The Farmer's Daughter settles in Blue Bell
Normandy Farm, the conference center and hotel in Blue Bell, has reconfigured its Coleman Restaurant into a candlelit, farm-chic spot called the Farmer's Daughter (Route 202 and Morris Road, 215-616-8300; www.normandygirl.com).
Normandy Farm, the conference center and hotel in Blue Bell, has reconfigured its Coleman Restaurant into a candlelit, farm-chic spot called the Farmer's Daughter (Route 202 and Morris Road, 215-616-8300; www.normandygirl.com
).
Centerpiece is a 90-seat bar around a fireplace.
Chef Corey Fair, also Normandy's food and beverage director, is taking the fresh and local route for his American menu as well as the bar list. Local beers predominate.
It's open for lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch. Lunch prices start at $9, and dinner prices start in the high teens and run into the $30s. Fair also offers a sharing option on several entrees ($30 to $55), as well as a three-course, $35 prix-fixe dinner and a six-course, $55-a-head family-style dinner (for eight or more) at the chef's table.
Chef Jim Coleman, who left Normandy and his radio show at WHYY last year, is between jobs.
What's coming
The new occupant of Solaris Grille in Chestnut Hill will be the casual Chestnut7 Kitchen & Bar, playing off the old telephone exchange. Principals are Kevin Clib (of Bridgets and KC's Alley in Ambler) and Brian Harrington (whose holdings include City Tap House and the Public House in Philly). Clib says they are opening the interior and facade to allow for a 35-seat bar, backed by 12 to 20 beer lines. Menu will include specialty pizzas and fresh seafood, with a chalkboard menu. Target is May.
Up the street: Blackfish's Chip Roman and Jason Cichonski are targeting next week for the opening of Mica at 8609 Germantown Ave., where ¡Cuba! was. Offering ambitious tasting menus, they are going BYOB until the liquor license comes through.
Tony Clark, who last year left his 10-year private-chef job and followed up with a short-time stint as exec chef at Harry's Savoy Grill in Wilmington, has landed in Cape May's Cold Spring Village with Tony Clark's Old Grange Restaurant, an 1850s-themer exploiting local farms and seafood. It will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as early-bird specials ("big down here," as he said). Soft openings will begin in early April.
Open and closed
Tequila Joe's in Oreland has closed.
Johnny Mananas at Midvale and Ridge Avenues in East Falls has reopened under new management and with a new chef, Sean Ford (who opened Continental Mid-town as executive sous chef and manned the one-man kitchen at Salt & Pepper when it was a BYOB). It will expand next door this summer with a tapas bar.
Georges Perrier has returned to France for a general manager at Le Bec-Fin. New is Sylvain Briens, replacing David Smith, now Perrier's director of catering and events.