One of Philly's most esteemed chefs, Mike Solomonov, is bringing another potential culinary hit to the city.
Along with partner Steve Cook, the Zahav chef plans to open Jaffa Bar, the city's first Israeli-inspired seafood restaurant, in Olde Kensington this fall.
The duo behind hits including Goldie, Federal Donuts, Laser Wolf, K'Far named Jaffa Bar after the coastal port town outside of Tel Aviv. Located in a 19th-century firehouse, Jaffa Bar will seat 120 guests across two stories. Reservations will be offered and walk-ins will also be accommodated. The project is an amalgamation of East Coast and Middle Eastern flavors.
"If you think about the city of Jaffa, which is several thousand years old and it's on the coast, it's been a port where so many different cultures have passed through over the years," Cook told ABC. "To be able to play with the traditions of the Philadelphia Oyster House, which is such a big part of our history here, through the lens of the Israeli flavors and the Mediterranean coastline, is really exciting."
To eat, Solomonov will offer oyster bar dishes and seafood-centric bar snacks like yellowtail pastrami, mussels escabeche, scallops with Merguez sausage and harissa, Yemenite-style monkfish, whole sea bream chraime, and for those who prefer land-based proteins, fried chicken thighs with amba-spiked honey, plus a green chile burger with schug mayo.
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To drink, bar manager Sean Byrne designed a cocktail menu highlighting citrus, such as with the Jaffa Orange, a Middle Eastern twist on the American classic Orange Julius. The frozen concoction mies vodka, Aperol, orange and vanilla and is already a hit in New York, where Solomonov owns and operates a restaurant of a similar name.
Jaffa Cocktail and Raw Bar at the Hoxton Hotel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which also has outposts of Philly favorites Laser Wolf and K'Far, is the third Solomonoc project at the busy property. Brooklyn's Jaffa is an indoor-outdoor cocktail bar and raw bar, with menu items like jumbo shrimp cocktail with spicy Jaffa cocktail sauce, scallop crudo with shipka peppers, plus hummus and more.
No opening date is scheduled for Philly's Jaffa Bar, which will be located at 1625 N Howard Street.