four months of going vegan, Fitzpatrick said, she was down to one B-12 supplement a day.

The menu will include “mac and cheese,” lentil meatballs, jackfruit empanadas, socca bites, and ditalini with kale pesto. About a dozen dishes also will be gluten-free. All the wines, beers, and spirits will be vegan, as well.

Though plant-based food will be emphasized, Fitzpatrick said, “we won’t be preaching. Nobody wants to be preached to, but we can’t sustain the western diet as it is now. My goal for Philadelphia is that everybody in Philadelphia eat one more day per week vegan.”