The Spot: Making history with Walter Staib at City Tavern

We always hear about the shiny, new restaurants. This is one in a series about the Philadelphia area's more established dining establishments and the people behind them. 

Chef Walter Staib probably knows more about the history of Philadelphia food than any person alive, but he isn't from Philly — he wasn't even born in the United States. It was his native Germany where his four-decades-long career began, but when he first visited Philadelphia, he fell in love with a woman (who became his wife), and then fell in love with the city.

Staib made Philly his home base, the place he came back to between frequent trips around the world for his global restaurant consulting company.

Twenty years ago, his focus on Philly intensified when he became the chef and operator of City Tavern at Second and Walnut Streets. At a tavern on the site opened in 1773, the Founding Fathers hatched their plans for liberty. A few years later, it was where they haggled over details of the fledgling nation's framing document over pints of beer.

City Tavern's grounds and building are an official part Independence National Historical Park, and in 1994, the government was looking for someone to run it as an authentic recreation of that revolutionary heyday. Turned out that Staib was the man for the job. He immersed himself in the history of the former inn and the city that surrounded it, and developed a restaurant that whisks you back more than two centuries with a single step through the door.

Staib himself has not stayed locked in one moment in time. He has published five cookbooks and is host of two PBS TV shows ("A Taste of History" and "Superfoods"), which have won four Emmys over four years.

Somewhat paradoxically, the history buff is also a big fan of social media, something I discovered over a pint of General Washington's Tavern Porter (specially brewed for City Tavern by Yards). Other surprises: Staib used to eat burgers with saxophone-playing Bill Clinton, and was at the Great Wall of China when his restaurant was forced to close during the 2013 government shutdown.

How did you end up with this restaurant?

It was strange. At first, I wanted nothing to do with it. I had a big job, was the president of a huge restaurant company. I had an office just down the street, where I wore three-piece suits and smoked cigars. In 1979, a client suggested we should eat at City Tavern. I'll never forget that meal; it was horrible. Stuffed flounder with the center still frozen when you cut into it, that kind of thing.

A decade later, I was looking for a restaurant space with a large kitchen for my consulting work. Couldn't find anything. A friend suggested I should look at this place. "No way," I said. "Been there. Didn't like it."

The paperwork was sent over anyway, but it had too many rules, it was all very complicated, working under the federal government. Took one look and threw it in the trash. They begged me to take another look, said they'd changed some things. Next morning I was headed to Thailand to open a resort, so I took the new paperwork with me, thinking I'd read it and throw them away. Never threw them away.

What had been changed?

Nothing! What changed was, after many glasses of champagne on a 747 from Tokyo to Chicago, my hand reached over the rules and requirements packet and landed on the book with the historical information. Once I got my fingers on that — 20 years of research they had commissioned — I got very excited. The innovation of chefs back then, to get colors on the table in winter without hothouse tomatoes, the parties they had here, the opulence.

I hardly slept the whole flight, and as soon as I got off to make my connection, I called my office in Little Rock and told them, "Stop everything you're doing. We're going to make a proposal for the government. We're going to go before Congress."

And we did, and we showed them and we got the contract. The only thing is, we showed everyone except Philadelphia. Philadelphia showed us. Because nobody came.

Why not? Did people not realize you were open?

That first year, 1994, City Tavern was named one of the Best New Restaurants in America by Esquire! No one cared. New York Times put us on the front of the living section! No one cared.

Understandably, there had been a lot of reputation damage to the City Tavern name by the previous operators. And the restaurant had been closed for at least a year and a half. So it took four years to turn around. After my first book came out, in 1999, it got busy and stayed busy. If 9/11 hadn't happened, I don't know, I'd be helicoptering to work by now.

It did, though, and we took a huge hit, like the rest of the industry. But now we're busy again, thanks to the PBS shows.

Is being on TV is a good thing for a chef? Many cooks starting out these days say being on TV is their goal.

I'll be honest, to be in this business, if you're not egotistical a little bit, then there's something wrong with you.

But, I did it because I needed the business. It wasn't that I decided I wanted to be a TV star, no, I wanted the exposure. Have people see your face. And it worked. Now I get recognized all over. The other day I was at the Bryn Mawr Acme and the guy at the seafood counter said to the person next to him, "You know, that's Chef Staib." Next thing I know, over the intercom comes: "Attention shoppers, welcome Chef Staib, now shopping at our store." People come up to me when I'm at Nordstrom, 30th Street Station, everywhere, to ask me about recipes or tell me stories. It doesn't bother me.

Funny how things have changed. Before, 35 to 40 years ago, if you had told someone, "I'm a cook and I want to marry your daughter," the old man would have thrown you out of the house.

And now chefs are celebrities.

A few are celebrities, yes, but social media helps, too. It can make every restaurant owner into a star, it's unprecedented.

Last year, City Tavern was forced to close for 10 days during the federal government shutdown. How did it all go down?

So, I'm at the Great Wall of China, filming for a show. Cell phone rings: "We have to shut down."

It was a surprise, because during the previous government shutdown, in 1995, we had been allowed to stay open. And we had already been discussing the pending situation with the park, and no one was quite sure what the ruling would be. But, on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, they called and said, "You must close by noon tomorrow."

What did you do?

Not much I could do from halfway around the world. But we devised lots of projects for the staff to work on while we were closed, so at least they could make a little money to stay afloat. We repainted the bar, did a lot of cleaning.

When I got back from China, I got the restaurant reopened.

How did you manage that? Who did you talk to?

All the people I know. And I know a lot of people. If you were to ask me who I consider most important to me in town, Ed Rendell is at the top of the list. He's a man who understands Philadelphia, the history of Philadelphia. When he was mayor, he told the world, "You want to come to Philly because of its history, not its cheesesteaks." He was instrumental to me in getting the place open 20 years ago, and instrumental again last year. Because he understand the importance of City Tavern.

As Thomas Jefferson said, to understand the future you have to understand the past. When dignitaries visit Philadelphia, they come here. We hosted the Chinese delegation, the governors who were all here to see Obama (the President had the sniffles, couldn't make it). And Hilary [Clinton] is coming soon — not as a fundraiser, because we can't have fundraisers in a national park — but just for a little PR opportunity. It's a natural spin!

I know the Clintons pretty well, actually, because I had an office in Little Rock. I knew Bill Clinton better than I know Rendell. I consulted for the Excelsior Hotel, which was right across the street from the Arkansas statehouse, where Clinton would come nearly every day and eat his burger and fries. We'd sit and shoot the breeze. Then later at night, he'd be up in the bar, playing his saxophone, doing his thing. Yeah, all those stories are true. Makes me glad I can't run for office.

I'm happy running a restaurant.

City Tavern Restaurant

www.citytavern.com

138 S. Second St.; 215-413-1443

Open Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., daily