Staff Blog
Marty Grims’ two projects in Commerce Square
Meal Ticket just touched base with restaurateur Marty Grims to get some updates on two projects he’s working on in the street-level plaza of Commerce Square (2001 Market St.).
First up is the second Philly location of his Du Jour Gourmet Market and Café, which enjoyed a successful Avenue of the Arts debut in the Symphony House. (The original opened in Haverford in 1999.) This location, which is taking over for Saladworks, is around twice the size of its Broad and Pine predecessor, with room for 80 outside. Breakfast/lunch/dinner concept will stay the same. Grims is aiming for an April 2009 opening.
His second stake at 20th and Market is “a pan-Asian concept,” in the former Twenty21, helmed by famed NY-based hospitality design firm Jeffrey Beers International — they’re responsible many a high-profile spot, but have yet to land in Philly. The opulent bilevel space, paired with JB’s high-brow aesthetic, tells us this project is gonna be a big deal. But don’t get too excited just yet — the restaurant, which does not even have a name yet, is still in the design stage. No chef has been hired yet, but Grims is speaking with “a couple candidates out of New York.”
“It will be a high-style, high-impact restaurant,” says Grims, who says his decision to go Pan-Asian was based off “a void in the marketplace” — as far as that concept goes — on this side of Broad. Should the nearby Pearl watch out?
[...] We’ve known Marty Grims was bringing another branch of DuJour Gourmet to Commerce Square. But now we learn he’s going to be running the pan-Asian concept also planned for 20th and Market. [Meal Ticket] [...]
[...] Marty Grims is the new operating partner for Judy Wicks’ White Dog Café categories | Food News Judy WicksPhoto | Michael T. REganWe were bugging Marty Grims and Judy Wicks prior to Christmas about this, but there was nothing set in stone to report at that time. Now it’s official: Grims, who owns and operates Moshulu and Du Jour along with many other ventures, has become the new operating partner for Wicks’ White Dog Café.Grims, wisely, will maintain the local and sustainable credo of the 26-year-old West Philly institution, allowing Wicks more time to focus on her volunteer and charitable ventures, namely the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies and White Dog Community Enterprises. (Ralph Fernandez, Grims’ corporate executive chef, will be collaborating with the existing White Dog staff to spearhead menu matters.) He’ll also open a second location of White Dog, in Wayne, in “late spring.”Grims is a busy guy within city limits — we recently wrote about his plans at Commerce Square. [...]
[...] Battle Curry.) Grims brought Ophaso on board about five months back, primarily for his in-the-works 300-seat concept in Commerce Square (code name “Ginger”), but the chef ended up tacking on this project, [...]