Plenty Cafe Opens in Rittenhouse
ANTHONY AND DAMON MASCIERI TO OPEN PLENTY CAFÉ,
BRINGING GLOBALLY-INSPIRED SANDWICHES, SALADS AND COFFEE
TO RITTENHOUSE SQUARE NEIGBORHOOD
PHILADELPHIA, PA – This September, co-owners Anthony and Damon Mascieri will debut Plenty Café Rittenhouse (1602 Spruce Street). Plenty will be a welcome addition to the neighborhood: an airy, bi-level coffee shop housed in a historic building, offering ample seating and a seasonally-changing selection of top-notch café fare inspired by the brothers’ extensive travels to more than 25 countries and their shared passion for exceptional ingredients. Expertly prepared, hyper-local coffees will give guests a rotating selection of Philadelphia’s best specialty roasters. Breakfast and lunch will be available beginning at 6 a.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. on weekends.
“My brother and I have long dreamed of opening a business together that would combine my passion for cultures and cuisine with his successes in proprietary trading and urban development,” says Anthony Mascieri, a self-taught chef and food lover. “We strive to use only the finest local, organic and all-natural meat, seafood, dairy and produce to create our globally inspired sandwiches and salads.”
Plenty sources their raw ingredients from a variety of the region’s top producers and purveyors, then prepares them from scratch – everything from house made aioli to roasting, curing and smoking meats to grinding and brewing locally roasted small-batch coffee beans is done in-house for the utmost quality control. These components are then fashioned into satisfying sandwiches and fresh salads, taking a variety of exciting flavor combinations and translating them into easy-to-eat breakfast and lunch plates.
The opening menu will include: Pancetta Hash, with two organic fried eggs, pancetta, potatoes, peppers and fontina cheese on a French roll; Organic Steel-Cut Oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon, with the option to add fresh berries or house granola; Madrileño, beef and chorizo meatballs with roasted poblano peppers, house saffron aioli and shaved Manchego cheese on toasted ciabatta; Seoul, Bulgolgi-style beef short ribs with house pickled daikon and cabbage, scallion and sriracha mayonnaise and cilantro on a pressed French roll; Oslo, all-natural cold smoked salmon with fresh greens, tomato, lemon, roasted potatoes and a horseradish, caper and dill cream on toasted multigrain; Floripa Salad, mixed greens with hearts of palm, Brazil nuts, grilled corn and mango vinaigrette; and Istanbul, roasted eggplant with Middle Eastern spices, sautéed portabella mushrooms and onions and cacık (Turkish tzatziki) on toasted ciabatta. Every dish is labeled with the country or region that inspired it, transporting guests around the country and the world.
“Our menu will go beyond typical coffee shop fare with more satisfying, flavorful sandwiches and baked goods that complement our coffees, premium loose teas and fresh-squeezed juices,” says Mascieri. “We’ll always be looking for the next great sandwich to add to the menu, to keep evolving and enticing people back for more.”
Plenty is equally devoted to their coffees, sourcing exceptional beans from several of the area’s top artisan roasters, including Rival Bros, La Colombe Torrefaction and ReAnimator. All coffees are prepared using the best brewing techniques including hand poured coffee, to ensure that guests enjoy the truest expression of the beans, all of which are ground on site. Plenty will also work side-by-side with Rival Bros. roaster and accomplished Chef Jonathan Adams to incorporate flavors from his own Rival Bros Coffee beans, into a signature sandwich, an unusual collaboration between chef and purveyor that will debut on their menu for the opening.
Additional beverages, from the extensive loose tea selection, to grab-and-go bottles of iced teas, juices and all natural sodas will also be available throughout the day. Orange juice will be squeezed fresh daily, and a rotating selection of cold steeped iced teas will be brewed each morning, offering a variety of refreshments that complement the menu.
The new Plenty will feature a rustic-modern design, with timeworn finishes, reclaimed materials and playful twists on classic style fitting the café’s location in a building that appears on Philadelphia’s Register of Historic Places. Morrissey Design retained the historic façade while incorporating large café windows that will open out onto Spruce Street. The mezzanine, brought back to usable space, allows for an airy second level. Wide-plank wood flooring and timber beams sourced from Provenance Architectural Salvage will be complemented by antique mirrors and a tin ceiling, lending a lived-in yet polished appeal.
Brothers Anthony and Damon Mascieri both built successful careers outside of the hospitality business, but longed to work together on a fun and creative food project. In 2012, Plenty Café (1710 East Passyunk Ave, 267-909-8033) was born as the realization of that dream, serving delicious breakfast and lunch foods alongside terrific coffees on East Passyunk Avenue, a blossoming food mecca that was recently named among the nation’s “best foodie streets” by Food + Wine magazine. Thanks to the glowing response, Plenty quickly saw the need to expand into other neighborhoods, and almost immediately Anthony and Damon began planning their growth into Rittenhouse Square.
Plenty Café will be open Monday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. For more information, visit www.plentyphiladelphia.com, follow them on Twitter (@PlentyPhilly) and Instagram (@PlentyPhila) and like them on Facebook.