HIgh Street on Market Opens for Dinner
Owners Ellen Yin and Chef Eli Kulp, of the new progressive American restaurant High Street on Market (308 Market Street, 215-625-0988), are thrilled to introduce Dinner Service beginning tonight, Wednesday, October 16 at 5:30 p.m. Dinner at High Street will be a considerable departure from the current daytime service.
“Since we opened for breakfast and lunch last month, our menus have been well received. We’re very excited for guests to experience High Street in the evening; the restaurant will be transformed into a casual, relaxed and comfortable dining space with a forward-thinking menu and delicious food,” says Yin, who also owns the acclaimed Fork restaurant, located next door.
Diners can expect a creative food and beverage experience. “The dinner menu is designed to be fun, free-flowing and communal; everything is built for sharing. The focus of the menu is our hand-made and house-extruded pasta, prepared in a manner that is anything but traditional. Our goal is to take familiar combinations and portray them in a new light that is original and inspired, yet approachable, in both aesthetic and price,” says Chef Kulp.
As a prelude to pasta, guests can share any number of constantly changing starters which highlight some of Chef Kulp’s passions – the craft bread program, preservation of farm-to-table ingredients using natural fermentation and the use of those distinctive flavors to punctuate his cuisine.
Menu items will change frequently, and may include: Hubbard Squash Hummus with long hot chermoula, black sesame and “gingerbread,” German-style sour rye Vollkornbrot studded with fresh ginger; Mushrooms with sunchokes, smoky eggplant, young kale and farm egg; Potted Shrimps, topped with whipped foie gras and nutmeg and served with shrimp toasts; and Lamb Tartare with chopped lamb, anchovy and smoked artichokes with a spread of rejuvelac made with cultured cashews. Pastas may include: Toasted Bread Rigatoni with braised snails, bacon and parsley; Seaweed Bucatini with Lobster Bottarga and Scallions; and Jerk Eggplant Agnolotti with jerk spices and caramelized goat yogurt. Dishes will range in price from $3 for Mike’s Kale Chips with yeast and fermented soy beans to $24 for Beet Corzetti with marinated sardines, fresh cheese and hazelnuts. Assorted house-made breads will accompany the pastas, with paired condiments such as Tom’s Asian Pear Butter from Tom Culton, one of High Street’s local artisan purveyors; Parsnip Bagna Cauda; or House-Fermented Corn-Succotash Miso. The House-Made Potato Rolls are glazed with rye malt and served warm alongside a rye malted butter. The menu will also include a nightly changing shareable entrée, further demonstrating Chef Kulp’s rare talent in the kitchen.
Guests can also complement their meal with a variety of small-production wines, craft beers and artful bottled or handmade cocktails thanks to High Street’s Beverage Program. The drink offerings are as intriguing and thoughtful as the food and are deliberately chosen to pair with it perfectly. Selections include: Gorrondona Txakolina Tinto, a rare red Hondarribi Beltza; rotating craft beers such as Dogfish Head’s prized Red and White, a Belgian-style witbier with orange and coriander; bottled classic cocktails such as a Vesper, gin and vodka with Cocchi Americano; and cocktails prepared to order, such as the Sailor’s Warning, El Dorado five-year rum with Zucca Rabarbaro, grapefruit and Angostura bitters.
Drawing its name from the historic British term for a city’s main thoroughfare, High Street is a reminder of Market Street’s past: in William Penn’s original plans for Philadelphia, Market Street was known as High Street. “Referring to our region’s rich history is our way of embracing the past even as we shape the future of the neighborhood,” says Yin.
The ambiance, created by Marguerite Rodgers, Ltd., is designed to highlight the work of local millworkers, iron forgers and crafts people. Table top settings also highlight vintage or hand-made pieces – for example, hand-cut sandwich boards, hand-carved bowls from Michigan, share plates from ceramic artist and former server Nathaniel Mell and Wynn Bauer, denim napkins and brushed stainless flatware.
Open just a few short weeks, High Street has already earned praise from critics and diners alike. Most recently, The Philadelphia Inquirer’s food criticCraig LaBan wrote, “The reinvention of Fork: etc. as High Street on Market is still new…but some memorable flavors have already impressed: melt-in-your-mouth pastrami; a stunning Benton’s ham and Gruyère danish with silky redeye gravy; extraordinary breads by baker Alex Bois (Anadama, Ancient Grains, even potato loaf!) [that are] already among the city’s best.”
High Street on Market serves breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. Dinner is served Tuesday through Thursday from 5:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 5:30 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. Take out is available during breakfast and lunch hours only.
For more information about High Street on Market, please call (215) 625-0988 or visit www.highstreetonmarket.com. Guests are also invited to follow High Street on Facebook, Twitter (@HighStPhilly) and Instagram (@HighStPhilly), and follow Chef Kulp on Twitter (@EliKulp) and Instagram (@EliKulp).