Adam Erace - The Philadelphia Chefs Table: Extraordinary Recipes from the City of Brotherly Love

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Rittenhouse Square

261 South 21st Street

(215) 546-4232

fridaysaturdaysunday.com

Named after the days its open, this pretty little restaurant serves a complete dinner for about $6 a person, wrote restaurant critic Jim Quinn in the 1973 issue of Philadelphia magazine. Thats about as much as youd expect to spend in Chinatown or South Philadelphia, for less food and a lot less atmosphere. Quinns review of Friday Saturday Sunday, which name-checks dishes like flounder mousseline and Chili Elizabeth Taylor, goes on to be rather kind to the upstart BYOB south of Rittenhouse Square, a restaurant that endured in various iterations until 2015.

Chad and Hanna Williams had never eaten there. Most under-40 Philadelphians who make it their business to eat around had never eaten there. Friday Saturday Sunday had the history in the bricks and stories in the walls, but it hadnt been a relevant restaurant for many years. The Williamses, industry veterans from Jose Garces restaurants, changed that when they took over the space and reopened in 2016 with the same name. We always felt we wanted to keep the name because it meant something to the neighborhood and we wanted a restaurant that was for the neighborhood, Chad says.

The couple over-delivered. Sure, Friday Saturday Sunday draws Rittenhouse and Fitler Square residents all week longtheyre lucky to have the handsome, marble-topped bar, where Paul MacDonald crafts some of the best cocktails in the city, as their local watering hole. But given Chads confident, seasoned cooking and the polished service directed by Hanna, the restaurant has become something much greater: a full-fledged destination.

I love water ice, says Friday Saturday Sunday chef-owner Chad Williams. As a kid, I went with my mom to Overbrook Water Ice all the time. Lemon was my favorite, and it occurred to me one day to see if it was a good pairing for oysters. It is. Williams matches a water ice-esque frozen Meyer lemon mignonette with Price Edward Island as part of the baller seafood plateaus that grace the tables. If you cant find PEI oyster specifically, any crisp, clean East Coast oyster will work.

(SERVES 24)

1 cup Meyer lemon juice

cup orange juice

cup lemon juice

12 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided

2 small shallots, sliced -inch thick

1 dozen oysters, shucked in their shells

Combine the citrus juices and 1 tablespoon sugar and whisk until the sugar has dissolved. Taste the citrus mixture; it should be tart with just enough sweetness to cut the acid. Whisk in the remaining sugar as needed.

Add the sliced shallots to the citrus mixture and let them sit for 20 minutes at room temperature. Strain out the mixture into a shallow pan and discard the shallots. Place the pan in the freezer. Once the mixture is frozen, scrape with a fork for create an icy, granita-like texture. Reserve frozen until plating.

Arrange the shucked oysters over ice. Top each with a small spoonful of the frozen mignonette and serve immediately.

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Rittenhouse Square

110 South 19th Street

(267) 800 7200

kfarcafe.com

STEVE LEGATO

ALEXANDER HAWKINS

Michael Solomonovs first kitchen job was in a bakery in KFar Saba, his hometown located northeast of Tel Aviv between the West Bank and the Mediterranean. In Israel, bakeries are really community hubs, says Solomonov, who owns Zahav (page 89), Dizengoff, Abe Fisher, and several other restaurants with partner Steve Cook. Historically people start and end their days at bakeries, with a pastry in the morning and dinner at night. Thats the experience we want to bring to Philly. That experience is KFar, an all-day cafe and bakery, as well as a showcase for Zahav pastry chef and James Beard Rising Star award-winner Camille Cogswell.

Mike and Steve really had a vision for KFar, says Cogswell. To help her understand that vision, the partners took Cogswell on a field trip to Israel. The trip was super influential and inspirational. There were several dishes, like borekas and rugelach, that we knew we were going to have on KFars menu, but tasting them in Israel really cemented their significance.

Joining the borekas (recipe follows) and rugelach are pistachio morning buns, tehina chocolate-chip cookies, caper-buttered smoked salmon bagel sandwiches, and a new look for avocado toast, which Cogswell smacks with the herby green hot sauce schug. As the sun goes down in Rittenhouse, KFars menu builds up to heartier entrees like tbit, an Iraqi-style chicken-and-rice dish typically eaten on the Sabbath, eggplants stuffed with beef braised in Turkish coffee, and even a take on Zahavs legendary lamb shoulder--heres its a shank braised in sour cherry juice and decorated with pickled rose petals. No reservation required.

KFar owner Michael Solomonov and pastry chef Camille Cogswell have worked on these flaky triangular pastries since 2015. The borekas are so nurturing and special and familiar to Mike, so developing them has been an intricate process thats been several years in the making, says Cog-swell. We started with his grandmothers original recipe, and together we tested it and tweaked it, mostly for fun; there was no specific end goal. They started popping up on special event and catering menus, and by the time Solomonov and partner Steve Cook announced KFar, it was a foregone conclusion the borekas would be a fixture of the bakery.